Sail - July 2018

JULY 2018

Morro Bay, and another fog bank rolls in...

The crew enjoyed the shameless kitsch of Santa Cruz

About eight of the vessels remain at Suisun. It

was fascinating to sail among these old relics of

former glory.

At er passing by Pittsburgh, we anchored in

a meander of the river behind Delta Island. h e

entrance to the anchorage is very shallow, so

much so that we touched the muddy bottom

several times. However, the channel deepened

again as we got further in, and we i nally set the

pick in 18t. h e next day we motored through

h ree Mile Slough, a sinuous, narrow waterway

that connects the Sacramento River to the San

Joachim River, then hoisted the sails in the main

channel and had a leisurely trip up to Potato

Slough against the ebbing tide.

Potato Slough is made up of a number of

channel loops known as “the dormitories,”

and we enjoyed paddling our inl atable kayak

around the islands and channels, poking in amongst the reeds and watch-

ing the cormorants roosting in the trees. h e water was warm enough to

swim and fresh enough to serve as a shower too—was this summer at last?

We dinghied around to the Pirates Lair, a small marina and pub that is a

popular haunt for sailors; it was a treat to prop up the bar and have a chat

to some of the locals.

We let the delta early in the morning, motoring against a l ood tide

in order to pass through the Carquinez Strait on the early ebb tide

but before the westerly winds kicked making the water in the strait

very choppy. At er that we motorsailed across San Pablo Bay into the

at ernoon sea breeze and spent the last night of our delta expedition at

anchor in Paradise Bay before returning to Sausalito the next day.

COAST HOPPING

Mark Twain once said, “h e coldest winter I ever spent was a summer

in San Francisco.” It was mid-summer, but we still had not reached the

warm water and sun-drenched beaches we had been dreaming about—

we needed to keep moving south. San Francisco to Half Moon Bay is

an easy day sail and a convenient place to overnight on the way down

the coast. We tucked in behind the breakwater at Pillar Point and took a

walk along the cli   op, enjoying great views of the harbor, the ocean and

Mavericks, the world-famous big wave surf break.

Leaving Half Moon Bay we dodged the crab pots that are a constant

hazard in the coastal waters of California, and which we always kept

a careful lookout for out until we reach a depth of about 300t. A light

northwesterly breeze i lled in during the at ernoon and we had a pleasant

sail to Santa Cruz, arriving just before sunset.

It’s possible to anchor on either side of the pier, and the bay is calm

and well protected, but the noisy barking and grunting from the sea

lion colony under the pier does tend to disturb the peace. Santa Cruz

is a wonderfully, shamelessly tacky place full of fairground kitsch.

h e pier and the amusement park on the boardwalk are a huge tourist