July 1-4, 2006 Napa Cruise

July 1-4, 2006
Napa Cruise

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

This page is under construction.

Islanders know how to celebrate! Combine Commodore Tim & Rhonda Shea's beautiful house and 80' dock, Smokey & Laurie Stover's incredible cruise organization, and 40 Islander folk representing 16 boats and you've got one terrific weekend. Just touching on the highlights will fill the page - then there are those great pictures down below to let you remember (or drool over) the good times.

(A quick aside - your Webmaster departed this party early on Monday morning to jam Vanishing Animal 46 miles back to Brisbane to depart by car for the Canadian Rendezvous on July 7th. Additional pictures and "the rest of the story" will have to wait until after the 16th of July.)

Typical summer weather greeted the fleet as they converged on Southampton Shoal for the 1200 departure. Summer weather in the main San Francisco Bay, as Mark Twain is oft quoted, is cold and foggy. A damp, heavy 12 - 15 knots blew under the Golden Gate - its tower legs visible, but the roadway deck hidden in fog. This being a cruise, some arrived a bit before the appointed hour, some a bit later. Woodbine, Ophira, Freedom Won, and Vanishing Animal headed north toward Red Rock, the San Rafael Bridge and Point San Pablo at just about noon.

Astern in radio contact they were followed by Natural High, Zenith, and Pulau. Midnight Sun followed later, and Tom Cat later still - headed for their own Saturday night party half way up the Napa River, while the main Islander group tucked into Vallejo for Saturday evening.

San Francisco's fabled "fog" is really just a low layer of stratus cloud produced by the "marine layer" - a pool of air chilled by the 55 degree Pacific Ocean - that varies from nothing to 2-3,000 feet thick. When it gets more than about 1,000 feet thick, is spills through low spots in the coastal hills. The Golden Gate being the "lowest" hill, and thus one of the biggest funnels for cold air to move inland. Summer weather systems generally have a northwest gradient wind anyway, and this is augmented by a thermal sea breeze generated when temperatures just 20-30 miles inland are as much as 40 degrees warmer than the ocean beaches.

The forecast for all four weekend days (and much of June, July & August) was simply, winds west 5 - 15, becoming 15 - 25 in the afternoon and evening, decreasing to 5 -10 after midnight. It's boring to read the weather reports - they don't chnage much. The good news for all the visitors is that this stratus fog stuff likes to follow water courses and usually burns off over land masses by mid to late morning almost everywhere - except perhaps "the slot", the direct line between the Golden Gate and Berkeley.

On Saturday morning sunshine was already very evident to the north, and we were flying along on a broad reach in sunshine in less than thirty minutes. It was dead astern rounding Point San Pablo and heading east into San Pablo Bay. The beginning of a flood tide poked along the southern shore and we played it as the four boats were in a virtual race - nothing official you understand, but a race it was.

Southwesterly puffs fanned out onto San Pablo Bay from the Richmond hills, increasing eventually to gusts in the 20 knot range. Coupled with the building flood tide, speed over ground hit nine knots as we approached Mare Island Strait - the entrance to the Napa River.

Evanescence and Snowflower has sailed up on Friday and were waiting at Vallejo Yacht Club when the fleet sailed in between 1500 and 1600. Islanders are getting pretty good at Med-Mooring - that stern-to-the-dock formation that gives everyone direct access to the dock. Coming in slowly, parallel and close to the dock, the bow is swung out, a bow line tossed to someone on the moored boat and a stern line tossed to someone on the dock. With nothing more than perhaps a touch of reverse if it will swing the stern alongside, the boat is walked into position. A second stern line, from about the forward end of the cockpit, helps hold the boat square to the dock. A stout fender over the stern is required!

