San Francisco Bay

September 9, 1994

We booked another tour of the San Francisco Bay. Being right downtown made it very convenient to go to the north piers. Leaving from there, we got lots of views of boats around Alcatraz Island.

Alcatraz made a great backdrop for the variety of boating that we saw out on the bay.

We enjoyed the wide variety of boats out on the bay. There were even old sailing vessels tied up at Hyde St Pier where there is a maritime museum.

We got to see the Financial District from a lot of angles from the Bay tour. This view shows Telegraph Hill and the Coit Tower and the Transamerica Tower on the right.

A view over our wake shows both sections of the Bay Bridge, with the Oakland section on the left and the suspension bridge to the Financial District of San Francisco on the right. Yerba Buena Island anchors both bridges and has a tunnel through it. A freighter is moving past the island on the way to the huge freight facility at Oakland.

It was a very pleasant and relaxing time out on the bay, watching the great variety of activities there. This contrasts a pleasure sailing vessel with the Golden Gate Bridge as background and a large freighter headed for Oakland past the Bay Bridge and Yerba Buena Island.

We liked seeing the Golden Gate Bridge from so many different angles. The boat tour gave us some new perspectives on this iconic bridge and its surroundings.

This beautiful afternoon brought out all kinds of sailing craft, from three-sail yachts to individuals on sailboards.

The tour boat passing Alcatraz Island was a sight we got several times on this afternoon. The port for our bay tours was at Pier 39, shown at right above. It was right at the base of picturesque Telegraph Hill.

September 10, 1994

On this day we took the ferry to Oakland and then back. It made a nice tour of the bay, and was very cheap.

A tourboat headed for the Golden Gate Bridge with a view of the Maran Headlands past the bridge.

Some of the nicer yachts out on the bay.

The amount of boating activity out on the bay this afternoon was amazing.

Having the Golden Gate Bridge as a backdrop made everything more dramatic.

Our tour now took us around the end of the San Francisco peninsula, and we see the boating near the suspension section of the Bay Bridge. It goes from Yerba Buena Island to the San Francisco financial district.

After passing under the bridge we got this view back at the San Francisco financial district. Just to the right of the bride support is the short tower of the Port of San Francisco. This is a view you can only get from the water.

A wider view over the wake of the boat as we moved on toward Oakland.

We moved on by the port of Oakland, a huge container-freight depot.

On the ferry back from Oakland we went by the Alameda Naval Complex and watched a helicopter lift off.

This sailboat has the Oakland section of the Bay Bridge in the background.

Back at the end of the peninsula, we pass close to Alcatraz and get a close view of these sailors.

Sailboats with Sausalito in the background.

Though it looked like a lot of fun, the sailing was obviously a lot of work too. So we were amused to watch the gulls effortlessly hovering over them on the same wind.

We enjoyed watching all the sailors around Alcatraz Island. At left above, three people hang over the edge to keep the boat balanced. At right, sailboarders in abundance sample the waters and the winds near the Golden Gate. We are back on shore now and this is looking north-northeast across the bay from the bike path near the Golden Gate.

The windsurfers were taking full advantage of this fine sunny and windy day. The transparent sails looked like wings and reminded us of the transparent-winged greta nero butterflies in Costa Rica.