Heavy Weather on SF Bay

[walberts]

I thought that SF Bay sailors would appreciate this shot. I found it in a September 1970 issue of "The Skipper" magazine.

The caption (which I couldn't scan with the photo) reads: "On an April Sunday afternoon west of the Golden Gate Bridge, in gusty winds of fifteen to twenty-five knots and six foot swells, photographer Michael Murphy caught the twenty-two ton ketch Cayuga leaping off the top of a swell and into the trough. It was the only picture he got, for conditions were too dangerous to shoot any more."

I am attaching the photo. I hope it comes through. When you see it, you'll know why the photographer decided to retire from the field!

[JOE ANTOS]

I have looked at this several times now and I am amazed how the underside is so out of the water..

[walberts]

I zoomed in to try to see if I could see the expressions on the faces of the sailors but I just couldn't quite get the definition. I imagine they were all amazed too!

One hand for yourself and one for the ship!

[ElBeethoven]

I'll stick to the Gulf Stream, thanks. At least there, land and rocks are much further away.

[walberts]

Somewhere in my past I was given this very good advice: "The time to reef is when you first think of it." I'd be surprised if that thought didn't go through the mind of this skipper and his crew at this moment or the moments just before and after!

Twenty-two tons launched by mother nature. Wild ride!

[Mike Goodwin]

I may be wrong , but do I see foils holding that boat up on the wave? The photo is not very clear . Sure looks like foils to me.

[walberts]

Foils??? We don't need no stinking foils! :

[ElBeethoven]

The Three Sure Signs That You've Waited Too Long to Reef:

1. You ask yourself if you've waited too long to reef.
2. The crew reminds you that, as an amateur captain, you have no legal justification or precedent with which to order them out of the cabin and onto the windward rail.
3. Seaweed trails from your windex.



( I'm not this clever; I remember this from a magazine blurb about ten years ago.)

[Robert Lemasters]

As a young sailor in the U.S. Navy off of the coast of Cuba I saw some pretty wild things in a hurricain. Something has to be wrong in this photo. I don't think 6 ft swells would toss even a small boat around like that unless there wasn't enough ballest or the centerboard wasn't down far enough on some boats. there is also something about the boat itself, could it be a homemade one?