Angel Island Day Cruise with the Petaluma Sea Scouts

Friday morning the Sea Scout Ship Compass Rose set out from the Petaluma Marina with the entire crew and a handful of guests on board. The day began as the crew began to arrive around 0600. By 0715, the ship was underway and bound down the river.

The tide was with us, so it was just a couple short hours until we were pulling through Raccoon Straits and arriving in Ayala Cove. There were already plenty of boats which had spent the night moored in the cove:


The Compass Rose was one of the first boats to arrive at the docks though, so we were able to make up on the end tie:


Once all the mooring lines were made fast, I set out for the top of the island. With no particular plan in mind, the rest of the crew followed along:


As we turned off the perimeter road and headed up the trail, the view kept getting better:


Somewhere along the way, everyone ended up a bit spread out:

This is a rock:


This is the view next to the rock:

About three quarters of the way up, everyone stopped to check out Battery Wallace, a Spanish War era gun emplacement. There we rested and posed for photographs:


Just before we reached the top, the fog rolled in and blocked the view of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge:


But from the peak of Mount Livermore, you could just make out the Compass Rose in the cove below:


On the other side there was a good view of the East Garrison:


Having already seen one side of the island, everyone opted to hike down the other side on the way back:


This probably had something to do with the fact that it was warm and this was the shady side:


We returned to the dock in time for lunch:


In the afternoon everyone split off into various groups to entertain themselves. I wasn't there, but apparently there was some controversy over who owed whom five dollars for touching a dead jellyfish that washed up on the beach. The jury's apparently still out.

Leaving Raccoon Straits, we were able to glimpse the bridge again:


As we headed up the Petaluma River, an incessant squeaking noise started in the pilothouse. Further investigation revealed that we had chirping stowaways camped out above our port sidelight:


Fortunately the ship was moored in her home berth well before sunset so their parents could feed them.

Stay tuned for more adventures...