Cruise to Half Moon Bay

A

Arnold

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Joined
Oct 14, 2003
RO Number
12330
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544
This spring I would like to try the ocean and cruise down to Half Moon Bay for a long week-end. I estimated about 40 nm each way from Sausalito. How far out from the Gate do I have to go before turning left assuming good weather.
I don't have a life raft.
 
It is an easy and fun trip when the weather is good. When making the turn south from GG bridge, the hazards are obvious and steer clear. You don't have to go very far offshore. The one thing NOT to do is "cut" the corner when you turn east into HMB. Follow the bouys in for the channel, which for the first time, looks like you are going too far south past the harbor.

My wife and I used to do fairly regularly on our first boat. The weather makes all the difference. I would highly recommend having radar if you don't have it in case the fog rolls in.

Sam's is a great restaurant, a short walk south of the harbor just past the boat ramp. On nice weekends they have a band playing outside.
 
Using updated charts is a must! As you pass under the GG Bridge, stay in the marked channel going south/left. After you get out a ways, you can stay between the coast and the shipping channel by following a fathom line on your chart. This will keep you well off of the rocks but also out of the way of the freighters heading up and down the coast.

The weather will be more unfavorable in the spring then in the fall. Getting back up to SF will be against the wind all the way!
 
You do NOT want to take the so called "South Channel", ever ! Unless there are dead calm conditions, go all the way out the main channel, past R"2", then you can follow the 20 fathom line down, giving the Colorado Reef Marker all due respect, thence to Pillar Point G"1". My route shows 29nm from the GG Bridge to the marina entrance. This is a fun trip with a variety of good pubs and eateries around the harbor. Often they have relatively inexpensive diesel fuel as well, as it is an active commercial harbor.

Brings back many fond memories

George
Hatteras 56MY
Boston Whaler 130 Sport.
 
I was watching some surfing competition from there yesterday. The surf was a "little" rough. 50' waves!!
 
Georges admonition to avoid the south channel is due to the possibility of breaking seas over the shallower areas of the bar. Deeper water in the main channel is less likely to have breakers however seas in the gate itself, not far west of the bridge, where the bottom rises at the entrance can get very messy quickly. Assuming you would go in summer and avoid unsettled weather and on the flood the trip can be uneventful.

I took the south channel frequently in a sail boat to avoid the longer route and ships in the main channel. The key to transiting the bar or any bar, is to avoid an ebb tide especially with onshore winds.

The entrance to Pillar Point harbor can also have breakers. Mavericks’ the famous surfing area in PP harbor is famous for good reason and approaching from the south is usually required as the north jetty is often submerged.
 
The whole trip can be outright wicked on a summer afternoon, when the wind howls on in. Fall and spring are more consistently calm. If you know it is dead calm, you can can try and cut the corner out of the Gate, but people have died doing so in what seemed at first to be fairly benign conditions. I certainly am not going to send a first timer that way under any circumstance. I would be about a fiftieth timer, and I ain't goin' that way either. I figured that out for sure when we went surfing off various parts of Ocean Beach as teenagers and watched boats get in trouble on days when the break wasn't all that big.
 
I've never NOT taken the south channel out of San Francisco and I've probably have done it a dozen times throughout a specific year. Mind you, I do plan around weather, and probably have gone further west on occasion on observing the condition of the waters.

Another factor may be the amount of power the boat has.
 
Just interested, how do you define the South Channel? How far off the beach are you going? Are you turning south before R"8"?
Regardless, glad to hear you have been lucky, there has been a lot of heart ache through there over the years. Maybe you are picking your weather window more carefully than I think.

I have made the trip in sail and power boats in the low 20's to mid 40's mostly. Been rocky more than few times but always a good time.
 
I am not near my boat/charts so I can't reference a chart. Judging from google earth, I would say 1.5-2 mi from shore. I would run a rhumb line to 2.5-3 mi offshore of Pidgeon Point. Might be more, might be less since I am not looking at a chart.

I don't think it was just luck since I've never had a moment second guessing. Perhaps just good weather selection. I have been through some pretty spincter tightening seas.

The smallest boat was a twin diesel 45', the biggest was a 62'. I will be heading south weather permitting in a week in an 85'.

quote:
Originally posted by caltexfla

Just interested, how do you define the South Channel? How far off the beach are you going? Are you turning south before R"8"?
Regardless, glad to hear you have been lucky, there has been a lot of heart ache through there over the years. Maybe you are picking your weather window more carefully than I think.

I have made the trip in sail and power boats in the low 20's to mid 40's mostly. Been rocky more than few times but always a good time.

Click to expand...
 
goplay, have a great trip! I hope you report back to us when you're back in home port.
 
Thanks! I might not be back (with the boat) for awhile... I am taking some serious time away (permanent?) from my career to cruise.

I met a guy at the boat yard last week who was preparing his sailing cat for an around the world trip. Now that takes commitment!

quote:
Originally posted by Flutterby

goplay, have a great trip! I hope you report back to us when you're back in home port.

Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I read a couple of cruising logs and it looks like the best time to leave Sausalito would be very early in the morning before the winds pick up. I understand also that there is current of about 2 knots moving south. I estimate that it would take me about 4 hours to make the trip without using too much gas. What about coming back?
 
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