Summer Solstice is Today, Summer Sailstice This Weekend
Today, June 21, is the summer solstice and the official start of summer. For Northern Hemisphere sailors, it means the longest day of the year, with the sun rising in the Bay Area at 5:48 a.m. and setting at approximately 8:36 p.m., giving nearly 15 hours of daylight for sailing today! If you were sailing with Captain Bob in Glacier Bay, Alaska, the sun would rise 3:55 a.m. and set at 10:22 p.m., while in San Diego, the sun will rise at about 5:41 a.m. and set at 7:59 p.m. It also means the weekend ahead is the Summer Sailstice celebration of sailing.
Summer Sailstice is the weekend you #raiseyoursails just for the heck of it and join the world by adding your sailing plans to the Summer Sailstice map. You can add your sailing plans if you’re racing, cruising or just afternoon sailing. Some of the racing options in Northern California this year include racing BAMA’s Doublehanded Farallones Race, the Half Moon Bay Regatta, the Singlehanded Transpac (OK, entries are now closed for this one), the Corinthian Yacht Club Friday night race, or racing with the El Toro fleet at Clear Lake.
There are only so many summer days, and the longest one of the year is today. Somehow the “lazy days of summer” feel as if they’ve vanished from our lives, and we have to make an effort to restore them. Summer Sailstice is a date to remind everyone to take their summers back, hoist their sails, and reconnect with their boat, their friends, the Bay, the Delta, or wherever they sail.
The 15th annual Delta Doo Dah is underway, with the first participants already having headed up the Delta with the Delta Ditch Run on June 3. If you’re planning to head up soon, you’ll enjoy a full moon on July 3, which is also the night of the Hilton fireworks on Mandeville Tip. Delta Doo Dah participant Phil Degaa wrote us to let us know he’ll be settling into Bedroom One on Potato Slough with a Richmond Yacht Club cruise and other Delta Doo Dah participants for the July 3 fireworks show. Saturday, July 1, looks like a pretty perfect day to head up the Delta, with a flood you can ride all the way up, starting early in the morning.
Oakland Yacht Club has created a GOTW/GOTA (Get on the Water/Get on the Air) community event for Summer Sailstice. The public is welcome, and they’ve invited the San Francisco Sailing Science Center, Alameda Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Amateur Radio Club of Alameda, and United States Coast Guard Auxiliary to be on hand from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. so everyone can have fun learning more about the science of sailing, amateur radio, search and rescue and more from the Coast Guard Auxiliary. If Alameda is your weekend sailing home or destination, the Oakland Yacht Club is ready to welcome you to their Summer Sailstice celebration of sailing, including an Open House following the GOTW/GOTA event.
In addition to a day or weekend of sailing, a bonus for adding your sailing plans to the Sailstice map is the chance to win from over $8,000 in prizes including a WinchRite electric winch handle, solar panels from Sun Powered Yachts, a West Marine gift card and foul weather gear, and much more.
You can sail your own boat, crew for someone else, join Freda B, Club Nautique, or Modern Sailing, or head to Clipper Cove, where Island Yacht Club and Treasure Island Yacht Club are getting together for a weekend Summer Sailstice barbecue.
Today is the day with the greatest amount of sun after work and an ideal time for you to join the Swedes in celebrating Midsommar or the pagans or Druids in worshipping the solar cycles, or just take some friends out for a sail. The nice thing about summer is it lasts all summer long. To enjoy it, all you have to do is cast off the dock lines and sail. When you go out this weekend, make sure you’re signed up at Summer Sailstice and send us your photos here.
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