At Anchor in Richardson's Bay
We had a fantastic first night at anchor in Richardson's Bay. The excuse for the adventure was to test some of Dominic's recent installations, but the highlight was definitely the spectacular sunset we enjoyed. Not such a bad view from the back porch!
We had originally planned to anchor in the lee of Angel Island, just off the little beach in front of the historic immigration center, but the anchorage didn't live up to our expectations. The sun had already dropped behind the island making it shady and chilly, plus to get shallow enough to anchor we would have needed to be precariously close to the beach itself. No good.
So we headed to Richardson's Bay where Dominic has anchored many times before. This is clearly what the gods wanted; as we rounded the bend through Raccoon Straits the setting sun cast this ethereal, metallic, gleaming goldeny light through the bridge and over the water, and we were entertained by some enormous pelicans diving for their dinner.
And let me just say, these pelicans were not brief. As we enjoyed our champagne and charcuterie in the cockpit (first night at anchor celebration!), these guys called a few hundred of their best pelican friends to enjoy what must have been a gigantic school of fish just below the surface. We were in the eye of a pelican tornado, and in the midst of some lovely real estate. We had Sausalito to port, Mt. Tamalpais off our bow, and could enjoy scouting retirement homes in Belvedere off our starboard beam.
Once Sausalito started to twinkle it was too dark and cold to be in the cockpit, so we turned in and had a surprisingly normal evening. We had enchiladas for dinner. We watched an episode of 'The Wire'. There was definitely some pitching and rolling, but nothing I would describe as uncomfortable. We had chocolate dipped madeleines for dessert, a sparkling skyline out the window, and a few extra blankets since we couldn't run our little space heater without ac power. We giggled at the sheer ridiculousness of our house being tethered to the ocean floor by a chain. A chain that seems so big and cumbersome while we're working with it, but so small when it's the only thing holding our lives and livelihood in place.
This morning, waking up was equally lovely. The weather was blustery, so we scrapped our kayaking plans for a relaxing hot breakfast and headed home. We almost beat the rain back, but had fun playing dress up in foul weather gear instead.
Check out that sweet neon hood! And the adorable embroidered sailboat! Who knew a sailing wardrobe could be so exciting?
Anyhoo, we are back in Alameda this Christmas Eve, and grateful to get to spend tomorrow with my family. Wishing you all a wonderful holiday, and many adventures in 2015.