May 16, 2009, Berkeley to Half Moon Bay, by Bob

On the way out of Berkeley I decided to take a shortcut to the Farallon Islands, a small group of islands about 25 miles outside the Golden Gate Bridge. I made a detour to go by downtown San Francisco and Alcatraz, then headed through the Golden Gate.

Being Saturday, there were a lot of boats on the water. The waves were a little rough going out, because it was the wrong time of day to be going out and I was motoring directly into the wind and waves. It was fun.

When I got close to the Farallon Islands, I joined a sailboat race. I wasn't actually in the race, since I was using a motor to go faster and more directly into the wind that I could using sails alone. There were a few dozen sailboats in a race around Southeast Farallon Island. I passed several on the way out, cut across on the near side of the island after looking at some seals, a whole bunch of birds, three people, and some rocks.

Then I put the sail up and rejoined the race. Since they were headed back to San Francisco Bay and I was headed to Los Angeles, our paths diverged. I came into Half Moon Bay and anchored for the night.

At Half Moon Bay there are some nice boats, some fishing boats, some nice and some "well used," and a few crusty live-aboard boats anchored in the harbor that look like they couldn't go very far, on top of the water anyway.