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What I Saw
- Thread starter Philpott
- Start date
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
Beeeoootiful shot of the bridge, Jonathan! Is it the Walnut Grove Bridge? What are the hours of operation? do you know the bridge tender's name? Monitoring channel 9 during the days I was struck by the civility between sailors and the bridge tenders. The bridge tenders were professional and the sailors respectful. It seemed to work remarkably well.
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Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
Just come on up. Bring food. Chocolate melts. Annual chili cook-off July 22 at Owl Harbor.
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BobJ
Alerion 38 "Surprise!"
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Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
Dura Mater has been in the Delta for more than two weeks, the hottest weeks I have ever experienced. Still can’t stand on the sole of the cockpit without flip flops. I have ocean blue “slippers” which I bought in Hanalei Bay last summer as I waited to greet the singlehanders of the Singlehanded Sailing Society’s 2016 Transpacific Yacht Race. Those were the days. I’m surprised my slippers haven’t melted. All my chocolate has melted. The small mirror above my porta-pottie, attached to the wood with sticky back tape, fell off in the heat. The winches are so hot to the touch that I wear sailing gloves just to handle them. It’s a jungle out there.
Monday morning DM and I sailed from Owl Harbor to the B&W Resort. I left at about 8:30 am in the gentlest of breeze, past River’s Edge marina through the little slough in between the levee road and San Joachin River where I turned left. We drifted past the Spindrift Marina, with its motor yachts tucked away in their covered slips, boats from places like Petaluma and Denver and Portland. Passed within ten feet of one couple sitting on their back deck drinking their morning coffee. They smiled and waved. Just like people do in Oakland. Well, not really.
Except for a coupla fishing boats I didn’t see anybody else. Lots of birds, though. Cranes and quacking creatures. Certainly no other sailboats. What’s up with that?
By 9 am it was already really hot, so I raised my beach umbrella. Lucky for me Pelagic was steering. DM, Pelagic and I continued on until we got to the tip of the Delta Loop (look it up on your navigation map), then we turned left at Pirates’ Lair Marina and headed up the Mokelumne River. Still in the flood, and then we were on a broad reach. Very slowly the wind picked up, the river widened and curved ahead of us. We passed Moores’ Riverboat Restaurant with its big deck, long dock and inviting boat slips. It might be the Sam’s of the Delta. There was a sailboat tied up on an end dock. I’ll check that out next time. Then we were on a close reach and DM was going 6 knots effortlessly. A few more tacks, one more curve in the river and there was the Mokelumne River Bridge in front of us.
My understanding is that bridge-tenders prefer to see your boat before they start the process of stopping traffic. I used channel 9 to call the Bridgetender: “Mokelumne River Bridge, this is the sailboat Dura Mater approaching from the south. Do you read me?” No answer. I tried again. No answer. I reached for my handheld and called again. This was my first bridge and we were still in the flood. I felt like I was flying toward it. So much for planning ahead.
Finally the bridge-tender responded. “I see you,” she said. “Do you plan to sail through or motor through?” “Well,” I responded, “I have good wind, so I’ll sail through.” She did ask. But then I was horrified to hear, immediately, the sound of the Ding!Ding!Ding!, that sound of a train approaching, except that I was the train. I watched as all the trucks and cars stopped. The bridge started to move sideways for my little sailboat and all of a sudden my progress toward that bridge seemed to be pitiably slow. Did I mention that DM has been having battery issues? One battery works but the other one? Not so much. I was trying so hard to eek out a little more speed that I didn’t want to go below to switch to the #2 battery which works to start the engine. So there we were, making everybody wait. And wait. I send my apologies out to all you motorists.
As we sailed past the bridge-tender on her perch above me, I waved and thanked her. She leaned over and yelled “Most sailboats motor through!” To which I replied, “Sorry!” But that’s a lie. From now on I will always wait until I am much closer to bridges before I call. I will circle ‘round until the bridge-tender decides to open and I will be sure to use my engine in the future. But I’ll never be sorry that I really did sail through my first swing Bridge, up the Mokelumne River. It makes me happy to recall it.
At B&W marina I staggered into the cafe, light headed from the heat. Inside is a terrific, well stocked market. Lots of top shelf liquor, plenty of low shelf liquor, too. There were “slippers”, sunhats, toiletries, engine supplies like impellers and gas additives. There were fishing lures, spools of line and lots of candy. Many choices for soft drinks and a great choice of beer. There is a pool table in the middle of the café and several small tables with red and white checked oilcloth tablecloths. What’s oilcloth? It’s that material that rubberized rain jackets are made from. Sailors use ‘em.
The B&W café serves a limited menu of microwaveable or toastable food. Interestingly, it serves espresso, cappuchino and lattes. Most impressive: the B&W café has a soft serve machine with chocolate, vanilla, and chocolate/vanilla swirl!
