Home	'Round Alameda 1/1/2025

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

Partly cloudy and cool, but calm winds ushered in 2025 for your Islander 36 Association fleet. 23 Folks aboard 5 Islanders representing 8 Islanders in total enjoyed a smooth ride past the three bridges and floated effertlessly into Aeolian Yacht Club at 1100 hours on a tide rising toward 7'. Delicious chili, plain and jalapeno cornbread, and plenty of toppings washed down with Gin Fizzes and Bloody Mary's made for a delicious lunch. Most departed at 1215 at peak high tide to venture west through the Bay Farm Bridge to tread the thin water along the San leandro Channel to reach the deeper water of South San Francisco Bay to complete a circumnavigation. Also spotted by Vanishing Animal was I-36 sail #20 heading west at 0914 leaving the Estuary, and spotted again returning from Sam's restaurant in Tiburon by Luna Sea around 1430. 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. The San Leandro Channel goes west from there into South San Francisco Bay. It 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.

Here is a link to Luna Sea's video of the day. 'Round Alameda by Luna Sea. Here is a time table of various moments during the day. Read left to right, then down.

H:MM:SS	Event		H:MM:SS	Event		H:MM:SS	Event
0:05:15	1st Meeting		0:18:30	2nd Meeting		0:20:16	Passing V. A.
0:27:15	Park St. Br		0:32:15	Fruitvale Br.		0:35:30	High St. Br.
0:40:20	Mark G1		0:45:00	Making turn		0:52:45	Arriving Aeolian
0:54:00	Dicking Aeolian		1:41:50	San Leandro Channel		1:46:30	1st Corner
1:54:10	2nd Corner		2:00:15	Setting Sail		2:26:00	Arr Ballena Bay
2:29:30	Docking Ballena Bay		3:30:00	Sailing		3:46:10	Wing & Wing
4:01:00	I-36 #20

What a great way to start off 2025.

Mark your calendars for our Islander 36 Spring Meeting at Encinal Yacht Club on Saturday, March 1, 2025.

If you would like original images (these are reduced to 800x600) email Rick Van Mell with the caption and picture number.

Pictures/Videos by Dan Knox, Myphi Alloy, Ruby Wallis and Rob Blenderman aboard Luna Sea, and Rick and Reanne Egan aboard Kapai, and Rick Van Mell aboard Vanishing Animal. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

Boarding Vanishing Animal Sunrise 0720	Glassy calm	Under way	Jib set ...	Hunters Point ahead.
Kapai under way ...	SF skyline ...	Bay Bridge	Sunshine on Kapai ...	Cathy's happy ...
Bryce & Reanne too.	VA arrives Estuary ...	I-36 #20 ...	closer view.	Scrap metal carrier.
Big schooner.	USNS John Glenn	Old SF Lightship.	Jack London Square.	Arriving off ...
Encinal YC.	Kapai off Encinal 0950	Happy crew ...	nice burgee ...	standing by.
Kapai clicks Vanishing Animal ...	looking good.	Aboard Kapai.	all is well.	Here comes ...
Luna Sea ...	up close ...	nose to Kapai ...	and passes.	There's Evanescense ...
closer ...	Hi Smokey ...	and crew.	Kapai is ready	Family fun.
Vanishing Animal	USCG Cutter755 ...	and 752.	Park St. Bridge ...	Let's go!
Luna Sea ...	charges ahead.	Opens for us ...	thank you!	Another traveler ...
Passing through.	Kapai all smiles	Barque Kaisei.	VA leads	Fruitvale going up ...
here we come ...	lined up ...	going through	Thanks!	Tori gate?
Evanescense	Spectators cheer.	High Street ahead	Passing mark G1 ...	keeping warm ...
VA makes the turn.	Aeolian docking ...	getting ashore.	Evanescense ashore too	Ditto Dan & Myphi.
Kapai.	Luna Sea.	Evanescense.	Vaniahing Animal.	Welcome to ...
Aeolian Yacht Club.	Sandy gets wrist band ...	Thanks Barney!	Dennis checks prices.	Want some chili?!
Cornbread too ...	lots of fixins.	Cindy gets hers.	Delicious!	Evanescense table
Judy & Dennis	Rick & Cathy	Rob & Ruby	Luna Sea crew	Reanne, Bryce & Dan
Judy & Dan	Dennis, Judy, Rick, Sandy, Ruby	Cameos	Rob	Ruby
Myphi.	Rick gets a hug.	Time to leave ...	Waiting for ...	Bay Farm Bridge.
Treading thin water	Kapai is clear ...	Wind Catcher too.	Luna Sea sets sail.	Balena Bay dock ...
going ashore ...	tableside ...	ready to move on.	Round Alameda track.

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