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.