Arriving in San Francisco

We finally found summer. I hear that summer has arrived on Vancouver Island as well so there are winners all around. After the passage we spent 4 nights at the very friendly Sausalito Yacht Club – first night free and then $15/night – recuperating, dealing with customs, enjoying hot showers, asking the members for suggestions on where to go, walking around Sausalito, eating ice cream and spending a bit of money at its West Marine.

Customs is a bit of a long story and also a saga that is ongoing. In general, clearing Customs in SF has been more of a complication than expected. They are set up for BIG ships, not wee ships, and they don’t seem to know what they want us to do. This would be fine except that they keep changing their mind after we’ve already done something. The good news is that they are very friendly and “in search of customs”, we spent our first day in SF zipping around on the ferry system on a gorgeous sunny day. I even got a sunburn (I know – I put on my hat later).

 

We also met up with a fellow Canadian flagged sailboat, SV Miramar, who made the trip down the coast and is in SF as well. We met in Oakland at Jack London Square where I hung out with White Fang and Carol checked out London’s cabin (or at least a small part of the original wood recreated into a smaller cabin). The small bar there was a fun place to enjoy some cold frosty ones with fellow cruisers whom we expect to see again.