Drakes Bay (again, really why?)

8-28-12 – Drakes Bay  – Day 57

Leaving Richardson Bay

Under the Golden Gate

 We have finally crossed under the Golden Gate Bridge headed out to sea.  It sounds so very dramatic.  You also notice I didn’t say we left the Bay area for good yet.  As previously stated, our plan was to head North first to Tomales Bay via Drakes Bay before heading South.  I suppose you could consider this  a little bit of  a pre-trip, ocean shakedown to make sure our systems all work, but I will admit that there is at least some part of me that wanted to conquer  Drakes Bay before we left.  (See my very first post from last October for previous experiences at Drakes Bay)  Also as a bonus, Tomales Bay was supposed to be an amazing place to visit.  The only issue previously was that it’s really a two day trip to get there, the entrance bar is fickle so you can’t always enter even if you make it there and once in you should spend a few days exploring.  So it’s really more of a week trip than a long weekend trip.  Why not start our trip with a visit to these places we thought, who knows when we’ll be back?  So out the Gate we went.  Unsure if we would be back to San Francisco Bay or not.  First stop Drakes Bay.

Sailing North





Going skiing, I mean sailing

Morning in Drakes Bay

If you are familiar with last years trip to Drakes then you have a good idea of the outcome.  For newcomers…The trip North up the coast is generally sucky.  That’s why a lot more people go to Mexico than to Washington from San Francisco.  There are a couple of reasons for this, but let’s just go with it’s more sucky than heading South.  We left from Richardson Bay off of Sausalito with the remnants of an ebb tide to help us out the gate, turned to starboard (right) and followed the Bonita Channel out.  The wind picked up, and up, and up and pretty soon we were tacking upwind with reefed main and jib in 25 knots plus sustained wind.  Just so you know the forecast called for 5 to 15 knots, hence our decision to leave on this particular date.  We motored the last few miles dead into the wind in order to drop the anchor before dark.  The fog had rolled in, which is pretty much commonplace at Drakes Bay as far as I can tell, so we used the radar to spot the two other boats in the anchorage and dropped the hook just inside of the Coast Guard buoy.  This was turning out to be just like our last trip up here.  We went below and waited.  As expected the menace of Drakes Bay came up once we were well fed and sound asleep.  That sound of a freight train running thru your back yard.  Our new anchor gear had not done us wrong yet, and with the anchor alarm on there would be no question if we were dragging.  So why didn’t you sleep like a baby you ask?  Our backyard is the rigging and it amplifies everything including wind, but when the whole boat starts to vibrate and the white caps are slapping the hull; it’s hard not to get up a couple of times and check the GPS and look around to make sure everything is good.  The departure time was 6:00 AM with a 5:00 AM wake up call in order to make our crossing at Tomales Bay bar.  So of course the wind subsided, a little, at 4:30, just enough to fall asleep, and the alarm was especially hard to accept.  Once again, just like last year, we probably should have taken some sleeping pills, put in our earplugs and gone to sleep.  Autumn Wind and her new ground tackle took care of us as usual. Thankfully this year there was no worry or fear,  but once again very little sleep.  I guess I’m not sure if we conquered Drakes or if it still needs to be decided.  It certainly hasn’t beaten us as nothing bad has happened yet, but it does owe us some sleep.


Drakes Bay Sunrise

Green #1 to Starboard

 As we said good bye to the smell of “circus animals” as Elizabeth called it (there is a sea lion rookery on shore and you can tell you’re in Drakes when you can smell the circus) and rounded Green #1 and Chimney Rock on our way to Tomales Bay the sun came up over the mountains to the West making for a beautiful morning.  The previous night just may have been our payment for this morning.

Pics to
Follow...Internet..is..really...slow..in...Tomales...Bay....  (Update 9-2-12, pics now added)

