If San Francisco did powder days...

I have only had the joy of trying wake boarding twice. The first time went something like this; face plant, bump along behind the roaring motors of the Mastercraft at 16kts, 16kts!? (I can do that going upwind - well just about), face plant. The second was in better conditions, the dawn call for a before work session went out and we headed out onto a glassy calm, mist shrouded Poole harbour. This time I was taken with just how much skimming across the mirror flat water felt like snowboarding on a magical, knee-deep, fresh powder day. As we finished up and turned for home the mist filled in and exactly which direction to turn for home was not entirely apparent. I only now confess and apologise to my then colleagues for my lost-in-the-mist related late arrival at work. Although I'm not quite sure any of them actually believed my car wouldn't start story, especially since they all knew I cycle to work and the wet hair and salt encrusted eyebrows were not entirely consistent with a session under the bonnet and a wait for the RAC. 

Anyway, I am digressing, what does any of this have to do with foiling you may ask. Well, today I had the joy of experiencing the water-doing-it's-best-to-be-fresh-powder thing while foiling. The water was silky smooth and soft, the foils hissed serenely through their own equivalent of the closest San Francisco is likely to get to a powder day. The fog even billowed up behind the hills, adding to the illusion of snow capped mountains. This is the Bay we are talking about though, the thermal built, the ebb kicked in and from nowhere a hard packed mogul field appeared to delight my weary legs on the way home. 

Be careful what you wish for

Someone once said "Be careful what you wish for" 

I say, "Too right, they might come true, so make them good!"

What more could a girl wish for on her birthday than to go foiling with not one, but two America's Cup helmsmen? I had my wish granted when Chris Draper with his shiny new Mach 2 joined Nathen, Troy, Nico, Adam and myself for a fun foiling session in Seaplane Lagoon yesterday. With the breeze up and some new boats and sailors on the water we stayed close to shore, ensuring the action and the wipe outs stayed close to the camera!

                              

 

 

Trial for the case of Moth v foiling gybe

I wish to draw the court's attention to the following footage obtained from a tiller mounted Gopro on the day in question...

Verdict: The defendant is found not guilty

Scenic overlooks - does what it says on the tin

Fortunately this time accompanied by my own bike and slightly less of a ‘blazing saddle’.

My favourite things about the F18

As part of my mission of attempting to learn to sail catamarans, Adam and myself have got ourselves a Nacra Infusion F18 for playing in the Bay. Had our first sail in a nice 10kts of breeze and managed to capsize in the first 10 mins, oops! Still, that's 9 mins 54 secs longer than my first Moth sail. Slightly distressed by the lack of foiling I though I should think of the best things about the F18:

1) I get to sail with Adam which is a nice change from being by myself on the Moth. All adventures are better shared and now someone gets to enjoy hearing the Top Gun soundtrack that plays in my mind and sometimes sneaks it's way out of my mouth while I am sailing. Not sure that is quite as much fun for Adam, if I ever went on X Factor I would have a sporting change of making it onto the worst-singers-ever montage.

2) It’s relatively large size and stability mean that it is much easier to carry and eat a decent selection of snacks whist sailing, therefore significantly increasing adventure potential.

3) When it's windy going downwind is still really fun and you get a extra sail to play with. Plus went you inevitably stick the bow in, pitchpole and get ejected out the front you can be safe in the knowledge that the crew has been ejected even more dramatically.

4) Relatively larger periods of time between face first, 25 kt impacts with the water mean that a novelty pink sequinned Santa hat is appropriate attire for the Seaplane Lagoon Christmas Novelty race. The more observant of you will notice that the sun is shining and t-shirts are being comfortable worn onboard, yes this is Christmas racing - California style.

I should maybe have included that you get a crew to do all of the hard work for you in the list of benefits but I am not sure how I feel about this one. Whilst it is certainly nice to have help with the heavy stuff, I quite like the working hard part and it feels a bit like you are missing out on something sitting at the back, plus there is nothing like a good hike or hoist to keep you warm.

