Fleet Week
- Thread starter Arnold
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BayTrawlerGuy
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- Aug 2, 2004
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The immediate SF cityfront area always has a lot of traffic, dragging anchors, rough water, and congestion. I'd suggest anchoring in Richardson Bay off Sausalito. (This is another one of those days I stay in the slip to avoid the nut cases who only come out 3 or 4 times a year....)
BTG
BTG
chiselchst
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- Oct 28, 2005
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I hate to have to agree with BTG, but that was my experience a few years ago. We got an early start, anchored very close to the "Box" (closed area below show). It was chaotic by the time the show started. Large boats breaking loose (many didn't even realize it). Boats anchored on top of each other. We finally broke loose, and almost racked up the sale bote behind us...very stressful day. The show is great though.
Copied from another topic by AbsoLoot:
" Gnarley,
The trip is an easy one if you plan ahead and check the charts. I always try to cross San Pablo Bay as early as possible to avoid the wind (it doesn't usually pick up until the afternoon). If I have my choice, Itry to cross San Pablo Bay on an incoming tide as well. What wind there is is usually from the west and when it's aligned with the current the water will stay smoother.
Finding a place to anchor during Fleet Week is getting more difficult by the year. We started off inside the breakwater of the municpal pier at Hyde Street, but they stopped poeple from doing that about 3 years ago. Then we would anchor just east of the piers next to Aquatic Park, but last year they stopped that. Last year we were forced to anchor out in front of Alcatraz along with a bazillion other boats.
My advice is to get there early, think 9-10am so that you can get onto the shallow shelf in front of Alcatraz and use plenty of scope. Don't plan on rafting boats because it gets way to bouncy and rolly. Watch out for the wash rock on the NW corner of Alcatraz, we saw no less than three boats hit it hard last year and many more come close.
Another option I've heard of is to tie up to the docks at Angel Island, take the tour train to the top of the island and have a picnic up there. Many of the Blue Angel flight routes clear out over Angel Island. You will be too far to appreciate the air races though. Even from Alcatraz, I thought that the air races were difficult to truly appreciate."
Here is the thread from Aug, 2006: http://www.boatered.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=87977&SearchTerms=fleet+week
" Gnarley,
The trip is an easy one if you plan ahead and check the charts. I always try to cross San Pablo Bay as early as possible to avoid the wind (it doesn't usually pick up until the afternoon). If I have my choice, Itry to cross San Pablo Bay on an incoming tide as well. What wind there is is usually from the west and when it's aligned with the current the water will stay smoother.
Finding a place to anchor during Fleet Week is getting more difficult by the year. We started off inside the breakwater of the municpal pier at Hyde Street, but they stopped poeple from doing that about 3 years ago. Then we would anchor just east of the piers next to Aquatic Park, but last year they stopped that. Last year we were forced to anchor out in front of Alcatraz along with a bazillion other boats.
My advice is to get there early, think 9-10am so that you can get onto the shallow shelf in front of Alcatraz and use plenty of scope. Don't plan on rafting boats because it gets way to bouncy and rolly. Watch out for the wash rock on the NW corner of Alcatraz, we saw no less than three boats hit it hard last year and many more come close.
Another option I've heard of is to tie up to the docks at Angel Island, take the tour train to the top of the island and have a picnic up there. Many of the Blue Angel flight routes clear out over Angel Island. You will be too far to appreciate the air races though. Even from Alcatraz, I thought that the air races were difficult to truly appreciate."
Here is the thread from Aug, 2006: http://www.boatered.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=87977&SearchTerms=fleet+week
Yeah, what that AbsoLoot guy said. Just don't anchor too close to the island. Last year we started very close to the island and were swarmed by kelp flies. It was so bad that we upped anchor and moved but it was almost impossible to get rid of the flies once they were on the boat. The kids collected jars of flies and tortured them in many ways 