SF Bay Area bareboat

[dabnis]

drgamble,

I sailed in and out of the bay in a coronado 25 out of Sausalito for 10 years.
Keelhaulin and the others have covered it pretty well. Strong currents against the wind can make things pretty sloppy at times. Suggest you stay well clear of Alcatraz as you can be swept down on it very quickly, also lots of ship traffic in that area. If you go "out the gate" the currents can easily exceed 5 knots at times, also do not go between the south tower of the Golden Gate Bridge and Fort Point and stay well clear on the outside of Mile Rock. If you have inexperienced people with you it can be harder than being alone, things can get pretty busy really fast. For a more pleasurable experience I suggest you go out with an experienced skipper, at least for the first time.

Dabnis

[dabnis]

drgamble,

This is why you shouldn't go between the South Tower and Fort Point:

Sailboat Capsizes under Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco surfers rescue, photos by sfsurvey.com wayne lambright

Dabnis

[Chuteman]

Excellent suggestion by KH - why mess with all that stuff when you can just jump on a "comm'l" sailboat - you don't have to deal with all the red tape for a narrow purpose & it will probably be cheaper in the end.

Your are correct = checkout sail has about a 99% probablility & it would add to the bill.

Here's a link which includes some of the previous stuff & much more (hit home too)
Yacht Charters - Boat Charters

No matter what - Have a great time & Fair Winds............then come back in the summer and grab a ride in a race or cruise with locals for the "full experience"

[drgamble]

Thank you all very much for the great advice - after reading all the suggestions I'll start making some calls next week and will go with a hired captain route. This should serve the purposes of getting us on and off the water quickly and getting myself more familiar with the Bay. It should also allow me to work with the charter company on the comfort factor of bareboating with them in the future after such an outing. Now, hopefully the weather will cooperate!

[drgamble]

Originally Posted by dabnis

drgamble,

This is why you shouldn't go between the South Tower and Fort Point:

Sailboat Capsizes under Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco surfers rescue, photos by sfsurvey.com wayne lambright

Dabnis

Wow - Just had a chance to look through those great pics - not so great for the boat owner of course....

[KeelHaulin]

Yeah; it's passable on days when there is no heavy ocean swell coming in through the gate, but on days when there is heavy swell it's got breakers like those in the photo (rare event but it does happen). Check this out:


Article Here: Latitude 38 - The West's Premier Sailing & Marine Magazine
That monster was at the west side of the Pt Bonita channel (NW/SW channel); the red/green buoy is the west side entrance channel marker. This was on a clear/calm day with sets of heavy swell coming in at 30 minute intervals. Looks like the swell came across Potato Patch Shoal and stacked up before breaking in the channel. They say you should stay in the main SF entrance channel when exiting/returning in heavy seas; but I'd be willing to bet that breakers come across the east-west channel in some cases also.

(This is well west of the GG Bridge; you probably won't be going out there drgamble)