Our first day was nearly perfect, although we motored almost the entire 37 nautical miles from Berkeley to Half Moon Bay. The day started with a goodbye to Berkeley Tom,friends and dock neighbors, then topping off the fuel tank in Berkeley, and a very calm motor across the bay into fairly heavy fog at the Golden Gate. It was a great chance to practice using the radar, and we timed our exit for slack water, which made the transit fairly easy. The fog was perfect, bright sun shining through in places, and heavy cottony white in others. The bridge was visible thru the fog, and looked like a postcard.
Julian followed us out on Molly, and it was calm enough to motor side by side while shouting back and forth. Just as Molly turned back outside the Golden Gate, I got a call from my friend Pete, a bay pilot, letting me know that he had gotten the plum assignment of piloting the Maltese Falcon into the bay from the sea buoy. We passed them about four miles west of the gate, an incredible sight as they motorsailed by. The rest of the trip was calm, with whales, dolphins, seals, lots of pelicans and other birds passing by.
We dropped our anchor and took the dinghy in for a drink at the Half Moon Bay Yacht Club, came back out to the boat for dinner, and are relaxing on the hook with the foghorns sounding in the background. Pete called to tell us how ****ing incredible the Maltese Falcon was, and that they had sailed at 18 knots on the bay. It's a singlehanded boat, with the owner, Tom Perkins, pushing all the buttons himself!
