17 Aug - It was now time to move on from St Francis.  Our plans for the day were to head down the bay and go see a baseball game and then head over to an anchorage at 'treasure island'.   We were in no rush to leave our plush surroundings though and so in the morning enjoyed the luxuries available to us at the club and did some grocery shopping. 

Around midday we pulled off the dock and, as we headed into the bay were met with fairly brisk conditions.  These conditions sustained as we headed down to China Cove and so by the time we got there, we had around 20 knots still blowing.  The cove gave little protection so instead of dropping the hook as initially planned we just took a tour around the cove and then headed on.  It was fun being close enough to hear the crowd cheering and the organ playing.

Going to a ball game; Be True style

Pulling away from the cove we set course for Treasure Island, a man made island with bridges either side still in 15 - 20 knots of wind.  On rounding the far side we had a look at the anchorage but it looked very commercial and gave little protection so we decided instead to push on to Sausalito.  This meant crossing 'the slot' downwind from the golden gate bridge mid afternoon which we knew would be spicy but thought may be a good test.  Close hauled with a reef in the main and just the staysail we hammered across the 5 miles in 20 - 25 knots. Not the most pleasant sail but it was good to prove out the sail configuration worked well. Once round the top of Angel island we were back in familiar waters, around San Francisco Yacht club.  We motored through Racoon straight in the afternoon sun, still being blasted by the winds though and then pulled into Richardson Bay to anchor, still with the wind blowing 15 gusting to 25 knots occasionally.  We had some trouble finding a good anchoring spot but eventually dropped the hook and had an uncomfortable evening with strong winds persisting until the sun was down. To add to our woes the anchor windlass stopped working altogether.  Through the evening we tried to troubleshoot it and changed out the control box (we had a spare) but that didn't fix it so realised we would have to take the windlass off the boat.  Not wishing to do that whilse anchored, we decided to head into the Sausalito yacht club's mooring buoys to troubleshoot the issue

18 Aug - In the morning thankfully the wind had dropped to almost nothing and we woke to a sunny day for once.  As we anticipated, the windlass still wasn't working so we had to manually haul up the chain and anchor and then head across to Sausalito Yacht club, picking up a mooring buoy.  Through the morning we disassembled the windlass and found our problem - one of the power wires had obviously been arcing on it’s stud (from either bad fitting or some corrosion) and the stud had basically crumbled to nothing. 

There' your problem!

As we took the cable off it just fell apart.  We knew that this would need a professional to fix it and so by 11:00 we were on foot, investigating the delights of Sausalito looking for an electrical repair shop.  We ended up spending the whole day walking the length and breadth of Sausalito investigating some dozen locations but no-one could help us with a tear down and rebuild of the motor.  In the chandeleries we tried to get hold of a replacement motor but, as ever 'there were none available on the west coast' and we were advised the best (and cheapest) thing to do would be to order one ourselves and get it delivered.  This of course has it's own challenges as we have no address! Finally we decided we would get a new motor ordered and sent to one of our OCC contacts further down the cost whilst hanging on to the old motor in the hope of finding an old fashioned repair shop, probably when we get to Mexico.  This means we are down to manually hauling the anchor up every time we anchor for now!  Luckily the weather had been good all day which was some recompense and, with access to the yacht club, we could at least shower off the grime from the boat repair jobs.

19 Aug - After a somewhat frustrating couple of days we decided it was about time to try and get back to enjoying ourselves.  We decided to stay on the mooring bouy for one extra night, do a little admin (mainly getting some clothes washed) refit the broken windlass and then ivestigate Sausalito as tourists.  The 'little jobs' took us until lunch time but then we had a relaxing afternoon strolling round town, which is a great little holiday town so close to San Francisco; very much more laid back than the city.  As yesterday, the weather was glorious and we had a lovely time relaxing and catching up with ourselves afte what had seemed like a busy few days.

We now have a new plan with us aiming to leave San Francisco on Friday (it's blowing like stink the other side fo the Golden Gate again until then) and doing a short hop down to Half moon bay which should be about 5 hours.  From there it is a day sail down to Monterey where we can meet up with our OCC port officer who will hopefully have our windlass motor.  They have also offered to host us whilst there and so we may take advantage of their kind offer of a car to do a little exploring before heading down to Ventura and the Channel Islands near Los Angeles.