Before we continue into Saturday evening, here's our list of Attendees:

Boat name	Names
Arrived by boat:
Evanescence	Smokey & Laurie Stover
Freedom Won	John & Nanci Melton
Midnight Sun	Peter & Louisa Szasz
Natural High	Dennis, Judy & Matt Bush
Ophira	Gary & Pat Salvo
Pulau	Jonathan Muhiudeen, Linda Horne + kids
Snowflower	Skipper & Nancy Wall
Solitude	Jay & Jean Lund + kids
Vanishing Animal	Rick & Sandy van Mell
Woodbine	Ron & Karen Damsen
Zenith	Art & Betsy Fowler; Alison & Greg
Tom Cat	Barry Stompe & Sylvia Stewart
Arrived by Car:
Lean Times	Shea, Tim & Rhonda, Ian
Kindred Spirits	Henderson, Don & Barbara
Mischief	Hodgkins, Charles & Kathryn
Pacific High	Farrell, Harry & Carol Williams

Fleet dogs Teak and Tucker, both Golden Retrievers, greeted everyone with wagging tails and even a few whimpers for special friends. Islander folk are the same way, greeting friends old and new with enthusiasm and catching up on events since the last cruise. Walk the dock; set up awnings; do a chore or two; then the invitation to a newcommer to come aboard and take a look.

Association members Jay & Jean Lund live even farther inland in Davis, but are members of Vallejo YC and keep their boat there. Though they've been members for a couple of years, this was the first time thay had showed up at a rendezvous. It wasn't long before they and their kids were convinced to both join us for the potluck on the porch, but to also sail Solitude with us on Sunday morning up to Commodore Shea's.

As we always do, Happy Hour is focused on our host yacht club's bar - a way of saying "thanks for having us, and we hope you'll invite us back." Now if you've been to any of these, it's not too hard to get Islanders to share their part of the load. Combine this with the spacious bar at Vallejo YC and the unique old pictures and models on the walls, and it's a perfect place to relax after a day of sun, wind and water.

Some of the special artifiacts in the VYC bar come from Mare Island - directly across the channel. You may not recognize the name Mare Island, or even Mare Island Naval Shipyard, but you'll probably know the name Admiral Farragutt, the first Commander of the shipyard way back in 1854 - yes before the Civil War. Mare Island's 3000 acres of isolation was the perfect place for building over 500 ships, including nuclear submarines. It's museum is a treasure, and the Chapel has over 20 stained glass windows, most by Tiffany. Skipper & Nancy Wall got a tour of it all and highly recommend it to everyone.

Not much need to take up space describing the potluck - a big grill, two extra tables, and more food than twice our number could eat. Special? Let's see, was it Betsy Fowler's shrimp scampi on the grill or Woodbine's famous brownies for dessert, or perhaps the choices of spaghetti or salads, or the salmon, or the fruit. Oh shucks, it was all so good!!!

Well, if Saturday sounds like a lot of fun, here comes Sunday. OK, a port departure at 0830 is not high on many people's list of good things to do - especially if it's got that morning "fog" and cold, clammy wind. But time and tide wait for no one and the tide was starting to fall. If we wanted the benefit of a little extra water on the 13 mile run up the Napa River to Tim's house, it was then or wait till mid-afternoon. One by one Islanders peeled off the raft from the left end to the right until we had 11 boats approaching the Mare Island lift bridge - the gateway to the Napa River.

No pushing or shoving, but, hey with this group it looked like a racing start under power. Art Fowler's Zenith won bridge honors, with at least a couple of feet to spare as it went up. In the end, this was the best thing that could have happend to the group (as dedicated readers will see in paragraphs far down below). Art is a retired Delta Airlines pilot (OK, he and Betsy would rather be remembered as original Western Airlines people) and not only won a prior year I-36 navigation contest, but is one of the most meticulous skippers in our fleet. (Just the kind of guy you want flying your plane through thunderstorms - right?)

Flying the Napa River is a good challenge in navigation. It's easy when there are red and green markers in pairs to aim for. But lots of the Bay Area rivers have a habit of saving money by having only a single red or green marker every so often. It's up to you, and a reading of the chart, to know how close to each to go. Top that off with major flooding on January 1, 2006 and finding the channel is not just a matter of putting waypoints in your GPS.