Which do you think are best, cat or foilers? Singlehanded or with a friend?

Does flying a hull count as flying?

My attempts at learning to cat sail, have brought me to ponder a very important question; does flying a hull count as flying? I had my first proper taste of A cat sailing today, my gut reaction is that this doesn't count as a foiling boat adventure, but with her curved boards and one hull flying she was definitely making an effort. I came to the conclusion that it is kind of like kite flying - the kite is up there in the sky but it can only do it because it is attached to the ground by a bit of string. What do you think - can flying a hull ever count as flying? 

Either way it is always pleasant to go for an evening sail in Seaplane Lagoon with the sun setting behind the city.

Seaplane Lagoon Yacht Club

When moving to a new area there are plenty of things that are useful to find out such as; where the shops are, where you can and can’t go after dark, where you are going to live... Then there are the priority things to find out such as where to launch your Moth. Fortunately sail boat racing teams tend to base themselves in locations with access to the water and Artemis Racing has chosen a large area of disused naval base, previously used to house a fleet of seaplanes. Hence the area of water nicely enclosed by a sea wall to keep the nasty San Francisco chop out, called Seaplane Lagoon, is to be my new foiling home. So I decided, in wheeling the Moth to a piece of old airstrip next to the small slip way, that this would be the formation of 'Seaplane Lagoon Yacht Club'. She is a little lonely at the moment but I am sure more members will join her soon. 

Seaplane Lagoon Yacht Club poster featuring action from it's heyday

Seaplane Lagoon is also home to the USS Hornet aircraft carrier, if I previously thought I always launched with the refrains of Danger Zone running through my head, I certainly do now.

Retro naval airbase surroundings at Seaplane Lagoon Yacht Club. I can just imagine the Top Gun piano scene occurring right in here... altogether now... 'Goodness gracious, great balls of fire...'

Bay Adventures

The main ethos behind Foiling Boat Adventures is sailing great fun boats, but also exploring and finding adventures in the places that sailing takes me to. The Bay Area certainly has some great places to explore and adventures to offer, I have to admit that I have started out more on the main tourist activities side than strictly adventures so far but I find that when I am somewhere new, then everything is an adventure. Taking said tourist activities to heart, Adam and I did the obligatory renting a bike from Blazing Saddles, (named, I am sure, after how your bottom feels afterwards), and rode across the Golden Gate bridge on one of our early recon missions to San Fran. Cycling seems like an apt way to explore this city which has the outdoors so woven into it’s fabric. Plus if you stick to the waterside, you get non-stop beautiful views and can avoid the notorious hills. I am looking forward getting to know the Bay Area better and see what adventures it has in store.

What San Francisco must-sees do you think Foiling Boat Adventures should experience?

A whale of an adventure

OK, so I am about as likely to successfully complete a decent scoring birding Big Year as I am to find a magic step ladder to the moon. Maybe I need to concentrate on a smaller subset of animals. Those that are a bit bigger and easier to identify would be ideal and ones that involve going on the water to see would be even better. So it was that while out  foiling (I use this term to loosely describe attempting to pump the boat in minimal breeze faster than the ebb tide can push me out under the bridge), the highlight of which was being joined by a pod of dolphins, the idea struck me, why not do a Big Year of marine mammals! There can’t be too many of those, especially if I cheat just a smidge and limit it to Californian marine mammals. Well, any one who has performed the google search will know how wrong I was. There are in fact ??? species of marine mammal to be found in the waters of California, and some of then look mighty similar.

Sounds like a good challenge and where better to start than the big ones! So I booked a trip aboard the whale watching vessel the Kitikat to the Farralone Islands. These islands are offshore form the Golden Gate bridge and maintain a air of mystery by being tantilisingly only just visible from the main land on the clearest days. Putting my weather forecasting knowledge to good use, I managed to arrange this trip for the highest swell forecast of the year - it coincided with the calling on of the Mavericks big wave surf contest just down the coast. Seeing the pluses of energy rolling ahead of the Pacfic storm and turning into huge breakers on the islands was nearly as exciting as seeing whales… and then I saw a whale and realised that nothing can be as exciting as seeing a whale! Adam as ever had the camera in the right place at the right time and caught these amazing pictures of the Grey whale. Whale identification is much easier - it even uses my basic naming vocabulary. 

