How Murray Got His Groove Back

Two months after we bought him, we find ourselves underway on the Murray's maiden voyage. The forecast was for light to no wind, but we had planned on spending our sunday on the water so we were going to just motor around if that was all we could do. El Hondito is a fine outboard, and carried us swiftly south in the direction of Alcatraz and SF. As we left the protection of Richardson Bay we were treated to the sight of a number of other sailboats heeled over pretty hard in what turned out to be a strong 15 knot wind from the WSW through the gate. Just as we finished putting the main sail up we crossed out of the wind shadow cast by the Marin headlands and we were sailing. I went up front to raise the jib sail and Ellie took the helm and plotted a mental course west to the bridge. We ended up tacking five times against the incoming tidal current and passed under the bridge on a strong port tack, waving to a number of excited children on the bridge deck. We took a few pictures of our feet outside the gate, a new Murray tradition, and enjoyed the scenery, but the sun was getting low over the endless Pacific horizon so we turned around and made a quick exit, this time with both the wind and the current at our back. An hour later we were back on the dock deflating Thingy and turning our noses up at million dollar yachts that look under appreciated. Next week we hope to repeat today's success but with some of The Murray's other crew members on board.