I want to tell you about my sail boating experience on the SF Bay.
Everything started out fine. We sailed from Sausalito to Alcatraz to
Crissy Field. We had lunch at Crissy Field. It was really fun to be
out on the bay and see the views from that vantage point. After lunch
we decided to sail out underneath the Golden Gate Bridge. We were able
to sail out and under it a little way out. The swells were huge, but
the boat seemed to be handling it okay. On the way back is where the
trouble started. The wind was so strong and blowing directly behind us
that the boat was very hard to control. We sailed back into the bay
very fast. Once into the bay we started capsizing quite a bit. The
boat kept rolling from side to side and we could not control it. Well
when we capsized the boat started to get more and more water in it.
Eventually it could not handle all that water and started sinking. At
that point it was becoming hopeless to try to sail the boat any
farther. Luckily there was a couple fishing boats nearby which came to
our rescue. The boat was still sinking, and I had to jump back into the
water to put the tow rope on it and keep the boat upright. It was
tipped up side down, with the highest part of it only about 3 or 4
inches above the water. I thought for sure it was going to sink.
Anyway, the fishing boat towed me to a nearby marina where we were able
to get a ride back to the car (which was parked a couple of miles away
at another marina). The place the towed us to was also a Coast Guard
Station. The medic from the Coast Guard thought I had hypothermia from
being in the water so much, but it turned out I was just really cold.
We had short wet suits on. When I got home I discovered some holes in
the bottom of the boat. Luckily I was able to fix them with some epoxy and the
boat is now as good as new (almost).