“Do you like your soft serve in a cup or a cone?” asked the pretty girl behind the counter. Instead I went awalkin’ over to the ice cream fridge and got myself an orange sherbet pushup. Yep. They have ‘em. Worth the sail, if you ask me. Then, while I caught my breath I sat down on the swivel stool at the counter (there’s a counter) and ordered lunch. An English muffin with jelly. It arrived perfectly toasted, and I was again asked my preference. Strawberry or grape jelly? The jelly arrived in a big quart jar, and I was handed a spoon. That’s the kind of place B&W Resort is.
Little kids love B&W and there were a lot of ‘em running around outside. In a well-behaved way, don’t get me wrong. No yelling. Well, not loud yelling. No loud laughing. Well, not too loud laughing. They were awful cute. If you don’t like little kids, you might not like B&W Resort. If you have your own little kids, you all
might like B&W Resort. Your kids sure will.
The kids’ parents all have motor boats. I don’t know what kind of motor boats because I’m not a motor boat person, but they were all shiny and brightly colored, like big toys. Sitting in the bow of his parents’ boat, one little tow-headed boy looked slowly up the length of DM’s luffing sail. He turned his head and I heard him say, “Mama! Look! I’ve never seen a real sailboat before.” Which says a lot.
What does it say to me? Why, it says that poor child may have doting parents who like to spend time with him in quiet, bucolic settings. And those parents may have expensive boats and BIG engines. But I can see into that child’s future. That child faces the inevitable day when he’ll realize that he has been deprived. Deeeprived. And who knows where that may lead? Sailboat deprivation: a diagnosis with its own ICD-10 code. Look it up. Go on!
Monday morning DM and I sailed from Owl Harbor to the B&W Resort. I left at about 8:30 am in the gentlest of breeze, past River’s Edge marina through the little slough in between the levee road and San Joachin River where I turned left. We drifted past the Spindrift Marina, with its motor yachts tucked away in their covered slips, boats from places like Petaluma and Denver and Portland. Passed within ten feet of one couple sitting on their back deck drinking their morning coffee. They smiled and waved. Just like people do in Oakland. Well, not really.
Except for a coupla fishing boats I didn’t see anybody else. Lots of birds, though. Cranes and quacking creatures. Certainly no other sailboats. What’s up with that?
By 9 am it was already really hot, so I raised my beach umbrella. Lucky for me Pelagic was steering. DM, Pelagic and I continued on until we got to the tip of the Delta Loop (look it up on your navigation map), then we turned left at Pirates’ Lair Marina and headed up the Mokelumne River. Still in the flood, and then we were on a broad reach. Very slowly the wind picked up, the river widened and curved ahead of us. We passed Moores’ Riverboat Restaurant with its big deck, long dock and inviting boat slips. It might be the Sam’s of the Delta. There was a sailboat tied up on an end dock. I’ll check that out next time. Then we were on a close reach and DM was going 6 knots effortlessly. A few more tacks, one more curve in the river and there was the Mokelumne River Bridge in front of us.
My understanding is that bridge-tenders prefer to see your boat before they start the process of stopping traffic. I used channel 9 to call the Bridgetender: “Mokelumne River Bridge, this is the sailboat Dura Mater approaching from the south. Do you read me?” No answer. I tried again. No answer. I reached for my handheld and called again. This was my first bridge and we were still in the flood. I felt like I was flying toward it. So much for planning ahead.
Finally the bridge-tender responded. “I see you,” she said. “Do you plan to sail through or motor through?” “Well,” I responded, “I have good wind, so I’ll sail through.” She did ask. But then I was horrified to hear, immediately, the sound of the Ding!Ding!Ding!, that sound of a train approaching, except that I was the train. I watched as all the trucks and cars stopped. The bridge started to move sideways for my little sailboat and all of a sudden my progress toward that bridge seemed to be pitiably slow. Did I mention that DM has been having battery issues? One battery works but the other one? Not so much. I was trying so hard to eek out a little more speed that I didn’t want to go below to switch to the #2 battery which works to start the engine. So there we were, making everybody wait. And wait. I send my apologies out to all you motorists.
As we sailed past the bridge-tender on her perch above me, I waved and thanked her. She leaned over and yelled “Most sailboats motor through!” To which I replied, “Sorry!” But that’s a lie. From now on I will always wait until I am much closer to bridges before I call. I will circle ‘round until the bridge-tender decides to open and I will be sure to use my engine in the future. But I’ll never be sorry that I really did sail through my first swing Bridge, up the Mokelumne River. It makes me happy to recall it.
