Home	Vallejo / Napa Cruise July 1-4, 2011

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

Now, gosh darn, it was one fine July 4th rendezvous. In total, we had 23 Islanders represented by something like 53 people - 14 boats on the water and floating proud, and 9 who drove into Vallejo or Napa. Six dogs added fun and frolic to the mix. Add the 1 -2 dozen neighbors Tim & Rhonda first asked if we could tie to their docks and invited them over for a glass of wine to celebrate the fleet arrival, and we're approaching 75 happy thank-yous for a great weekend. It was as good as any I-36 rendezvous -- learning, sharing, funning and helping each other -- even getting off the mud! But, we'll take it day by day, and you can enjoy it as it unfolds.

What a great way to start off our July 4th Weekend! No less than 16 Islanders were represented by 32 people on Friday evening as the fleet tucked in at Vallejo Yacht Club. It was a gentle ride under power almost all the way up to Vallejo as a hot high pressure ridge choked off the afternoon sea breeze.

There was some nice sailing as the fleet sailed across "the Slot" directly east of the Golden Gate headed for the rendezvous point at Southampton Shoal Light. A building strong flood tide slowed down the boats coming out of the Oakland Estuary, and they were up to an hour and a half behind the first boats. But, lucky tail-ender Brigid got to watch the 45' America's Cup catamarans playing just astern as they passed Treasure Island.

Meanwhile, Snowflower led the pack away from Southampton a little before 1130 hours. What wind there was died in the shadow of Angel Island, and Woodbine, White Horses, and Vanishing Animal formed a pack astern of Snowflower. Setting their engines at a low idle and making about 4.0 knots through the water, they were slowly accelerated by the current up to 6.4 knots as they worked toward San Pablo Bay.

At one point, Woodbine was only a few boat lengths east of Vanishing Animal but her speed dropped to 4.5 as she crossed a back eddy along the Richmond piers. A good turn to port soon had her going over 6 again -- but about 5 boat lengths farther astern. Tacoma Blue experienced the same thing when she turned tight at the entrance buoy to San Pablo Bay while Ophira held north into the faster current out toward mid-channel. All were great lessons to be learned while motoring on glassy water.

One by one boats arrived at Vallejo Yacht Club and systematically rounded up at the dock into a Med-Moor row with bows out and sterns to the dock. What an impressive sight to have 10 Islanders with spars, spreaders and bows all lined up. Check out the pictures below. Freedom Won reported she was checking out some smoke, and when it turned out she had lost coolant and was overheating, Luna Sea took her in tow to the harbor entrance, and Freedom Won limped into line on her own. Even when Brigid approached the dock and lost throttle control, all hands gently eased her to a stop and spun her into line as nice as you please. (John figured out that his fan belt had broken, leading to the overheating, and replacing it solved his problem. Corky later figured out that the throttle lever screw at the engine had loosened and was easily put back into perfect condition.)

Lots of great conversations on Vallejo's shaded deck, aided by nibbles and libations, lingered long into the afternoon and casually blended right into potluck dinner. There were many more VYC folks than at previous Vallejo stops, but everyone contributed to one long community table and a good time was had by all. After a warm ride up and a long afternoon, the fleet kicked back as twilight made it's late mid-summer fade around 2100.

So check below for the folks who came on Friday, and those planning to come on Saturday or Sunday. It's a great turn-out, and your Islander fleet is alive and well.

A pleasantly cool breeze filtered through the fleet on Saturday morning. Clear skies (lacking the common summer fog) also spelled another hot day ahead. But first the fleet was water-bound with a minus 1.0 foot tide which exposed the bottom all around the Vallejo harbor.

At 1100 hours the skippers gathered on the Vallejo Yacht Club deck to get their Napa docking assignments and entry order into Tim & Rhonda's channel. By 1135 we had cleared the harbor and gathered at the Mare Island bridge. Circling to avoid being swept into the bridge by the building flood current, the bridge tender held us for downbound traffic and one disabled car. 1140 had the bridge up, and as Rick read (and spelled) each of the 13 names to the bridge tender, the fleet powered on into the Napa River.

With Sandy at the helm, Rick watched the GPS icon trace a track across the laptop screen at the nav station. Hand signals indicated "good course", or left or right adjustments. Using the "5 minute projector", or "Narwhal", on the boat icon gave a good idea where the boat was pointed and an adjustment toward the deepest water was straight forward. We used this method until the channel narrowed to perhaps 100 - 150 feet and the chart no longer showed any variation in depth.

