A Bank Robber, A Jewel Thief, And I Was Born To Boogie

After a short hop from Angel Island, we docked at the South Beach Harbor Marina, right next to AT&T Park in San Francisco. Met Doug and Lynn MacFarland from Victoria, BC on sv Miramar, a Beneteau 40, who are also doing the HaHa. Those HaHa flags are great identifiers!




A news clipping posted near the door of the restaurant said it all: “Time Served. A bank robber was grilling the chickens, a jewel thief was filling the water glasses…” This was our introduction to the Delancey Street Restaurant, a unique and surprising eatery only a few blocks from the marina. We stumbled on it, and ventured inside because a glance at the menu showed reasonable prices and a decent selection. Once seated at our white-table clothed table we learned the amazing story behind it: “Delancey Street Restaurant is a key training school of the Delancey Street Foundation, the country's largest self-help residential organization for people who have hit bottom to completely rebuild their lives.” Without exception, all of the staff, from those in the kitchen, to those serving in the dining room and bar, have served time in prison for every kind of crime you can think of. Everyone is well-groomed, courteous, and well-trained. The food was good too! And the prices? $6.95 for a great steak sandwich and a nice salad! The residents, numbering 500, even built the building you see above, and live in apartments above the restaurant. The most important thing about it, to me at least, is that this foundation receives no government funding of any kind. And it is hugely successful! We all couldn’t say enough good things about it. Learn more by clicking here, and do visit the Delancey Street Restaurant the next time you’re in San Francisco.

Next on our agenda was Billy Elliot, a Broadway musical, winner of ten Tony awards. We learned the show was in town and decided a girls night out was in order. Leaving the menfolk to their own devices, off went Gina, Sydney and I to get tickets for the 8pm show, at the venerable old Orpheum theater on Market Street, a San Francisco Historical Landmark. The lack of available cabs and the distance to the theater were minor blips on an otherwise fun, fun evening. Old dancers, young dancers, ballet and modern, we saw it all from terrific seats, 11th row, center.The score is by Elton John, you can read about the show here and here.
Got back to the boat late, went to bed with “Born To Boogie” running through my head. Good times.

Boat Chores

Wednesday, August 17, 2011: Terry was talking to the crew of this big 116’ yacht (mv Sin or Swim) while we were at the Schoonmaker Point Marina, and they had just come up from San Diego. In the salon was a big ol’ granite table. It was so rough, the table came off and slammed to the floor and broke! That’s precisely why I don’t have a granite table in our salon-ha!

We motored over to Alameda to the Grand Marina, where Rick and Gina had saved us a slip across the dock from them. Internet! Terry and I walked the 1.6 miles to the West Marine to trade in our failed fresh water pump, and also buy an extra one, and to a grocery store to stock up a bit.  Endeavor had us over for drinks and we learned how to play “Fill or Bust”, a dice game. Lots of laughter, James beat the socks off of us. He’s dang quick with his math for the score keeping. Terry and Sydney traded verbal barbs back and forth. She really likes to try to get his goat. It’s a mutual thing.

Thursday, August 18, 2011: We are waking up later each day! So we pulled away from the dock in Alameda headed to San Raphael to get our watermaker fixed. When we got out in the bay, we put up our main, then practiced reefing. It made me a nervous wreck because we have never done it before. It was a bit of a rodeo, and wasn’t pretty, but we got the job done. The winds in this bay are amazing! And so many sailboats that are actually sailing! Then we put out just a bit of the staysail and with the one reef in the main we had a nice sail under the San Rafael Bridge on our way to San Rafael. Docked at the little yacht club there for free, then Terry took a cab to the Spectra factory while I did our laundry for the first time. I used that plunger thingy I got online. It worked fine, and now I have laundry hanging on my cute little rubber clothes lines I bought, where you don’t have to use clothes pins. We, motored over to Ayala Cove on Angel Island and met Endeavor, where we moored stern and bow. It’s nice to be away from the dock and at anchor. The whole island is a state park, and is where the immigrants (particularly the Chinese) were held until given permission to enter the country. Kind of like an Ellis Island of the west coast. Dinner, the rest of the movie “Dear Frankie”, and bed.

In Which NOAA Lies, A Whale Is Seen, And The GG Bridge Is Not

Eureka, CA to San Francisco

Monday, August 15, 2011: Harmony left the dock in Eureka (public marina) at about 8:30 am, under blue skies (Yay!), no wind, and crossed the bar with no problem, it was like a millpond—glassy. Our AME customer Randy Peterson piloting m/v Hank crossed just in front of us on his way to SF as well. Beautiful sunlit balmy morning! Lunch was chips, cookies, crackers and cheese—too lazy to fix anything else. We laid around in the cockpit reading and soaking up the rays. Terry spotted a whale very close and I managed to get some good pics!.
We tried sailing (headsail, poled out on starboard side) for awhile. The winds had increased enough, but then shifted, which put our pole on the wrong side of the boat. Brought in the sail.
Between 2-3pm winds built to about 20 knots and we changed from shorts to jeans and sweatshirts. No more sunbathing today! By 3:45pm, light fog had moved in, “goodbye blue skies, we hardly knew ye”. Wind increased to 28 knots gusting to 35, seas building likewise for a rolling ride. NOAA weather service had predicted 10-15 knot winds. That’s the second time they have lied to us. No, I’m not bitter, I’m not, really.
When my turn came we had clear skies, lots of stars and our friendly waning moon-beautiful! By midnight we were socked in the fog, winds were still high, and seas were very rough. It was not a pleasant night. I was so sleepy. I had one of those brain spam things where the same song keeps playing over and over in your head. Then I made a boo-boo on the chartplotter, messing around with it because I was bored. I accidentally erased our route and alarms were going off everywhere! Had to wake Terry up to fix everything. Note to Furuno: The chartplotter needs one of those ‘undo’ buttons like they have on MS Word. I really like that button.  As for me, I may get fired from further overnight watch duty—a girl can always dream right? Actually, I mostly really enjoy night watch, and I will learn how to fix my plotter errors and run the thing properly.
While on watch the Coast Guard out of Eureka was issuing a pan-pan for a vessel that had yelled “help!’ over the radio, but the CG was never able to hear more or figure out where the boat was. They eventually called off the pan-pan until further notice. Sure hope it worked out ok.
Because of my little fiasco, I let Terry sleep longer before I called him up for his turn at 4:30am. I went below and slept like a rock.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011: Woke up to fog, but there was less wind and things had calmed down a lot. We were slowed down a bit last night, looks like we won’t get in to SF till between 5 and 6pm. Breakfast was scrambled eggs with onions, bacon, cheese, sour cream, salsa and cilantro, Lunch was left-over spaghetti. Still foggy at lunch time.
Went under the Golden Gate Bridge (at least we’re pretty sure it was the GG bridge) at 5pm in thick fog, had a spot o’ Ron Zacapa Rum (thanks again Craig and Kelly) to celebrate! Docked at Schoonmaker Marina, their office was closed, so we just took an empty slip. All we can think about is dinner and bed. Went to the the restaurant at the head of the dock to have dinner, but at $20-25 per plate, we changed our minds. Had Costco hamburgers onboard and tried to watch a movie (Dear Frankie), but fell asleep halfway through. Went to bed and slept like a rock. (I need some new sleep adjectives, any input will be appreciated.
All pics for our cruise from Anacortes to San Francisco are viewable by clicking here. (by Diane)