Bomb Cyclone: Eye of the Storm on the Golden Gate Bridge
The Bay Area has been hit by another bomb cyclone, this time causing several boats to leave the docks — some under the command of their captain, others under the command of the elements.
We received an email from John Fredericks of Shing-a-Ling in Oakland, who told us they lost six boats from the marina in the wild conditions.
Former Oakland Harbormaster Brock de Lappe sent us photos of the boat-carnage near Jack London Aquatic Center.
In the North Bay, Capt. Heather Richard, of Fine Day for Sailing, untied from the dock to motor out into Richardson Bay. But not before she captured this video of the docks dancing with the the boats to the discordant rhythms of the weather.
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Capt. Richard shared the video on her Instragram account, and reported that she was able to take refuge at the Spaulding Marine Center docks.
It’s been a wild weather year for California. As yesterday’s winds picked up we had a look at Windy to see what was going on. The image below appeared with a classic cyclone rotation right on top of the Golden Gate Bridge.
As reported in SFGate, a bomb is a system created when the barometric pressure drops at least 24 millibars in 24 hours. At this point it “bombs out,” according to the weather service. They eye of the storm over the Golden Gate has the look of a hurricane, a system that usually forms over much warmer water. While it was not a hurricane, gusts of 60 knots were reported in a number of areas around the Bay.
We heard that the ferries were shut down. A string of barges broke loose and damaged the Lefty O’Doul Bridge near the Giants’ Oracle Park. A 250-ft section of Interstate 580 at Altamont Pass was undermined and the two right lanes shut down, and a big rig overturned on the Bay Bridge.
Diver Dave of Sausalito reported to John Skoriak that he recorded “a gust of 113 mph” on the anemometer at his shop at Liberty Ship Marina.”
We hope everyone fared as well as possible. If you had unusual weather sightings send them to [email protected].
Good Jibes #83: All Hands on Deck with Will Sofrin
This week’s host, Ryan Foland, is joined by Will Sofrin to chat boats and life. Will is a sailor, speaker, and the author of All Hands on Deck. His love of sailing comes from building boats back in Newport, Rhode Island.
Hear how sailing is a metaphor for so much of life, how Will’s journey transporting a movie prop inspired his book, what he’s doing to promote great seamanship, his life lessons for the next generation of sailors, and the secret behind his famous sandwich for his crew.
This episode covers everything from movie props to life lessons. Here’s a small sample of what you will hear:
- What kind of whales did Will see?
- How does leadership play out on the water and on land?
- What got Will interested in sailing in the first place?
- How does entrepreneurship play out on the water and on land?
- What adventure inspired All Hands on Deck?
- How does friendship play out on the water and on land?
- What is Two Harbors like on Catalina Island?
- How does stewardship play out on the water and on land?
Learn more at https://www.willsofrin.com/ and on Instagram @Will.Sofrin.
This episode is brought to you by Svendsen’s Spring Fling. Don’t miss Svendsen’s Spring Fling Boat Show on April 15–16. For more information, visit SpringFlingBoatShow.com. We hope to see you there!
SailGP San Francisco Season 3 Grand Final Tickets On Sale Now
SailGP returns to San Francisco for the Season 3 Grand Final, May 6-7, 2023! Experience all the action with ticket and hospitality options for two days of exhilarating races, intense rivalries and action-packed entertainment!
Today’s Women Making Tomorrow’s Sailing History
Earlier this month we shared a story about Capt. Mary Patten, in recognition of Women’s History Month. There are no doubt many women who have made their mark on their particular field, but we’re most interested in women who have made their mark on sailing. And we believe there is no reason to focus only on historical sailing women. There are countless women who are forging a career in sailing today, creating the historical sailing women of the future.
A good example is the crew of the Bay Area’s tall ship Matthew Turner. Not only are many of them women, but so are the captains. Of Matthew Turner’s five rotating captains, four have been women — Emma Hathaway (a former skipper aboard Freda B and of many tall ships on the East Coast), Rebecca Johnson, Cassie Sleeper, and Heather Richard.
We could write more about the amazing women across sailing’s history, but instead, we’re going to share the words of Steven Woodside, Call of the Sea volunteer and board member who so eloquently recognized the history-making women in a recent newsletter.
“For centuries, with very few exceptions, the maritime world was dominated by men. In recent decades, particularly in the S.F. Bay Area, the patriarchal nature of this world began to change. As we celebrate Women’s history this month of March, consider the extraordinary life of Marin County resident Louise Arner Boyd (1887-1972), who beginning in the 1920s led several significant North Sea and Arctic scientific expeditions. Her adventures are the subject of two books, one written by Call of the Sea volunteer David Hirzel — The Socialite and the Sea Captain: Louise Arner Boyd and Captain Bob Bartlett at Sea 1941. A second was written by Joanna Kafarowski — The Polar Adventures of a Rich American Dame: A Life of Louise Arner Boyd.
Consider also the lives of thousands of women who flocked to the Bay Area during WWII to work in the shipyards. At the beginning of 1940, there were only 36 female shipyard production workers in the entire country. By 1943, there were 160,000. Right here in Sausalito, more than 4,000 women were employed at Marinship by the end of 1943 — nearly one-fourth of the workforce. There were 1,201 female welders, 40% of all welders in the yard. An equally dramatic change was the entrance of black workers — Marinship at War: Shipbuilding and Social Change in Wartime Sausalito by Charles Wollenberg.
“During the 1950s and 1960s, however, the gates to the shipyards and other maritime trades were again mostly closed to women. It was not until the 1970s that exceptional women were able to reopen some gates, and chart a course for following generations of women to take vital positions in the maritime industry. One such pioneering woman is Nancy Wagner, one of the first women admitted in 1974 to the Kings Point US [Merchant Marine] Academy and the first female ship pilot in the United States, guiding ships entering and leaving our challenging San Francisco Bay. Her story, and the stories of other pioneering women mariners, appears in a SF Maritime Park article on Women in Maritime History.
