Yesterday morning we topped off Dirona’s fuel tanks, put on the storm plates, and locked down the outside furniture. We just cast off from Jack London Square in Oakland and are underway for Hilo, Hawaii. You can track the voyage on the real-time plot at  http://www.mvdirona.com/maps/LocationCurrent.html.

We've been monitoring weather conditions for a couple of weeks (via the NOAA Ocean Prediction Center, the US Navy Forecast Models, and GRIB data downloaded into our chartplotter program, MaxSea). It looks like we'll have pretty decent conditions for the run. The video below shows a visualization of our route in MaxSea through modelled weather conditions using downloaded GRIB data. The GRIB data includes model wind speed, barometric pressure, and wave height, period and direction. The green areas are 5-8' seas, yellow is 9-11', and orange is 12-17' seas. The model shows 5-8' seas for most of the route, with a few points at 10'. And where we do see larger waves, the wave period is 10-11 seconds. Weather data isn't really accurate much beyond five days, so conditions could deteriorate, but so far it looks good.

The decision to spend a few weeks in San Francisco before crossing to Hawaii worked out very well. We'll skip some of the nastier weather that we've been watching hit the northwest coast of Washington state these past few weeks, and we had a great time exploring the Bay area. Below are some of what we've seen, and you also can display these on the map view.

09/12/12: Westpoint Harbor Marina Lunch on deck in our new temporary home. Westpoint Harbor Marina is an impressive new facility with excellent services.

9/14/2012: Quarry Beach, Angel Island State Park We're anchored off the Quarry Beach, south of the remains of Fort McDowell. The anchorage is suprisingly sheltered, given how exposed it looks on the chart. One of the reasons we stopped here is the view in the other direction: to downtown San Franciso and the Bay Bridge. It should look amazing at night.

9/15/2012: Sausalito Police Sausalito Police boat off Pt. Blunt with our view to San Francisco in the background.

9/15/2012: Racoon The US Army Corps of Engineers landing craft Racoon, with a Sausalito Police escort, landed at the dock just south of our anchorage. Several dozen people got off, probably for a tour.

9/15/2012: Outriggers Perhaps twenty outriggers rounded the point later that morning.

9/15/2012: Fort McDowell We set off on a tour of the bay, first around Angel Island. More of the remains of Fort McDowell are visible north of Quarry Point.

9/15/2012: Winslow Cove Old immigration station buildings at Winslow Cove. Several boats were anchored there--the cove has good wind shelter.

9/15/2012: Ayala Cove Ayala Cove is the busiest anchorage on the island. The park has docks and mooring bouys here. To maximize the number of boats on the buoys, boats tie a both bow and stern to different bouys.

9/15/2012: Sailing Sailboats filled the bay--outnumbering powerboats by at least 20:1. The predictable afternoon winds make sailing popular.

9/15/2012: Steep hills Those famous San Francisco hills.

9/15/2012: Camp Reynolds The US Army established Camp Reynolds, south of Point Knox, in 1864.

9/15/2012: Golden Gate Bridge Back under the bridge.

9/15/2012: Golden Gate Yacht Club Home of the America's Cup.

9/15/2012: Ghiradelli building

9/15/2012: Sea lions Sea lions at pier 39.

9/15/2012: The Bay Rocket This boat moves!

9/15/2012: US Navy One of two well-armed US Navy boats that sped past.

9/15/2012: Racing About thirty Porche's and a handful of other cars were running the course at the west end of Almeda Island.

9/15/2012: Hanjin Berlin The Hanjin Berlin unloading at the Port of Oakland.

9/15/2012: Crane operator

9/15/2012: Passing under both Bay Bridges The new Bay bridge is currently under construction beyond the existing bridge.

9/15/2012: Heeled over Sailboat off Treasure Island.

9/15/2012: Richardson Bay The city view from our anchorage at Richardson Bay is even better than last night.

9/15/2012: Gray Matter We had dinner with Christine Guo and Mark Mohler aboard Gray Matter, anchored a short distance away. Mark and Christine had just completed the same trip we did, from Sidney B.C., a couple of weeks earlier.

9/21/2012: Space Shuttle Endeavour The Space Shuttle Endeavour viewed from our flybridge at Westpoint Harbor Marina. The shuttle, mounted to the back of NASA's modified 747, made a low pass over San Francisco this morning en route to its new home at the California Science Center.

9/22/2012: Dumbarton Bridge Heading under the Dumbarton Bridge. We decided to take a short cruise south to anchor for the night. The morning is warm, sunny and calm.

9/22/2012: Bridge supports The criss-crossing supports for the Dumbarton Bridge look rather elegant.

9/22/2012: Aqueduct This aqueduct presumably is for carrying saltwater to the salt ponds.