Along the way, we ran some "instrument tests". Very interesting with 14 boats reporting. At first some boats were asking to go a little faster. At the time lead boat Vanishing Animal was showing about 6.7 knots through the water, and about 7.1 over the ground. Since this already seemed fairly fast, we did a radio roll call asking for Boat Speed and GPS Speed. Since all boats were going at relatively the same speed (no one was passing anyone) we would have expected quite similar speeds. Only 6 of the 14 boats reported boat speeds, but all 13 reported GPS speeds. Reported boat speeds ranged from 4.3 knots to 7.2 knots. GPs speeds ranged from 6.3 to 8.6. The boat speeds, in order received, were: 6.2; 4.3; 5.5; 5.9; 6.0; and 7.2. GPS speeds, in order received, were: 7.0; 6.5; 7.3; 8.0; 6.3; 7.2; 7.8; 7.8; 6.7; 7.6; 8.1; 8.6; and 7.3. Sufice it to say that as much as we have become captivated by the "accuracy" our our digital electronics there is obviously a considerable difference among units in the same general area. It says the same thing about boat speed instruments. All a good reason to maintain those basic dead reckoning navigation, "6th sense" navigation skills.

Another test was started when Tacoma Blue asked Vanishing Animal for a depth sounder reading. The reply was, "15.9 feet, but I'm not sure I trust my depth sounder." A quick request was made for others to come back with depths, and the ranged from 12 to 22 feet (except for one anonymous "1,276 feet", to which the reply was, "then drop your anchor.") This really didn't prove much because the fleet was spread out over about a mile of the river. John Melton, on Freedom Won started a great test as we passed under an old railroad bridge. He reported, "21.2' under the center of the bridge." We asked each boat to report as they passed under the bridge, and the range was actually quite close ranging from about 20 - 23 feet. Again, each boat and each instrument was a little different. No sweat in 20' feet of water, but when the difference is 5.5 to 6.5, that's the difference between Go and No Go!

These exercises, made the two hour trip fly by. Particularly as we passed along the shore where there was housing and residents cheered the fleet on with our flags waving. It was a glorious parade for the Islander fleet - a mile long string of great boats and we're not sure who enjoyed it more, the people on shore, or us on our boats.

We entered Tim & Rhonda's complex at 1335. Each boat has a sequence number so we could fill the three available docks as smoothly as possible. The Shea's house has an 80' dock, and we can squeeze in 9 boats med-moored with the two end boats sticking out beyond the 80'. Around the bend, a 40' neighbor's dock can raft 2 out, and across the basin (almost literally a "stone's throw") the public dock is about 50' and can handle 2 Islanders with their sterns together, and a second row rafted out. We put 9 on Tim's dock, 2 on the neighbor dock and 3 on the public dock for a total of 14 Islanders. It took only 45 minutes, or just over 3.5 minutes per boat.

Did we mention it was hot? Mid-summer sun and clear skies were hardly tempered by light breezes. Just walking the dock made your feet hot - right through your shoes. Though the humidity was not particularly high, sweat was easy to come by. The best answer was close at hand - the swimming pool. 14 year old senior citizen Golden Retriever Teak showed her most energy of the day when tempted with a toy in the water. Check out the sequence -- it's like we all want to do that! But Teak was quickly relegated to the sidelines as Ian Shay and neighbor kids splashed into to pool - squirt guns and water cannons blazing. It took a while to realize that White Horses' Rob Blenderman, and Snowflower's Scot Wall were the biggest kids of all - water cannons blazing. Not the the rest of the adults were immune - just look at the "judges panel" for the rest of the feet dunkers.

There was some breeze around the corner and out in the basin, but it was still mighty warm on the deck. With the shades down, it was eventually time to bring out some food -- OK, there were enough "appies" and the Canadians say, that we could have called off dinner. But, we didn't and there were a whole bunch of great things to eat on that table too.

Throughout there were great conversations as people caught up with old friends and made new ones. We welcomed Pat & Susan McGrath of Juno to their first rendezvous. They live in Napa, but keep their boat down in Sausalito where there's more room to sail. There were a bunch of Tim & Rhonda's neighbors and their kids too. It just made for a great afternoon and evening.

Even Tom Newton, skipper of the legendary race-hardened Captain Hooke, drove up from Vallejo with guitar in hand. As the sun settled into west by north, Tom started picking and strumming and a crowd gathered. Melodies floated through the air, rhythms stirred limbs to move and a mellow mood enwrapped all who heard it. Vanishing Animal's retired Webmaster Rick was persuaded to strum his guitar, and, with the help of some song books, even got a few folks singing along. Alternative with Tom let the sort fingers rest a bit! Host Tim finished off the evening with some strumming his own, and I think Tom & Rick can probably retire next year with the toons department in good hands.

So Saturday night faded early into dream time -- all back aboard their boats around 2100. Rhonda promised coffee makings, and maybe bagels & schemers, would be available for the early birds. Now you have to understand this is something very special because your fleet reporters have known Tim & Rhonda since before Ian was born. More than once on a rendezvous Sunday morning the entire fleet had departed before a single head was on deck on their I-36 Lean Times. What a great circle that Bill & Delight Pendola were here with (Tim & Rhonda's original) Lean Times.

