What I Saw

[Philpott]

Dura Mater and I left Richmond for the Delta on June 14; motored all the way across the San Pablo thanks to Engine by Dave, ended up in Benicia for the night. Pulled up to the guest dock there just in time to catch the lines of Stink Eye, on her way back from the Delta Ditch Run. Ate dinner with Christine and Jonathan, then lunch the next day waiting for the flood.

After a BLT w Avocado we were off, sailed the whole way sideways and downwind with excellent wind. No spinnaker. Too many turns. Too much wind.



And here we are. Is it hot? Why yes, yes it is. Which is why I just finished my chocolate with breakfast. Don't want to lick it off the packaging later, it tastes better without paper bits.

Yesterday I got a ride on a really fast boat with a new friend, Ty Mellott and Devery Stockon, of Owl Harbor. Ty is the publisher of Bay & Delta Yachtsman magazine. We flew across Frank's Tract ("don't try this is in your boat") and ate at the Sugar Barge on Bethel Island.



We went to the Rusty Porthole first ("this is serious Delta country here") where we were greeted by an old friend of Ty's, Dani. Sorry, but the power was out. It will be fixed by the weekend. How fast did we go? So fast I wasn't allowed to stand up. Huh. 60 mph. Seriously. Faster than DM, that's for sure. Even with my new jib from Dave Hodges.

Gotta go. Major Max is flying in for the evening. Going to collect him in my air conditioned car. More later. Coming to visit? Bring your suit.

 

[sleddog]

Dura Mater and I left Richmond for the Delta on June 14;
Yesterday I got a ride on a really fast boat with a new friend, Ty Mellott and Devery Stockon, of Owl Harbor. Ty is the publisher of Bay & Delta Yachtsman magazine. We flew across Frank's Tract ("don't try this is in your boat") and ate at the Sugar Barge on Bethel Island.

Last we heard on these pages you were Roving Reporter for Bay and Delta Yachtsman magazine. But rumor is you have been relieved from the Delta reporting? Boat not fast enough? Proof readers not up to snuff? You wanted your beat changed to Bay and Delta Yachtswoman? Your fans wonder if there is a story we should know.

 

[Philpott]

Last we heard on these pages you were Roving Reporter for Bay and Delta Yachtsman magazine. But rumor is you have been relieved from the Delta reporting? Boat not fast enough? Proof readers not up to snuff? You wanted your beat changed to Bay and Delta Yachtswoman? Your fans wonder if there is a story we should know.

I write about Bay stuff over there and about the Delta over here. It's open season on the SSS Forum. hahaha. In more ways than one, even though I did delete that photo of the guy in the speedo. I still have it in my photo stash, in case you were wondering. Most of my best photos are the ones Bob Johnston posted years ago. He's got a great collection.

Here are some more photos from Owl Harbor. Mount Diablo across the alfalfa field



Some kind of flower. What kind? Tom P might know. Sue for sure will know.



Here's one of the newer owl houses up in the Eucalyptus tree under which I park the car



Tomorrow I'm driving back up, gonna sail DM over toward Mandeville, check out a place to anchor for the fireworks on July 3. I have strings of Christmas lights for Dura Mater's lifelines. Hopefully people won't be too loaded, and will avoid us at the end of the night. Who am I kidding?

Richmond Yacht Club is supposed to be on a cruise-out to the Delta, and Vallejo Yacht Club, too. If anyone decides to come up river bring BIG waterguns. These people up here are serious about water wars.

 

[AntsUiga]

Looks like an artichoke, but gone to seed so it does not look like the produce brethren.

Enjoy the delta.

Ants

 

[BobJ]

"I write about Bay stuff over there and about the Delta over here."

Yesterday the rack outside Danny's office was chock full of July editions of the B&D Yachtsman, including nine full pages of "What I Saw." I think Philpott's on a roll.

The rack also had a batch of the July/August Good Old Boat. This edition is focused on small boats, includes an article by Webb Chiles featuring Chidiock Tichborne and Gannet, and opens with a page of small-boat reminiscing by Wendy Mitman Clark that brought tears to my eyes.

