Day 57: Yo ho, yo ho a sailor’s life for me!

August 14th, 2011 – San Francisco, Olympic Circle Sailing Club (OCSC)

Yo ho!

After a lovely time home with family I arrived in San Francisco on Saturday night refreshed for more BGB action. The next day, following some adventures on public transportation into the city with Garz and Devo (as you know from Jen, our bus was having some minor difficulties the day before…), we arrived at the marina to go sailing at the Olympic Circle Sailing Club (OCSC). Seeing as it was my first time sailing EVER, I was little nervous but also really excited to get out on the water. We were taught by the founder of OCSC and resident sailing instructor, Anthony Sandberg and accompanied by James von Rittman, President of the Dartmouth Alumni Association of Silicon Valley, for about two hours in the lovely San Francisco Bay. The breeze was phenomenal and despite my typical seasickness I had quite an enjoyable ride. I was really intrigued by the mechanics of sailing, and loved watching the bright white sails unfurl in the wind, and hearing the snap of the lines as they were pulled in place. We each got a chance to steer but luckily that involved a lot of holding the steering wheel in place otherwise I’m not sure this rookie could have done such a good job! Thanks again to Anthony for teaching us and letting us use his beautiful boat. I had a ton of fun and I would sure love to try sailing again!

After hopping off the boat and chatting for a bit and the clubhouse, everyone was hungry so James brought us all to a little shack on the side of the road for lunch called Seabreeze. The restaurant wasn’t much of a looker in terms of view, but it was delicious in terms of food! There were all sorts of tasty burgers and appetizers, plus, thanks to James and the Dartmouth Alums of Silicon Valley, it was free for us! Once we had all had our fill, I departed for an Adele concert at the Greek theater on the Berkeley campus with my friend Ellena, and everyone else headed back to the house in Corte Madera.

Overall, the day was excellent, and I’m glad I got to see some sailing in action! There really was no better place or breeze for my first time sailing then in the San Francisco bay. It swept us along beautifully and Anthony said if you catch just the right spots it could keep you occupied for hours. I think our stay in the Bay will be quite exciting, and I’m looking forward to more times out on the water, more times around the city and more BGB adventures!

Signing out,

S.hakes

P.S. For more info about OCSC, or if you want to learn how to sail in the Bay area, visit: http://ocscsailing.com/!