8-26-12 - Loch Lomond Marina, San Rafael, CA - Day 55

It feels like we have become "Marina Queens" lately.  A "Marina Queen" for the non-boaters out there, is that boat that never seems to leave it's slip.  It just sits there waiting to be used; or better said; it sits there waiting to be taken out on the water.  Not necessarily neglected like the derelict boats, but more like a boat that has an owner that wants to go out, but seems to find and endless array of excuses not to.  Not all people care about this title and some think it's just fine.  It really comes down to how you want to use your boat.  For people who's primary purpose in owning a boat is to use their boats in a seaman like way (ie to go places or just go sailing) this is sort of a derogatory term for the guy next to them with the really nicely waxed boat.  The reality is Autumn Wind hasn't fallen victim to this fate.  Although I must admit we have spent the last week in a marina; Loch Lomond Marina in San Rafael, CA to be specific.  (Check the location link to the left for the exact slip in fact)  Actually we are far from this; as was noted by the guy walking by on the dock the other day.  He walked by as I was sitting on the leeward side of the boat as Elizabeth was giving me a hair cut (this means basically shaving my head)  I was on the leeward side so the hair would blow off the boat and ease the clean up.  He says "So you're new liveaboards?"  We both looked up a little offended.  Why would he think this, just because I'm sitting shirtless in 20 knots of wind having Elizabeth shave my head as our running clothes flap in the breeze off the rail to dry out at eleven o'clock on a Thursday; does that mean we are liveaboards?  Secretly, I felt a little proud to know that it looked like I lived on our boat, since I do, and that's the whole point of this thing, right?  I answered in my most yachtsman like way "why no, we are not liveaboards at all.  We are, in fact, a yacht in transit"  So I didn't really say that and we had a little chat about what we are doing and where we are heading.  But little to my knowledge, I had been told, that there is a distinct difference between a liveaboard and a yacht in transit, and that's what I wanted to say if I was more witty.  The exact difference is for someone else to explain because I don't really know what it is.



"It's only a mile or two"  More like 7!

So, yes we have been in a marina for the last week.  After leaving the Petaluma Turning Basin we proceeded to an anchorage off of China Camp.  (The location of the last post)  We spent two nights there before we rounded Pt. San Pedro and headed up the San Rafael Channel to Loch Lomond Marina where we have been camped out in slip J5 for the past seven nights.  In fact this is the longest we have been in one location since leaving Grand Marina a month ago.  The good thing about this location is that it is just far enough from San Rafael that we can't just walk in to do some shopping or eat dinner.  This has helped us stay on budget.  It also caused Elizabeth to con me into a 7.5 mile walk one day to "check out a restaurant she found on Yelp".  So we put some miles on our feet this week as well.



Working on the solar panels

In fact this has been a strategic stop to complete some projects that have been lingering.  The biggest of which is the installation of our solar panels.  That's where the "strategic" part of this stop comes in.  It just so happens that the guy who sold us the solar panels and parts, and who knows how this stuff should be assembled, lives in this marina and actually about four slips down from us on J dock.  This made getting our questions answered much easier.  While the total install took us about forty hours, (like four full days of work) I feel the end result is great and in ideal conditions we are actually energy independent.  I will make note that drilling many holes thru stainless tubing with a battery powered drill on a rocking boat is not for the timid.  This was the hardest part of the install and it turned out great in the end.  I must say thanks to Rob at Southbound Solar for all of his help, advice and the huge number of tools he lent us to help complete our project.  I think he was just as excited to see it come together as we were.


The final product of many hours of work.  Free power
here we come!



That's 9.3 Amps of FREE power!



E showing off her dinghy numbers

Besides the solar project we accomplished a bunch of other things that had been on the list for a while.  Elizabeth painted our registration numbers on the dinghy, so we are finally legal.  Not that that has stopped us from using it, but now we shouldn't get pulled over by the Coast Guard.  You wouldn't think putting black numbers on a PVC boat would be that complicated, but it is.  Nothing wants to stick or stay and the numbers usually end up pealing off of running onto the deck within a few days.  So 

Propane bottle cover.  A sewing machine sure would
have been nice.

with any luck this will be the last time for this operation.  She also sewed us a cover for our spare propane bottle.  How domestic of her!  I finally ran all of the lines for the second reef back tot he cockpit completing that project.  To finish the week off I finally had the time to replace our macerator.  The people who know what a macerator is and what this entails are rolling on the ground right now laughing at me because they know this may be one of the crappiest (ha joke) jobs next to rebuilding the head there is to do on a boat.  The macerator is sort of like (well exactly like) your garbage disposal, except that it chops up and pumps out our holding tank  In fact the box says it will chop up vegetable up to one inch.  This item has become more important recently as we will be leaving the Bay area soon and once you are beyond a magic line offshore you can legally pump your stuff overboard which makes conserving holding tank space less important.  The project went quite well, or at least as good as dealing with your own liquefied waste can go.  So with this week of projects behind us it looks like we are ready.  Drakes Bay and Tomales Bay are on our minds.  We'll see what the weather gods have to say about our plans.