Sunday morning started slowly. the minus tide left Tim's dinghy & outboard high and dry. Though it was pleasantly cool in the shade, it was already hot in the sun, so all hand sought the shade. Rhonda laid out sweet rolls, juice, bagels and cream cheese, while Tim whipped up scrambled eggs and sausage. What a civilized way to start the day.

Kids and adults were already in the pool by mid-morning. Rhonda and Tim played chauffeur to run people into Napa to explore and shop. Their camper was a great travel van! As the sun wandered into afternoon, the land yacht arrivals made their appearance. Kris, Christine and Ryan Youngberg (Tenacious) were the first, and quickly Ryan was decked out in swim suit and life jacket and ready to play with the rest of the kids. Then along came Lou Zevanov (Diana), dapper as always and held court in the shade under the balcony, only moving when the sun inexorably poked its blistering rays onto the patio. Jim Higdon & friend Cosette returned with young black lab Penelope. Commodore Aston and Mary (Pegasus) made their appearance, and joined the swim suit club. Finally, Art & Betsy Fowler (Zenith) completed the picture -- bringing a bottle of their new Zenith Zinfandel for each boat, gifts for the kids, and treats for the dogs.

There were plenty of squirt guns and water cannons for the kids, big and little, so water was frequently flying in the pool area. If you didn't want to get wet, you needed to keep clear because most everyone was fair game. Tim fired up the grill around 5:30 and started the burgers, sausages and dogs. Rhonda laid out bean salad and all the fixing's, plus an abundance of meatballs from Rich Watters. All hands, including many neighbors enjoyed a great feast.

Then it was on to Bingo time, with great Bingo cards with sliding markers. It happened that Takae, Rick & Nanci were all sitting in the shade of the big screen, and won the first four rounds, with Nanci winning twice! We were entertained by little Tiger and Espresso having an endless game of chase, pounce and bite across the patio, under chairs and between legs. You just had to smile at the two little balls of fur having a great time.

Golden afternoon sun faded to dark blue as things wound down for the day. As the last light left, it was on to Movie time (Grumpy Old Men) for those that were willing to stay up, while a good number headed for their bunks in anticipation of an 0600 Monday departure.

And early it was. As first light tinged the northeastern horizon, Islanders emerged from cabins and prepared to get under way. At 0608 Mai Pen Rai, Ophira & Vanishing Animal were under way, followed immediately by seven more. Maybe it was the rush to beat the falling tide, but several Islander keels found the bottom on the way out. but, one of the real advantages of cruising with a fleet, there were others around to toss a line and pull you off.

We'd expected the Mare Island bridge to be operating by 0800, but had misread the sign and their official opening hour was 0900. It all worked out just fine as a phone call got a bridge tender ringing up an opening by 0830, just as the last 4 boats arrived at the bridge. All ten of us quickly powered through. Mai Pen Rai & Lean Times peeled off into their berths in Vallejo and wished the remaining 8 a smooth trip down San Pablo Bay.

The modest breeze in Mare Island Strait even prompted radio talk of sailing down San Pablo, but Mother Nature was playing a fire & ice game. Though the temperatures had been sizzling hot the last three days, the sea breeze was still on this morning, blowing against a full 3-knot ebb. Once past the ends of the mile-long jetty, the torrent of water combining a normal very high tide, record snow melt runoff from the Sierras, and the Napa River built into an old refrain: square waves time. Ophira radioed, "I just saw your keel," as Natural High pounded over one lump. A short while later, Dennis returned the call.

Vanishing Animal was north of the pack and closer to the deep-water shipping channel. As she pounded through the waves, it looked like there was smoother water in the channel itself. Working north, things smoothed considerably and, with about 7 knots of boat speed, she was making 10.4 knots over the bottom for at least 10 - 15 minutes, and over 9 knots for the better part of an hour. The other seven were closer to the south shore and edged that way to get out of the lumps. Again it was Ophira who said, "slow and soft is better that fast and lumpy."

We all turned the corner at Pt. San Pablo and one by one radioed our goodbyes to each other was we headed for our home ports. It was another great Islander rendezvous. We can't say enough about our stellar host and hostess - Tim & Rhonda made everyone feel welcome, well fed, well cared for, and well loved. Thank you, a thousand thank you s.

