Take a Cruise to Sausalito
By Patrick Twohy
Sausalito’s waterfront offers amazing views, mild weather, beautiful streets to stroll and an embarrassment of riches for dining. Also, it turns out to be easy and accommodating for cruisers to visit.
Depending on what and how you count, Sausalito has 13 different marinas along its roughly 2-mile-long waterfront, which must make it one of the the most boating-dense places in our region.
So why not plan a cruise there?
A number of those marinas offer guest slips but the consensus choice seems to be Schoonmaker Point Marina ( http://www.schoonmakermarina.com/ ). It’s clean, well-maintained, has a cafe on site and the nicest shower facilities I’ve seen at any marina. A night’s berthing is more expensive than as some other marinas — they charge $2.25 per foot or boat length, but comfort counts, in my book. They’ll also charge you $10 for a card key to give you access to the dock and to restrooms and showers. But you can keep the key for your next trip there.
Schoonmaker also has its own popular beach, so it’s a good spot to play for kids and adults. For dinner or a night out, the center of Sausalito’s commercial zone is a 10 or so minute walk. In town, you’ll find restaurants, bars, cafes, ice cream, etc., for every taste.
Docking is not too challenging. The winds are light, and there’s little current to contend with. The fairways and slips can be narrow, though.
When you plan your trip, the first thing to check would be the tide tables. Selecting a day with a favorable tidal current can cut hours off your expected transit time.
A cruise from Redwood City to Sausalito can take most of the day if you’re going against a flood tide.
Think of the tides as adding to or subtracting from your average speed. Tidal currents at the Bay Bridge can reach 3 knots sometimes. That’s a significant portion of your boat’s maximum speed. So if you’re going against that, you might have to double your expected time in transit. But if you’re going with the flow, that might cut your total time by a third.
A recent Spinnaker trip to Sausalito involved stemming (going against) a strong flood tide to reach Sausalito. We were aboard the club’s Beneteau 39. In spite of that vessel’s hull speed near 8 knots, and use of the motor for much of the trip north, reaching Sausalito took close to 6 hours, for an average speed of 4.5 knots for the 27 nautical mile course.
The same trip on an ebb tide of similar strength could have taken half that, meaning you could spend more time to sail the Bay before docking. So choose your cruise date carefully.
Of course, an ebb tide carrying you quickly to Sausalito is likely to mean you’ll have a similar ebb to confront on the way back to Redwood City. So there’s that. But my preference would be to get to where I’m going more quickly and deal with the trip home later.