The last reminds me that I owe DM a red onion. She came through town while I was between an A/C repair on the house and working with Dave* on the provisioning spreadsheet. I never brought her the red onion - sorry about that!

* aka the Dave in "Engine by Dave." We're double-handing the Pacific Cup.
.

 

[Philpott]

Lots of friends sailing to Hawaii in Pacific Cup and several starting the Long Pac on Wednesday. Then there's Todd Olsen out there being a single minded singlehander. I look forward to hearing about his trip.

Everybody's probably a little nervous, a little bit excited, wound up. Of course I will keep an eye on all the trackers available. Best wishes to all of you. Take care out there.

I'd like to add a bit about the nice, calm Delta. So near yet so far from preparations across an ocean. Dura Mater and I are swinging on a danforth in 30' of water on Three River Reach. We have a front row seat to the HUGE barge on the other side of the San Joaquin River from which there will be BIG FIREWORKS tonight here in ... my phone tells me we are in Lodi.

This is a real boat show. Don't think any different. Everybody has their best out here today. Buffed and detailed, with Huge American flags everywhere I look. Big gorgeous cabin cruisers, long lean power boats, beautiful ltrawlers. There are hundreds of boats out here today. Who knew a trawler could be so attractive?

My favorite boat (of course) is the beautifully painted Cal 39 across the way. This is their last outing before going back down to the Bay and out the gate to Mexico. How do I know this? Well, the owners of the pretty trawler came over in their dinghy to advise me regarding dropping anchor after I had hauled it up twice because I decided that I hadn't let out enough scope for the conditions - 18 knots with no wind break. They told me so. Thank you to Steve and Ali from Marina Bay.

I'm using this nice little doohicky from the Oakland Public library, so will be able to post this to the forum. Photos are a bit too difficult, though, so I'll save them for when I get back to Oakland.

Gotta go. The air show is starting. Jets. Unusual planes doing daring things. It's nice out here. Blue sky. Happy people. Lots of American flags flying.

 

[Philpott]

A while ago a dear friend called me up: "We're getting married at 11 am on the Fourth of July! In Tracy!"

Oh, swell. I wanted to anchor out on the water opposite Mandeville Point, watch the fireworks on the night of July 3. What to do? What to do?

I sailed down past Prisoners Point, anchored, watched the air show, then the fireworks, crawled into the VBerth and slept until 5:30 am on the morning of the Fourth.

This morning I woke up, pulled anchor, motored with Engine by Dave back to Owl Harbor. Left DM slightly disheveled, threw on a dress, arrived on time but slightly disheveled myself. Watched my friends get married after thirty three years of unwedded bliss, ate a lot of wedding cake. Tres Leches. How could I not? And this photo of Mount Diablo across the fields? This was my reward for waking early. Wow. Makes me happy.

 

[Lanikai]

Dura Mater and I are swinging on a danforth in 30' of water on Three River Reach.

An auspicious first Delta outing for Solo and me: After a terrific sail up and then a day of boat projects, I decided to stay put, read a book, and stick around for the fireworks like a real tourist. I took my nose out of "What I Saw" just long enough to gander over at the growing gaggles of party boats when I saw a lone mainsail creeping up from around Mandeville Tip into the mayhem. The cojones on that sailor, I thought - I don't think my insurance would cover whatever damage I would have inflicted while ping-ponging among the rafts of delta destroyers.
Then I saw that unmistakable gunwhale stripe that screams "Cal"...and then 3 portlights, one long, two short: a 2-27. Could it be? This is the Delta, after all. And sure enough, it was! The author in her natural habitat. I was a few hundred yards down the river close to the levee side.
That pristine Cal 39 had me fooled all weekend. The hull looked familiar, but that solent rig? Thanks for clearing it up. And thanks for writing a great book! I can't wait to get back over there in a few weeks and do some real Delta stuff.

