Enjoying the view of $$$$ yachts
Seagrass, growing in the mud below
Moon over Belvedere
I drove up to Sausalito the morning of Jan 1 to meet astrophotographer extraordinaire Chris Kitting. The goal was to first do a kayak adventure in SF Bay, and then drive to his home and do planetary photography that night, and to then wait for the following night's big Nemausa asteroid occultation. Well - 1 out of 3 is what was actually accomplished. I arrived at his mother in-law's houseboat - the Pirate - a 100 year old and locally famous houseboat which was once owned by actor Sterling Hayden (remember "Dr. Strangelove"?), and lately has been party central. She may be 80 years old, but she's a hard party'er still - I saw the aftermath. Chris had along his inflatable kayak and I had my Perception Monterey. We put in and paddled up to Richardson Bay and up the channel bordering Tiburon. A very nice paddle. Chris conscripted me to locate and flag a certain rare species of sea grass which he's been doing a study on for some agencies. Kinda fun, getting excited about some rather humble looking weeds growing in the heavy metal-laden mud.
Enjoying the view of $$$$ yachts |
Seagrass, growing in the mud below |
|
Moon over Belvedere |
 |
We avoided the newly (Jan 1) increased bridge fares (or ANY bridge fares for that matter) by driving north over the Richmond bridge and then driving south to his home in the Hayward hills. I enjoyed his many astrophotos framed on his walls, and Cam's beautiful water color paintings. But clouds came in, and our plan to get mini DV footage of Saturn at 2am when it was high in the sky - didn't happen. A check of the weather forecasts showed deteriorating predictions for weather the following night, for the Nemausa event. So I came home early. And, that was that.