Sailing during San Francisco's 'Fleet Week' Oct 8-13th 2009

"A spectacular weekend family event featuring Airshows (e.g. the Navy Blue Angels), a Parade of Navy ships and other exciting demonstrations."

This is typically one of the busiest days out on San Francisco Bay and because the airshows and boat parades are just off the city-front being on a boat is definitely the best seat in the house...

Read more about the events on: http://www.military.com/fleetweek


The weather forecast looks great... And he strong summer winds are down, so we should have mild breezes and these should be all fairly leisurely sails for the non-sailing spectators.

Anyone else planning on being out there on their Ariel /Commander?




HERE IS THE WEEKEND SAILING PLAN for the 'Mephisto Cat':


>>> 10/09 (Fri)
Scheduled Events:
1pm-3pm Air Show Practice
3pm-4pm Blue Angels

Sailing: Depart Vallejo heading for Sausalito. We might catch a part of the the
air show and the Blue Angels.

We'll have a few people going to Dinner & drinks in Sausalito later in the evening.


>>> 10/10 (Sat)
Scheduled Events:
11:30am-12:30pm Parade of Fleet Week Ships
12:30pm-3pm Air Show
3pm-4pm Blue Angels

Sailing: Depart Sausalito after breakfast (~10am at the latest) for a full day of sailing. We will sail along the parade of ships and then pick a course to sail along with all other sailboats as we watch the airshow and the Blue Angels. (Course depends on the notice to mariners that has been issued).
Return to Sausalito at about 5:30.

For anyone who'd like to join in @ Sausalito:
Drinks at the dock afterward.
Dinner & drinks in Sausalito later in the evening.

>>> 10/11 (Sun)
Scheduled Events:
12:30pm-3pm Air Show
3pm-4pm Blue Angels

Sailing: Depart Sausalito after breakfast. We might check out the start of
the Airshow (or not)... before starting the voyage back home to Vallejo.


Link to Notice to Mariners for this event: http://www.military.com/fleetweek/fl...ing-notice.doc

Hey Rico, Maika'i was out there enjoying the gray sky and (very) cool, fog driven winds next to Alcatraz.

Standing at the mast, I was shooting some photos of the Blue Angels as they flew by the City Front, when what to my surprise did I see, but the bow of a Catalina 36 heading right for me!

I yelled back at the helm to take action, but he missed the call. We did not miss the Catalina, nor he us. The helm got the boat over far enough that we only took a glancing blow. Glancing, however, is relative. Being a higher at the deck than us, the result was the (second) loss of our bow pulpit. :( I believe the Catalina had some marks on his ss anchor roller . . .

Oh well, the boat was ready for a bottom job. We'll just need to add a few minor repairs -- to the deck. And a new pulpit.

TERRIBLE!
And Maikai has a yellow hull, too!

Apropos a small discussion going on here, Bill, please tell us your pulpit replacement adventures, OK?

The owner of a Catalina 36 might choose to pay for a new pulpit from Svendsen's out of pocket. Of course he has to feel guilty. But if it is handled through insurance, it'd be interesting how forthright that is done.

And if your own insurance stiffs you with a jacked up premium because you have all of a sudden become statistically accident prone, like they do with auto.

Maikai could be asking for an original pattern pulpit.....;)

Ahhh Bill... Sorry to hear about the injury to Maika'i!! :(
Did you catch the licence plate?

Sorry I did not spot you for a wave as we cruised by. We did not anchor or motor... we sailed the whole day and the few times we went into the mess of anchored and motoring vessels at the edge of the restricted area the thought of a collission did cross my mind...

Our closest call was with a distracted skipper in an inflatable skiff, but any collision was avoided with plenty of room...

I met another skipper on Sat night who suffered an unfortunate crunch. If I am not mistaken he was also hit by a Catalina... Hmmm

We had a very mild (and slow) sail to Sausalito on Friday, with a nice post-sail dinner on shore.

The sailing on Saturday was great, especially in the afternoon - even though it did get a bit chilly. The wind machine in the bay was clearly turned on!

Sunday was great until we reached the islands called 'the Brothers', then the wind just died and we motored from there.

Is your pulpit at all salvageable???

The pulpit does not appear to be salvageable. :( And so far, it looks like I will be on the hook for the repair costs -- no collision insurance :rolleyes:

The location of the damaged fiberglass as close to the toe rail as it is will make that a not to fun job to fix. Sorry to hear about your mishap and I hope the repair goes better than I think it will.

Did the other guy fess up or just disappear?

Bill,
Time to do the sponge deck!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The 2010 edition of Fleet week is this weekend!

Have you taken care of that Pulpit Bill????

The Mephisto Cat will be out on Fri & Saturday. We'll skip Sunday, but may be out for a bit on Monday maybe.

Anyone else?


FRIDAY, 8 October
EVENTS:
1p.m. - 4 p.m -Air Show Rehearsal


Saturday, 9 October:
EVENTS:
10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m -Parade of Ships
1 p.m. - 4 p.m. -Air Show (Blue Angels performance 3 to 4 p.m.)

Sailing Plan: Depart Berkeley Marina to the parade of ships (earlier 9am? or later (noon?) depending on crew's actual interest in the parade...) and sail around to see the airshow afterwards. Possible stop at the Angel Island Cantina between events (depending on crew interest). Return to Berkeley after Blue Angels performance.

Here are a couple of Pictures from the 2010 Edition of Fleet Week. I went out on Friday and Saturday - We skipped Sunday as we had a party to go to...

Friday was great. We stuck around the east side of Alcatraz Island for most of the events. Very mellow and a reasonable number of boats - MANY anchoring West of Alcatraz.

Saturday was also great - but crazy in terms of the amount of boats out there. I like to sail around (as opposed to anchoring) so at least I cave some control as to who hits me! -Fortunately, I have no collissions to report.

For the Saturday events we stayed just North & West of Alcatraz. For the Blue Angels show we started just outside of the Golden Gate and cruised back leisurely just North of the flightpath.

On one pass I thought that the plane was going to hit the top of the mast! - It surprised me. It was quite low - and Deafening! We continued to sail east (running DDW) under main alone during the show and enjoyed a great view.

As we got close to Alcatraz, the traffic was denser & denser. It was all fine until some motorboater (surprise!) left his boat coasting with no-one but clueless passengers at the helm. A boat sailing close by was quickly running out of room as we realized tht no action would be taken by said boat. I had to gybe in close quarters to give him room... Next year I may watch from a distance... Or maybe even from shore. Sheesh!

I noticed that people on the Golden Gate get pretty intimate with the planes as they fly by just above the deck of the bridge on the south end...

Pictures below (These aren't my pictures, but these are the sceens we witnessed with our unaided eyes). I wish I had one during the high speed pass showing a compression wave in front of the plane and a rooster tail coming up from the bay behind...

I should get to ride on one of these - I am already paying for the fuel, right?

These are a bit late - but I am playing catch-up... What's been going on here guys?