From Swamped, the U.S. DCA Magazine

THE CRUISE A coastal passage of roughly fifty miles from the head of Tomales Bay south to San Francisco Bay.

THE PLAN Launch at Lawson’s Landing at the north end of Tomales Bay on Friday night in order to cross the Tomales bar at 0700 on Saturday at slack water. Cruise to Point Reyes and Drakes Bay — 23 to 31 miles depending on navigator — possibly slipping into Drake’s Estero at 1600 slack, or continuing to Bolinas Bay and spending the night in Bolinas lagoon. Attempting to arrive at the Golden Gate bridge on Sunday morning in order to ride the flood through to the city.

THE BOATS AND CREW Two Luggers with three crew each; two Steve Wilces-designed boats, 21 and 25 feet sharpie types, two and four crew respectively

THE PROBLEMS Three bars to cross, possibly all with breaking water. Duxbury Reef at Bolinas and the four fathom bank — Potato Patch — at the San Francisco entrance. Possible fog. Potentially small-craft warnings flying. No havens except Drakes Bay, maybe Bolinas and inside San Francisco.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON The Tomales bar was breaking almost all the way across as we arrived at Lawson’s Landing. Certainly sobering to see three or four sets of breakers before the beach. Discussion on Friday night ran from whether we should go at all, to where the safety was, to all the ‘what ifs’ we could think of.

SATURDAY We decide to ‘buddy boat’ with the Luggers together. Time goes by, but we motor out the channel about 0900. No breakers near us, met the ocean swell and south. The other boats are about an hour behind. No wind.

SATURDAY NOON All four of us end up at Point Reyes lighthouse within minutes of each other, motoring all the way. We’ve seen sharks, ocean sunfish, turtles and pilot whales. The skies have been hazy, we’ve gone in and out of fog banks, but no need for the compass. We motor around the point to the Drakes Bay buoy. The Luggers decide to check out the bay, and hopefully find the Estero entrance navigable. The other boats head down towards Bolinas on a rhum line for the Duxbury Reef buoy.

We check out Drakes Bay anchorage and beach. Certainly a possible place to anchor, perhaps beach some boats, and good sand beach camping. My boat heads over to find the Estero entrance. The shoreline from three miles out is vague. We get close to but can’t see a channel or the Estero behind it. The fog drops around us, visibility to about 200 yards.

I get out the hand bearing compass to begin steering a compromise course that will carry us offshore a bit to the east over toward the coast and head down towards Duxbury. I sit the compass on the cooler and head about 100-120º. Seems fine. I lift the compass once to take a back bearing — off of what I don’t know as it’s grey! — the needle really jumps. Lift up the cooler top and remove the two juice cans from directly under the compass. Aha! Recalculate the course and swing east to find the coast and Double Rock. Out of the regular fog we get a reflection from the sun directly in front of us. Like a shiny half disc on the horizon. We can see blue above the fog. If we had an 80 foot mast we could see everything I believe. Then the treeline looms above the fog and the glow turns out to be the sun and fog on white cliffs. Turn south and head down the coast. Sail into a clear patch, look behind and the other lugger shows up 500 yards aft.

It continues to clear. The other boat stops to fish while we move ahead and sail over the Duxbury Reef, leaving the breaking water to port and the buoy to starboard. We raise some sail as the breeze is up and broad reach down towards Bolinas Lagoon. To the south we see the other two boats under full sail, scatting towards San Francisco. Wonder why they didn’t sail into the lagoon as planned.

SATURDAY 1700 At the lagoon entrance there are several lines of small breakers going all the way across, and seals playing in the surf. No, they are surfers! Sail in close to check it out and decide we can see the channel and will be able to make it under power. Swing about and head back towards Duxbury to make sure the other Lugger sees us and doesn’t head to ‘Frisco. Rendezvous and agree to go in.

1730 SURFING USA We drop all sail, raise the centreboard, pull up the rudder — it doesn’t kick up — and head in. The Johnson 6 seems strong enough. We head in, surfline to the beach on starboard, surfers to port. Our diver crew member says stay in the white water for a good ride, but a wave catches the stern and broaches us. I can’t control it with the motor but the Drascombe just slides sideways until the wave breaks, the motor bites and we power round through the channel. We cheer and so do people on the beach. Brian comes in right behind with no problem. We compare notes and find he came in with rudder down, figuring there was enough water. He was right, but how to be sure?

SATURDAY NIGHT We build a fire on the beach, Brian cooks up the mackerel, we roast the oysters bought earlier and enjoy the evening. To avoid hassles we move the boats over to the other side of a channel behind the Stinson Beach sand spit to sleep. One sleeps on a Drascombe, the others out on the beach.

SUNDAY MORNING Bright and clear, but no wind. We miss going out on the 0700 slack water because we need gas for both boats. After buying gas Brian leads the way out. We power through breakers on a rising tide. The water is deeper so both rudders are down. Try to stay in the frothy white water but sometimes end up right on top of a breaking wave. The crew is well forward and the boats handle well, pounding on the drop but never stalling. “We’re out, yeah! Let’s do it again.” The Drascombe Surfing Society is born. Motor down the coast towards Point Bonita. Joe points out things he has observed in years of hiking this coast. Old gun emplacements, a freshwater lake within yards of the ocean.

SUNDAY NOON The Bonita channel is lumpy. We all wonder what it would be like in a breeze. The swell around the point towards the Golden Gate is almost enough to surf on. We motor past the city front and around the piers to Pier 66 — birthplace of DCA America. We slide up to the dock just behind the 25 footer Brenden and catch up on the news of the other boats. They didn’t like the looks of the surf at Bolinas and since the wind was up, they decided to go for San Francisco. They were carried all the way to Point Bonita when the wind dropped and so did fog. They carefully motored in to Sausalito and found an unused dock. So they dock camped for the night. One boat pulled out there.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON The aftermath. Clearing the gear from the boats, taking the drop car back up to Tomales to pick up boat trailers then driving back down to sit with everybody else in the world in the Golden Gate traffic jam. Sure was a lot better sailing under it than driving over it.

TOMALES REDUX It all worked. We probably were fortunate to have no wind on this exploratory trip, as it was easier to check out the whole passage. I’d do it again. There is shelter at Drakes Bay even if the Estero isn’t navigable. Maybe Bolinas gets worse, but one could anchor for the night behind the Duxbury Reef and wait anything but SW storm. The approach to the Golden Gate certainly needs respect, as does the whole coast. But it’s a good trip in September or October. Joe says he might do it in a sailing Klepper Kayak, and I’d only do it alone or with one crew so I could plan on sleeping aboard. Brian? Well Brian wants to run from ‘Frisco to Half Moon Bay, and maybe as far south as Santa Cruz.

CREWS On Brian’s Drascombe: Sandilands, Neal and Spear.

On mine: Knapp, Hutcheson and Toback.

21 Navigator: Steve and Lee Wilces.

25 Navigator: Ken and Michelle Ward, Tyler and ? (unknown).