9/22/2012: Old railway bridge The chart says this railway bridge is permanently open. We can see why--the bridge is rotting away. And at the shore end, the bridge just ends in old pilings.

9/22/2012: Coyote Creek Enjoying the sunny morning on the bow, anchored at the mouth of Coyote Creek. Nearby, down Alviso Slough, is the once-bustling town of Alivso.

9/22/2012: Sunset Sunset with the lights of Palo Alto just starting to glow.

9/23/2012: Breakfast on deck Another calm, warm and sunny morning. This was an excellent anchorage--quiet, private and relaxing. Yesterday's prevailing afternoon winds generated some waves, but they were hardly noticable on board. And another bonus of being at anchor rather than docked is the bow faces into the wind, sheltering the cockpit.

9/28/2012: Robert G. Brownlee The Marine Science Institute research vessel Robert G. Brownlee heading up Redwood Creek as we departed. The 90-foot ship is designed for carrying school students, and a group was on board.

9/28/2012: Team Oracle Racing The Team Oracle Racing's AC72 catamaran out for one of the boat's first test runs. The huge boat, with a sail higher than 130 feet is incredibly fast. San Francisco Chronicle reporter Al Saracevic, following in a high-speed inflatable, reported their chase boat was doing 30 knots at one point and the catamaran was pulling away. Of the four chase boats we saw, some apparently were some manned by spies for the competition, including New Zealand's Emirates Team.

9/28/2012: Coast Guard rescue diver Nearby, the Coast Guard was practicing water rescues. The chopper was right near the waterline for ages. This video shows the diver retrieving the rescue dummy and being hoisted back up.

9/28/2012: Moore 24 National Championship We just barely made it in front of the South Beach Yacht Club's Moore 24 National Championship field as they headed east across the Bay.

9/28/2012: Good wind That steady afternoon Bay wind propels this contender between us and the Bay bridge.

9/28/2012: America Foss Beautiful tractor tug America Foss running south.

9/28/2012: Overseas Anacortes The tanker Overseas Anacortes leaving the tanker port at Point Richmond. The channel there is quite narrow--we passed close by.

9/28/2012: Marshall Foss Marshall Foss with a line running to the stern of the Overseas Anacortes.

9/28/2012: Richmond-San Rafael Bridge The 5.5-mile Richmond-San Rafael Bridge was one of the longest in the world when completed in 1959.

9/28/2012: East Brother Island Light Station The historic light station was build in 1873 and now is a bed-and-breakfast. That would be a wild place to stay.

9/28/2012: Intintoli The high-speed Baylink ferry Intintoli en route to San Francisco from Vallejo. Baylink runs a seemingly contstant stream of ferries from Vallejo-- we see several every time we're out in the bay.

9/28/2012: Rodeo oil refinery A view into the complexity of the Sonoco Phillips refinery at Rodeo. The refinery can produce 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

9/28/2012: C&H Sugar Refinery C&H sugar refinery just east of the Carquinez Bridge. We'll be seeing a lot more C&H facilities in a few weeks when we reach Hawaii.

9/28/2012: Traffic Entering Mare Island Strait behind Baylink'sthe high-speed ferry Solana, that passed us just before entering the strait. And exiting is Baylink's Vallejo.

9/28/2012: View homes These houses that wrong the shore and cliff must have awesome sunset views.

9/28/2012: Wreck Bait Me aground below the cliffs. The wind had been blowing a steady 20 knots from the southeast the past couple of hours. Looks like they can get a lot stronger.

9/28/2012: Shipyard cranes Mare Island once was a Naval shipyard, but now is private.

9/28/2012: Baylink terminal Solana moored at the Baylink's ferry terminal.

9/28/2012: Vallejo Marina Vallejo has a large marine that appears well-maintained.

9/28/2012: Mare Island Drawbridge The Mare Island Drawbridge has a vertical clearance is 13' closed. We expected we'd have to wait a while to get through, since it was close to rush-hour, but the operator opened the bridge right away after we radioed a lift request.

9/28/2012: Tug under Highway 37 bridge The current at both bridges was surprisingly strong, especially at the highway 37 bridge, where the current tended to push the boat north. This tug is coming through on an angle, presumably to work against that north push. We watched from our anchorage just north of Dutchman Slough. The tug anchored nearby around 7pm, then left again sometime in the middle of the night. We're guessing they were waiting for the tide to change.

9/28/2012: Sunset Sunset over the marshes alongside Napa River. The anchorage is a little more open than we were expecting, but we have plenty of swing room compared to anything farther up-river. And once we were settled in, especially after the evening lights came up ashore, we quite liked the spot.

9/29/2012: At anchor on the Napa River Taken from the dinghy before we ran up-river to Napa. It was going to be a beautiful day.

