Best sail yet

Yesterday, Uncle Thom and I went out with just us. Motoring out of the estuary, there was little white smoke so I wasn't at all concerned. We did, however, get a temperature alarm midway in the estuary after pausing the diesel to 3,000 rpm or a tad more. We talked about pulling the sensor today to make sure it's not just a bad one. But after some online research, it turns out that this Yanmar's sweet spot is 2,400 rpm with a suggested max of 2,700 rpm. I do still think I'm not getting all that out of the 3GM30F and need to do more work on it, but at least I know I'm getting it close to its limit before it overheats. Need to figure out the inline mechanical temp Gaige soon so I can better monitor what's going on down there before I spend hundreds on mechanic fees to pull the mixing elbow or head.

Well, anyway, I labeled this post best sail yet, and it was. I've had a lot of great fun and great company on the boat so far. But yesterday, it was about sailing and exploring. We close hauled from the mouth of the estuary toward McCovey Cove then tacked twice until we got a course that brought us by my office at Pier 9. I texted a coworker to say wave to us, which she did. She texted, "Are you the boat leaning over?" I responded, "Yes, it's 26 knots out here!" 

Then we headed past Alacatraz and to the windward side of Angel Island before falling off toward the leeward side of the island. The winds, while strong for the day and especially in the Slot, were favorable directionally to us. We rounded the East side of the island and headed to what Thom calls "Hospital Cove" but is officially called Ayala Cove. We saw a number of porpoises in that vicinity, which was cool. Then we put the eninge on briefly so that we could sail in with a bit of back up safety to check out the cove. There are a number of slips and then many mooring buoys. If we choose a day to leave early enough to get there in the morning of a weekend or during a weekday, we might get a slip. But more likely, we'd need a dinghy and I need practice mooring to enjoy the cove for lunch or to hike the island. Apparently you need to moor bow and stern which is a requirement in other very busy coves in CA like Avalon Bay at Catalina. 

Here are some photos from our 6 hour sail.