Moving to San Fransisco from San Diego

[tommyh]

SD is by far the worse place to sail, no wind.
SF bay is a sailors dream,every different condition you can imagine almost every day.

[mstrebe]

Hey if you're looking for crew to help move the boat I'd be happy to help. My boat is about the same size as yours, and I've been sailing for 20 years, mostly in San Diego.

Been looking for an excuse to go north to San Fransisco, and I can take time off whenever I want.

[tenchiki]

I live in the south bay (near San Jose) and have my boat in Alameda. It's usually 45-50 minutes each way on the weekend. You really have to watch the Oakland & Santa Clara "Stadium Event" calendars when planning your travel schedule. Or it quickly gets worse than weekday commute times, since the best routes from Santa Clara County to the Oakland/Alameda estuary goes right by both of them.

[Paul Elliott]

Even if you're not into racing, you ought to consider doing the "Three Bridge Fiasco" race at the end of January. It's lots of fun. Link: San Francisco’s One and Only Three Bridge Fiasco! | Sail Couture

[jrbogie]

keep your reefing gear and abilities in top shape. wondering how you'll get the boat to sf. if it's on a trailer, no worries but you're looking at one uphill climb, especially north of pt. conseption.

[Windsurfer]

Welcome! Solid advice already. Would add: learn and respect the shipping channels. Can be lots of traffic and they move pretty fast. In twilight or dark can be hard to spot them against the lights of the East Bay hills. Once you know the channel they always follow, you can focus on your sailing more and traffic less when you know your out of their lane.

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by jrbogie

keep your reefing gear and abilities in top shape. wondering how you'll get the boat to sf. if it's on a trailer, no worries but you're looking at one uphill climb, especially north of pt. conseption.

Yes, but once you get around Pt. Conception it's not usually that difficult to get the rest of the way. Both times that I've done this we ended up mostly motoring north. Monterey and Santa Cruz are good stops for refueling. Morro Bay is probably good too, but I've not stopped there.

The truly bad conditions are usually north of San Francisco.

This of course all depends on the weather, and the season.

[gamayun]

Originally Posted by Charlie

Typical advice is to get to Santa Barbara. wait for a good weather window. Leave SB so that you arrive at Cojo. Wait there till wind starts to abate and then round conception. From there take your time and harbor hop your way up the coast. If the weather is good just keep going. http://www.amazon.com/Cruising-Guide.../dp/0071374647 is an excellent book.

This is good advice. I didn't have the time to harbor hop so did it in two sprints in June 2013 of 33 hours (SD to SB with a fuel stop at Two Harbors) and then 44 hours (SD to HMB). Our decision on weather was to wait for a southerly switch to the wind to help with the motoring (27 HP Yanmar) so I ended up with a two-week wait in Santa Barbara. We left SB at 0300 in confused seas, but by the time we got to Point Conception around 0700 it was flat calm We only did about 6 hours of the total time on sail because our threshold to turn the engine back on was when the SOG dropped below 4 knots, but we did fly the spinnaker for about an hour! Good luck!

[gamayun]

Originally Posted by Windsurfer

Welcome! Solid advice already. Would add: learn and respect the shipping channels. Can be lots of traffic and they move pretty fast. In twilight or dark can be hard to spot them against the lights of the East Bay hills. Once you know the channel they always follow, you can focus on your sailing more and traffic less when you know your out of their lane.

We also timed our departure from Two Harbors to cross the shipping channel in daylight. Lots of ships!

[gamayun]

Originally Posted by Paul Elliott

Even if you're not into racing, you ought to consider doing the "Three Bridge Fiasco" race at the end of January. It's lots of fun. Link: San Francisco’s One and Only Three Bridge Fiasco! | Sail Couture

Oh noooo, Paul....let's have him experience a full season on the bay before subjecting him to this I've done it twice singlehanded and just the start alone will supremely stress your heart!!

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Windsurfer

Welcome! Solid advice already. Would add: learn and respect the shipping channels. Can be lots of traffic and they move pretty fast. In twilight or dark can be hard to spot them against the lights of the East Bay hills. Once you know the channel they always follow, you can focus on your sailing more and traffic less when you know your out of their lane.

The ways to deal with this are rather simple:

1. Look at the charts! Really, it is sooo simple. And if you sail out of the Estuary, as we do, you go right by the Oakland Inner Harbor where the containerships dock. You get used to them, and learn their very predictable routes.

2. SF is probably the nicest place to sail where ferries are concerned. They are extremely courteous to sailors. Only place in the world I know of like that. Ferries are NOT containerships, though. The one really rotten apple in the barrel is the SF fireboat. This skipper is dangerous!!!

3. Use your VHF and its scanner. CH14 is inside the harbor VTS. CH 12 is traffic outside the Gate. We scan 16, 14 & 12 all the time.

All this is covered in Kimball's book.

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by gamayun

Oh noooo, Paul....let's have him experience a full season on the bay before subjecting him to this I've done it twice singlehanded and just the start alone will supremely stress your heart!!

Here's a photo from one of the times we did it (doublehanded):


Light air and strong currents! Sometimes the wind can be howling though.

[gamayun]

Originally Posted by Paul Elliott

Here's a photo from one of the times we did it (doublehanded):


Light air and strong currents! Sometimes the wind can be howling though.

That yellow buoy in the middle left looks like one of the starting pins. Now multiply that picture by 20 with boats all drifting every which way, starting in any direction, fighting a current along with starboard tackers and you'll kinda get the feel for it Then for an added measure of fun, look at that picture again and tell us which ones have starboard/leeward/overlapped rights.

[Capt Gill]

Originally Posted by Paul Elliott

Even if you're not into racing, you ought to consider doing the "Three Bridge Fiasco" race at the end of January. It's lots of fun. Link: San Francisco’s One and Only Three Bridge Fiasco! | Sail Couture

I agree,it's my favorite race. Most of the posts do not mention the winter sailing which is much less predictable than the rest of the year,so with the strong currents and the aforementioned winds you'll find out why the Three Bridge is call "Fiasco.

[MarkSF]

The trick to winter sailing is to go just after a storm front has passed through. Immediately afterwards there is usually a day or two of nice sunny days where the wind is still up. Had some great winter sails using this strategy.