IDK.
But man, there’s just so much traffic (whales, boats,kite boarders, tankers, container ships, barges, etc.) under and near our Golden Gate Bridge that collisions are inevitable.
This captain was trolling for whale, for example, just this past summer:
This fishing balena is going to pop up somewhere, so let’s circle around until that happens:
And on:
And on:
Anyway, JMO
As preschool season begins, whale season ends, for me anyway. But I’ve heard reports from just a few days ago, so you might still be able to see some.
Sometimes you can be on the bridge and see absolutely nothing, even during the middle of an epic season like 2017. But other times, you could see many whales, perhaps a dozen and a half at one time, on both sides of the bridge.
I’ve never seen them “spyglassing” or breeching, but apparently others have from the GGB. Maybe next year for me.
From the west side sidewalk, South (aka PGE) Tower:
And without the scribbling:
You’d also see them near Alcatraz, Angel Island, Horseshoe Bay, and Crissy Field, in addition to the entire part of the Golden Gate on the west side of the bridge.
But the best view is when you’re looking down on them when they are very close to the towers.
As seen from the Golden Gate Bridge:
So here’s the deal – you’ve got sail boarders going back and forth from Crissy Field to Horseshoe Cove at the same time you have humpback whales going up and down getting sardines.
This person knows that whales are in this area these days. If you see a whale going down, you can guess that it will pop up again in about the same area in about two minutes.
So if there’s a collision, this isn’t necessarily running into whales on purpose, which seems to what’s worrying some in Frisco these days.
Same thing for kite boarders
This here is from Fort Point on a foggy evening:
These sail boaters are more or less hanging out with the whales, going back and forth in a small area between Alcatraz and the GGB:
They’re on their own whale watching tour:
But I didn’t see any whale strikes on this day.
Now, back up to the bridge, this was the last time I was up there. This 40 foot sailboat had just tacked going upwind and then up comes a whale. The boat hit the whale but it was more of a glancing blow. The boaters weren’t aiming for the whale as they couldn’t even see it until after they hit it – it’s just something that happens.
VisionZero is a governmental promise that nobody will ever get injured / killed in transportation accidents in San Francisco from 2024 to eternity. IMO it’s shameful to promote the idea that there’s any kind of chance of this actually occurring IRL – somehow the politics of the situation has people doing this, oh well.
But what about whales? If you want to live in a world without whales getting hit by watercraft, you’d need to ban watercraft from transiting the Golden Gate when the whales are around. That would be Vision Zer whale strikes, I don’t think that’s practical.
The whale above did fine. It floated about for a while and then went back to fishing.
So I don’t know. Let’s be careful out there, but these types of incidents are inevitable when you have so many whales about in the summertime…
IDK the answer to this question.
This is prolly the closest I saw the past week or so. A large Beneteau 40 sailboat (named iSailboat, worth what, a couple hundred thou?) east of the Golden Gate Bridge was just seconds away from having its hull or keel hitting this humpback:
You know, IMO.
Other recent examples:
Not real sailing here, just puttering around with the whales for a while.
Anyway, just saying.
As seen from the Golden Gate Bridge.
None of the others looked like this, AFAICS.
The lines running from lower left to upper right:
Boat vs. whale has been in the news lately…
Well, I guess the transition to the new vendor at our Stow Lake Boat House in Golden Gate Park is fully complete, not that you could really tell. Four Yelp stars, currently.
Things were a little contentious for a while there, what with the crew from Save Stow Lake, who supported the former vendor what operated this place. Get a taste of that conflict here. (And see what became of SaveStowLake.org down below – it’s kind of funny.)
Here it is, looking more like Camp Crystal than what you’d expect to see in Frisco:
Here’s your seating area for the cafe. The worry back in the aughts was that this room was going to go upscale, become an upscale dining establishment. That didn’t happen.
Now back in the day, the old vendor simply raised prices without telling/getting permission from Rec and Park, so today’s prices are basically the same as back in the aughts. The new Family Boat seats six, I figure.
Le Cafe, complete with pink popcorn for sale, as was desired by the alarmist preservationists who supported the former vendor:
Oh, this is new – room rentals
I don’t think the Save Stow Lake people saw this coming, ’cause I don’t recall them complaining about the specter of private parties in a public park, oh well. I think it’s like $100 an hour to have a birthday party in a rented room these days. Naturally, visitors will think a bathroom is where all the people are milling about, so this sign keeps them out and points them across the street, fair ‘nough.