What's that in your hand?  If you guessed
 a poo chopper you're right.

View from our anchorage in Richardson Bay.

Stopping Traffic

8-17-12 China Camp Anchorage - Day 46

3 Mile Slough Lift Bridge

While I would love to say that it's due to my amazing good looks, or more likely Elizabeth's, that's not what I'm talking about.  I'm talking about bridges.  Draw bridges, swing bridges, bascule bridges, slide bridges, lift bridges and the scariest of them all, fixed bridges.  We've seen just about every kind of bridge you can imagine in the last few weeks while traveling thru the Delta and now up to Petaluma.  As I said the fixed bridges are really the scariest since, well, they don't move out of the way and we have this tall metal thing on top of our boat.  For some reason, no matter how high and how confident you are that the boat will fit thru them, there is always that second of panic when you look up and it looks like the bridge will clip the top of the mast.  Of course it never does and people with much larger boats than us go under these things so this fear is irrational; or is it?   You just never know. 



Swing Bridge - somewhere in the Delta?

The bridge openings come in all types.  We've become fairly adept at contacting the various bridge tenders to ask for openings as we approach.  Some of them seem to be surly old men that use little or no radio protocol and make you feel like some snooty sailor for trying to be proper and polite.  Some are sweet ladies that wave to you from their control room; actually every single one of the bridge tenders waved to us.  I've heard that being a bridge tender is not as easy as it sounds because you are responsible for some of the maintenance work as well, but it sure seems like a chill job.  Just sitting in your control shack waiting for some nice boat to call you and ask for an opening.  Close the gates to stop traffic and then slowly move the bridge out of the way.  Wave to the boaters and close the bridge again.  Sounds good to me.  All you have to do is not drop the bridge on a boat.  You wouldn't think that would be hard either, but we know someone who got clipped by a bridge as the bridge tender dropped it and then went to the bathroom without looking.  No damage but I'm sure it was scary!  Then there's the Petaluma bridge that requires a four hour notice to open on all but Friday, Saturday and Sunday when they need 24 hour notice.  Those hours seem backwards to me but I guess they need a break as well.  And what happens if the current catches you within that four hour call ahead and you miss your time? Do you need to call again and circle for another four hours? 



Bacon Island Swing Bridge

Really the craziest part of opening a bridge is that I am able to stop traffic for five or ten minutes while I mosey my slug of a sailboat thru.  Some bridges have a lot of traffic, like the Rio Vista lift bridge. Some have almost none, like the Bacon Island Swing Bridge.  I wonder what is going thru the peoples minds as they sit in their cars, probably late for work or on a delivery, watching me in my flip flops cruise thru at five knots or so, waving happily to the bridge tender, seemingly not a care in the world.  I really have nowhere to be, they are on a deadline.  There is one of me and a whole lot more than that of them.  It almost seems like I should have to wait for a lull in the traffic to make my passage, not traffic waiting for me.  It's really not a fair system, but since I'm on the good side of it right now, I'm not complaining.  Anyway, next time you find yourself waiting for a bridge, try not to get mad a the injustice of the whole thing and think of your friends on Autumn Wind. 

Rio Vista Lift Bridge across Sacramento River














People with places to be

As a side note:  Petaluma is a very cool place.  Unfortunately, it's one of those places that seems to want to take your money.  There's loads of great places to eat and drink and shops to spend money in so you can buy more stuff that we have nowhere to store.  So after two days in the turning basin we had to leave.  Never the less it is a great spot to visit by boat.





D Street Bridge, Petaluma

Unused RR swing bridge on Petaluma River



Actually a pedestrian bridge across the Petaluma
turning basin




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Post Doo Dah Doin's in the Delta - Part 2

8-9 & 8-10-12 - Discovery Bay, CA



This is how you draw a map to your
house when there are no roads.

