Brett and I had a fabulous trip to San Francisco. We arrived on Thursday, Jan 8th after ten hours of airports and airplanes. We met Rob at the airport, made a quick stop at Trader Joe’s, and then climbed aboard Astraea (41ft sailboat). Brett and I were both truly surprised at how spacious she was. There was more room on the sailboat than we had in our first apartment on Beacon Hill in Boston in ‘04.

We departed Friday morning for Half Moon Bay. With high hopes for putting my newly acquired sailing knowledge to use (after reading ‘Sailing for Dummies‘) and wanting to know how I would handle the open ocean - we were off. We made our way across San Francisco Bay: passing by Alcatraz, avoiding large container ships, seeing magnificent views of downtown San Fran and finally sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge. We were on our way!

And I was doing great! … well, for a little while … then came the seasickness. oh yuck. The benefit to not having very much wind, was that I didn’t have to worry about getting sick over the side of the boat and having it blow back in my face. Boy, did I feel sick. Around 4pm we arrived at Half Moon Bay and miraculously, after we made it into the protected harbor, I was fine. Completely fine. Once the boat stopped rocking and swaying, I was able to sit up, stand up, walk around; it was great! Not overly comforting given the point of the trip - but still, it felt great.

Our berth/slip for the next two nights would be in the Commercial Wharf at Half Moon Bay. This allowed Brett to get some great pictures of fishing vessels, Rob to find some great California King Crab for dinner, and me to “enjoy” the lovely smell of fish and all things ocean. It did allow us to watch a crab boat empty their traps to a very eager group of sea gulls, pelicans and a sea lion. It was wonderful to watch the massive sea lion swimming back and forth alongside our boat and the boats around us.

On Saturday we spent the day in Half Moon Bay. Brett and I walked up and down the beach, watching surfers, families at the beach and dogs playing in the water. We had amazing weather - it was seventy-five degrees and sunny.

Sunday’s return trip to San Francisco began at 5:30am as we needed to be ready to depart at first light in order to make it to the Golden Gate before the tide switched so that we could make it into SF Bay. We did not have wind for most of the day - but we did have wind for an hour or two and we got to sail. It was fabulous. I really enjoyed it and you could tell from Brett’s ear-to-ear grin that he was having a blast. We made it back to Astraea’s berth around 3:30pm.

Monday, January 12th, Brett and I only had a few short hours to see San Francisco before having to catch our flights back to Indy. However, with the help of a dear friend of mine who resides in SF, Brett and I were able to ride a cable car, see Fisherman’s Wharf, watch dozens of sea lions sunning and swimming, ride down the most crooked street, look down over San Fran from Twin Peaks, learn some of the city’s history and much of its appeal, and have an amazing brunch at Boogaloos. Thank you MITCH!!

It was a successful trip to San Francisco. We had an amazing time!