Home	'Round Alameda 1/1/2022

(If you like, you can skip down through the prose and go straight to the pictures below!)

Well, another year with COVID-19 wzsn't what we wanted, but we certainly made the most of it to start 2022. The weather gods were good to us, particularly after almost two weeks of off and on rain. Warm sunshine and almost no wind made January 1st, 2022 a good day to be on the water. We had 22 people representing 5 Islander aboard thre boats on the water. Here's the list.

Boat	Owner & Crew & Guests
White Horses	Ruby & Rob Blenderman (crew on Luna Sea)
Kapai	Rick & Bryce Egan, Reanne Wong
Some Day	Roy & Melinda Samuelson, Dick & Joann Eigenbrod, David & Bridget Miller, Bill Sheehan, David Sheehan
Vanishing Animal	Rick & Sandy Van Mell (Crew on Kapai)
Luna Sea	Dan Knox, Myphi Alloy, Pam Prentice, Daniel Margulies, Marcos West, Karen Kleckner, Carrie Rehak (first time on Luna Sea)

We gathered off Encinal Yacht Club in the Estuary just after 1000 hours. Kapai had already circled about half of Alameda Island having arrived from their home port of South Beach Marina and picked up Rick & Sandy. The Luna Sea crew was gathering and had headed ut, but turned back to pick up one more crew. Meanwhile, Kapai slowly headed east and rendezvoused with Some Day, and then Lun Sea caught up in time to form a group at the Park Street Bridge. A powerboat and two other sailboats made up the floatilla that then proceeded trhough the three bridges to get to Aeolian Yacht Club.

There was a good crowd at Aeolian and some boats leaving from an earlier 0930 group headed up by Island Yacht Club. Thanks to COVID, there were servers and packeged hotdogs instead of lots of hands on cornbread, beans and salad. But the Bloody Mary's were just as good as always.

When we departed Aeolian, Luna Sea successfully braved the shallow water west of Bay Farm Island bridge and made it out into San Francisco Bay. Kapai and Some Day retreated back through the bridges into the Estuary. But, as you can see in the picture titled "A little thin," Kapai flirted with shallow water as the depth gauge touched 7 when she strayed a bit too far north after crossing the channel to Oakland airport. You can see the spot where the track line curves back into the channel.

For those that would like to know more, here are some basics. Alameda, CA is actually an island, just west of Oakland, separated by the Oakland Estuary. While the Estuary, particularly at its entrance, is wide and deep enough for 1000' container ships, when it narrows at its eastern end where three bridges connect it to Oakland, it's quite narrow and getting shallow fast. At the southeastern end, at San Leandro Bay, it is connected to Bay Farm Island - where Oakland Airport is located - by a 4th bridge. Going west from there into San Francisco Bay, there is an unmarked tidal slough that has 6-8 feet of water in an unmarked very narrow band and then a stretch of 2-4' of water to cross into the Bay itself. It's about 15.5 miles around the Island. Take a close look at the depths in the center chart at the left end of San Leandro Channel. Here's what it looks like on the chart: (click for larger image.)

Alameda - Overview

Alameda - Bay Farm

Alameda -Little channel

Here is a link to Aeolian's navigation page with a dramatic picture of the "channel" at low tide: http://www.aeolianyc.org/aeolian-navigation.html

So enjoy the pictures.

Pictures by Reanne Wong and Rick Van Mell aboard Kapai. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

Marina Village Gate 8 ...	Home to many I-36s ...	Ospry ...	Mambo ...	Zenith ...
Luna Sea.	Kapai... Rick, Reanne & Bryce	Sandy and ...	Rick.	Track to Aeolian & back
Here comes ...	Some Day ...	looking tall ...	reaedy to go.	Coast Guard
Housing rises at old Svendsen's	Now it's ...	Luna Sea ...	let's Celebrate!	High tide crush!
Big fuel barge.	Park St. Bridge ...	going ...	up ...	many thanks!
chugging through ...	looking back ...	just call.	Paddlers fun ...	in style.
Park St. closes.	Brig Kaisei	Fruitvale ...	going up ...	heading through ...
loking back.	Cheering section ...	from balcony.	I-36 Mischief	Hight St. opening ...
many thanks.	Returning revelers on ...	Glass Eagle.	We are through ...	Rick celebrates ...
ditto here.	Shore side ketch	Ocean cruiser	Approaching ...	San Leandro channel ...
to Aeolian.	Concentration	Bay Farm Bridge	Approaching Aeolian YC ...	clubhouse ...
up close ...	guest dock.	Kapai secure.	Second Wind ...	departs.
Luna Sea ...	happy crew.	Some Day ...	tied up.	Great prices!
Great crowd	Chow line ...	serve it up ...	good eats.	Kapai crew ...
All smiles.	Luna Sea ...	crew is ...	happy.	Some Day ...
crew.	Bay Farm opens ...	Luna Sea is ...	departing ...	Good luck ...
ready for...	their opening.	Kapai departs ...	more smiles.	Some Day follows.
Approaching High St. ...	A little thin!	Safe in channel.	Fruitvale Bridge ...	opens ...
but there is ...	strong current.	Last bridge. Happy New Year!	Luna Sea ...	looks great!

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