The night before our departure, we had a wonderful farewell from our friends at our friends’ holiday party. As Robert and I returned to our boat after the holiday party we noticed the most beautiful halo around the full moon. It was a full circle of light around the full moon with faint rainbow colors in it.
The next day, on December 22, 2018, Robert and I cast off the dock lines and left our slip at Marina Village Yacht Harbor in Alameda, CA. Amazingly, this day turned out to be the first day of the return of the light after the solstice on December 21, and had a full moon.
We had a wonderful sendoff from our friends Tom, Peter and Daria. Peter brought his ukulele and played Hawaiian songs for us, and Daria brought us ginger tea as a farewell gift.
We sailed out of the Oakland Estuary, under the Bay Bridge, and then out the Golden Gate Bridge.
Once we made it out the Golden Gate, we looked back and noticed a beautiful three-masted tall ship behind us accompanied by a fire boat spraying water up into the sky as a way to honor the tall ship. The captain of the tall ship hailed us on the VHF radio, and asked us where we were heading, because the ship was gaining on us. We explained that we were about to head south out of the shipping lane, and would soon be out of the ship’s path. Dolphins swam by the boat and then a flock of pelicans flew right by the boat. We felt that all of this was a grand sendoff for our journey. We looked back with gratitude at the beautiful bay where Robert and I did so much sailing together and where we met teaching sailing at OCSC.
We motored sailed most of the way down to Half Moon Bay because of light winds and gentle following seas. We decided to stay in Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay. As we entered the approach to the harbor the boat pitched and rolled from the waves. We’re happy to say that only a few things got knocked around. We had stowed everything very carefully ahead of time because our friends Behan and Jamie had warned us about this.
We entered Pillar Point Harbor and stayed at a slip at the marina. We cleaned up the boat and then were visited by our friends Tom, Maris, and Tommy, who brought champagne, sparkling cider, beer, and appetizers to celebrate our journey. We had an absolutely wonderful visit from them, and enjoyed an amazing sunset together.
