2018 Backblaze Boat Ride
(9/11/2018)
2018 Backblaze Boat Ride(9/11/2018)
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On 9/11/2018 most of Backblaze took a day off work and went for a ride in San Francisco bay. Special thanks to the skeleton crew who stayed behind in the datacenter to keep things running while we were out!
The picture below is a little out of order. It was taken by Larry Wilke, and is the whole group who went on the boat ride gathered in one place on the boat (looking aft).
Back to time order, here is the Backblaze crew gathering by Pier 40 in San Francisco for the boat ride.
Another picture same spot.
Different angle, same spot.
Our boat for today is the "Empress of Sausalito", a 90 foot long powerboat. Below is a picture of the empress from their website:
Below the Backblaze employees are boarding the Empress.
Before departing, there is a short safety orientation by the captain and owner of the Empress Gerry K. Robertson.
Wine and beer are free on this trip.
The picture below is (obviously) a badly stitched together composite of two photos I took of the San Francisco skyline as we boated past. Use your horizontal scrollbar to see the whole photo.
Larry Wilke on the bow of the boat taking a picture of me (Brian) taking a picture of Larry. :-)
A picture of the bow of the boat facing forwards. From left to right: Vlad, Elliott, Tony, Brian Beach (in purple shirt obscured by Tony), Roderick Bauer (blue shirt), and Vanna in sunglasses talking with Sona/Natasha.
The picture below is facing backwards from the bow. From left to right: Vanna (facing away from the camera), Sona, Adam Feder, Natalie, Annalisa, Zach, Larry (green shirt and camera), and Natasha.
A picture where I'm standing on the bow looking directly backwards (aft) at the front of the yacht.
Matt Ortiz making the "peace" sign in front of the Bay Bridge and San Francisco skyline. :-)
The picture below is another terrible photo stitch job to try to show what the view from inside the second floor of the yacht was like. It isn't meant to be photo realistic or great art, just kind of show the panorama of what we were seeing and the people hanging out. Use your horizontal scrollbar to see the whole thing left to right.
The picture below is HDR to see both the people inside the boat and the really bright background. Since the boat is moving and my camera is slow, it kind of blurs the world and gives it a little surreal feel. :-)
Marj, Billy, and Tina Cessna talking.
Chris Bergeron (standing), Yev Pusin (in red shirt), and Cheryl Hicks on the right in stripes. Again, the "HDR" (High Dynamic Range), boat motion, and my camera is why it looks surreal and blurred (like Chris's back and legs).
I went up to visit the captain in the wheel house. In the picture below he is driving with his foot. :-) He takes the boat out about 3 - 5 days a week in San Francisco bay.
The picture below is the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay.
The picture below is a random sailboat in San Francisco bay that zoomed by us.
A picture looking forward towards the Golden Gate Bridge.
In the picture below there is the sailboat we saw earlier and a powerboat in the photo. If you look closely (click on the picture below to zoom in), the sailboat has a row of people sitting as far on one side as they can to keep the sailboat sail exposed to as much wind as possible for the most speed.
Two sailboats and a powerboat.
We passed just under the Golden Gate Bridge. Below is a picture looking up and towards Sausalito.
The picture below is looking behind us as we turn around to go back home. The bridge seen below is the Golden Gate Bridge across the mouth of San Francisco Bay.
Yev and Natasha are talking.
In the picture below, you see a boat from the "Red and White Fleet" and the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.
Yev posing for me in his red Backblaze T-shirt as we pass in front of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.
The Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island:
Some Backblaze employees gathering in the glass area just at the bow of the boat.
The picture below is of the "Aphrodite Leader" cargo vessel which is part of the NYK Line.
LeAnn Sucht in front of the San Francisco Skyline. Also on the bow are Brian Guzman (facing away from camera on the left with no hat), Vlad Bolshakov, and Brian Beach (in baseball cap).
From left to right: Ariel Ellis, Marjorie (Marj) Ready, Sona Patel, and Adam Feder.
From left to right: Michele Muhamedcani, Amanda Le, Natalie Cook, and Tina Cessna.
From left to right Vanna Ngo, JC Castaneda, Lin Bocash, and Matt Ortiz.
From left to right: Bryan Williams, Rich Rivest (in sunglasses), Billy McCarthy (in hat with white stripe), ?? behind him, maybe Alex Marchevskiy?, John Tran facing camera, Tim Lucas, and Chris Bergeron on far right obscured by Tim.
Random picture of the San Francisco Skyline and the Bay Bridge as we pass back by.
The picture below is of the cargo ship "NYK Delphinus" in San Francisco Bay.
After the boat ride, some of us had dinner across the street from Pier 40 where the boat let us disembark. The main reason was to meet up with Candace Bain who used to work at Backblaze but now works at Grail to help detect cancer via a blood test. From left to right in the picture below is Marj, Vlad, Vanna, Sona, Natasha, Elliott (on the other side from Natasha), Anthony, Candace, and Adam Feder.
Also there were: Gleb, Yev, Alex.
And Chris Bergeron.
That's it!