Art threaded the channels with precision, even giving raido calls to ducks that appeared to get a little out of line, and we all arrived without incident at Tim's. That's too easy a statement - at least two places along the way required piloting above and beyond the obvious. At mark 7, and between marks 11 and 13, broad areas of apparently open water hid the true channel. Art held on into turns well to one side or the other when others might have chosen the middle, and the fathometer confirmed anywhere from 2 to 5 feet more water where he went. Nice Job Art!

Tim & Rhonda's house is in a development called, appropriately, Napa Yacht Club. It's not actaully a yacht club, but perhpas a hundred houses built on canals dug off the Napa River, just to the south of downtown Napa. Many of the houses have back yards on the canals, with floating docks that rise and fall on the tide - Tim & Rhonda are on a corner, so they wound up with an 80' dock! They are also at the end of a "cul de sac" of a canal, so 11 Islanders paraded down the full length to get to their dock. Right across from them is a "community" dock which is in line with the main entrance to the complex. Tim arranged for the "overflow" crowd to be at that dock. Thus, seven Islander were tied to Tim's dock (again Med-Style), with four more at the community dock. Residents were parking their cars to walk down and find out what was going on!

Once tied up, again with the Med-Moor technique, everyone settled into routines like lunch, chores, or even a nap. Being July 4th weekend, the dedicated dressed ship with flags fore and aft, most had ensigns or American flags flying. It was good time to do "chores" or just kick back and have fun. First time cruise attendees Jay & Jean Lund rigged their sailing dinghy and had a ball sailing between the two docks. They taught us yet one more new way to have fun on a cruise!!!

Sunday night was billed as yet another "potluck" event. So. we rolled into it with cocktail hour atarting at 1700, and dinner, whenever. Tim & rhonda's back spread is so perfect for entertaining that it has a central fire-pit, surrounded by seating and an world-class grill to cook anything you'd like. The fire-pit was quicly loaded with nibbles - as usual enough to satisfy everyone. Then the serious cooking started. Rick splashed some soaked ears of corn on the grill to get things started, but others followed with steaks, chicken, vegies and fish. Others layed out salads. Once again there was more than all could eat.

Sunset was fast approaching around 2030. We toasted Tim & Rhonda one more time for their hospitality, thanked Vice Commodore Art Fowler for leading us safely up the river and then turned the floor over to Art. He warmly and convincingly talked about flag etiquette, the basic respect for our nation's flag and the people who server under it. He went to remind us that nautical protocol is to lower the flag at sunset (yes, that's different on every day), and to raise it at 0800. The exceptions are if you are under way when it should othewise be lowered, but have a light on it. The flags still flying were lowered in less than five minutes.

Monday morning was typical. Grey skies; cool. Three boats started down river: Midnight Sun, Vanishing Animal, and Solitude. It was an 0800 departure, again to ride the ebb down river and, hopefully, to avoid the "15-25 knots" of San Pablo Bay. Midnight Sun led the way. A heaving line's toss from marker 23, Midnight Sun went from 22 feet of water to - less than 6' - she was aground. Solitude, with a dinghy and ability to run a line to Midnight Sun circled and approached Midnight Sun bow on.

A line was tossed; made fast and backing was tried, but it was not enough. Shifting the line aft, Solitude turned to be able to pull in forward gear and eased Midnight Sun off the ooze. They were free again to proceed down river.

Many miles further, the stretch between 13 and 11, at least on Vanishing Animal, showed depths as low at 5 feet - but we all escaped to mark 11 without a problem. Mark 7 was known to need a wide berth, and Vanishing Animal, trying to remember Art's upbound pasage, and in the lead, went too far left and started plowing mud. A quick raido call of "aground" warned the others, and was followed by full power and a turn to starboard which managed to cut a furrow out to deeper water.

That little terrifying experience behind us, we motored on to the Mare Island bridge again. The wind ws pushing 15 knots by this time, though the bridge was no problem. Then it was time for San Pablo Bay once more.

