Sailing California’s Central Coast and San Francisco
The shoreline of central of California provides some of the most wonderfully challenging coastal waters in the country. San Francisco Bay is famous for the conditions which ensure a lively day's outing most every time! With plenty of voyages less than one day's sail away, it's no wonder that there are so many sailboats to be found. Then there's the California Delta, which provide both safe harbor and a multitude of places to eat, dry dock hoists, and up-river marinas. All in all, the California Delta stretches through over 1000 miles, with countless entertainment and service venues speckling the entire waterway!
There's simply nothing quite like sailing before (and then beneath) San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. The unique Pacific Ocean perspective is another of the rare treats that sailing in such a breathtakingly beautiful place provides. It's a magnificent structure, suspended by cables that are over three feet wide and made up of 27,572 separate wires (about 80,000 miles of it) spanning the better part of a mile! Take in this amazing piece of American architecture in ways filmmakers have never captured, while sailing the San Francisco Bay.
San Francisco's Fisherman's Warf is world-famous. Imagine yourself pulling in to port, securing the vessel, and then making your way through the city, following your olfactory senses to freshly baked sourdough bread fresh from the oven! Even if you don't make it as far as the bakery itself, there are plenty of restaurants which proudly serve San Francisco Sourdough bread alongside their marvelous mouthwatering creations. What a wonderful way to start or end a day of sailing!
One of the many historical locations you may want to spy is Alcatraz. Located 1.5 miles offshore of Fisherman's Warf in the San Francisco Bay, this island prison facility was once considered a state of the art maximum security location. Alcatraz has been featured in many story lines and films over the years, including Sean Connery's "The Rock." Its lighthouse still stands, illuminating the way for maritime navigators, warning them away, keeping them from running aground or crashing into it's treacherous vertical rocky boundaries.
One could easily spend weeks exploring within the shelter of the San Francisco Bay area. Marine wildlife abounds, keeping things interesting. You'll see elephant seals, dolphins and porpoises. You might even catch a glimpse of great white sharks on their migration!
The open ocean beyond the Bay is a wonderful place and opportunity to view whales. From May through January, one may be able to see a humpback or blue whale. The winter months of January through April are when the gray whales migrate through. Imagine the thrill of sharing the waters with one or more of those awe-inspiring leviathans, seeing one breach at eye level!
Whether dining and shopping in San Francisco, visiting history, or communing with Nature, the Central Coast area provides the most diverse and rich environment in which to enjoy the wonderful world of sailing. Explore sleepy gunkholes, or feel the adrenalin thrill of being fully heeled over, gunwale in the spray. Cast or troll out a line and take in some fishing. The options and pleasures are all yours when you throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, and catch the wind in your sails, cruising the Central Coast of California.
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