On Saturday, October 23rd we took the boat up to Ayala Cove on Angel Island. It had been raining on Friday and the weekend forecast was iffy but we were bound and determined to go on our trip. We had our new dinghy (some friends launched it off its trailer for us the day before) and we were really exhausted about mooring out and spending the night.
It was quite beautiful when we arrived and we pulled up to one of the docks so I could hop in the dinghy to execute our plan for pocking up the moorings. The rules in the cove require that you pick up bow and stern moorings and they are all color coded so you know how you are supposed to be lined up. There were a few boats there already so we decided to pick up moorings on the opposite side of the field from them, closer to the island. Our plan was for me to take our two long lines (they are in bags) and get the bow one through the ball and hand both ends of it to Matt, then while he tied them off to the boat to get the stern line through the ball and be ready to hand him both ends of that. We had planned to time our arrival to slack tide so we wouldn't have the current working against us, but sleep won out and we were a couple of hours late per our plan. So the whole thing was quite entertaining as the boat was being pushed sideways and Matt had to make a few runs at it before we were able to pull off our mooring. Usually when someone is mooring, everyone already there is watching but we got really lucky in that another boat was mooring at the same time we were and the other folks already there new that person so they were all focused on that boat. I think we will try the same thing again next time, except do a better job getting there at slack tide! Here is PG on the moorings.
Once we were settled, we hopped in "Spirit", our dinghy, and did a quick tour of the mooring field and greeted the other boats. They invited us to join them on shore late that afternoon for a chicken barbecue, as they had lots more chicken than people. Plans made, we went to shore and had lunch at the cafe there. The food was surprisingly good! Here is Matt at the Cafe.
We left the Ayala Cove area around 1:30 to hike up to the Immigration Station for the tour. By the time we arrived it was pretty much pouring down rain. We went to the appointed meeting place (outside of course) and there was nobody around. We slowly made our way up to the building, pausing to read all the plaques and info as we went. Once we were inside, we were told the tour was at 1:45 and was already well underway! We showed them our tickets that said two, they looked at how wet and pitiful we were, and one of them agreed to give us a private tour! It was REALLY REALLY cool. We did not know how poorly the US treated Chinese immigrants. Lots of them spent many days confined in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions. It was not the quick breeze through like Ellis Island. The building was slated to be torn down and an intern there made a rubbing of a poem carved into the wooden wall (in Chinese) and showed it to one of his professors, I believe at UCSF or SFSU. The professor asked where it was from and the intern told him and said the walls of the immigration station was covered with similar poetry. The professor rallied together the Asian American community in the area to raise funds to save the building. Several years and millions of dollars later the building has been rehabilitated and is open for tours so that we may never forget the past!
When the tour ended, it was raining even harder. I don't know that I would have believed that was possible. The young man who'd given us a tour tried to arrange a ride for us but the electric cart out front was dead. So we set off in the rain. If we thought we were soaked before, we were well and TRULY soaked when we got back to Spirit. Spirit was pretty soaked as well and we had to scrounge around for something to bail all the water out with. We came up with a disposable coffee cup and spent several minutes scooping... It was pretty evident that the other folks in the mooring field were not, after all, barbecuing chicken on shore!
From this higher view you can see the other boats there, as well. Sorry for the raindrops on the lens!
Once back on the boat we fired up our diesel heater (which we are THRILLED with) and put on dry clothes. We fired up the generator so we could use our electric stove and oven to make dinner. I can't remember now what we had but it was hot food, which was what we needed after our soaking!
The next morning it was raining hard and blowing harder. A few of the hardy souls sharing the mooring field set off mid morning. We were watching the weather and the forecast and it looked like the storm was supposed to blow over in mid-afternoon so we decided to wait. We checked the wind readings from the back side of Angel Island each hour and were astonished at the wind speed and the gusts. They peaked in the mid 40s with gusts to 51! It was getting towards 3PM and we decided to at least get ready to go and hope for a break in the weather. We decided to take the motor off Spirit and put the motor in the cabin (we don't have a place for it on the rail) so that if the dinghy did capsize we wouldn't lose the motor! This was a bit of a feat of acrobatics but we pulled it off with no major injuries to ourselves, either boat, or the motor. Just as we had everything done, the wind died and the sun came out! That seemed like a pretty good omen so we fired up the motors and headed out! We had a nice trip back. There weren't many other people around!
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