Home	South Beach Cruise & Giants vs As Baseball Game 6-12-10

(If you like, you can skip down through the prose and go straight to the pictures below!)

A beautiful Friday, typical for San Francisco summer teed off a great weekend. With a forecast of 60s at the beaches and 90s inland, you can bet on the sea breeze blasting through the Gate. Gale warnings were posted out in the ocean.

Rick & Sandy sailed Vanishing Animal to South Beach Harbor by 1300, intentionally trying to get in before the blasts. Woodbine, and Dream Catcher started out from Richmond's Grand Marina in the lee of Angel Island with gentle breezes as you can see in the pictures below. But, as they got to "The Slot" (between the Golden Gate and Berkeley) it was up in the 20's with gusts to 30. Luna Sea, Vitesse, and Mai Pen Rai rounded out the total at six boats for Friday evening. All reported more than enough wind.

Woodbine turned out to be the center of nibbles and dinner for our Potluck. All hands squeezed aboard, except the Vitesse crew. The Friday Giants game started at 7:00 and Ron, Karen & Rick took turn watching Woodbine's HD TV and reporting up to the cockpit. Actually, there was about a 5 second delay between the roar of the crowd and seeing something on TV, so it made it easy to turn attention to the screen when we heard the cheers.

With the giants winning the Friday game, Dan was happy. By 2200 all was quiet on the dock and crews had turned in.

By the time it all wrapped up, 13 Islanders made an appearance, with at least 4 dogs and 37 folks counted. Here's the list :

Boat	Owner & Crew
Vanishing Animal	Rick & Sandy Van Mell (Teak)
Luna Sea	Dan Knox
	Linda Molnar, Christine Wesbit Donna Domino, Brian Knox Brad Young, Peter Gallaher Kat Johnson, Cindy Surdez
Mai Pen Rai	Noble & Barbara Brown
	Jim & Jane Perry, Becky ?
Woodbine	Ron & Karen Damsen
Dream Catcher	Vern Verling & Cheryl Lawson (Jack)
Vitesse	Tom Furlong & Elizabeth Gard (Phoebe)
	Paige & Katie, Grace + +
Pacific High	Harry Farrell & Carol Williams (Bodie)
	Veronica Bedolla
Nantucket	Richard & Gina
Blockbuster	Brad Bergman
For R Sanity (Car)	Roger & Linda McClellan
Zenith (Car)	Art & Betsy Fowler
	Dave & Bobbe Miles Drew Fowler & Jenn Murphy
Orion (Cameo)	Ray Duran
Kapai (Cameo)	Rick & Kathy Egan

Saturday morning the wind was up again, but most unusually, from the north and it was 70 degrees and no dew at 0800! Possible record warmth for San Francisco today.

Breakfast at the famous, or infamous, depending on your point of view, Java House at the head of the dock was on the schedule for Mai Pen Rai and Vanishing Animal. This miniscule eatery is a two room shack with a tiny bar and tables in one room and the kitchen, coffee and two more tables in the other -- all open. Walk up to the counter, give your order, written on a scrap of paper and pay in cash. Help your self to coffee while the two cooks scramble, grill and dash the has browns to perfection. Five star? Perhaps not, but how can you beat eating breakfast looking out over South Beach Harbor, the Embarcadaro, AT&T Park and all of San Francisco's varied population strolling by. Today, it was so warm that all of the outside tables were full too!

Pacific High arrived, making a smooth landing downwind in 25 knot gusts and a rolling chop through the harbor entrance. Then, pulled out and repeated the process when she discovered she had been moved to another slip - fortunately way in near the shore on B Dock.

Dan Knox had a full crew arrive for a day of sailing aboard Luna Sea. They even had chute strings rigged, and the corners of the chute sticking out under the corners of the forward hatch. Can't wit to hear that story in this breeze!

As the temperature climbed in the early afternoon, the girls on Vitesse decided on a swim. Paige, her friend Grace, and Katie all donned life jackets and took a quick plunge. Rick heard the squeals and dashed up with camera in hand and framed some great shots. Unfortunately, the camera card was below, still attached to the computer for the web page. We caught Katie on video a bit later, but hope we'll have more pictures to add later.

Nibbles & Tail Gate Party were scheduled for 1600, with game time at 1805. The gang gathered again at Woodbine, but this time everyone was searching for some shade. The scorching heat even had wet towels on Teak and wash down for Jack. Unusual weather for San Francisco. As usual, plenty of good food filled the catwalks and no one went away hungry.

