21 March – 3 April 2018
We do a few projects on the boat — engine and transmission oil change, sail repair, a little gel coat repair where fibreglass has chipped. In addition several equipment parts have to be ordered at a local chandlery. This and weather conditions cause more delays as wind direction won’t favour the continuation of our voyage south until March 31. However, the rain has stopped and temperatures the second week of our sojourn in the San Francisco Bay area are reaching into the mid 70s (about 25˚ C).
22nd: I am invited to a fundraiser for Drawbridge, an arts program for homeless and other underprivileged children, by the founder of this non-profit organization. I had met Gloria, an art therapist and Fulbright scholar, while I was in the San Francisco area five years ago. She also founded Harambee Arts, a program designed to benefit vulnerable women and children in Kenya and Nepal.
25th: Today I visit my old haunt, Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center in Berkeley. It’s a funky barn-looking building on San Pablo Avenue. In the winter of 2012-13, during my two-month stay in the Bay area, I went to several events there, featuring Zydeco and Salsa dances. This time the words rock & roll festival piques my interest. BandWorks is a showcase for youngsters to fulfill their dream of playing in a band. Students are organized into bands, they receive “coaching with some of the best musician-instructors in the Bay area, and after 8 weeks rehearsing their favorite rock, pop, blues, reggae and original songs” they take to the stage. Of course, the quality is mixed but there are a few gems among the singers and players.
26th: For a change in pace I decide to head for the hills. The Bay area has plenty of greenspace with lovely walks right in the centre of the city as well as large woodland parks at the outer edges. Today I choose Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland. The forest trail climbs steeply along the edge of Palo Seco Creek. By the time I return to “civilization” to catch the bus back to the boat I have only logged five kilometres, yet this first hike of my trip has given me a good workout.
27th: Two old friends, Meryline and Chris, pick me up at the yacht dock. They ask what I want to do, but I defer the decision to them; I like to go where locals go and eat at out-of-the-way spots. We head to Nido Kitchen & Bar in Oakland, a self-proclaimed “artsy, industrial spot for modern farm-to-table Mexican cuisine”. I have Ollita de pobre, a rice dish with veggies, true to its name (pobre = poor) served in a deep dish that reminds me of a workman’s canteen. For a drink I try horchata. It tastes like liquid rice pudding. No wonder, for it is made of milk, rice, cinnamon and sugar.
To digest the plentiful and filling meal we decide to hike up Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve. Tall eucalyptus trees grow in the lower reaches but higher up the vegetation thins out to meadows with only the occasional cluster of trees. The dirt path is even steeper than the one on my previous day’s outing, but I am rewarded as various lookout points give me an expansive view of San Francisco Bay.
Berkley is a genteel university town full of restaurants (739 of them!), cafés and gift shops and has quite a few establishments with French-sounding names. While it may seem a bit pretentious to a European, I shan’t quibble, for the wheat-and-walnut loaf I buy at La Farine Patisserie is a step up from the baked goods at supermarkets I have been enduring. I always prefer to buy my bread at dedicated bakeries.
29th: Another acquaintance from my previous visit here is Karen. She is the one who had taken me to the Ashkenaz Center five years ago after we got talking at a local folk concert. This time she introduced me to Ajanta, an elegant East Indian restaurant, touted to be one of the best of its kind in the Bay area with a changing monthly menu that features many regional specialties. It doesn’t disappoint, for my Sindhi Kadhi is delicious yet reasonably priced.
30th: I take one last bus ride into the heart of San Francisco, watching tourists line up for the historic cable car at Market and Powell Streets and traipsing up the hill to the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in Chinatown to buy a couple of bags of moon cookies — those sweet, round wafers that haven’t yet been folded and stuffed with lucky numbers and wise (or corny) sayings. Yum. When I tell the owner that I came all the way from Canada to get the treat I remember so well, he said, “I was in Vancouver 25 years ago, and I named my daughter after the city of Victoria!” Then he grabbed a handful of still-warm wafers and added them to my haul.
1st: On a sunny Sunday I oil the rusty bicycle chains, pump up the tires and set off on a ride around Alameda. I am familiar with the island as I used to cycle all over in my hunt for boat supplies, hardware and trades people to get another yacht ready for the Pacific.
Washington Park with it’s long beach front facing southern San Francisco Bay is chock-a-block with families enjoying an Easter barbecue. The bike trail continues along the shoreline for miles, and I eventually meander through the marinas that dot the Oakland Estuary until I’m back at our yacht club slip.
Photo: 1.) The Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center; 2.) view of San Francisco Bay from Claremont park; 3.) the iconic San Francisco cable car; 4.) Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory; 5.) Silhouette of bicycle man on High Street, Alameda.