“At Call of the Sea, we take pride in employing women mariners in all aspects of our ship operations. Last year, at times we sailed with an all female crew, including captains Rebecca Johnson, Cassie Sleeper, Heather Richard and Emma Hathaway.”
“It has taken us a long time to achieve a workforce that is more inclusive of women. We are not going to stop now. As Madeleine Albright put it, ‘It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.'” — Steven Woodside, Call of the Sea.
Who are the women making history in your own sailing world?
Newport Harbor Yacht Club to Cabo Race Sailed Out of the Darkness
It was a dark and stormy night… a very unusual way to start a classic downwind race to Cabo. The Newport Harbor Yacht Club to Cabo Race started amidst another California storm, which produced rain, fog and dark, black skies. Matthew Sessions, who crewed on Greg Dorn’s Dehler 46 Favonius, wrote in to say, “The race was brutal at times. The first two nights were pitch-black for the darkest of nights.”
“We aboard Favonius missed nearly T-boning the brand-new J/145, Aimant de Fille, at 2145 on Sunday night. We were on starboard and I was driving in pitch blackness. We were fogged in going 10-12 knots. About 60 seconds before the incident we saw some quick light flashes off to our right. The next thing I saw was a red masthead light getting taller and taller rapidly on a collision course. I slammed the boat to starboard and they crossed ahead by 1-2 boat lengths. We didn’t know who it was until we checked the Yellowbrick tracker the next day.
“At the awards, I found their team and we had an honest chat. They said they saw us on AIS for 10-15 minutes and were VHF hailing us but we didn’t hear the calls. They also said they made noises with an airhorn, which we also did not hear. They acknowledged that their AIS was not broadcasting as they are still working out some new-boat bugs. The good news is we did not collide. It certainly has us and many others thinking that AIS broadcasting should be mandatory for offshore racing.”
It is interesting to note that, as reported in Scuttlebutt Sailing, Ernie Richau from the Dencho/Kernan 68 Peligroso made a request to the NHYC race committee that AIS transmitting be required for the duration of the race. According to the race instructions, transmitting was only required from the time boats left the dock until two hours after their start. The race committee considered the question over a few days while polling much of the fleet. Consensus came down on the side of not requiring AIS to be on transmit, so the request was turned down.
Matthew credits Dave Moore’s Santa Cruz 52 Westerly for the right call. “The Westerly team (Will Paxton) were awesome. It was super-foggy, rainy and windy at the start. They nailed the first shift three to four hours into the race and ran it from there. The rest of us were within a mile of the shift and stuck. If you watch the tracker again closely from the first 20nm of the race you’ll see how they punched through and the rest of us spun in circles. Good for them. Well deserved!” Favonius sailed on to take third in the largest class, ORR E.
The weather did finally clear for the fleet of 31 boats that took off from the Newport Harbor Yacht Club. As the photos show, “You can’t always get what you want, but you get what you need.” Rocking down the coast of Baja was still a great ride for all who joined in.
Brendan Huffman sent in a few pics of the racing, noting it started in 20 knots on the nose, and rain. They didn’t really see the sun or moon for the first half due to rain, then fog and mist. Finally, things got back to normal. Brendan comments, “[T]he second half was pleasant sailing with stunning sunsets and more stars than usual.” Brendan sailed with Aaron Wangenheim and family aboard their Santa Cruz 52 City Lights. The friends and family aboard included two of Aaron’s daughters and a cousin who were also aboard for last year’s Pacific Cup.
Brendan reported the Wangenheim family, above, had previously sailed together to Cabo about five years ago after Andy Blakeslee bought Aaron’s Pretorien 35. Andy and his wife then did the Pacific Puddle Jump. This family has been putting on the ocean miles.
This is just a snapshot of this year’s challenging Newport Harbor to Cabo Race. It was grueling at the start, and sunny and warm at the finish. Roy Disney’s Andrews 68 Pyewacket took the sled class, Tom Holthus and crew aboard his Botin 56 BadPak took first in ORR A, Jason Carroll and his MOD70 Argo took the multihull class. We’ll have a report from Andy Schwenk in Racing Sheet in the April issue of Latitude 38. In the meantime, you can see full results here.
Another Turtle Rescue by the Perry 56 ‘Foxfire’
They did it again! Mike Casey and the crew aboard the Perry 56 Foxfire managed to rescue another turtle from the scourge of fishing nets and plastic bottles. Mike wrote, saying, “We are anchored in the Tres Marias and were out observing the remote and exclusive scenery when we came across this distressed turtle in our dinghy. Wrapped around its neck were fish nets, bottles and palm frond stalks.”
Sadly, it’s not uncommon to find marine animals entangled in ocean plastics (really human plastics) or for ocean biologists to find the bellies of sea life filled with discarded human plastics. Luckily these creatures sometimes cross paths with good Samaritans like those aboard Foxfire. It was just a month ago that we wrote about their first rescue.
After freeing the turtle they sailed on, with Mike noting, “It was weird today. We saw the same bottle and palm arrangement afloat in another place. Fortunately, no turtle was attached. Are they traps or cast-off fishing gear, or lost gear? It makes us wonder.”
Has anyone else seen this type of palm/plastic arrangement? Could it be a way of capturing turtles? If so, let us know in the comments below or email us here.
The turtle is now swimming freely again!
AUCTION: Blue Water Cruisers, Excellent Deals
Spring cruising sailboat auction is underway. Hull, mechanical, engine surveys and more. Inspect in person, bid online.