9/29/2012: Edgerly Island At Edgerly Island, the river narrows and feels more intimate. The island is rimmed with houses, docks and boats.

9/29/2012: River anchorage This powerboat was anchored mid-channel, where the river was calm and sheltered.

9/29/2012: Tug again That powerboat's anchorage seemed ideal, except when we went further up-river and saw the tug and barge that anchored near us last night. That would have been a tight squeeze if the powerboat was anchored overnight.

9/29/2012: Estuaries Just short of the city, a couple of estuaries lead off. Each was packed with houses, docks and boats and looked like very nice places to live.

9/29/2012: Waterfowl The river shores are full of wildlife. We didn't see any fish jump, not anyone catch anything, but lots of fishers were on the banks as well.

9/29/2012: Geese A gaggle of geese at Napa.

9/29/2012: Dinghy landing Surprisingly, Napa has nowhere to land a dingy, let alone a larger boat. So we landed at the edge of the Riverfront complex and scrambled up the rocks.

9/29/2012: Napa River from Napa View to the river from the Riverfront complext in downtown Napa.

9/29/2012: Downtown Joe's We had an excellent lunch on the riverfront patio at Downtown Joe's Brewery.

9/29/2012: Milagros We got thirsty after walking about downtown, so stopped for another pint on the patio at Milagros.

9/29/2012: Art Napa has lots of interesting artwork. This one is outside the County of Napa building.

9/29/2012: Wine train The Napa Valley Wine Train at the station.

9/29/2012: Sunset Sunset over Mare Island. We returned downriver to tour the waterfront off Vallejo.

9/29/2012: Coast Guard The area is well protected--three Coast Guard vessels and a police boat were moored at the north end of the marina.

9/29/2012: Dusk Dusk from our anchorage.

9/30/2012: Moonset Moonset the following morning.

9/30/2012: Sunrise

10/2/2012: Dawn Dawn from the boat deck at Westpoint Harbor. We moved the boat temporarily as the marina is bringing a truck in to fuel a number of boats today.

10/5/2012: South Beach Harbor We anchored off AT&T Park, just south of downtown San Franciso to take in Fleet Week and the America's Cup races. We weren't sure how rough the anchorage might get due to boat wakes and the the afternoon winds, but it turned to be fine. And our view, stretching from downtown San Francisco and across the Bay bridge was amazing. And we could see the America's Cup fleet moored nearby: in this panoramic photo their 70-foot masts are visible at the west end of the Bay bridge just left of the carrier USS Makin Island.

10/6/2012: Candlestick Point Yesterday we went to the Blue Angels show and the America's Cup races. Wow, we had a great time. Today the Giants are playing at AT&T stadium, so our anchorage was very busy with ferries from the Oakland side. We moved south to get a nice spot with beautiful views away from the crowds and distractions that we enjoyed so much yesterday. Candlestick Park, home of the San Francison 49ers, is in the background.

10/13/2012: Dawn Dawn looking east towards San Francisco. We anchored for the night just east of Golden Gate, tucked southeast of Fort Point. The occasional large wake bounced the boat a bit, but generally conditions were fine--similar to Blake Island Marine park off Seattle. And the view was amazing--San Francisco one way and the Golden Gate Bridge the other. At night, everything was aglow. Were we to be staying in the Bay area longer, we'd definately anchor here often.

10/13/2012: Sunrise Sunrise over San Francisco.

10/13/2012: Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge in the morning sun.

10/13/2012: Swimmers 180 swimmers were preparing to swim from the St. Francis Yacht Club to Aquatic Park--the large circular basin about a mile east.

10/13/2012: Oakland We're going to spend our last couple of weeks in Oakland for a change of pace. So far, we love it here. While we very much enjoyed the pristine and tranquil moorage at Westpoint Harbor Marina, here we're right in the action. We've got an end-tie with a view to all the passing boat traffic reminiscent of the Ballard Ship Canal in Seattle. We're also just east of the Oakland container port--we love watching the big ships come and go. And we're seconds from the restaurants and shops of Jack London Square, and close to the amenities in Oakland and Alameda.

10/14/2012: Sunset Sunset from our moorage, looking to the Oakland shipping terminal with the Bay bridge and San Francisco just visible in the background.

10/18/2012: Rowers Rowers at dawn, looking east from our boat deck.

10/18/2012: MSC Ivana Tugs turn the MSC Ivana at the container port. The maneuver must be carefully managed as the massive 366m ship barely fits lengthwise in the channel--that's shore right off the bow and stern.

10/23/2012: Groceries A cartload of groceries for the trip to Hawaii--we're on track to leave tomorrow. We just got the cart this week. It's light and easily folds flat for storage, and is super useful where no dock carts are available.