I would be negligent if I didn't mention one of our favorite stops of our trip to the Delta.  Adams Marina, cantina and cruisers hangout in Discovery Bay, CA.  They only have three slips, two of which are almost always occupied, unless they are in Mexico; so call ahead for reservations.  With power and water dockside the slips are quite nice.  The cost is nothing for friends; I'm not exactly sure how we receive the privilege of that label, but I guess we made the cut.  When we arrived we were greeted at the dock, the rum bar was laid out and ready and fresh pico de'gallo was being prepared.  After a nice evening tour of Discovery Bay on the pontoon boat, owners Jim and Betty sat down with ourselves and another couple for a delicious dinner of Mahi Mahi, salads straight from the garden and chocolate souffle.  The last two contributed by Bob and Lori who were joining us for dinner.  Embarrassingly, we had little to share except a cheap bottle of wine as we hadn't seen a real market or grocery store in ten days or so.  Thankfully everyone allowed us to share what they had prepared even though we had little to contribute.  Stories of past sailing exploits were swapped as Elizabeth and I soaked up the ideas since they have many more miles under their keels than we do.  We talked about religion (I mean anchors and ground tackle) and places we want to go that they have already been.


The Adams Mini Marina

The following day Jim and Betty offered up the use of their car to go shopping.  Remember that we had known them about a week and there is a good chance they didn't even know our last name.  They ended up joining us and we spent the day learning tips and tricks for cruising and stocking up on needed provisions.  To top off the day, Jim talked the guy at West Marine in to giving us a 40% discount on our propane tank and then took us to dinner at the yacht club they belong to, where we were not allowed to pay for drinks.
The next morning a knock on the cabin top announced that blueberry pancakes were being served under the palapa.  After a heap of pancakes and some garage saling we had to undo the dock lines and say goodbye.



Houses in Discovery Bay

Elizabeth modeling our waterproof Gill jacket we
bought for $0.25 (yes 25 CENTS) at a garage sale

Betty, Jim, Me, Elizabeth under the palapa

We met Jim and Betty on the Doo Dah the previous week when we found ourselves at Mildred Island.  (see previous post for details on the "island")  They had done the Baja Ha Ha (not the Delta Doo Dah) to Mexico twice before on a boat of similar size as Autumn Wind.  We picked their brains a little and compared our setup to theirs.  They were very accepting of our compromises and reassured us that not everything needed to be 100% "marine grade" to work.  They invited us to dinner the next week.  This worked out great as 1. we had nowhere to be, 2. they have a dock in their backyard for Autumn Wind to stay.  Apparently, that is the deal in Discovery Bay; Check it out on the location button to the right.  Discovery Bay is deep, deep, deep into the Delta.  It's about as far as you can go in a sailboat.  Let's just say they stop putting depths on the chart when you get this far into the delta, probably because the chart makers figure anyone transiting this area has a powerboat.  I spent a lot of time staring at the depth gauge on this leg of the trip.  Anyway, they hosted us for two nights at their dock/house and made it very clear that we would be welcome as long as we liked.  Betty and Jim are some of the many people who have continued to inspire and encourage us that we are not crazy and this trip is very accomplishable.  At some time during our stay they reminded us that we were actually already on our trip.  We had moved beyond the planning stage and the "when we leave" stage, and we should accept that fact and stop talking about maybe we'll do it and start talking about the fact that we are doing it.  While at dinner at their yacht club they introduced us as their guests and Betty mentioned that we ARE (not maybe) doing the Baja Ha Ha.  So with that; all of the Stockton Sailing Club now knows Autumn Wind is going to Mexico.  I guess there's no backing out now!  In fact the day after we left them we hoisted the Baja Ha Ha burgee in recognition that the trip has in fact already begun. 


Saying Goodbye

Looks like the trip has started

Post Doo Dah Doin's in the Delta - Part 1

8-11-12 - Mildred Island, CA (again) - Day - Day 40

I suppose the first thing I should clarify is that Mildred Island isn't really an island.  So for those of you who are worried that this whole boating thing is a hoax and we are in a hotel on some island in California, it's not.  We are actually anchored out, on Autumn Wind, on (or in, however you want to look at it) an island.  At east it used to be an island, all be it lower than sea level, but the levee broke in 1983and it flooded.  Then instead of pumping the ocean out of the island (think New Orleans here) they left it flooded and now its a 1000 acre anchorage, that's 10 to 14 feet deep everywhere you go.  You just need to remember that there's still a levee around 99.5% or it, so be careful where you enter!  Just wanted to clarify the island thing.

With the Delta Doo Dah officially over; Autumn Wind has found herself plying the waters of the California Delta; trying to see new things and experience the Delta life before leaving.  We have found ourselves heading up the Mokelumne River and Georgiana Slough to Walnut Grove, Back down the Sacramento River to Decker Island again, up the San Joaquin River to Potato Slough and then deep, deep, deep into the Delta (probably as deep as a sailboat can go) to Discovery Bay.  Unfortunately our sailboat has tuned into more of a really slow river trawler the last week, as we’ve had to motor almost the entire 65 miles traveled to these locations.  We did put the sails up on the way to Walnut Grove, mostly so we could have right of way if needed.   



