Home	'Round Alameda 1/1/2023

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

Yesterday San Francisco received 5.46" of rain, 2nd most in recorded history, and it was still raining at 8:30 pm. Yet Sunday, January 1, 2023 dawned totally clear and the 50 degree 8:00 am temperature warmed to 63 degrees by early afternoon. The day's high tide, a great 6.7', was, unfortunately at 0740 and was already falling when 3 Islander 36s joined about 25 other boats for the traditional 'Round Alameda Parade. We had 18 people representing 5 Islanders aboard the three boats on the water. Here's the list.

Before we get into the rest of the story, 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:



Since, as you saw on the chart, there is only about 2 - 3 feet of water at the end of the passage under Bay Farm bridge and along Bay Farm Islnad until you reach navigable water in south San Francisco Bay, truly "going around" would have required a zero-dark-thirty departure to be safely into SF Bay before 0900. Therefore the general consensus was that clubs owuld gather in the Estuary near Encinal Yacht Club, or off Alameda Marina in the 0915 - 0930 time frame and go as far as Aeolian Yacht Club for their wonderful hosiptality in the 1000 - 1130 time frame. Then most all would retreat back under the 3 bridges to the deep waters of the Estuary, rather than attempting the shallow channel out to the Bay.

There were approximately 15 boats in a stretched out pack that approached the Park Street Bridge at about 0945. Sev en of us made it through the first opening. Then we all cycled through the Fruitvale and High Street bridges enjoying a beautiful morning and wishing each bridge tender a Happy New Year with thanks as we passed.

Even though there is a deep (12 - 15') barge channel that runs south to the Oakland Airport, the roughly 8' deep channel west to Aeolian, while having red channel marks, has only one green mark. And, the transition between the two is itself shallow and not marked. As Kapai led the fleet on the leg south steering for the airport control tower which is in line with the deep water, skipper Rick Egan noticed that the engine was running hot and we had white smoke coming off the transom. Slowing down to idle seemed to stabilize the tempeerature and reduced the smoke. On the way to the rendevous in the Estuary, Kapai had hit something that fouled the propeller and was able to clear it by going in reverse, and the engine had seemed to return to normal. As a precaution we hailed Luna Sea, just astern of us, and requested a tow into Aeolian harbor. You'll see some pictures taken as screen grabs from Dan's Go Pro camera as they came alongside. Note the white smoke at the stern of Kapai. Rick Van Mell readied the tow line on the bow, then tossed it across to Rob Blenderman on Luna Sea. Rob quickly put a bowline in the end of the tow line and then fed another line through it to form a bridle across Luna Sea's stern for a better towing angle. So we had 4 Islander skippers pulling off this caper: Rick Egan steering Kapai, Dan Knox steering Luna Sea, with Rick Van Mell - Vanishing Animal, and Rob Blenderman - White Horses handling lines.We had drifted south to the shallow edge of the channel, but Dan was able to power back into the channel and we arrived at Aeolian without incident in about 4 minutes. Here is a link to Dan's video of the day from the start through most of the return. Dan's video. It is in 10 segments, and you will see the approach and tow line pass starting at 3:00 minutes into video 4 of 10.

We tied up in slips at Aeolian and joined the crowd for the festivities. Though Aeolian has a wonderful reputation for Chili on New year's Day, for this early arrival they served up tasty breakfast buritos, still with their classic Bloody Mary's and Gin Fizz. While enjoying food and drink, we watch one intrepid skipper head west under the Bay Farm bridge for the shallow crossing into SF Bay. Didn't know his draft, but hope it was pretty shallow! We had enough concern for just getting back the way we came that we started back by 1120. While ashore we heard that there were two boats that had run aground trying to get to Aeolian. The Aeolian work boat had unfortunately broken down and the boats aground had called for TowBoatUS to get them off. As we headed back you can see the white boat to the right that was aground and the red channel mark to the left and realize that you didn't have to get far from the marks to be aground. You can see Kapai's stern just under the boom to the right of the mast. You can follow the video atarting at 4:00 minutes into video 10 of 10.

We all passed back through the 3 bridges and headed for home ports. Kapai tied up at Alameda Marina, and, thanks to Rick & Cathy had a glass of wine to toast the New Year before Rick & Sandy climbed into their Land Yacht for the drive back to Mountain View, while Rick & Cathy cast off for their ride back across the Bay to South Beach Harbor. As a fitting epilog to the 6 bridge openings that we had caused, distressing, we are sure, many mororists, Rick & Sandy were stuck in traffic on Park Street as the bridge opened for yet more boats returning from Aeolian.

Here is a link to a video posted on Island YC's web page of the 2021 'Round Alameda that includes Vanishing Animal, Kapai, Full Circle and Cassiopeia. Nice video of the event and our Islanders. Island YC 'Round Alameda video. So enjoy the pictures. If you would like original images (these are reduced to 800x600) email Rick Van Mell with the caption and picture number.

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

Keeping warm, waiting for ...	Kapai ...	hi Cathy!	Under way ...	Luna Sea & Some Day
2022 Island YC Commodore	More boats	Some Day	Luna Sea ...	Rob, and ...
Dan & Myphi	More boats	Big tug	Heading for ...	Park St. Bridge ...
Waiting ...	waiting ...	going up ...	heading through ...	Thank you!
The parade ...	powers through.	Catch The Wind	Kaisei	Approaching Fruitvale br ...
Some Day to ...	bridge tender ...	open please.	Happy crowd ...	lots of boats ...
safely through.	High Street ...	going up ...	Thank you!	Into San Leandro Bay ...
Aim for the tower ...	Approaching Kapai ...	ready tow line ...	airborne ...	Rob's got it ...
bridle into bowline.	In our slips ...	Rick photos ...	Luna Sea Crew.	Kapai crew, Rick, Sandy & Cathy
Luna Sea	Kapai	Aeolian YC ...	dock view ...	great crowd ....
on the deck ...	happy people ...	full tables ...	chow table ...	Some Day table.
Bay Farm Bridge opens ...	for brave skipper.	Myphi says ...	time to go back.	Tide is falling ...
The White boat is aground.	Safe back in deep channel.	High Street opens ...	heading through ...	Kayak crews ...
enjoy the day.	Some Day passes ...	Fruitvale bridge.	Park Stree bridge ...	opens.
Back in open water.	Cheers to ...	Luna Sea, and ...	Myphi.	Same to ...
Some Day.	Back at Alameda marina.	We're stuck in traffic ...	for Park Street Bridge!

Return to I-36 Home Page