13 Aug - Now we had arrived, it was time to start exploring.  After an uneventful, if broken nights sleep, we woke with amazing views of the skyline of San Francisco although it was still overcast.  First order of the day was to try and organise getting into SanFrancisco Yacht club - we left a message with the harbour master who texted back to us that he was on jury duty but that we could go in - he also provided information on the channel that we had to follow to get in.  By 11:00 we were tied up, safe and sound at the club; one of the most prestigious yacht clubs on the west coast.  Walking around we finally managed to find the General Manager, Micheal,  who welcomed us to the club and discussed with us what we had experienced yesterday (apparently we managed to hit most of the worst hazards around here !).  First order of the day was to get the boat cleaned and give her some TLC.  We had wanted to do an oil change but, talking with the foreshore staff apparently that is not something that anyone does at the club - they have people do it for them (even the club doesn’t maintain their own engines!!) - it was then that we realised that this may be more of a 'high brow' club even than RVYC! 

BeTrue nestled in the rather exclusive community of Belvedere Cove - some ot he properties here put Uplands in Victoria to shame!

Once we had taken care of the boat we decided it was time for us to have a shower, and get into some clean clothes, before heading to the club bar for some food and meet the locals.  The first person we met was Michael, the General Manager, and his opening remark was "you clean up well don't you". It was then that we realised that during the day we had been walking around in our scruffs and must have looked like a couple of wild eyed gypsies to this very well healed club.  This may have contributed to their initial reserved engagement with us!  In the bar we got talking to a great couple who helped orient us to the Bay, what we should do and see and learned a little more about where we were - it appears that SFYC is situated in one of the most affluent neighbourhoods on the bay (Belvedere Cove).   It has been a great first stop, allowing us to regroup and get ourselves set up for the next few days.

14 Aug - Having learned our lesson,  about getting organised and sorting out reciprocal mooring, with SFYC we decided this morning to spend some time making sure we were on top of the admin needed to secure our spots at the other marinas we wanted to visit.  Unfortunately this ended up being a whole morning activity, due to tech glitches and other issues, but we did manage to at least lock in our slot at St Francis Yacht club, across the bay in San Francisco for tomorrow.  Once our frustration levels had been reached we decided to go for a walk and see a bit more of Belvedere Cove.  I wanted to go up the hill behind us and Heidi suffered up the way too many, long staircases cutting through the homes.  The views when we got to the top were astounding and the "Bijou residences'  were certainly something to behold. 

View from the top - looking over someones garage

One of the Bijou residences

There were quite a few properties for sale and some had their details in little drop boxes  - to get a flavour for these properties this is the link to the current realtor.com page for Belvedere Cove - we particularly liked this one, if anyone would like to stump us the extra $22.4M USD we would need that would be nice!

view of our boat from the top of Belvedere Cove - nice to be able to compare this to Saint Tropez when we get there!

Once we got back to the boat we did a bit more admin and then later in the evening went for a walk round the other way and found some lovely cafes and restaurants over on the 'poor mans side' in Tiburon.  

There was a little walkway out to the water and we couldn't resist getting a shot of the golden gate bridge in the evening light