Monterey Bay Sailing News and Blog

The Crew of Island Girl on Graduation Eve on Cooper Island looking towards Tortola in the distance.

This June my family and I sojourned to the Caribbean to participate in Sailtime’s Novice to Captain (N2C) regatta in the British Islands. We sailed on a Sunsail 41 foot catamaran with two other SailTime base owners and thier families - see picture of Island Girl’s crew on the beach of Cooper Island.

We started at maya cove on the island of Tortola and made our way up the Sir Francis Drake channel stopping at Norman Island before making Virgin Gorda. The sail up the channel is a beat requiring a series of tacks to make way against the easterly trades. You can see yours truely cranking the winch for the jib sheet during this passage.

The weather was perfect with calm seas clear skies and a steady 15-20 knot breeze. Our Sunsail catamaran, Island Girl, had 4 staterooms each with their own head. The salon was quite large and we had a covered outdoor eating area. By far the most popular area for the kids of the group was the trampoline located forward of the salon between the two hulls.

We were on the “admiral’s ” yacht so we had to keep track of the seven other yachts in the SailTime fleet. Each evening all the SailTime captains would gather for a briefing of the next day’s sail. The captains shared the task of leading the briefing for the next day’s destination. Here is one of the captains’ briefings held on Island Girl. Navigating through the BVI is very easy since you never leave site of the next island in the chain. However, from a distance the islands become indistinguishable from one another and having good coast navigation skills does prove to be handy when trying to make the next port of call.

One of the highlights of the regatta was the race from Monkey point on the North east corner of Tortola to the notorious Cane Garden Bay, made famous by Jimmy Buffet. You can see two of the yachts in the fleet during the race making thier way south west on a broad reach with a comfortable following sea.By far the best Island discovered on the trip was Sandy spit - my wife was quite taken that the early mariners chose to name this island in anticipation of Sandra’s visit Sandy’s Spit has been used for Corona commercials that do not do it justice. You can circum navigate the island in a 15 minute walk. The water is so clear and calm that we swam from our anchorage to the beach.

Everyone had a grand time and it was truly a special voyage for all the newly minted SailTime Captain’s. We snorkeled in the clear waters and did some wreck diving as well. Each island provided new dining and shore excurisions and we only had a chance to sample a small slice of the islands.

I plan to return again in November with a SailTime Monterey Member to help him graduate in the Caribbean!

The first week of April we sailed Alyssa Noelle, our brand new Hunter 38, from Alameda to Monterey enjoying a beautifull trip through the Golden Gate and down the Central Coast. I was joined by Dan Counts, our SailTime USCG captain and sailing instructor and the Alyssa Noelle’s owner, Steve Rice. During the trip we stopped off in Sausalito, Santa Cruz and Moss Landing before reaching home in Breakwater cove marina.

We started our sailing sojourn with a rousing sail across San Francisico Bay under the Bay Bridge, passing east of Alacatraz and along Angel Island. We were treated to 20 knot winds and breathtakingly clear vistas of the city skyline. We got close enough to alcatraz to remind us of why they call it the “rock”. Our close reach along Angel Island cost me a lunch for the crew as I bet the skipper we couldn’t make the passage in one tack. We did with the help of a strong ebb current and an able helmsman.

We attempted to have lunch at Sam’s in Tibouron but alas they are in the midst of remodeling. Denied my favorite sailing stop over, we made our way to Sausalito for a beautiful evening on the water. Sausalito has many fabulous resturants but we found a new lunch spot at the Cat ‘n Fiddle resturaunt right on the water.

That evening Dan and I stayed on Alyssa Noelle and had a full moon to illuminate the Sausalito coastline - Very Nice! Early the next morning, precisely at 8:00am, or was it 8:15, the crew of Dan, Steve and I, headed out for the gate. At first we found the bay overcast with marine layer, but as we made our way towards the Golden Gate bridge the clouds started to break. I have had the opportunity to sail under the golden gate bridge several times, but only once before had I sailed under knowing I would not be returning. The feeling of passing beneath the enormous expanse of red ironwork can not be adequatley described in words. Take a look at the expression on the faces of Dan and Steve to get a sense of how we felt heading out the gate!

Heading out past the Marine Headlands the sky turned perfectly clear and promised and delightful sail down the coast. We had a NW breeze ranging from 8-15 knots for the length of the trip along the outside of the San Mateo peninsula. It was not until we approached the famed city of Davenport that we encountered winds in excess of 25 kts. But that is the subject for another Sailing Blog

Welcome Alyssa Noelle! Our new Hunter 38, Alyssa Noelle will be arriving this spring joining Madeline Schell in the SailTime Monterey Bay Fleet. Alyssa Noelle will be commissioned in Alameda, California in March. Her new owner and a lucky crew will sail her through the Golden Gate down to Monterey Bay in April. At 38 feet in length and almost 13′ a beam, she is well suited for comfortable sailing in the coastal waters of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Designed for ease of sailing, Alyssa Noelle has both a roller furling head sail and an in-mast furling mainsail. All running rigging leads aft so all sail handling can be performed from within the safety and comfort of the cockpit. To handle the most demanding conditions, she will be outfitted with the most advanced Navionics including a Raymarine GPS chart plotter with integrated Radar overlay. Her cabin appointments boast a full featured galley, custom teak trim with a upgraded Bose sound system and 15″ flat panel DVD. A forward V berth, a teak dinette convertible to a berth and a full queen sized aft master state room provides comfortable berthing for 6.

For more details on the H38, please visit the Hunter Web Site or check out the Sailing Magazine review by downloading the PDF from the SailTime Web Site. We are all quite anxious to get on board this beautiful yacht. If you would like to see how you can get to share her, contact SailTime Monterey Bay for details. But don’t wait too long…Chances are the limited membership opportunities won’t last long.

Sailing on Monterey Bay on the Madeline Schell is quite an experience.  Madeline Schell is a Hunter 33 sloop berthed in beautiful Breakwater Cove marina in the heart of historic Monterey harbor

For More information on how you can get your share of a bueatifull sailing yacht, go to www.sailtimemontereybay.com or contact Greg Wolfson at 831-333-1597

Fair Winds and Following Seas!