Celebrating 40 years of Sailing the Bay!

Way back in 1983, I started sailing the SF bay. My friend Jeff would rent boats and invite friends to go sailing. I had no idea back then it would become my passion later in life. In 84, I moved in with my girlfriend into an apartment overlooking a big lagoon. A friend let me borrow his windsurfer for the summer and I was hooked. Eventually I purchased my own board and started sailing the bay and delta. I loved the speed and freedom. In 2000, I purchased my first keel boat. The "Addiction" (what an appropriate name!) was a 30 foot sloop that would take us all over the bay as well as the Napa and Petaluma Rivers. I sailed her hard for 17 years and she was a joy even in the big winds of the bay. My dream was to sail to Australia after retirement. It would take a year to get to Sydney. My best friend Tex was game and we sailed together weekly for many years. I sold the Addiction in August of 2017 and purchased a beautiful 40 foot sloop for the voyage. In the midst of refitting her and upgrading the electronics on "Aquarius", my wife asks that I shorten the trip to 7 months. I agree and we target an adventure deep into Mexico and then back to SF. We take off a few days into retirement in September 2018 and head down the California coast. The Channel Islands, Santa Barbara and San Diego held many highlights for us. We spent several weeks in each location with friends visiting along the way. We arrived in Mexico in November and hit our southern most point in March 2020. Zihuantenejo is a beautiful harbor and all of the locals were friendly and warm the entire trip. We headed north in early March and arrived under the Golden Gate in mid April after a most successful voyage. The boat and crew did an awesome job and I could not have been happier. Fast forward to today and boat lives up near Berekely and she is sailed weekly. I found my passion and my life is full of sunshine and seagulls. The SF Bay is one of the greatest sailing venues in the world. With 25 knot winds all summer and a bit mellower in the winter, I am one happy sailor!! Here is some nice drone footage of the bay. This is not my boat but "Wild Card" is looking good in the vid.