New member in SF Bay Area looking for visiting cruisers

[Tooluser]

Longtime lurker, finally joined.
I grew up ‘dirtbag’ (self-taught) sailing Hobies on Lake Michigan as a kid - why ride your bike to work in 10 minutes when you can sail there in only 90 minutes, leave the cat on the beach, and then have to sail home in the dark?

I now (20+ years) live in San Francisco, where I got ‘honest’ and did some proper training with the nice folks at Modern Sailing and now own a Lancer C&C 30 in the South Beach Marina. I single hand around the Bay Area and am learning boat systems repair on this boat.

I’m interested in the -right- amount of tech on a boat (electronics for telemetry and such), celestial navigation, and cruising.

In particular I’d love to meet some visiting cruisers, though not many make it to the bay. My goal is to introduce my cautiously curious spouse and child to the life and spend a year or more sailing and ‘worldschooling’ our son. If you’re visiting SF and living aboard on a cruise, please reach out - I’d love to help you see the area and talk with you about your experience.

[JPA Cate]

I got my start sailing SF bay on OPB's. Look for boats flying courtesy flags (a Stars and Stripes) from the starboard spreader. These are the visitors. They are seasonal, and may join the Baja Ha Ha. In the meantime, keep it fun for your good lady and kids. Ask her what this will be for her. She should learn to do everything on the boat that you can do, so that she can sail it efficiently on her own, during your off watch. This may involve you in child care and meal cooking.

Ann,
[somewhere over 175,000 miles and 36 yrs. living aboard and sailing]

[Tooluser]

Thanks for the suggestions!

[Tenedos]

Welcome. I started the same way in San Francisco Bay Area, with now defunct OCSC. I bought my first boat when she was in South Beach Harbor. I had a subleased sli[ for 6 months there but had to leave afterwards due to 7+ years of waiting time and no transfer policy. How did you manage to get a slip, did anything change?

[Tooluser]

I’ve been sailing in the bay for many years! I have observed that the Brisbane harbor is easier to get into.

[Sailor Sailor]

Originally Posted by Tooluser

Longtime lurker, finally joined.
I grew up ‘dirtbag’ (self-taught)...

I’m interested in the -right- amount of tech on a boat (electronics for telemetry and such), celestial navigation, and cruising.

Self-taught is admirable, not dirtbag, particularly if you read books. I believe sailing lessons are a relatively new phenomena. I learned from my father, more than 50 year ago, and read some books. Now, I am teaching my sons.

As far as tech, I advise you to forgo almost all until you really learn sailing, weather, navigation, piloting, and seamanship. I started with paper charts or chartbooks, a compass, parallel ruler and divider, a VHF, binoculars, and a depth sounder. The USCG auxiliary or Power Squadron books and courses are good.

Unfortunately, good intentions to learn navigation are lost with the ease and convenience of tech. It is possible you will never get around to traditional navigation if you start with all the tech. It is too easy. It seems too many new sailors never learn the traditional version of navigation.

The one exception for your area might be installation and use of radar or an AIS receiver, because of the prevalence of fog.

[Adelie]

Welcome.

I would suggest updating your profile with your general location and your boat make & model or “Looking” in the "Boat" category. This info shows up under your UserName in every post in the web view. Many questions are boat and/or location dependent and having these tidbits under your UserName saves answering those questions repeatedly. If you need help setting up your profile then click on this link: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3308797

I would happily help more if the link above is not enough.

[Tooluser]

Thanks for the tip, I’ll keep that in mind.