Watching Sailboats in San Francisco Bay

Watching sailboats in the San Francisco bay is relaxing. It was a sunny day with lots of wind. The typical summer marine layer was hovering among the towers of the glorious Golden Gate Bridge. The sun rays shinning on my face and the wind blowing through my hair almost made me feel like I was on one of those sailboats, of course, without the work of sailing.

I watched as the boats came about, jibed, fell off and headed up. They raced toward the Golden Gate Bridge and returned sailing passed Alcatraz towards the finish line. Who won? I didn't care. I could hear the sails luffing in the wind and then the sails went silent when the sails caught all the wind. It was full speed ahead. I could see the seagulls above racing with the boats. And then in a flash, the gulls were way ahead of the boats.

There was a an old man in his SF Giants hoodie on the same pier where I was standing, casting his three fishing poles one after the other. He only looked up, not at the sailing boats, but to check that the bait was still on his hook and then with a heave, he cast his line out into the bay water. Then he sat down on his make shift seat, an inverted five gallon dirty white bucket, watching his lines and listening for the sound of the bells attached to the poles hoping to catch a fish.

I stood against the rails watching the sailboats, hoping to catch a splash of the sea water on my cheeks as the sailboats passed me. And for that time, I had no care in the world. I was just relaxing.