At B&W marina I staggered into the cafe, light headed from the heat. Inside is a terrific, well stocked market. Lots of top shelf liquor, plenty of low shelf liquor, too. There were “slippers”, sunhats, toiletries, engine supplies like impellers and gas additives. There were fishing lures, spools of line and lots of candy. Many choices for soft drinks and a great choice of beer. There is a pool table in the middle of the café and several small tables with red and white checked oilcloth tablecloths. What’s oilcloth? It’s that material that rubberized rain jackets are made from. Sailors use ‘em.
The B&W café serves a limited menu of microwaveable or toastable food. Interestingly, it serves espresso, cappuchino and lattes. Most impressive: the B&W café has a soft serve machine with chocolate, vanilla, and chocolate/vanilla swirl!
“Do you like your soft serve in a cup or a cone?” asked the pretty girl behind the counter. Instead I went awalkin’ over to the ice cream fridge and got myself an orange sherbet pushup. Yep. They have ‘em. Worth the sail, if you ask me. Then, while I caught my breath I sat down on the swivel stool at the counter (there’s a counter) and ordered lunch. An English muffin with jelly. It arrived perfectly toasted, and I was again asked my preference. Strawberry or grape jelly? The jelly arrived in a big quart jar, and I was handed a spoon. That’s the kind of place B&W Resort is.
Little kids love B&W and there were a lot of ‘em running around outside. In a well-behaved way, don’t get me wrong. No yelling. Well, not loud yelling. No loud laughing. Well, not too loud laughing. They were awful cute. If you don’t like little kids, you might not like B&W Resort. If you have your own little kids, you all
might like B&W Resort. Your kids sure will.
The kids’ parents all have motor boats. I don’t know what kind of motor boats because I’m not a motor boat person, but they were all shiny and brightly colored, like big toys. Sitting in the bow of his parents’ boat, one little tow-headed boy looked slowly up the length of DM’s luffing sail. He turned his head and I heard him say, “Mama! Look! I’ve never seen a real sailboat before.” Which says a lot.
What does it say to me? Why, it says that poor child may have doting parents who like to spend time with him in quiet, bucolic settings. And those parents may have expensive boats and BIG engines. But I can see into that child’s future. That child faces the inevitable day when he’ll realize that he has been deprived. Deeeprived. And who knows where that may lead? Sailboat deprivation: a diagnosis with its own ICD-10 code. Look it up. Go on!
Attachments
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Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
You are welcome, Lee. Thank you for helping Steevee get his boat home.
dolfinbill
New member
Hey Jackie, Love your reports on cruising the Delta. Sounds pretty buggy and hot but a unique experience that I will have to live vicariously through your posts as it's a long way from San Diego. Hope to maybe get up there next summer will probably head west instead of east.
Bill
s/v Dolfin
Pacific Seacraft 37
Bill
s/v Dolfin
Pacific Seacraft 37
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
Thanks, Bill. I've heard alot about buggies, but haven't really experienced them. Local speculation suggests that the State has dropped some kind of pellets in the water to mitigate the water hyacinth, which has also suppressed the mosquitoes. Either way, between the Skin So Soft and the tutu screens, I haven't been bitten except that once.
Don't tell me you plan to do that crazy person race across the ocean again? Instead of heading into the belly of the Delta beast? Well, alrighty then. Certainly Dolfin is meant for blue water. In the meantime I'll try to keep you entertained with stories and pretty pictures and I look forward to seeing you at the Corinthian.
brianb
Olson 34 Driver
Very nice report Jackie. Personally the only time I have spent sailing in the Delta, and actually stayed there, was on a Hobie 16. We camped in the reeds somewhere. Your report brings it alive. I do recall bugs and staying away from the black metal frame of the boat at high sun angles. Someday I will have to do a vacation trip up that way.
BB
BB
Yup, more, please! Great pictures, too. I was planning to find a 4 or 5 day weekend for a round trip cruise, but I'm now sold on parking my boat up there for a month or two of weekending. Thinking September-October, thinking it's still warm and delta-like but not oppressively so.
Daydreamer
SAILOR
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
There are phenomena in the Delta known as The Voices of Reason. They are experienced when people visit from Outside Over There. Since only three guests have visited Dura Mater and me in the Delta I have very limited data so far, but this is my first trip so let’s wait to see if additional experience confirms the need for further study.
The Voice of Reason came to collect me a few days after I arrived in Owl Harbor. He came in the middle of the day, when it was already wicked hot. I encouraged him to arrive early, when it is cool and lovely, but The Voice of Reason thinks like a city person, so he waited a bit to avoid the traffic. Well, of course no one drives from Oakland to the Delta in the middle of the week. Anybody can see that from the traffic on the other side of the freeway. But there is no arguing with The Voice of Reason, so I trudged up to the levee road in the blazing heat when he arrived at 10:30 am.