Now if conditions get too rough for you out on the high seas of this quite artificial “lake,” well you can always dial the snack bar and they’ll talk you home, like the air traffic controllers from Airport ’75
So that’s your update.
Now, here’s what’s become of SaveStowLake.org. So who’s selling what here? IDK, but, from Japan, it’s the “Telephone Lady” who has tax tips for you:
Anyway, that’s the bizarre end to the bizarre movement to “save” Stow Lake, which of course is still with us even though these Save Stow Lake people lost, big-time.
Happy Boating!
Here we go:
RocketBoat! (Cue music! DO YOU LIKE LOUD MUSIC? I SAID, “DO YOU LIKE LOUD MUSIC?!” It’s a rocket on the water! It’s ROCKETBOAT!)
USA76 (which Donald Trump would call “a loser.” Sad!)
They’re all in there. Which do you choose?
See you on the water!
Well here’s the news:
AMERICA’S CUP TEAMS VOTE TO DOWNSIZE BOATS
See how that works? Our local, corrupt, Larry Ellison cheerleaders of the pre-2013 era praised the new big boats – they were going to Change Everything.
But things turned out deadly, and poorly for San Francisco.
And now, even Chuck Nevius, who saw “no downside” to granting 99-year leases to Larry Ellison, is against the AC.
So that’s good, but there’s always the threat of the 2020 Cup or whatever coming back, right? So let’s check in on how things are going in Bermuda these days:
America’s Cup teams have voted to reduce the size of boats to be sailed in the 2017 regatta in Bermuda, a cost-cutting move that could lead to the two strongest challengers dropping out.
So Larry Ellison gets to have his fun and increase his already-high chances of winning (defenders win 90-something percent of the time, historically) a game where he sets the rules.
And while smaller boats would mean reduced costs and a smaller crew, they could also mean less excitement for spectators. The 48-foot (14.65 meter) catamarans will be the smallest boats in America’s Cup history and aren’t that much bigger than other one-design classes sailed in less-prestigious regattas.
Oh, OK. So what was the deadly accident in 2013* for then? Mmm…
And here’s the purpose:
If Italy and New Zealand drop out, Oracle Team USA would conceivably have an easier shot at retaining the Auld Mug trophy.
Oh, and speaking of Frisco’s 2013 America’s Cup:
cheating scandal
Yep. That was our local “Wind God’s” scandal. He wants praise for his management, but he doesn’t want any criticism for his mismanagement, oh well.
And this is what I mean when I say that the America’s Cup isn’t a sport:
America’s Cup czar Russell Coutts, a New Zealander who heads both Oracle Team USA and the America’s Cup Event Authority, has verbally sparred with both the Kiwis and Italians in recent years.
Of course, CWNevius had just moved to town back in aught-ten when he started heedlessly / needlessly waving his pom-poms for what he called a “gigantic, global sporting event.”
But it aint no sport, and it aint gigantic. It’s just a match race betwixt Gentlemen, with the rules made by Larry Ellison, for his amusement.
And then he’ll try to send the bill to us, if we let him.
Anyway, as even Chuck Nevius might admit, in hindsight, you know, after it was too late, the vaunted boats were too big, and the whole thing was too expensive, for us. Let’s hope we never see Lil’ Larry’s boat race ever again…
*I suppose there was an investigation, of sorts. But in other countries where AC teams come from, there would have been charges of omicidio colposo or homicide involontaire, non?
Here you go, here’s the former “Save Stow Lake” website – this is where the “evil” language comes from.
One problem is that old vendor, the entity that the Save Stow Lake people wanted to “save,” charged too much money, starting about five or six years ago. For example, the old vendor would charge $19 per hour for some pretty busted up row boats.
The current rate is back down to $14 per hour:
And this is the cafe seating area, which doesn’t seem to get used too much. (The worry some people had was that this would become a high-end destination restaurant with concomitant traffic and parking hassles.)
Rec and Park has a lot of issues, IMO, and I’m unafraid to criticize it, certainly. But I didn’t see what the big beef was about putting the boat house contract out for bid. And of course, I still don’t.