 

[Philpott]

Thank you for those photos, Lanikai! I don't have very many photos of Dura Mater in the Delta. Before this year I didn't have a dinghy. Your photo of the big ship on the San Joaquin reminds me of that great scene in Lawrence of Arabia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9Uwau7rB8Q

You seriously just sailed upriver for the fireworks? And then sailed back? That's ... well, I don't know how to say this any differently ... that's lunacy! DM and I followed the fireworks barge back down river on its way back to San Francisco as far as Seven Mile Slouth. That was at 6 am, the wind hadn't even picked up yet and we were getting spray over the bow. You must've gotten very wet.

Hope you do decide to come up again. We'll be at Owl Harbor for awhile yet. Text me ahead of time and we'll meet up? Robbie Murphree introduced me around at some restaurants Friday night. She knows everybody. Next visit? Karaoke almost everywhere!

 

[Lanikai]

I admit I departed with no real plan except to ride the flood and see what happens. Worst case, a night in Pittsburgh or Antioch and I'll force myself to actually do some planning. Best case, get to the bedrooms like the doo-dah gurus of s/v Marrakesh suggested. But once underway, it was the best sail I've had in years, and I didn't even get to try my asym for the first time - just reaching and wing-on-wing for hours. A ditch run on something small and planing is high on the bucket list now. I kept track of fallback options along the way but before I knew it, the sun was just about to set and I was flying by the Hilton's hunting "cabin", still on the flood bubble. Stockton only 13nm ahead?! Why does it all seem so much more intimidating in the chartbook?

I planned to stay for the night and then try Owl Harbor, or head up to Georgiana, or leave the boat in Stockton for public transit options... but it was so pleasant - where was this notorious heat? And bugs? I only zapped two the whole time with my Harbor Freight electrified tennis racket. Even the motorboat madness was entertaining. Feeling too spoiled, and with some logistic hassles coming up this weekend, I figured I'd get the full taste of a delta cruise and swallow the medicine of a one-day motor return trip, knowing I'd be back asap for much longer. Other than a few miles of square waves between Pittsburgh and Port Chicago and losing a battle of sail vs flood in western San Pablo (had to do some sailing on the way back), it was cake, albeit diesel-filled. Next time I'll try the Suisin cutoff one of your interviewees suggested. It was unexpectedly windy all night and the morning of the 4th, wasn't it? After 7 mile slough the water was flat enough that it was a dry ride. My boat has a comically, even arrogantly, proud bow, so that helped.
What I saw of the delta was much more like east coast cruising, in the best way. Now I want a catboat with tabernacle mast to explore the far corners.

I'll look for you and DM at Owl Harbor in probably late July. Looking forward to hearing plans for "What I Saw part two: The Meadows".

 

[Philpott]

Awful nice nights up here. Quiet. No bugs. Well, none that get through the tulle.



Came around a bend in Georgiana and WHAT? There were sister yachts anchored in my parking space.

Well I wanted to park here, too. Can't be harder than parallel parking in Manhattan, right?

So I anchored w my plow bow out , tried to back into shore w my danforth but it wasn't catching. Everybody from both yachts had front row seats to the free entertainment. Fella came over in his dinghy, offered to help, I asked him where he was from.

"RYC", he said, anchor in hand.
"Me, too." said I.
"What? Wait", he was puzzled.
"My slip is on E Dock" I explained. "Way out there."
"Oh," he understood then how we had missed meeting. There are docks and then there are docks.



Here's a photo of Steve and Connie Hill's Soiree. They had me to dinner, served two kinds of cheese, salad and ... wait for it ... steak!!! Seriously wonderful!

Gary Troxel dug that danforth into the mud so well I had to jump in the water this morning in order to pull it out. My anchor hero.

 

[Philpott]

In Tomales Bay

I drove up to Tomales Bay, spent a couple of nights in my tent, from where I took this photograph.



Had a splendid time. Zoomed around on the race committee boats. Took lots of photos, sent 'em to Bay & Delta Yachtsman magazine, where they will show up in the October column. One of the boats, sail # 007, was called Honey Ryder.



Some of Skip's macapuno ice cream for the person who can name the actress who played Honey Ryder in the James Bond movie, Dr No. A second bowl for anyone who can find an image of the actress in that role and post it here.

