It's That Time of Year Again.

The annual sail down to Svendsen's when only the oldest of your sail inventory will do. I throw up the DEN 816 and ride the tide... the bottom hasn't been cleaned since the last race... yikes!
Never heard of this sail maker... are they still in business? Do they make racing sails? Are they any good? These sails only go downwind anymore.
Meet Andrew. He's a good friend and could get a Thursday off like me (I was sick... sick of work). He's also a good tour guide, you can tell by the way he points his finder at all the land marks. In this case, the Bay Bridge construction project.
I take these pictures mostly for Lars Landen in Sweden who is really into bridge construction, but doesn't seem to appreciate the fact that I go to a lot of trouble to take these pictures just for him. Maybe if Bjorn and I didn't refer to his bridge obsession and these types of pictures as "bridge porn" he'd be more appreciative.
Andrew stole my hat and my face and neck fried like chicken. I was beet red when I got home... thanks Andrew. I'll send you the doctor's bill. T.I. in the background... truely was a perfect day for the sail down. Current was against us until we turned the corner and that was right as the westery flow came on... all by design, really.
This picture is out of sequence, but I don't care. This is after we went under the bridge.
Progress is moving right along... seems like forever ago they started this. What bugs is how quick they can build a bridge in Sweden when they have to or how fast the rebuilt LA after the '89 quake, but this just lingers on and on and....
I wonder how they'll take down the other bridge once they are finished with the new one?
Wasn't much room to sail through this way, I'm sure a boat bigger than ours would be discouraged from sailing this way, but there were no signs and no Coasties to be found so we sailed on.
The guys on this crane and in a small motor boat got in our way and the current was ripping and the wind died and as you know I don't have an engine.... I'll take the helm now, thanks Andrew.
Ok, we're clear... have a sando.
What? Are we too close to the barge? But there is a cargo ship in the channel and if we hug the shore he can't possibly get us.
What's this barge here for anyway?
dredging.

We're all clear! Hey, what's that over your shoulder?

Not again! Seems like every time I come through here these cargo ships are all over the place.

Stay right over there, ok?


Good thing these cranes are so high... we'd snag the mast on it if it were lower.
What a junk. Goes with the blog name, huh?
This is the way things looked before I took it all apart. I wonder how many guys have ever just mindlessly took their boat apart and when they went to put it all back together again went.... now how did this go back together? and why do I now hove left over shackles?

Anyway, the rest of the trip was uneventful. A smooth, slow float down to the boat yard. People who don't sail kinda trip when I tell them I have a boat hauled out at a boat yard. And some people trip when I say I have it out at Svendsen's. The ones who do sail ask, 'Why don't you haul out at SF Boatworks?' I think the best answer is You don't take you Mercades to the Ford dealership for repairs, do you? And the only place to take your Nordic Folkboat in the Bay Area is Svendsen's and in the next few reports you'll see why.