Setting Sail... or not
Photo by Joel Williams
By Scott Alumbaugh
Published: April, 2007
The last Sunday in April, each year, is Opening Day on the Bay, the official opening day of the Northern Californian sailing season. There is a parade of more than 150 boats, decorated and adorned, heading across San Francisco Bay in parade formation behind the fireboat Phoenix with its pumps spraying. It is something to see.
But as anyone who sails the Bay will tell you, there is really no sense in having an Opening Day here, because the Bay is never closed. There is no off-season: just times of the year when it’s less crowded on the water. In Mexico, cruising boats are put on the hard, as they say, for the hurricane season. In New England, they are covered up in winter, or stored in boat houses. But here, any day of the year can be a great sailing day, and most are. You just have to be lucky enough to be able to take advantage of it.
Though in fact, just about the only day I won’t go sailing is Opening Day. The Bay is too crowded, and worse, it is filled with people who don’t belong out there. I’m talking about people who primarily own boats to entertain on, and who take them out only once or twice a year. They make me nervous. Even more so when it‘s crowded.
But that being said, there is one thing about Opening Day that will get me on the water. And that is the Blessing of the Fleet. The tradition of blessing the fleet goes back to the early 19th century. It started with local priests in Southern Europe praying over the fishing fleets at the beginning of the season for bountiful catches and a safe return. Compared to that, blessing a fleet of pleasure boats out for a joy ride seems something less than spiritual. But a blessing is a blessing, and I’m happy to get one however I can.
It’s not that I’m superstitious, necessarily, or religious, per se, but the Blessing of the Fleet reminds me of an encounter I had a number of years back.
I was sailing up the western coast of Mexico, helping a friend bring his boat back from Manzanillo to Cabo San Lucas. Sailing is really a euphemism when traveling north along the west coast. You are moving contrary to the prevailing wind and current. The only way to actually sail north is to head off on starboard tack half way to Hawaii before heading back to California, which takes a long time. Your other option is to motor more or less straight into the wind and waves. There are a lot of small bays along the Mexico coast north of Manzanillo. So one way to break the monotony of motoring for days on end is gunkholing: you duck into these little bays along the way, take your dinghy to shore, and take a break for an afternoon, or if you have the time, maybe a day or two.
One of the bays we anchored in is called Bahia de Navidad. It is a well-protected bight with south-facing beaches and calm waters. There are three towns bordering the bay that run together, collectively known as Melaque. While ashore there, we learned from one of the local restaurant-owners that the patron saint of Melaque is San Patricio – St. Patrick. It was early March, and she told us that on St. Patrick’s Day, there would be a parade and festival, and a Blessing of the Fleet, which was the first time I had heard of such a thing. As it turned out, we couldn‘t stay that long, so we were going to miss the festivities.
A little later that day, back on the boat, a cruiser came alongside in a dinghy. He had mail, and asked if we would drop it off in San Diego for him. It turned out that he had been anchored in Bahia de Navidad for a few months. He was on his way back to the States when his engine broke down. He made it into the bay and was waiting there for a replacement part. It had already taken some time to get a new part, but the company sent the wrong one. So he had a few more weeks to wait yet for its replacement.
I told him I thought he must be really angry about that. And he laughed. Have you read a newspaper lately? I’m not in any hurry to get back there.
And it struck me that he was blessed. He had the time to wait, a beautiful place to spend that time, and the patience to see it in the best light. I thought about how in a week or so, on St. Patrick’s Day, his boat would be blessed, along with whatever fleet might assemble, while I would be back at work, wishing I was where I was sitting right then. I realized that I wasn’t really in a hurry to get back either.
So when they hold the Blessing of the Fleet in the Bay, I am taken back to that time – when I knew there was something else I wanted to be doing. And I am thankful because I no longer wish to be somewhere else, doing something else. It makes me thankful for all the blessings I have received.
Scott Alumbaugh is a US SAILING certified, Coastal Passagemaking instructor. He holds a 100 Ton Masters license, has worked as a delivery and charter skipper in the United States, Mexico and in the Caribbean, and is a sailing instructor at OCSC Sailing in Berkeley Marina.