Georgiana Slough

License plate on the wall at Al the Wop's in Locke, CA

While our trip to Walnut Grove wasn’t all we thought it would be, it did give us a taste of the Delta life, was a new experience and gave us a glimpse of what it might be like to do this transient boat thing full time.  The trip up the Georgiana Slough felt like something out of the movie Apocalypse Now.  The trees and foliage closed in on each side of the boat, close enough that more than two boats would have a hard time passing.  I thought for sure that at any time the natives would appear out of the bushes with poisoned spears to attack.  It required a vigilant watch to make sure we made it.  We tied up at “Boon Dock” just short of the Walnut Grove bridge.  Believing that the paperwork was too complicated or just because she didn’t care; the lady we tried to pay for the dock space said don’t worry about it, so the night was free at least.  We spent the day touring Walnut Grove and the historic town of Locke; drinking at the required local establishments; Al the wops, Tony’s and the Bistro Wine Garden; having ice cream at Mel’s and then retired to the foredeck to sample cheap wine out of our new second hand wine glasses.  By wine glasses I mean those hefty four ounce shot glasses you see at bars. (They won’t break like real wine glasses, thanks for the idea Tara!) We were told that they were once shot glasses at Al the Wops, so that gives them some significance; I think?  We had planned to spend two nights in Walnut Grove, but fast forward to the morning at five AM and we started to hear the wrrrrrrrrrrrrr thunk thunk of every vehicle as it passed over the extruded steel deck of the Walnut Grove bridge. 

Walnut Grove Bridge - before it woke us up

  What are all these people doing on the road at this hour?  Oh yea, they have jobs.  I had forgotten about that part of life.  So it was sort of an early morning.  We took advantage of the early morning and our proximity to a laundromat  figuring that you never know when you’ll have the opportunity to wash your clothes in the future.  I walked to Mel’s (the ice cream shop that serves coffee in the morning) and brought back a couple of coffees and a nice muffin for us to share.  I was thinking “good job Brian, you remembered the muffin, Elizabeth will be so happy”  right about the time I turned the corner and there’s a Mexican food truck sitting in the parking lot of the Laundromat.  Elizabeth was outside and she excitedly announced that she had convinced them to make us some burritos before they left to make their rounds out in the fields around town.  “they make Breakfast burritos?” I asked

“Nope, just regular burritos, you get asada and I got chicken!” 

Needless to say we didn’t need lunch after my asada burrito at eight AM. 
.

Burritos for breakfast? (you can see the truck in the window.)

They take drinking in a laundromat
very seriously in Walnut Grove




Doing laundry is so much fun.

Decker Island anchorage

We left Walnut Grove and made it back to Decker Island where I figure it was time to stop fooling around and do some work.  Which I did for about two hours, after I took a swim.  I suppose boat maintenance is now my "work."  Not a bad place to go to work. 

It's tough going to work sometimes

Something to Think About

 8-5-12 – Owl Harbor Marina – Twitchell Island, CA – Day 34

With the Delta Doo Dah officially over, we have spent the last few days here at the last stop Owl Harbor Marina on Twitchell Island.  Owl Harbor is a place that seems to have a feeling unmatched by most everywhere else we have been.  It is probably not a place that everyone would enjoy, appreciate or even get excited about; but for some reason we are enamored with the aura and feeling that seems to seep from this place.  It is a feeling that is not always describable.  It exudes a sense of always being happy you are there to experience the place.  It is welcoming and wants you to stay and relax as long as you want.  It’s trusting, beyond most anywhere I’ve been.  In my opinion this is mostly attributed to Owl Harbor’s staff and particularly its owners.  The owners seem to want you to enjoy their facility, they trust you to use their facility, they appear to love their work and seem to do it for you; not for themselves.  It lends itself to a very unique atmosphere.  As I said this may not be for everyone, but if bikes available to borrow whenever, horse shoe pit (with shoes)  ready to use, honor system ice available (even an IOU pad if you forget your money), vegetables from the community garden available when there are extras and eggs from the chicken coup (depending on how the chickens were feeling that day) are not your thing; then this may not be your place.  So we thoroughly enjoy it. 