At 1730 we headed for the stands. by going in the Marina Gate, where the ferries tie up to let fans in the "back door" we avoided the biggest crowds at the front of the stadium. The walk along the top of the right field bleachers gave us a great view of McCovey Cove -- where Barry Bonds like to splash his home runs. We settled into our lower box seats well out on the right field line. Great view of everything. (Thanks again Dan!)

The Athletics scored first, but the giants came right back and took a 2 to 1 lead. Insurance runs came along and 4 to 1, then 5 to 2 seemed comfortable. Then came the eighth inning. It started with a new giants pitcher. A single, a walk, a double scoring a run and he was replaced. One more walk and he was replaced. Third pitcher walked a run in - it's now Giants 5 to 4 with the based loaded and no outs. Finally the fourth pitcher, Wilson come in, strikes out two and gets a put out at first.

Giants can't score in the bottom of the eighth. Comes the ninth. Long story short, the A's have runners on first and third, two out. The next patter hits into a force a second to end the game. A happy crowd, and particularly Dan, headed back to the boats. The dogs were walked and most were tucked in by 2200.

A great game and a great weekend. Thanks Again Dan!

Pictures by Ron(so far) Damsen, Cherly Lawson & Rick Van Mell. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

Dream Catcher ...	city back ground ...	Jack, Cheryl, & Vern ...	looking good ...	burgees fly.
Woodbine ...	Bay Bridge ...	Karen & Ron ...	up close.	Here we go ...
First in is ...	Vanishing Animal	Luna Sea ...	is next.	Vitesse
Long A Dock	Home of the fun	Board of the brave	Classic	Dream Catcher
Woodbine	Chreryl shows off ...	Dream Catcher &	JACK!	Karen & Ron
Dan can catch ...	with a glove!	Tom furlong & ...	Elizabeth.	My picture? Sure.
Mai Pen Rai ...	finds stray dog!	Busted.	Vitesse club jib ...	gets furled.
Snack time.	Dinner's on ...	Gathering at Woodbine	room for me?	Fresh breeze
Dream Catcher	Dinner starts ...	plate full of ...	goodies ...	veggies ...
sloppy Joes ...	Tri tip ...	quiche, slaw & chimichurri.	Where's mine ...	and mine.
I've got mine.	At South Beach YC ...	it's a deck party.	Ditto aboard ...	Woodbine ...
relaxed ...	VERY.	In the sun	Friday game ...	lineup ...
Tim Lincecum ...	throws!	Ron's underwater ...	camera housing ...	is neat.
Dessert time ...	focused ...	and happy.	Karen has ...	soap!
Madisonville, TX	Framed	Time to swing!	City sunset ...	Reflected light ...
Bay Bridge is ...	well draped.	Fun house	Full name.	Morning flags
Grace & Katie ...	do homework.	This is a must ...	just for you ...	fornt door ...
side door ...	the rest ...	sidewalk dining ...	the kitchen ...	prime table!
Lots of breeze	Lots of mast!!!	Staying cool	Dan has got ...	crew aft ...
and forward ...	for Luna Sea.	Tom talks with ...	Elizabeth while ...	Grace, Paige & Katie scrubbed? Not.
Waitng for ...	Dan to depart ...	standing by ...	out to sea.	Pacific High.
Here comes ...	Orion ...	Hi Ray ...	into their slip.	Grace is interested ...
in testing the ...	water ...	feet first ...	Katie ...	launches ...

Katie's Swim

goes for a swim.	good swimming ...	what about me?!	Celebrate.	Nantucket. ...
arrives ...	comfirmed.	Tucked in ...	looking fine, next to ...	Pacific High
Jane looking for ...	Jim.	Carol & Bodie	Becky & Noble	Keeping cool
Great spread ...	dip too.	Chow down ...	nice plate.	Jack says ...
no pictures.	No way!	Want a bottle?	OK!	McCovey Cove ...
is filling up.	Up close ...	bleacher seats ...	ground crew.	Pre-game ...
Islander fans	Roger, Linda, Paige Grace, Katie & Tom	It's a hit	National Anthem ...	first pitch
big snake ...	The line up ...	is pizza!	Hi Art!	Line up ...
batter up ...	happy campers	Dan & Donna	Intent on game	ditto ...
What, me worry?	No worries	Bridge series	Nantucket crew	Zenith crew
You again?!	Brian & Dan	Go Harry!	Sandy & Rick	Good start
Nice catch	Ball Dude	Sun is slipping...	lights on ...	last light.
Linda thinks it's ...	really funny!	Good crowd	Lights on	Getting closer ...
worried ...	What, we worry?!	Yep!	Sun is gone.	Giants Win!
Celebration begins ...	great line up.	Ferry home?	or raft it!	Headed out.
The End.

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