Here's a photo of Skip and Sean on Smart Shoes. It was hard to miss them, they were everywhere.

 

[Critter]

Some of Skip's macapuno ice cream for the person who can name the actress who played Honey Ryder in the James Bond movie, Dr No. A second bowl for anyone who can find an image of the actress in that role and post it here.

Ursula Andress?

 

[sleddog]

Ursula Andress?

Pretty bold, offering up my Macapuno as a prize to your movie actress trivia... BTW, HONEY RYDER, #007, is Int 110 #7, oldest boat in Milly's Navy, built in the 40's. We call her the "bumblebee boat." There's another yellow boat, #608, named GOLDEN BANANA we call " Land-O-Lakes."

 

[Intermission]

Nice shells.

 

[Philpott]

Ursula Andress?

Congratulations, Max! Walk right over there to Skip's freezer and help yourself! Call me when you're on your way and I'll meet you there. And here's the scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ6oYLJG2gE

I asked if I could post the photo in my column but cooler heads prevailed. That's what I love about this forum.

 

[Philpott]

View attachment 7643

Pretty bold, offering up my Macapuno as a prize to your movie actress trivia...

thank you.

 

[Philpott]

HALF MOON BAY RACE 2022

For this race I was crew on Cliff Shaw's s/v Rainbow. To be honest? I didn't do much. That boat is big, everything on it is big, and I am not very strong. But Cliff didn't care. He's used to doing everything himself. So I was just a passenger.

After the start, with ONLY one tack at the north tower, we were off. Cliff asked me how I felt about going south of Mile Rock.

“What? That’s rocky coastline!” said I.

“Yeah, but look! Raffi’s already around the corner. If we don’t tack we’ll save time,” he said.

“Um, are you sure that’s not restricted?” I prevaricated.

“Well, it doesn’t say we can’t go in there,” said the Captain.

“There are a lot of waves and wind out there. There are a lot of rocks in there.” I stated the obvious.

Under a dodger on a big heavy boat? I was learning that many conversations can occur. Conversations that concern life or death.
“Okay, then,” said Cliff. “Unless you feel queasy about it, that’s what we’ll do.”

Well, by this time we were passing Mile Rock to starboard. Heading for that rocky coastline. The phrase “Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death…” ran through my mind. Also the fact that it was not my boat. So what could I say?

“It’s your boat. I’m in.”



So we went through and never tacked again the whole way. We gybed once as we approached G 1. It was perfect wind on Saturday.
We were a little disheartened when we saw that Raffi had turned and burned. s/v Lookin Good 3 passed us, its captain and crew grinning from ear to ear. They waved. We waved. Cursed under our breath.

It was a fast race down there, and we watched as a high number of boats turned around after finishing. That would make for a long day, sailing home again.

Rainbow spent the night and I got the starboard cabin, previously known as the “sail loft”. I learned a lot from Cliff. I watched as he set the anchor with a big strong bridle. Then we bounced across the water to the floating dock in his paper boat. It looks that way, anyway, but it is remarkably buoyant and we didn’t capsize once.

Dinner was paella. Clams, mussels, shrimp, sausage. Quite delicious. The chef made it in a big round pan the size of a round table for four.
Then we all stood around, waited for our hats leftover from 2018. The first place finisher, Joerg Esdom s/v Kincsom, beat everybody even with a 20 minute late start penalty. He coulda raced with the other 105s in the Rolex Big Boat series, but he raced with us. Maybe our little club is coming up in the world. His prize? A canvas SSS briefcase from 2002. Yeah, maybe not. Joe really wants to get rid of all that surplus swag in the storage locker. We are the little club that re-uses.

BTW Rainbow corrected out on Lookin Good 3.

Oh my! Oh my! Sunday morning in HMB it was foggy and raining and windy. Everybody was debating whether to stay or go. Dave and Co. made us breakfast and it was delicious. Except for that turkey bacon. I'm not fully on board with that.