He rolled down the window of the air conditioned car and blinked. “It’s hot!” Yes it was hot. It’s hot every day here, but the Really Hot would arrive later. He rolled the window back up and smiled at me through the glass.
“Lunch?” I mouthed?
“Sure. Get in.” He replied.
“Let’s sail. It’s cool on the water. There’s a breeze out there. It will only take ½ hour.”
“But we have a car,” said the Voice of Reason.
“But we have a boat,” I insisted. “I don't know why we should drive a car when we have a perfectly good sailboat.”
“Because it’s air conditioned in here.” The Voice of Reason waited me out. I could feel the heat melting my flip flops, so I sighed and got in. We drove to Korth’s Marina, had a nice lunch at the diner there, then drove back to J Dock.
“Come have a cup of coffee on the boat before we go back. The cockpit is shaded,” I lied.
We walked down the dock to Dura Mater I got my beach umbrella out and stuck it in the winch holder for him. When we sat real close there was shade for both of us, and there was a nice little breeze. There is almost always a nice breeze in the Delta, something Voices of Reason tend to forget.
He pointed to Stink Eye’s perfectly situated triangular tarp: “Why don’t you have one of those? Or one of those?” He eyed a ski boat motoring by us. It had a bright red bimini that matched its gelcoat. The bimini provided shade to everybody sitting on its white leather seats and all their margarita glasses, too.
I told him about my conversation with the nice man at Pirates Lair diner a week earlier. The man told me that he had just paid $1000 for a bimini for his small motor boat. “It was worth every penny,” he told me proudly. And I believe him. But a bimini is not worth $1000 to me because I already have a beach umbrella.
After we drank our coffee it was time to go back to Oakland.
“Well, this is a nice place here,” The Voice of Reason admitted. “Maybe next time we’ll sail.”
Mebee. Mebee not. But hope springs eternal.
The Voice of Reason came to collect me a few days after I arrived in Owl Harbor. He came in the middle of the day, when it was already wicked hot. I encouraged him to arrive early, when it is cool and lovely, but The Voice of Reason thinks like a city person, so he waited a bit to avoid the traffic. Well, of course no one drives from Oakland to the Delta in the middle of the week. Anybody can see that from the traffic on the other side of the freeway. But there is no arguing with The Voice of Reason, so I trudged up to the levee road in the blazing heat when he arrived at 10:30 am.
He rolled down the window of the air conditioned car and blinked. “It’s hot!” Yes it was hot. It’s hot every day here, but the Really Hot would arrive later. He rolled the window back up and smiled at me through the glass.
“Lunch?” I mouthed?
“Sure. Get in.” He replied.
“Let’s sail. It’s cool on the water. There’s a breeze out there. It will only take ½ hour.”
“But we have a car,” said the Voice of Reason.
“But we have a boat,” I insisted. “I don't know why we should drive a car when we have a perfectly good sailboat.”
“Because it’s air conditioned in here.” The Voice of Reason waited me out. I could feel the heat melting my flip flops, so I sighed and got in. We drove to Korth’s Marina, had a nice lunch at the diner there, then drove back to J Dock.
“Come have a cup of coffee on the boat before we go back. The cockpit is shaded,” I lied.
We walked down the dock to Dura Mater I got my beach umbrella out and stuck it in the winch holder for him. When we sat real close there was shade for both of us, and there was a nice little breeze. There is almost always a nice breeze in the Delta, something Voices of Reason tend to forget.
He pointed to Stink Eye’s perfectly situated triangular tarp: “Why don’t you have one of those? Or one of those?” He eyed a ski boat motoring by us. It had a bright red bimini that matched its gelcoat. The bimini provided shade to everybody sitting on its white leather seats and all their margarita glasses, too.
I told him about my conversation with the nice man at Pirates Lair diner a week earlier. The man told me that he had just paid $1000 for a bimini for his small motor boat. “It was worth every penny,” he told me proudly. And I believe him. But a bimini is not worth $1000 to me because I already have a beach umbrella.
After we drank our coffee it was time to go back to Oakland.
“Well, this is a nice place here,” The Voice of Reason admitted. “Maybe next time we’ll sail.”
Mebee. Mebee not. But hope springs eternal.
Attachments
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
https://vimeo.com/230831573
So, why is there no information posted anywhere about currents above Carquinez Straits? I read an article on NOAA about how it is expensive to maintain stations. Is there any way of determining it based on depth and tides?
So, why is there no information posted anywhere about currents above Carquinez Straits? I read an article on NOAA about how it is expensive to maintain stations. Is there any way of determining it based on depth and tides?
Philpott
Cal 2-27 Dura Mater
Thank you. I'll read more closely. Goggles from Alpine Meadows, Winter 2002.