 This provides a segway for me into an anecdotal story I have heard and told to some people and which has been made into a song at some point that I recently listend to while relaxing at Mildred Island on our friends boat Annie.  I promised myself I wouldn’t do too much of this thinking / philosophical type of stuff on my blog so don’t worry I’ll stick to the glossy page kind of stuff most of the time.  It is the story of the Mexican Fisherman.

There was a wealthy American businessman on vacation in a little town on the Mexican coast.  He was spending some well-deserved R&R away from his highly successful life back in the states.  He was walking along the dock one morning when a middle age fisherman pulled alongside the dock and began to unload his catch from that morning.  The American noticed that it was quite sizable, in fact more sizeable than most of the other fishermen’s catches that day.  The American asked the fisherman,

“How long did it take you to catch all those fish?”
The fisherman replied,
“I’m not exactly sure, probably three or four hours.”
The American seemed surprised by this and said;
“You must be very accomplished at catching fish then, because you have caught more than all the rest”
“Yes” replied the fisherman “God has given me a talent to catch fish”
“Why then do you not fish more and then catch more fish?” asked the American.
“This is all the fish me and my family really need.  We eat some and sell the rest to buy the things we need”
“And what do you do with the rest of your day?” said the American somewhat perplexed
“Well, after fishing in the morning I sell my catch at the market and go home for lunch with my family.  We take a siesta in the afternoon and then I play with my children and talk with my wife.  We have dinner and play games in the evening and then I walk into town where I have a glass of wine, talk to my old friends and we sing songs until it is time for sleep.  Then I do it again the next day”
The business man got a glint in his eye and said,
“You know I am a businessman and it is my job to recognize opportunities and capitalize upon them.  I believe you have an opportunity here, would you like to hear about it?”
The fisherman was excited and said surely he would like to hear about the possibilities.
The businessman began;
“First of all, think of how many fish you could catch if you fished all day?  Then I would loan you some money and you could buy another boat, and with the extra money you have from fishing all day you could hire another fisherman.  You would teach him the craft and together you would catch more fish than you would ever need.  You would sell your fish and save the money.  Over time you could buy more boats and train more fishermen which in turn would give you more fish and then more money.”
The fisherman seemed excited and asked the businessman to continue.
“As your fleet grew bigger you would open a processing plant where you could ship your fish around the world.  There would become a desire for your fish and you would open up more processing plants in the states, San Francisco, maybe New York.  You would grow this business for some years and then you would recognize your dream and one day when the time was right you would offer an initial public offering on the stock exchange.  People would buy your business and you would retire and be rich beyond you dreams.”
The fisherman was intrigued and asked
“How long would this take me?”
“It should take no longer than fifteen or twenty years, during which time you will travel to your plants and see your business grow.  You will work hard and be rich one day because of it.”
“And what will happen then?” asked the fisherman, fully ready to become partners with the businessman.
“Why, you’ll retire, move to a small village on the Mexican coast where you can wake up in the morning and do some fishing.  You come home early and have lunch with your wife, maybe take a siesta in the afternoon.  Your children will be grown and presumably successful themselves, so you’ll walk into town, maybe visit with your friends who remain and sing songs and enjoy yourself.  Then the next day you can do it again if you like.

While some things are certainly easier said than done, the confluence of events and locations seem to make this story all the more thought provoking.  And while I may not have done justice to the story, I hope you get the point.  (Not to worry, glossy pictures of the PK’s travel extravaganza will be following shortly, along with good non-thought provoking stories!)

Doin' The Doo Dah

8-3-12 – Mildred Island, CA – Day 32

The DDD is so fun Elizabeth got a tattoo to remember it

We’ve finally left the dock and are now slipless.  It is an interesting sensation knowing that you don’t actually have a place to go back to at the end of the day and wherever the boat ends up is home for the night.  We've decided that after adding dozens of new things to the boat it would be in our best interest not to challenge the mighty Pacific right away.  So we have headed to the Sacramento/San Joaquin river delta; or as the locals call it "The Delta."  While my experience in the Delta is limited I would venture to say that it is everything that sailing in San Francisco Bay is not.  Where SF Bay is windy and cold and technically challenging; the Delta is hot, languid, a series of almost canal like waterways with a backwoods laid back sort of feel.  Like New Orleans and other places the water in the Delta is contained by man made levees and generally is 10 to 20 feet higher than the land on the other side of the levees.  The Delta is a place where people anchor their boat for a season, not an evening; it's a place where reading fewer feet on your depth gauge than you draw is almost an everyday occurrence; where as they say "if you haven't run aground, you haven't been to the Delta."  In essence it's a place where you go to relax in the summer heat and swim in fresh water; anchor almost anywhere you want and enjoy your boat as more of a floating condo  than as an oceangoing performance yacht.  What better place to check out our systems and get used to living on the boat than that!  So we joined the Delta Doo Dah.  The DDD is a gathering of fifty boats that travels loosely together into the Delta, stopping at certain marinas and anchorages; but only if you feel like it; and generally exploring the many places the Delta has to offer.  The Delta is a place where local knowledge rules, charts are great but things change all the time in the Delta, and the DDD helps connect people who want to explore but don't want to spend the entire time stuck in the mud.