Foiling with a legend

Today I had the honour of passing on the foiling bug to a true legend of sailing, Loick Peyron. He certainly picked up the whole flying-on-water thing pretty quickly. He was certainly ripping, posting a respectable 23.7kts and trying to master foiling gybes on only his second outing. Think we might have to sign up another entry for the Worlds.

Loick returned from his foiling exploits with a black eye and a bleeding head, more injuries than he sustained during the whole of his Jules Verne circumnavigation, but most importantly, a big smile :)

A Big Year

Since watching the film ‘The Big Year’, about a group of twitchers competing to see how many different species of North American bird they can see in one calendar year, I have found myself increasingly intrigued by the idea. So come the morning of January 1st 2013 (see how I have adopted the American format of month before year there - I’ll be high five-ing before I know it), I decided to give my own Big Year a bash. The diversity of birds I see wandering by my door here in Northern California still continues to amaze me, so I thought I would be onto a bit of a sneaky head start. I wasn’t wrong, check out my field notes from my rather uninformed bird watching.

Those who know a thing or two about bird watching, or indeed a thing or two more than me, will know that I can now consider well and truly checked off my Big Year list the following:

• Seagull - with black bits
• Seagull - doing cute funny walk
• Wren - proper one, that one
• Group of wading birds - medium size
• Duck - strayed into shot but still counts
• Flying bird - Pelican, particularly pleased with this one
• Soaring bird - big black

Again those who know a thing or two about bird watching, or indeed anything, will see that I have chosen to use my own unique naming system for the wildlife that I have encountered thus far. My lack of adequate avian vocabulary has forced me to resort to making best use of the limited vocabulary that I do have at my disposal, in much the same way as taking a cab ride in a foreign country can usually be accomplished with just the words ‘airport’ and ‘please’. Unfortunately in much the same way as ‘airport’ and ‘please’ are ok as long as the airport is the only destination you want to go to, the words, ‘big’, ‘medium’, ‘small’, ‘white’, ‘black’ and ‘grey bits’ are soon likely to reach their limits of adequate bird description potential. I need to educate myself - it is time for an English to Bird Watcher translation dictionary...

Sunbathing locals enjoying the California sunshine

What comes to mind when you think of the sun-kissed beaches of California? Go on, let your imagination go; feel the warmth of the sun on your face, the gentle sound of the waves washing onto the beach. Picture the blue of the ocean contrasted against the soft glow of the sand, surfers tossing their sun bleached hair before running into the ocean. Locals lined up sunbathing, enjoying the feel of the warm sun on their exposed skin? If you are of a nervous disposition, look away now, not all California locals wear bikinis...

Foiling with an icon

Well an iconic skyline anyway. The San Fran city skyline with the pointy Bank of America building and the Bay Bridge are a pretty cool sailing back drop. I got my foils wet in San Francisco Bay today and it didn’t disappoint. Blue sky, a decent breeze and timed to avoid the dreaded chop-inducing ebb tide. Now I just have to remember to focus on sailing and not looking at the scenery. 

Ok, ok, no post about San Fran icons would be complete without a picture of that extra special Golden Gate Bridge, so here you are, enjoy. I somehow think it might not be the last bridge picture that will make it onto this blog ;)

Going to California

In the excitement and long to do lists of relocating to Alameda in the San Francisco Bay Area where Adam is working with Artemis Racing’s America’s Cup campaign, posting to Foiling Boat Adventures has taken a bit of a back seat. All I can say is sorry. However Foiling Boat Adventures is now back on line and with giant 72ft foiling catamarans in the Bay there are sure to be plenty of adventures, foiling related and otherwise.