TOYOT Cruises to Aeolian Yacht Club

TOYOT began the day peacefully enough resting in its travel position on the bow of Virago its mother ship. Soon things began to get exciting. Paul, Marj, and Jim Golden hoisted her off the deck and lowered her into the water. Paul and Jim quickly swamped her while trying to hank on the jib. After some judicious work with a pail and with the jib successfully hanked on Marj and Paul were ready to set sail.


The tide was flooding toward our destination and the wind was a comfortable 4 to 6 knots.

After a calm sail for about one half hour we approached the Park Street Bridge. A quick call on channel 9 alerted the bridge tender of our approach. He estimated the bridge clearance to be about 14 feet. We informed him that we needed about twenty feet TOYOT does have the performance rig after all.) He called ahead to the other two bridges on our route. All the tenders judged our rate of progress and estimated times of arrival accurately. With the tide and wind cooperating we sailed smartly through the Park, Fruitvale, and High Street bridges.






After about one and one half hours, the Baja Alameda Bridge and the masts of the Aeolian Yacht Club pulled into view. Unfortunately the wind and tide both switched and came at us directly from our destination. We made slow progress up stream, but finally sailed into the club marina. We tucked TOYOT in for the night near some other dinghies and decamped to the bar at AYC.





After a fine dinner at AYC we bummed a ride back to Virago to spend the night. We had breakfast with fellow cruisers at AYC and headed back with an adverse current and still only 4 to 6 knots of wind.

The mild conditions did give us a chance to try two auxiliary power sources. First, Paul made an experimental whisker pole by tying a loop in the jib sheet and pushing the handle of an oar through it. Mind you, Marj has had a "Niagara Falls Slowly I Turned.." reaction to even the mention of a whisker pole for all or our years sailing together. This trip provided the calm conditions and immediate feedback to let her see the possible beauty of rigging our long neglected whisker pole.

Second, we had to resort to rowing to make it under the High Street Bridge without being crushed. I think the look on Marj's face shows better than I could ever tell that our first cruise out in the new tender was a success.

Super Bowl Sunday in La Cruz

I chose to explore the streets of La Cruz on Super Bowl Sunday rather than watch the game. I was a guest of Roger and Di Frizelle on Di's Dream. They had decided to watch the Super Bowl at the yacht club of the new marina in La Cruz. They were joined by other US and Canadian cruisers intent on seeing the game in English rather than the more readily available Spanish coverage offered by local television outlets. Having no interest in the game and having a desire to see more of the Mexican village I set out on a little walk about.

First I walked through the town square and past a number of international themed restaurants before stopping in front of a Mexican home. The attraction was a family party being entertained by a Mariachi band. Mind you, my only previous experience with Mariachi bands was on "Gringo Gulch" in Ensenada where the buskers were more nuisance than entertainment. On this occasion I was free to wander and the band was busy performing their gig. I relaxed against the wall of a house across the street from the festivities enjoying the warm afternoon sun. It crossed my mind that such a lingerer in most neighborhoods of the United States might trigger a call to 911. I put on my best "I'm just a harmless curiosity seeker passing through." look.

To my surprise, the fiddler of the band beckoned me to join the group. My mind oscillated between "don't be intrusive" and "don't be rude". Curiosity got the better of me and I crossed the street and took a seat in the proffered plastic chair. Given my preconceived notions of Mariachi bands as tourist entrappers, it surprised me that the family members actually knew the words to the loud blaring music. Maybe these tunes are the golden oldies of Mexico. I did notice that one teenage boy was bored and showed signs of trying to appear invisible lest any of his peers mistake his presence as being voluntary. The fiddler offered me a drink that turned out to be a simple margarita of Squirt and Tequila.

At this point the man of the house approached me and I had a brief twinge of embarrassment at my intrusion in his family's celebration. In fact, he came to offer me the hospitality of the house and asked if I wanted to share dinner. The usual Mexican fare of fajita, tortias, salad, and guacamole seemed all the better for being in its native environment: a family.


Some family members had begun to dance to the Mariachi music. I was touched to see the fiddler crouch to play more intimately for a little girl moving to the music. I was reminded of a concert when my own daughter was about this little girl's age. We had attended a concert by the great Shetland Islands fiddler Ali Bain. My daughter got restless and began to cry leading her mother to carry her to the lobby of the concert hall. When Ali Bain finished his set he stopped on his way through the lobby and played a tune just for my unhappy child. Needless to say I have always cherished the memory of such a gracious gesture.


Soon the band had fulfilled its contract and left to catch the bus, the man of the house had paid his bill and continued his family festivity, and I returned to my tour La Cruz. This little view of the "real" Mexico helped me to decide that La Cruz was just the spot to be Virago's home base for next winter .

TOYOT First Water

TOYOT is our new (to us) Bauer 10 sailing/rowing dinghy. It was purchased to enable Marj to recapture the freedom she enjoyed in her childhood while sailing small boats on Half Moon Pond in New Hampshire.

On Saturday, April 11 we launched TOYOT for the first time at Grand Avenue on the Estuary in Alameda. We quickly learned two valuable lessons. First, Paul's poor trailer backing skills led us to roll the trailer down the ramp by hand. Second, water will pore into the boat if the drain plug is not securely screwed in. Here you can see our friends Jim and Harry looking on as Marj bails the boat. You can also see that TOYOT is a classic yacht tender with a spritely shear, a pretty green hull, and teak gunwales, transom, and floorboards.

Once the water was bailed out, Marj raised the sails and set sail across the estuary. As you can see, TOYOT has the performance rig. It has an eighteen foot mast with a jib and a fully battened mainsail. Just in case the winds freshen, she has reef points on her mainsail. Finally, Marj set sail across the Estuary.

She found that with her back issues the best position for her was sitting on the floorboards not on the side seats.

After Marj's first sail it was Paul's turn. We had landed on a pitchfork to make Marj's first landing easy. We wanted to move the boat to the guest dock for some experimenting with a cradle mock up.

The easiest way seemed obvious--short tack up the fairway in the raging 4 knot gale. While sailing up the Estuary in a 10 foot dinghy can not be called short tacking, doing the same in a 60 foot wide fareway certainly deserves that description.

Finally, safe at the dock after having cheated death yet again.