Giants Game, McCovey Cove June 7, 2025

Home	Giants Game McCovey Cove June 7, 2025

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

Super thanks to Dan Throop who initiated the idea of a raft-up in McCovey Cove for Saturday, July 7th to "watch" the San Francisco giants take on the Atlanta Braves! To guarantee a good spot, he anchored Windcatcher in McCovey Cove on Friday night. Typical evening "fog," technically stratus clouds, filled in after sunset and persisted into Saturday morning. The clouds and cool wind persisted until just about noon, but then cleared to a bright clear sky with typical puffy, gusty west winds.

Then Steve Kent, previously a long time I-36 owner, arrived early Saturday morning with his Catalina 42 Wanderlust. Next Rick Van Mell and Vanishing Animasl arrived and tied to Windcatcher, then Michael Doran on Happy Sisyphus tied to Wanderlust. When Commodore Egan tied up Kapai outside Vanishing Animal around 1230 making it a 5-boat raft, we declared it lunch time. With 6 people aboard Kapai, and everyone else bringing their goodies to Vanishing Animal, we passed out hot dogs with personalized orders for ketchup, mustard, relish or onions, plus coleslaw for some. In addition there was Steve's Cowboy salad and assorted cold cuts and chips. Just as the first round of hot dogs was delivered, Rob Blenderman with Karen Kleckner as crew arrived with Luna Sea outboard of Happy Sisyphus and added potato salad, watermellon and both champaign (in true Luna Sea tradition) and rose. Kapai had additional goodies and beverages to add to complete the fun. So in total it was 6 boats with 15 folks.

Boat	Owner & Crew & Guests
Happy Sisyphus	Michael Doran + 1 crew
Kapai	Rick, Bryce, Reanne Egan + 3 more
Luna Sea	Rob Blenderman (for Dan Knox) + Karen Kleckner
Vanishing Animal	Rick Van Mell + sisters Sophia & Mira Sears
Wanderlust	Steve Kent
Wind Catcher	Dan Throop

The game got off to a good start with the Giants taking a 1 run lead in the first inning. But, by the end of the second, it was Atlanta ahead 2 to 1. While there weren't any more runs in the next 6 innings, there was a crowd of action on the water in the Cove. In addition to our raft of 6, there was another raft of 2 sailboats, plus 3 more and 3 powerboats for a total of 14 boats anchored. In addition, multiple boats cruised through and about a dozen kayaks and at least one paddle boarder hugged the edge of the walkway hoping for a splash hit.

"Splash Hits" are fly balls that clear the right field wall and land in the water of McCovey Cove. Only fair balls - home runs - are officially counted, foul balls are not. Much to the crownd's delight, and the Giants' relief, the Braves managed to just get a foul ball to the water. A frenzy of paddlers resulted in the paddleboarder being first to lunge and get his trophy ball. Just to suggest how unusual this is, since the park opened in 2000, there have been 106 splash hits by Giants players, and 76 by opposing players for a total of 182. With 81 Giants home games per year over 24 years, that's 182 splash hits in 1,944 games, or about 1 in 11 games. At one stretch, it was two years between splash hits. So a wonderfully rare treat for us.

As the westerlies did their level best to huff and puff and blow the raft down, we did start dragging with only 2 anchors holding us all. Happy Sisyphus and Kapai peeled off about 1430, and though nervous, we remaining four lasted out the game. There was some fun watching a powerboat close astern that started dragging. It pulled anchor then tried dropping three or four times until they were able to reset and stay put. This being San Francisco and Pride Month, the giant scoreboard was showing the antics of some super-sized Drag Queens while this was going on, so Mira calmly said, "Let's call that powerbot the 'Drag Queen.'" Everyone roared with the wit of it all.

As if all of this was not enough excitement, it all came down to the bottom of the ninth, Giants still behind 2 to 1. The first batter struck out. Then a single; man on first. Next batter does a pop fly ball behind third base that was caught. Two outs. One more out and Giants lose. Last chance, and Matt Chapman steps to the plate. Facing a 1-1 count, he belted a home run just barely into the left field stands, and the crowd went wild as the giants had their 3 to 2, walk-off win!

So, shortly after 1500, as the stadium quickly cleared out, Vanishing Animal cast off and headed for home.

The wind recorded at San Francisco airport (SFO) is a pretty good proxy for the winds along the western shore of the South Bay, particularly round San Bruno Mountain (where the old Candlestick park once stood). Here's the day's wind record, and the number of windy days per month. You can see that in June, the wind blows over 20 on 80% of the days, and over 25 on 50% of the days.
SFO 6-7-25 wind (92K)

It was one wonderful day for your Islander 36 fleet.

Pictures by Rick Egan, Reanne Egan, Dan Throop & Rick Van Mell. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

Under way from Brisbane	Mira keeping warm.	Alongside Windcatcher ...	happy Dan.	3rd St. Bridge ...
walkway ...	right field stands ...	center view ...	scoreboard ...	boats astern.
Wedding party ...	happy group ...	bride's dress ...	picture time.	Fan time.
Steve & Dan relax.	Happy Sisyphus arrives	Kapai arrives ...	rafting up ...	All happy.
Kapai crew ...	smiles ...	Reanne & Bryce.	Aboard Vanishing Animal ...	Dogs are hot ...
ready to serve ...	cockpit goodies ...	The National Anthem.	Luna Sea arrives.	Flags fly
Rob has his dog.	Eat & watch.	Rob & Karen.	Scoreboard.	Cameraman gets ...
our raft!	Plus Coors Light ...	and Jim Beam.	We'll drink to that!	Karen too ...
plus Kapai.	Kapai departs ...	happy crew.	Happy Sisyphus departs ...	Luna Sea circles ...
comes back ...	and alongside.	Gusting 20+	Just Dreaming doesn't ...	need Police protection!
Says it all!	Crowded corner.	Packed stands ...	flags whipped.	Drag Queens.
another Drag Queen.	Mira enjoys Windcatcher's hammock ...	Sophia too.	Splash hit chase ...	got it!
Giants Win!!!	Final score.	Everyone cheers ...	and celebrates.	The grand Potomac FDR's yacht 1936-45.

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