Of all the pieces of water inside he Golden Gate, San Pablo Bay is one of the least friendly to the casual sailor. The "typical" wind is either dead downwind coming east, or dead upwind going west. Since the wind is often in the 20 knot range, an ebb tide will create "square waves" that can bring an Islander from 6.5 kntos to 2.5 knots in just three waves. That's what it was like on Monday morning for Vanishing Animal and Midnight Sun.

(Smokey picks up the tale....)

Monday morning we watched as Vanishing Animal, Solitude and Midnight Sun departed for their early journey home. The rest of us gathered on the patio to enjoy gourmet coffee, muffins, bagels, fresh fruit and juice that the Shea's had provided, and we all made plans for the day.

Tim played tour guide and transported us in their new RV to the downtown area for an afternoon of shopping and exploration. The Bush's, Damsen's, Salvo's, Stover's and Nanci Melton visited COPIA, a cultural museum and education center where you can learn about and experience fine food, wine, organic gardening and art. Nancy Wall set out to explore the quaint downtown shops and Jonathan went looking for engine parts. Several hours later, the Shea Shuttle picked us up and delivered us back to the ch�teau where we enjoyed a little kick back time with John Melton's margaritas and of course an abundance of appetizers.

By late afternoon, the patio filled to approximately 40 people with neighbors, kids and drive-in Islander members Charles Hodgkin's and Kathryn Munn of Mischief and Harry Farrell and Carol Williams of Pacific High . Each Islander boat received silk flower leis and a Hawaiian goodie bag containing dried pineapple and papaya and flower tattoos. The kids ran around the pool wearing their beach tube necklaces filled with a surfboard key chain, Hawaiian bracelet and a water spitting fish (Nemo?).

John Melton and Tim did an outstanding job barbequing the main course of marinated tri tip and chicken breasts. Side dishes included the largest baked potatoes (each one the size of Nerf football) and assorted grilled vegetables. Refreshing salads completed the Luau dinner menu while Karen Damsen's luscious chocolate cake and Laurie's almond macaroon cookies satisfied our sweet tooth's. Hawaiian music, delicious food, fine spirits and the great company of friends and family carried the party into the evening hours. Rumor has it that the hot tub was once again the place to be after dark...

Tuesday morning the 4th we were greeted once again with hot gourmet coffee and pastries. It was then time to dismantle our Islanders of their sun shades and make them ready for the trip home. Only Pulau would remain behind after Jonathan chose to wait for parts to repair what started as a small fuel leak on the engine. At about 0900 hours we waived farewell to the Shea's and will have fond thoughts for a long time to come about this great weekend that they had hosted for us.

We gathered the seven of us at the entrance to the Napa River and were led towards home by our trustworthy navigator Art Fowler, who once again exhibited a proper path of negotiable depths. Only the daring would alter from this course and risk running aground.

Sails were hoisted once we passed through the opened Mare Island Causeway Bridge and into Carquinez Straights. Evanescence started out on a close haul port tack and were assisted with an ebb current and wind changes. Freedom Won gave chase and overtook us as we approached the Sister's. Our second tack to starboard came only after we passed under the Richmond bridge. Not only is that infrequent, but from there it was a flood current and wind changes to make it a single tack down the Oakland Estuary to our berth in Alameda.

The only Islander that used less fuel than us would have been Snow Flower. They had some engine problems in the Richmond area, which is where you could witness the spirit of this Islander 36 group. Freedom Won, Ophira and Natural High adjusted sail and responded to the problem. The Bush's on Natural High took Snow Flower in tow all the way to Alameda as Freedom One and Ophira remained close by at the ready. Evanescence arrived in Alameda and secured docking at the Svendsen's Yard and was there to handle lines. She safely and silently coasted in to her temporary berth after being cast off by brother Bush and his crew.

