Monday 28 May 2018

Le Duc on the Road, Part IX - San Francisco

Yes...now this was a long one, a business trip organised at the last minute, so crept into the weekend, but now that I have recovered from the jet lag, let me regale you with the story of how (1) the chief engineer owns a boat and (2) he suggests that it's the most scenic way to get to the airport via the city and (3)...he even lets me drive (pilot) for a bit !  Wow.

 Leaving the dock.

 Local Californian countryside. The weather was cool and close, but apparently the sunshine came back just after I left!


Why navigate with real instruments? There is an app for that (which corrects and compensates for steering when the autopilot is on - this is probably why they let me pilot for a while...)


The sugar factory. If this wasn't an old 1930s asylum...it should have been.

The open water, dodging pleasure craft and tankers.

One of the islets off Bay Bridge.

City coming into view.


...and the Golden Gate bridge. Watch out for those yachts...




Sailing around Alcatraz, which is bigger than you think, with provisions for the entire community which lived there to support the prison.

Coming into Pier 39.

 SeAls at Pier 39...and not the Navy kind...

 One of the old WWII supply ships. Though numbers have dwindled in recent years, I'm pretty sure these (or perhaps this one) formed the end-piece set for James Caan's 1970s film, 'The Killer Elite'.

Epic trip.


5 comments:

  1. Excellent photos! Hope you had time to enjoy the city too.

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    1. Thanks Jonathan. DIdn't really get time to get into the city itself much, as we were based a little to the north, but hoping to get more time on next visit.
      Did get a lot of movies watched on the plane while trying to stay awake though. I love 10 hour flights :)

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    2. Ten hour flights are no fun. Two weeks ago, I flew Zurich to Vancouver BC non-stop. Flight duration was 10.5 hours. Do not care to do that again anytime soon.

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    3. Yikes - I know, it's impossible to sleep, and impossible to watch movies as you're too tired, so you exist in some sort of semi-conscious limbo, waiting for the next snack and coffee, while the guy in front of you who doesn't speak the same language, tries to push his seat as far back as he can as if in an attempt to prove a point.
      Apart from all that, it went well...LOL
      Next time...business class :)

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    4. Exactly right! While I can doze off and on during a long flight, my wife really cannot. I think the drinks , snacks, and meals keep coming to keep the captives from rising up in rebellion.

      On a positive note, I read Gill’s Thunder on Danube Vol I on flight to Zurich and Beevor’s Crete 1941 on the return as well as a reread of some of Gill to reinforce what I visited while in Bavaria and Tirol. So, all was not a waste!

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