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Thread: Favorite local cruising destinations.

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Posts
    2,095

    Default Favorite local cruising destinations.

    Dish. Where do you go to hang out and do nada for a 3 or 4 day weekend?

    I hardly ever "cruise". Daysail? Sure. Race? You bet. But cruise?

    I do remember, once a long time ago taking Joan on a sail up the Bay. We went into the Estuary and pooped around there for part of the day. Then we tied up at the docks at Jack London square. "Cruising" meant taking a room in the waterfront hotel, then taking Joan out for dinner. The next day we sailing home.

    I had the H-Boat back then. There's not a lot of room in an H-Boat.

    As an aside, our hotel room was two floors above the Hotel ballroom. Cal Berkeley ROTC was having their annual ball. It was fun seeing the guys all in uniform, with their girlfriends all dressed up, walking around the deck outside the ballroom, and hearing the music.


    Where do y'all go?
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Saratoga
    Posts
    336

    Default

    Angel Island is pretty swell.
    An oasis in the middle of a megalopolis.
    History abounds all the way around and on top. From Civil War to Cold War.
    There are walk in campgrounds and a B&B in a restored officer's quarters on the West side.
    A cafe/gift shop, bike and Segway rentals, a tram, self guided tours and guided tours of the newly renovated immigration station.
    You can walk or bike the roughly 5 mile perimeter road or hike trails to the top for an awesome view.
    Once you moor bow and stern you don't have to worry about dragging anchor, chafe, or somebody swinging into you.
    After the last ferry leaves, the raccoons and deer come down to the beach.

    Clipper Cove can be nice.

    China Camp is good.

    Aquatic Park and the Hyde Street Pier is fun.

    Horseshoe Cove is small but doable with a funky bar/yacht club and supposedly a 4 star restaurant within walking distance farther up from the water.

    Any yacht club with dock space and a meal being served, will at the very least, usually let you dock and dine. Best to call first.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Montara, CA
    Posts
    803

    Default

    Half Moon Bay is pretty awesome this time of year. No Romeo's Pier either to muck up the view.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Berkeley Marina
    Posts
    154

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    I've only ever spent the night anchored at Clipper Cove, China Camp, and Sausalito. Of that limited experience, only China Camp gives me a sensation approaching the "real" cruising I've done in less metropolitan areas of the world. The sunset over Mt. Tam is killer.
    I suspect HMB, Drake's, and certainly the delta will fall into that category for me, too, when I get my ducks lined up to make them happen. Oh, and there's a pic in "Cruising Guide to San Francisco Bay" of a boat Bahamian-moored on the Petaluma River that makes me want to try that, too. Being dinghy-less, I have yet to stay in one place for longer than dinner+sleep+breakfast.
    If it's a long weekend and time permits, I like to stop for a few hours at the Angel Island docks (bring $15 cash). Definitely a neat thing to be there after the last tourist ferry leaves and only the yachties remain to entertain Intermission's deer and raccoons (until sunset, technically). I haven't tried the moorings yet, though.
    I also sometimes drop the hook off Paradise Park for a lunch stop, but haven't had the courage yet for an overnight. Lovely spot but strong current.

    I may try Aquatic Cove next weekend. Seems bouncy and bright -- will I wake up with a Ghirardelli sunburn? -- but a new landfall beckons.
    Last edited by Lanikai; 11-14-2018 at 01:26 AM.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    609

    Default

    How about up the Napa river.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
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    2,095

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    Clipper Cove..it's on my way to many SSS races and I've spent many a night either anchored there or quietly tied up at the end of one of the docks. I've hiked all over Angel Island, even taught environmental studies on the Island, just never parked the boat there. Somehow, cruising into the center of the San Francisco waterfront doesn't do it for me, though I dearly love the Maritime Museum.

    China Camp, though. Now, that's a thought.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
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    Never been up the Napa River! Are there spots along the way to anchor, or do you sort have have to go all the way to the marina and turning basin?
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    609

    Default

    Thats a question for someone else as I've only been up it once to work on Hecla the Hammerhead 54 trimaran and wasn't looking for somewhere to stop.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Posts
    3,485

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    It's pretty up there. Suggest you read this first:

    http://sfbaysss.org/forum/showthread...ht=muddy+water

    With the wind coming in from the east the way it has, you might enjoy a beam reach.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Montara, CA
    Posts
    803

    Default

    Oh, forgot about the moorings off Sausalito in the summer time during the monthly Friday night Jazz in the Park. Not to be missed! You could dinghy over afterwards to SYC for a night cap or get a slip for the night at Schoonmaker Marina and have dinner at my favorite French bistro, Le Garage. I also like to anchor in McCovey Cove when there's a good band playing at AT&T park or Clipper Cove for the Fourth of July. Each New Year's Day, the yacht clubs around Alameda host an Island Tour. That's only a day but could stay the night around there and then continue on to the South Bay before returning. If you decide to do a long weekend at Angle Island, the 8-mile hike to the top of the mountain there provides a spectacular view.

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