As Islanders owners, we do the routine and preventative maintenance to our structural and operational systems. We prepare ourselves to respond to the unexpected and make the adjustments and repairs under way that are necessary to be self reliant and predict safe passage. Murphy's Law is well established however and when we travel as a group, you can see the help and leadership that surfaces. This weekend alone we saw some people really step up to the plate and take care of business .... the Fowler's pathfinding keel, the Shea's assistance with Pulau, the Lund's tug of the slippery Midnight Sun, and the grand finale with the Bush's tug of the great Freedom Won and Snow Flower. Laurie and I are proud to be a part of this group.

Pictures by Rick Van Mell and Ron Damsen. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

Dream Catcher visits ...	at Southampton Shoal	*Ophira*	*Freedom Won*
Big boat!	Back toward the Gate	Mount Tamalpias	Saturday afternoon at Vallejo...
Ready to relax	Teak, is relaxed	Burgees fly	Walk the dock time...
Tucker helps Dennis	Pat & Gary salute	Pulau arrives...	makes the turn...
stern line ashore ...	swinging around ...	tucked on the end ...	and now they're relaxed.
Great day ...	great bows...	great mastheads.	Where's the action?
Dennis at work	John & Smokey at ease	Nanci say Hi to Teak	Smokey & Art
"Whaddya mean, a leash?"	Round table gang	Betsy, Skipper & Sandy	Sandy & Rick
Great Vallejo YC bar ...	special things ...	all over.	Saturday potluck ...
has lots ...	to share ....	and sample ...	and enjoy!
Eager eaters	all smiles	Ron D. & Betsy F.	The Bush bunch
Jonathan M. & Nanci M.	Louisa wants ...	a picture with Jonathan	Peter S. the Don????
The Lund family	Evening colors	0830 Sunday ...	headed for Mare I. bridge ...
coming up astern ...	time to squeeze ....	through.	Speedy Gary
Hurry up!	We're through	*Woodbine is all ...*	dressed for the 4th
Smokey sails!!!	About half way ...	old RR bridge.	At Napa Marina it's ...
Tom Cat!	Wanna restoration project?	Easy going	Are we there yet?
Yes!	Getting settled	Last two arriving	Tim & Rhonda's house
Time for chores ...	Got a whinch ....	problem?????	Getting dressed
Louisa's elegant lunch	Nose to nose ...	all cozy	Stand by to .....
gybe.	Looking for food	A great day for flags	Picture perfect
Looking great, so it's ...	Happy Hour	Goodies galore	Linda, Ian & Keegan
Settling in for fun	Commodore Tim	Three Wise Men	Dock talk
Tucker want to join	Tim's dock full ...	of Islanders	Rhonda finds Ian
This pool attracted ...	one dog ....	and kids ...	Some flying ...
Ker-splash	Retriever retrieving ...	squared.	Planning team
Sisters!	Great Greg	Pat, Rhonda & Nancy	Rick cooks corn ...
gets squeeze from Laurie	Flag shilouette	Fountain of youth?	Good night all
Monday, on the hard

Ron Damsen's Pictures

Heading for Vallejo	Ron is happy	Nice breeze ...	and good sailing
downwind	calm water	Napa Cruise002	Napa Cruise003
Napa Cruise004	Napa Cruise005	Napa Cruise006	Napa Cruise007
Napa Cruise008	Napa Cruise009	Napa Cruise010	Napa Cruise012
Napa Cruise013	Napa Cruise014	Napa Cruise015	Napa Cruise016
Napa Cruise018	Napa Cruise020	Napa Cruise023	Napa Cruise024
Napa Cruise025	Napa Cruise026	Napa Cruise027	Napa Cruise028
Napa Cruise029	Napa Cruise030	Napa Cruise031	Napa Cruise032
Napa Cruise033	Napa Cruise034	Napa Cruise035	Napa Cruise036
Tucker gets attention	View from Tim's	Kid's stand	John is happy
The crowd	Easy livin'	Yes, paradise!	Teak snoozes
Nanci & Sandy	Chat time	Assistant Chef John	The afterguard
Pat & Rhonda	Dennis & Greg

Return to Main Menu