The following pictures were taken while out on the bay and under the gate on Saturday 2/28/04.  The conditions on the bay until a little after 11:00 were better suited for water skiers than sailors.  Then around 11:30 the wind machine finely kicked in. although the winds remained light for the rest of the day, after what seems like a solid week of rain it was great to be out sailing... The trip got even better when we sailed under the gate in gentle 4-6 foot swells and 8-10mph winds.

It Don't get any better than this. . .

Coming out of the Oakland Estuary we were met by the fierce San Francisco winds. . .

11:00 and still not a bit of wind

The 80-foot Alma as built on the shores of San Francisco Bay, near present-day Hunters Point, in 1891. She is a scow schooner: a wide, flat sailing boat with gaff-rigged sails. At the turn of the century, scow schooners moved the kind of heavy cargo that trucks carry today. They criss-crossed the Bay and sailed up into the Delta delivering hay, salt and bricks.