Our First Real Book Seeding Sail and a Librarian Meetup

Since we reached our goal we got excited and ordered our new Jib Sail and our roller furling. Of course, we couldn’t wait to use it and really get this project started so we took off for the weekend on a two night and three day cruise out to Berkeley Marina for our first extended book seeding project. Here is the whole story that you made possible with your funding!

The first night of our sail is usually the most uneventful. That was not the case this time! We left Redwood City Marina at about 6:30 and we were really excited to get our sails up and cruise to Coyote Point Yacht Club where we get a free overnight berth about 2-3 hours away. Unfortunately the wind was around 20 knots (Nautical Miles per hour) with gusts up to 30 and it was coming directly from CPYC. Not only that, but the waves were huge. The boat went up some large waves and crashed down in the trough spraying us with water driven by the high winds. By the time we bashed our little boat all the way there under power of outboard engine we were drenched in salt water and ready for some hot food and a drink at the club.

The next morning after drying out what we could we started the sail to Berkeley. But this time, instead of huge wind and waves, there was neither. We had to motor almost the entire way to the Bay Bridge and we were disgusted that we didn’t get to use our new Jib yet. But that was ok because it gave us the time to sticker all the books for the books seeding. Luckily, once we hit the bridge the wind picked up and we were able to put out our sail. It worked perfectly! The boat cruised along a hull speed (around 6 knots) and we sailed around some of the barges that blocked the way to Berkeley Marina. We thought it was going to be an easy sail in, but we were wrong.

If you aren’t familiar with the Bay Area, there is an old dilapidated Ferry Wharf that jets out from Berkeley about two miles and is seriously dangerous. I thought we made out far enough to go around, but once we rounded the last barge we realized that we had about 100 yards to go to get around it and the wind was not coming from a direction to help us out. In fact, just as we rounded the last barge we were about a half a mile away from running directly into the wharf and the wind suddenly jumped to MUCH MUCH more than our full sails could handle. This is where that roller furling comes in.

The waves grew and the wind picked up and we were able to safely take in the jib with the roller furling with just a few mishaps with only about 50 yards to spare before we ran into the wharf. We kicked in the motor just in time and bashed directly into the wind to make it around by just a couple yards. Our hearts were definitely racing and we made it past the wharf watching the waves crashing against it knowing we would have been tangled in the old cement pier if we were still using our old non-furling jib system. Thank you all for basically saving our lives with the indiegogo donations!

We made it into Berkeley at around 2:30 and we were exhausted so after checking in with the harbor master we made some sandwiches and took a quick nap before we began book seeding. When we woke up, I packed our bag with 25ish books and we headed for the laundry to dry out our clothes leaving a trail of books on park benches, tables, and the laundry room waiting area as we did. We were really excited that we actually saw people pick them up, read the stickers and take the books with them!

After we dried our clothes we were out of the books in the bag I had with me so we went back to the boat to refill the bag and head out to the Information Amateurs Social Club meetup at the bowling alley in San Francisco. Along the way we left another 25-30 books in the Bart areas and all along the walk from the Bart Station through the Mission District to the bowling alley and once again we were excited to see people picking them up and reading them. Of course the meetup was great, the bowling alley was amazing, we met some awesome folks, and hung out with a lot of great librarians!

That night we crashed early and slept through the night on the boat completely passed out and exhausted. We got an early start and had one of the best sails I’ve ever had back to Redwood City perfect wind conditions for our boat nearly the entire way. It took us just 5 hours to make it all the way home running with the wind and the waves coming from behind. When this happens the boat actually surfs down the waves and we can speed along very quickly with the sails completely out!

We haven’t planned our next trip but we’re really excited to see where else we can go now with the new sails. Next time though, we are definitely going to bring a whole lot more books, more coffee and caffeinated things and more foul weather gear for when we have to bash into the waves again. Other than that, all we really needed were those new sails to make the trip possible at all. Thanks again for everything!