After spending the night moored in Ayala Cove, we ate a leisurely breakfast, watching the fog flowing over the top of Angel Island, getting thicker at the Berkeley shore and the hills of Marin County, and also listening to Vessel Traffic on Marine VHF channel 14. By the time we unmoored, somewhat after 11 am, the fog had retreated from Berkeley and was thinning in the other locations.
Sue wanted to go more directly across the central Bay, in case the predicted gusts to 30 knots started early, so we headed for the west side of Angel Island, with reefed main and jib still furled. It soon became obvious that the winds were already pretty strong and that the Golden Gate Bridge was almost entirely obscured by thick fog. Only the Marin-side bridge foot was at all visible, at its base. Sue relies on being able to see ships from a long way off so she can plan the best way to avoid them, and not being able to see them until they emerged on the Bay side of the GG Bridge felt too hazardous. San Francisco was also so deep in the fog that the shoreline could only be guessed at as a slightly darker area of white stuff. Where the Bay Bridge started, even where Alcatraz was, were also mysteries.
We turned around in Raccoon Strait and headed for the east side of Angel Island. Nothing of the Bay Bridge was visible either. If we could expect only other boats the size of Endless Time, we might have tried to sail back regardless, but not being able to see big ships from the usual distance felt much too risky. We did not want to moor again, nor dock, having had our fill of trying to tie the boat to some form of land the previous day. So we unfurled about 3 feet of jib and spent the next 2-plus hours slowly sailing back and forth from one end of Raccoon Strait to the other, noting the persistence of the fog, the depths (mostly 80 to over 100 feet), the houses on pilings in Tiburon, and listening to the vessels, generally heavy ships, tugs and barges, announcing their intended routes to Vessel Traffic. We could follow some but not all of the locations mentioned, because some buoy numbers and place names were unknown to us. Still, it gave us a pretty good idea of what the "big iron" intended to do.
Finally, about 1:30, as we considered whether to dock and call Dan Sullivan, so at least someone would know we might need to spend another night at Ayala Cove, the fog lifted enough that the GG Bridge's feet were just discernible, San Francisco became at least a shoreline, and the Bay Bridge was about 50% visible in hazy fog. Alcatraz reappeared, as did our hopes of getting back safely.
We thought we had a pretty good idea of the heavy ships in the area, but still made our first call ever to Vessel Traffic, asking for a traffic report, and any reports of visibility between the west side of Angel Island and Pier 40, our intended route. Vessel Traffic answered us courteously, giving us only a ferry and a large ship, Manhattan Bridge, inbound from Mile Rock to Oakland as our traffic, and adding that the fog was lighter south of the Bay Bridge. Great news, let's go!
We enjoyed a relatively slow sail back, as we left our main reefed and the jib mostly furled. Shortly after we started down the west side of Angel, Sue saw the Manhattan Bridge pass under the GG Bridge. For a while, the fog was still so thick that the ship would have been interpreted as part of the San Francisco shoreline if one hadn't known. We passed behind a group of sailboats racing, which Sue had dimly seen through the fog earlier, and which Vessel Traffic announced to other ships as a "Marine event." We planned to wait if necessary behind Alcatraz for the Manhattan Bridge to pass by, and watched two ferries do just that, but the ship had passed under the Bay Bridge by the time we got to Alcatraz.
The GG Bridge area remained largely obscured all the time we sailed toward San Francisco, but we heard no other ships reporting they were inbound, and felt comfortable despite the lack of visibility. By the time we got to the Bay Bridge, the fog had formed near Angel Island and had largely dissipated in the South Bay. We called Vessel Traffic again to clear ourselves from their slate as we approached the Ferry Building.
Being able to listen to Vessel Traffic gave us a grateful feeling of security on this foggy day, knowing we wouldn't suddenly find ourselves at the front end of "heavy iron." We'll continue our education by trying to locate some of the reporting points on our charts.
Try listening to Vessel Traffic on channel 14, it is useful and interesting to find out what the folks who make their living on the bay are up to, and will add to your education figuring out where all those buoys and points are. Besides it gets romantic when some big iron calls in from an industrial dock somewhere giving his intended route and ending with "Down bound for sea." Great!!
Written 1998
Updated 6-20-2005