July 4th CA Delta Fireworks - Long Multi-Part Post

[FlyWright]

I had the chance to spend a whole week on the water from the Saturday before July 4 until the Sunday after, so I jumped on it. The weather was forecast to be a perfect mid-80s to low 90s during the day and as low as 60 at night!

First day on the water was spent in my favorite ‘secret’ lagoon with the Admiral and my best friend, Gene, aboard. He had just purchased an 11 ft Boston Whaler with a lightly used Merc 15, so we dragged it along for a test day on the water. We had fun with that boat until the filter clogged with debris from the bottom of the gas tank. No worries…a new tank, hose and fuel filter solved that.

Sunday found us dropping Gene off at the marina and loading his new dingy onto a trailer for a run home to clean her up and get her ready for more time on the water later in the month.

A quick run to the store past the Delta Farmer’s market for some forgotten items…

…then Meg and I set sail for the summer party mecca of the California Delta, Mandeville Point for the Barron Hilton-sponsored fireworks on 7/3.

We cruised through the gauntlet two days before the fireworks to look for friends, get a feel for the turnout and check out the available anchorages. We found a roomy spot near the north end of the crowd where the boats are not densely rafted. We decided to grab it now and enjoy the show over the next couple of days. We set the bow anchor, launched the dingy and then set the small danforth stern anchor. After a little stern anchor drag on night one, we set a large danforth as our second stern anchor and never moved for the rest of the 3-day stay. We were close enough to the mayhem and our friends to be a short dingy ride away, but far enough back to avoid the late-night revelry and rap music!

We knew before leaving that Mark Pierce and Perla would be unable to join us in Carquinez Coot. We were disappointed but hoped Giggatoni would be joining us in his 42 Grand Banks. A first day late departure and next day hose failure combined to send Ray and Vicki back to their starting gate in Vallejo, so we never got to see them either. But they made the best of it with the Coots watching the Mare Island fireworks from their home slips. Judging from the food pics they sent me, they didn’t go hungry either!

Over the 3 days at Mandeville, we enjoyed spending time with old friends and fellow TFers.

We quickly found Mark and Cindy (Dswizzler) and their 58 Vantare. We had fun running around with them in their new-to-them 14’ Boston Whaler dingy with new ‘church pews’ by Mark and upholstery and bimini by Cindy.

We swung by Three River Reach and caught Matt and Jennifer of Pineapple Girl fame heading out for their own dingy adventure. We came upon SCary of Cary’d Away as we motored along and introduced ourselves. Steve also came by Delta Swizzler for a visit and we planned a later rendezvous, but were never able to coordinate another get together due to conflicting schedules. I got some shots of his beautiful 48 Hatteras though during one of our drive-bys.

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[FlyWright]

We joined some friends aboard their 47 Bayliner Pilothouse for what we considered the best fireworks show we had ever seen. It was great enjoying the show close-up on such a roomy bow with our friends.



The Fireworks Barge

Next day (July 4), we decided that crashing the Coot/Giggatoni party in Vallejo was a bit far for a day trip since the Admiral had to jump ship the next day. We decided to explore less-traveled waters for us and headed for Discovery Bay at the southern reaches of the Delta. It was to be an easy 1.5 hr cruise in mid-afternoon. But helping a nearby senior couple haul anchors then pulling our two stern anchors and the bow anchor and loading the dingy onto the swimstep in a crowded anchorage all took longer than we expected. We were under way 1545 and arrived at Disco bay at 1720…just in time for cocktail hour and a nice dinner at the marina restaurant.

That night we enjoyed a private showing of bootleg fireworks over Disco Bay during our post-dinner dingy tour. We even helped save a loose pontoon boat drifting away from its slip. We enjoyed a quiet night in the marina and in the morning checked out the local clothing shops (for her) and chandlery (for me). After a top off with water and a pump out, we were on our way back to our marina (2 hrs) to drop off the Admiral who had prior obligations.

Underway we found our head flush and RW washdown flows were restricted, so a little repair at the slip was in order. A quick cleaning of bark chips from the inline strainers resolved that issue and I was off for the delta waters again, but sailing solo this time.

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[FlyWright]

Willow Berm Marina

Lighthouse Resort/Joe’s Sports Bar and Grill

I texted PG and found they had set hook at my favorite ‘secret’ lagoon so I set course to meet up with them. Along the way, I found myself surrounded by Coasties engaged in a search for a capsized sailboat and persons in the water.

The search turned up nothing but a capsized red fishing boat that looked like it had been there quite a while.

It was removed from the waters by Vessel Assist the following day.

(more to follow)

 

[FlyWright]

I arrived at the lagoon promptly at 1700 hrs…Cocktail hour…what a coincidence!!

I settled in for a few days relaxing at my favorite spot, enjoying the company of Matt and Jennifer and a couple from Oz/NZ for drinks and a couple of dinners.

I enjoyed installing a second subwoofer (this one on my FB…wow!!!) and a speaker selector switch at the lower helm to allow me more control over FB/salon rear channel speakers. This now gives me twin Bose 3-speaker systems in the salon (1 subwoofer and 2 small speakers each) and the Bose subwoofer paired with my Alpine speakers on the flybridge. PG didn’t get any respite from the music that afternoon. Good thing we like the same music!!

As a trial, I also installed a new Aqua Signal LED dome light that provides better red/warm white light coverage at 0.1A than our old 1.7A incandescent fixture. As a fringe benefit, the bugs are less attracted to the LED lights.

The next day was a day of relaxation with the PG’s renting a stand-up paddle board for the day and a short dingy ride to the local Tower Park Marina for afternoon ice cream and a walk.

All in all, it was a very relaxing and enjoyable nine days on the water. We covered 68 miles in 9.5 hrs for a leisurely 7.2 Kts avg speed burning an estimated $105 of diesel and $20 of dingy and generator gas. Except for the strainer clog, all boat systems ran as expected. We abandoned the dry ice food cooler this year in favor of an apartment size fridge on the ship’s inverter. (We also have a Honda generator onboard.) It worked so well that we’re inclined to make the fridge a permanent installation.

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[markpierce]

Following the story with high interest, Al.

 

[CPseudonym]

Great story and pics. Thanks for sharing them.

In a couple of the shots I saw a line looped around the base of your forward rails, what purpose does it serve?

Nice to know also about LED's being less attractive for the bugs too, worth the cost for that alone.

 

[FlyWright]

In a couple of the shots I saw a line looped around the base of your forward rails, what purpose does it serve?

We leave our dock lines at our dock preset to the appropriate lengths. I keep a set of bow lines at the ready for docking and rafting. The bow shot shows the port and stbd lines in their ready position. I can access the stbd line from my stbd door along with my stbd spring. I typically keep my spring and stern lines stowed out of the way in the cockpit until I know which side I need to rig.

The shot over my stdb gunwale in post #4 shows a spring line at the ready as I was expecting to have to raft with PG. As I approached, I found I had enough room to anchor without rafting, so that line did not yet get stowed before I snapped the photo.

 

[CPseudonym]

We leave our dock lines at our dock preset to the appropriate lengths. I keep a set of bow lines at the ready for docking and rafting. The bow shot shows the port and stbd lines in their ready position. I can access the stbd line from my stbd door along with my stbd spring. I typically keep my spring and stern lines stowed out of the way in the cockpit until I know which side I need to rig.

The shot over my stdb gunwale in post #4 shows a spring line at the ready as I was expecting to have to raft with PG. As I approached, I found I had enough room to anchor without rafting, so that line did not yet get stowed before I snapped the photo.

Great idea and a very practical solution