Pictures by Dan Knox, Betsy Fowler, Ron Damsen & Rick Van Mell. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

Let's go! ...	You look Great	Very light ...	White Horses	Woodbine ...
coming to rendezvous	Look who's driving ...	Jim Higdon!	Relaxed foredeck	Bright colors
Woodbine ...	clicks back	PICT0120	Nice new main!	Bigger traffic ...
heading out	Slow and easy	Water show ...	looks great	No wind
Slow steaming ...	to test current ...	more push	Reflections	Ophira catches up ...
Gary's happy	Shade for Ron & Karen	Painted ships	Movin' out ...	Sandy's got ...
big iron ...	coming up fast.	Not the place to be!	Carquinez Bridges	Mare Island entrance
Growing raft at VYC	Hatch line-up	Boom tunnel	Flags fly	Anchor line ...
Forestays!	Masts	The fleet ...	looks great!	Sterns too
Hi Riley	Ruby's Martinis	Judy & Tucker	Teak chills	Got ya!
The raft ... 4 R Sanity...	boat shot.	Brigid ...	boat shot.	Luna Sea...
boat shot.	Natural High...	boat shot.	Freedom Won...	boat shot.
Tacoma Blue...	boat shot...	& Takae.	White Horses...	boat shot.
Woodbine...	boat shot.	Ophira...	boat shot.	Snowflower...
boat shot...	Skiiper & Nancy.	Vanishing Animal...	boat shot.	Your fleet looks great!
Time to relax...	catch up ...	chill out.	Even aboard.	Attention for Teak
After dinner ...	Dan's flags	Community potluck	Myphi does a great ...	grilling job ...
perfect results.	Tom's relaxed.	Teak too.	On watch ...	watch mate ...
hiding out.	Comparing grandkids!	Sunset time ...	for all...	easing off ...
a deep breath ...	sky scratchers ...	last wave.	Thanks Skylar.	Saturday 1135 hours ...
the fleet gathers ...	fenders Rick?	Things to do ...	almost ready ...	waiting for the bridge ...
John's racing ...	here we go.	Mare I. bridge astern ...	getting organized ...	powering north.
The Armada!	Making tracks ...	up the river ...	flags flying ...	into wine country.
Parade time ...	concentration ...	more astern.	Slowed for houses ...	waving back ...
nice rig ...	dressed ship...	cooling off ...	great parade ...	cheering us on!
Hwy 29 bridge.	Into Tim's channel ...	lining up.	Others enter ...	killing time ...
waiting for call ...	heading in.	Rafted up ...	end to end.	Around the corner ...
across the way ...	nicely framed.	Inviting challenge ...	I want it...	I got it ...
not for you...	mine at last ...	that feels good!	It's really ...	shade time!
Beautifully decorated	Chilling ...	nice smile ...	relaxed.	Got Ian!
My eyes!	Judging panel	Rhonda & Tiger	Anna & Espresso	Here comes ...
Nantucket ...	hug for Gina.	Time to chill.	We come flock...	great deck ...
kicking back ...	nibbles round ...	get enjoyed ...	good talk ...	big crowd ...
Rick & Rich!	Judy & her ...	Bush's Vino Breezo	Makes 'em happy!	Rob & Ruby relax
Family time	Main course	Host Tim ...	Hostess Rhonda	All 14 Islanders
All lined up ...	looking great ...	Mai Pen Rai & Vanishing Animal	Ophira, Natural High & Woodbine	Art shot
Bow on ...	from the water ...	All 14 again	Tim's other boat!	Headstays aligned
Sterns aligned	This is comfort!	Great neighbors!	Tom starts pickin'	Crowd is ready
Gettin' in tune	On a roll	Tom wraps up Saturday.	Sunday morning low tide	Dinghy aground
In the shade	Pool opens early	Tiger & Teak ...	and Tucker!	Play time?
Kicking back	Christine & Ryan arrive ...	and Kris.	Cool pool time	Cool talk time
Cooling off time	Penelope arrives	Tim runs the ...	shuttle downtown.	Lou arrives
John & Riley	Water fun	Small targets	Cosette & Penelope	Hi Mary
All smiles	Bronze man ...	white meat?!	Ethan's happy ...	come play ...
a helping hand.	Geronimo!	Christine ...	gets soaked ...	is after Tim ...
dripping dry.	Ah, relaxed.	More water flies	Keeping clear	Kids at play ...
up close.	Happy kids here too.	Hi Art ...	nice jugs ...	Zenith zinfandel!
Escaped swimmer	I did what?	Yes you did!	Ryan chows down	Made in the shade
Betsy took it!	Relaxing time ...	Delight & Bill	Rob & Ruby	Happy Gary
Ditto Ron & Karen	Good Tucker	Relaxed (but hot)	Neighbors brought pics	It's Bingo time!
mark your cards ...	Ethan calls 'em ...	mom is proud.	Comparing notes ...	one last round ...
catching up ...	winding down ...	wrapping up.	Setting sun ...	along the dock ...
day is done.	July 4th sunrise	No wind	Folks on the dock	Under way at 0604 ...
into the river @ 0608	Working the channels	Staying in line	Waiting for the bridge ...	let go!
Old Mare I. shipyard	coming up behind ...	close aboard.	New Bay Bridge ...	cable catwalks ...
from the middle ...	old and new.