San Francisco Bay - on a beautiful, sunny, normal day in October. This is how it looked from the Golden Gate Bridge, when I was there last week.

San Francisco Bay, from the Golden Gate Bridge

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A few days later, the scene was a bit more crowded! Fleet Week gets all the once-a-year boaters out on the water, and everybody heads for the middle of the bay. If you want to rent a sailboat for this time, book early, and be prepared for an extra-steep deductible, since the folks at the Modern Sailing Academy in Sausalito said this amateur hour leads to accidents every year.  It’s easy to see how!  There were hundreds of boats out here near Alcatraz, all jockeying for position, while craning their necks and peering up at the sky.  Some were anchored, some were motoring about, some drifted slowly with the current, and occasional show-offs tacked through the crowd under full sail.

Fleet Week crowd near Alcatraz

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And here’s what everybody was waiting for — the Blue Angels.  They were the featured act, following a number of other air show entries, which were pretty astounding in their own right.  But there’s nothing like seeing (and hearing) the angels roar over your boat as they zoom over the bay in impossibly tight formation.  They do a lot of stunts over the water, and from a boat on the bay, you feel like you’re right in the middle of the action.  Very impressive!

Blue Angels, buzzing the bay

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All in all, the day was a blast!  We had a nice sail on the bay, then lunch anchored by Angel Island (the day before the island burned, as it turns out).  Follow that with the thrills of the air show (and the attendant boat show), and you’ve got the makings of a great day!

Just one caveat.  If you go, make sure one person on board is keeping an eye on the boat traffic, and you’re not all shooting plane pix at the same time. It’s a zoo out there!

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I was in San Francisco for our annual San Francisco and Napa Valley trip.  We do some hiking, some sightseeing, some wine tasting - and even a sunset sail on the bay. Fall is the perfect time of year there, too!