Exiting the HMB harbor at 0930 the waves were impressive and smashing against the breakwater. I asked Cliff how he felt about the conditions. He shrugged.

https://vimeo.com/751402557

Once we got ‘round the corner the waves were bigger and close together. We saw sustained high 20s and lots of 30+ wind. As we approached the bridge he said, “Hmmm. I’ve never approached at the top of an ebb from this direction.”

“Ah,” said I.

We followed a tanker in, not knowing what to expect of the bay. At 1400 the bay was devoid of boats. Once under the Bridge the wind was a mere 20 knots. But then it built. Go figure. By the time we arrived at Emeryville Marina it was 27 knots. So we put her to bed in big wind, sprayed her down with water that went everywhere and ended the weekend on a high wind note.



Thank you, Cliff. It was a real pleasure to sail with you.

 

[Philpott]

VALLEJO 1-2

It was great to sail a long sail again, back and forth across the San Pablo Bay. A little tedious coming back, I will confess, but DM and I finished. Lovely is the night when all the bay is blues and lavender colors. After a bit of a kerfuffle at the start (Dura Mater's spinnaker shackle is now safe at the top of her mast), I realized that the wind in Mare Island Strait had changed from north to west, so we didn't need it after all. Took me awhile to notice. The wind was fine in San Pablo Bay until it wasn't. And then, toward the end, came the flood. Sigh.

Here is Dave Hodges, Master and Commander, arriving for the start on the Berkeley Circle.



Just before the bridge Chuck Hooper had his own bit of kerfuffle.



He worked it out in short time, though, and then he was OFF. There were two Contessa 33s in the race: Chuck's and Rodney Percival's. I learned this at the bar that night. I ordered two non alcoholic beers so I would look right at home, but really? What's the point? I bought two beers and dinner + tip, so I didn't feel guilty about not buying brunch. Guilt. There's so much of it everywhere nowadays. Instead I ate aboard DM. I sure love eating aboard my boat.



Sorta like Skip and Annie eating inside cozy Ruby in the woods.

As we edged our way home across the bay, we took so long that this big red tanker passed us coming down river and then up river. Here is Mike C on Jacqueline, avoiding the shipping channel.



Those big ships are huge, aren't they?

Here is Dura Mater inching her way to the finish. Thank you to Joe for the photo.




Thank you again to the race committee. Joe says he will miss watching us all finish. Unless he has forgotten how to sail, I hope we will see him on the water again for the Fiasco.

 

[Philpott]

This year I invited myself aboard Dancer, a 34’ Tiffany Jayne with a green hull just up E Dock from me.



The skipper, Richard Packard, hadn’t planned to race in the Great Pumpkin pursuit race, so he hadn’t registered. He was game for the fun of it, though. After replacing his working jib with a genoa, off we went Sunday to drift around at the start during the hour postponement. There were a whole lot of boats registered, and lots that weren’t.



125 boats finished. That Dancer is a sweet boat to sail in light wind and she held her own in the slot on Sunday. And boy, she can really point! Specially compared to Dura Mater. As the wind built I briefly worried, because I had never sailed with this person before. I realized that the skipper, the only other person on the boat besides me, was giving nothing away. We were being overtaken by bigger boats with bigger, better sails, and lots more crew. They surrounded us and he wasn’t flinching. I thought to myself, “I sure hope this guy knows what he’s doing.” And thank goodness, he really did.

The Tiffany Jayne is a double ended sloop and Richard has owned her since she was three months old in the early 80s. He said she was ordered built by a fella who sailed her once in Monterey Bay and decided she wasn’t the boat for him, the ocean wasn’t the water for him. So the builder sold her to Richard and I got to sail her in good wind Sunday. Thank you, Richard.

Here’s the boat Puffin.



Everybody on that boat was having a wonderful time dressed as pirates. They were still brandishing their swords hours later at the bar. Steve Buckingham and Rachel sailed with Jonathan and Christine on Stink Eye.



Here they are approaching the finish ahead of us. And here’s what I learned: Richard used this angled drill to raise his main. It worked awfully well.



Apparently the main can be raised six times with one charge. The drill costs approximately $300 and the winch bit is about $20. Huh. That’s less than the cost of either an Alerion 28 or a Wyliecat.