Glen Cove Marina, Carquinez Strait

July 25

Up before the sun, but not before the birds start singing, we depart at 5 a.m.  It is very still on the water.  As the sun rises, so does the breeze.  Coupled with the ebbing tide makes for some rough water.  We're zipping along with a 3 knot push at times.  Going under the railway bridge is a little daunting still, but we proceed with confiddence and don't even slow down.  By 08:30 we arrive at our destination.  Glen Cove Marin is across from the C&H sugar refinery at the Carquinez Bridge.  Threading the entry is tricky with the current on our starboard.  No sooner did we enter then we nearly come to a stop as the advertised 10 ft depth evaporated to 4.  With full throttle Brad pushed our 6.5' keel through the mud as there was no other option. Winding our way through the marina, to the guest dock, Brad turned the boat around in a very small space and I stepped off to secure the lines.  Once again the temperature broached 100 degrees.  No longer able to tolerate the heat we brought a water hose up to the shade on the grass and drenched ourselves.  As point of interest, this marina was created when a man bought a light house for a dollar from the coast guard at nearby Mare Is.  and barged it up the river,  under a bridge to its current location.  This former lighthouse is very decorative and may be rented for events.  Glen Cove Marina is 40 dollars a night with a Boat US membership.  Although quiet, there is not much close by to do with the exception of a fine walking trail.  We will be moving on tomorrow at high tide to hopefully a cooler locale.

Rio Vista, Delta Marina

July 21-24

We are now considered River Rats.  Now that we have traveled up the Sacramento river and officially in fresh water we are river rats.  The trip from Emeryville was uneventful.  We left at 06:00 after filling up the fuel tank, in order to ride the flood tide all the way to Rio Vista, most of the time getting a 2 knot push up the river.  We traveled under quite a number of bridges only one of which was a tight fit.  We have a bridge clearance of 65' (from the top of the radio antenna to the water).  The tight fit was under a railroad bridge which has a reported 70' clearance to the water.  Should be easy fit but still made Susan and I nervous.  We made it no problem, even with Amtrak going across while we went under.  Lots of low foot hills with dead grass and windmills, very different scenery from Vancouver Island last year.  After 7 hours and 54 nm we arrived at Delta Marina.  The depth gauge jumped around from 9 feet deep  to only 6.5' deep (we need 6.5' to not hit bottom), which made me nervous that we would hit bottom.  As it turns out there are plants growing up from the bottom the made the depth finder think the bottom was not as deep as it was.  We have spent 4 nights here, walking around, relaxing, taking the dinghy out on the river, and today Susan's mother and father drove up and visited for a while.  Had lunch at Foster's Big Horn Cafe, it has one of the biggest taxidermy displays in the world.  Bill Foster in the 20's and 30's took many hunting trips to Africa, Canada, Alaska and the US.  As you can see in the pictures it is an amazing display, and kind of sad.  We took advantage of having a car and made a trip to the grocery store for more supplies.  Some of these supplies included ICE CREAM.  Have I told you how hot it is here,  it reached 94 degrees today and zero wind.  At least it is a dry heat at 36% humidity.  Susan and I would sit on the back deck and spray water on ourselves to cool off which helped.  Then we got crazy, after some Mikes Hard Lemonade and  Ice Cream, and staged a wet tee shirt contest.  Susan won.

The plan is to leave around 5 a.m. to ride the ebb tide to Glen Cove marina half way up towards San Francisco and hopefully cooler temperatures.

South Bay/ Emeryville

July 17

Away from the dock by 11:00, we set the sails with two reefs and head south.  The wind is about 12-15 knots with occasional gusts. Mostly broad reaching the sail is more comfortable today.  We sail past Hunters point, see planes landing and departing SF International airport.  There are around six ships anchored out in the middle of the bay.  One is off loading to a barge a loose dirt like material.  We turn back toward Alameda.   We were able to have a very nice relaxing 11 mile sail before once again turning on the motor.  The plan is to stay at a marina in the Oakland inner harbor.  There are four large cargo ships moored in the harbor in various stages of loading and unloading.  When we get to where the marina should be, we do not see any marina that would warrant the 70 dollar a night fee.  They all look run down, not safe.  So Brad calls Emery Cove were we stayed the first night and made reservations to stay over the weekend.

Sailing in the South Bay

Ship unloading South Bay

Light House on Yerba Buena Island

Old main span missing SF-Oakland Bay Bridge

Oakland Inner Harbor

Jack London Square 

Jack London Square