Saturday, 12/31/11
I planned to be*casting off lines at*10AM headed toward Napa for the New Year.* We got a late start and got to the marina at 1015!* Then the socializing kicked in with all the New Year's*revellers starting to gather for the night's party.* After our hellos and goodbyes, we finally shoved off at 1115 for our 5.5 hr trek down the San Joaquin, across Suisun Bay, through the Carquinez Straight and up the Napa River.* I'm busy watching the clock and doing the math trying to beat our 1700 sunset.
The sun was shining, the skies were mostly clear and there was no fog.* The tides were with us and gave us a 2kt push most of the way.* We were making good time and my revised ETA was now 1630!* Looking good!
Flying the new burgee Christmas gift from the Admiral!
Approaching the Carquinez Straight with
Golden Bear-California Maritime Academy in the background
We arrived after 5+10 enroute and settled in for another georgeous bay/delta sunset.
Our friend's dock was adorned with this beautiful North Pacific 43, Bushwacker.*
(Here's a link to his website.)*We*tied up to*the neighbor's dock for the night.
We had a great time with four couples crashing our friend's house while they were away cruising in Mexico.* Here's a shot of me getting busted while on a photo bombing mission!* The Admiral saw little humor in my highjinks.* I thought it was hysterical after I saw this picture.* This picture was taken about a millisecond before my cap went flying!* BUSTED!!
Sunday 1/1/12
In the morning, I had a little time to look a bit closer at Bushwacker and noticed the anchor, so I snapped a shot for Marin!*
After a lazy morning with too much food and great friends, we once again got a late start headed out of town.* We were bucking the tides and were making as little as 5 kts at our slowest point.* We decided to spend the night in Pittsburgh, close to half-way home, and see dswizzler, Mark and Cindy, on their 58 Vantare.* They were decorated for the season and greeted us with open wine bottles.* It was great hearing about their transition to living aboard.* Also got another brief visit in to the engine room and pilothouse helm.* There's something to be said for having an engine room large enough for a*workbench!
After a very enjoyable evening aboard the good ship Delta Swizzler, we headed back to our 'dinghy' to test out our new droid hdmi cable which allowed us to enjoy a Netflix streaming movie on our HDTV via the 3G smartphone!* Gotta love the new technology!!
Monday, 1/2/12
Next morning we*had a great breakfast at Nana's Place at the marina before topping off the tanks with 112 gal.* We*burned this during our past 30 hours of operation yielding 3.75 gph on twins at 8 kts...I'll take it!
All told on this trip, we clocked 97 miles in 12.4 hrs for an average 7.8 kts SOG.*
Safely home after a leisurely*cruise from Pittsburg to Riverboat Marina.*
-- Edited by FlyWright on Tuesday 3rd of January 2012 03:58:38 PM