Finally we had a good wind with solid breeze on the Chesapeake Bay, San Francisco Bay type wind! A steady 20 kts, gusting to 25kts all day. We took a few family members out with us for their first sail ever. It was a great time. Our old Alberg 30 really shines in this wind; supposedly her designer Carl Alberg had typical San Francisco Bay conditions in mind when forming her lines. The way she is shaped (narrow beam, hourglass figure, full keel) causes her to handle and ride more comfortably than many other sailboats. She's not the fastest by any means, but a sturdy, smooth ride is worth the loss of some speed. We fitted Sal with the large 140 genoa and deep reefed main sail and she maintained 6-7kts the whole day. Great Sail!
Second reef in the main
Jen and Christina enjoying their first sail!
First Mate getting her feet wet and enjoying the great conditions
Getting out on the water this year has been difficult for us. We have both been busy with work and school. When we did have time the weather was less than cooperative. But last week we had a day where all the stars aligned and we got out on the boat together. It was quite an interesting trip.
We arrived at the marina and quickly got Sal away from the dock. The weather was near perfect, 75degrees, no humidity and wind from east at 10-15kts..... it was perfect!
As we were leaving the inlet I noticed a pirate ship, and pointed it out to my crew. We have always heard about the dangers of pirates but never in own backyard. Yikes! As the captain of my vessel I was preparing for a fierce battle. I was just about to fire shots across her bow as a warning to let them know they would not be boarding without a fight, when first mate informed me it was the just the tall ship Godspeed out of Jamestown and that I could stand down. As any good captain would do I listened to the first mate's input and waited...Sure enough she was right again and it was just Godspeed preparing for Norfolk's Harborfest. Here is a video of the tense situation:
So we after that was cleared up we went for a nice sail out on the bay. It was great. Air was cool and crisp and breeze was steady. We sailed along making almost 4 kts with just the genoa out. We sailed for about 3 hrs. On our return back into the harbor I could see a bunch of small boats. As we got closer and they approached, I could see that they were Navy special forces in Zodiac-type craft.....There were a lot of them. Looked like they were headed out for some routine training on the Bay . Here is our video:
Overall a very good and well deserved day out on Sal. Looking forward to getting back into the swing of summer....it seems as though the good weather has finally arrived.