Know where your markers are in the Delta

Speaking of being stuck in the mud...Thankfully we only found the bottom once so far.  It's a bit startling being awaken from your languid Delta sail to come to an abrupt halt in the middle of the channel.  After gathering ourselves and assessing the situation, Elizabeth asked me if the shallow spot was on the charts?  I looked and what do you know, it was.  As we relayed our misstep to others in the coming days it seems that the entrance to three mile slough is a fairly popular place to run aground as the shallow extends way out into the middle of the channel.  Unfortunately, we had a couple of knot current pushing us into the bottom so backing off wasn't an option.  After some failed attempts to run a line out to another sailboat standing by, we eventually hailed a power boat and they kindly pulled us off.  Looks like we owe some boat karma at this point in the trip. 

Enjoying Anchor Down's at Mildred Island

We were introduced to the Anchor Down cocktail by the Cooks on s/v Annie.  The essence of it, is that once you've entered an anchorage after a long day battling the ocean and you drop your anchor, you've got a few minutes to sit and wait to make sure it's holding and everything is good.  What better time for an afternoon cocktail than that!  While we may not have been doing much battling of oceans on this trip, that's still no excuse to miss Anchor Down's once the hook is set.

Autumn Wind and Annie at Decker Island
A civilized raft up

While this is our second DDD, the en-mass raft up is still a dance worth being a part of once in a while.  Frequently people will "raft up" a boat or two when at anchor so they can socialize and they don't need to dinghy around to see each other.  We rafted up with s/v Annie one night.  Simple, easy, sort of nautical feeling.  The other type of raft up is when you cram fifty boats into a little marina with slips.  You basically stack boats side to side as far out as the channel will let you.  It falls somewhere between a total mess and a finely practiced dance of sorts.  As people maneuver their second most expensive assets besides their house, and in some cases like ours it is their house, close enough together to throw the waiting people a line.  Then slowly one by one the boats stack up, maneuver into place and find any nook and cranny to park.  Next thing you know, there's fifty boats tied together in a spiderweb of lines and fenders.  Sometime it doesn't work quit as well as others and the whole raft shifts with the current and adjustments are made.  It's a great way to get to know your neighbors as you tromp over their boats, only inched above their sleeping heads, past their drying beach towels and water toys to get to shore, one boat after another.  You can't help but stop and say hi to a couple of them.  Then the next morning the raft breaks up and one by one the boats peel off.  Just make sure you are ready when you're the outside boat so all your new friends don't have to wait to leave!

Raft up at Sugar Barge, We are 9 boats out on the left raft!

On our way to sundowners on s/v Sea Star
Autumn Wind & Mt. Diablo in the background

We had a chance to give back some boat karma along the way as well as receive some.  Entering a harbor that no one really knew the boat directly in front of us ran softly aground, they hailed and threw us a line and we were able to pull them off easily.  That evening they brought over a couple of beers as thanks.  A small group of boats headed to Mildred Island and once there s/v Sea Star was looking to clear their engine intake and needed a snorkel mask.  We had one and lent it to them.  Later that night they had everyone in the anchorage over for full moon sundowner rum punches.  The same evening our friends on s/v Annie had forgotten propane for their grill, we had extra so we lent them some.  Then on  our way back from the rum punch party we stopped by and they had graciously saved us each an entire plate of food for dinner.  That led to more stories and more rum and I'll probably need another entire post to recount that evening...I think. 

We are now off to Owl Harbor Marina to end the Doo Dah, spend a couple of days relaxing after our week of relaxing, clean the boat, use endless power that I didn't have to generate myself and use all the water we want. 

Full moon rise over Mildred Island