Home	'Round Alameda - 2007 January 1, 2007

(If you like, you can skip down through the prose and go straight to the pictures below, or click on the I-36 Logo to return to the main menu!)

It's tradition on New year's Day on San Francisco Bay to parade around Alamdea Island, stopping at yacht clubs along the way for their best Bloody Marys, Chili and burgers. Islander members held to tradition this year and ushered the 2007 season in with a great day on the water. Read on!

Smokey & Laurie Stover (Evanescence) challenged others to this madness about two days before New Year, and Commodore Art Fowler (Zenith), with Rick Van Mell as crew, and Dennis, Judy & Matt Bush + golden retriever Tucker, (Natural High) took him up on it. Sounds simple, right? Read on.

When the weather is good and the tide is perfect, over 50 boats will participate. But there's a catch. To the south, Alameda is barely an island. Bay Farm Island nudges it with just a single tenth of a mile between them at their closest point, then Alameda trends away northwest as Bay Farm continues west until they are about half a mile apart. 99% of that area DRIES at low water. Yes - dries. There is a narrow, unmarked streak of water, perhaps 100 feet wide hugging the Bay Farm side that has 8 - 10 feet of water, and it's only about 100 - 150 feet off the shore. Even this thread of depth disapears as Bay Farm turns south and leaves 2-4 feet of water for three quarters of a mile before getting out into depths over 6 feet. Here's a link to Aeolian Yacht Club's page for the event and an photo map of the area: http://www.aeolianyc.com/round_the_island.htm

So the good news was that high tide on January 1st was 7.5 feet. Unfortunately, it was at 0915, with a - 1.1 foot tide by 1430. So if you're going to get through the shallows, it had to be before noon. With a clear sky for most of the bay area, getting aboard and under way by 0930 for the three boats - already in the heart of the Estuary - wasn't much of a challenge.

The 45 degree, humid air hung motionless in the early morning, despite the bright winter sun. Our Islanders were soon part of a gathering fleet of perhaps a first dozen boats to approach the three bridges connecting Alameda to the Oakland shore. After this batch passed through at least one more batch of similar size followed.

Though Aeolian Yacht Club, at the southern tip of Alameda is well known for it's fin Gin Fizz, Bloodies and great Chili, we Islanders chose to pass it by this year. It was already 1030 and the tide was falling, ahead was the challenging shallows and we wanted all the water we could get. So we waved at Aeolian and called for the Bay Farm Bridge opening. Once through, a sharp left, then right lined us up close to the shore and we slowly threaded out way west. Natural High led the way, followed by Zenith and Evanescence, patiently making small deviations each way and watching the fathometer to test the sides of deep water.

Fog crept in from the Bay and soon visibility was down to a tenth of a mile. The little deep trench ended and the fathometer read about 9 feet for the next mile -- this with about 6 feet of tide remaining, but now falling fast. It happened that aboard Zenith, with the beautiful, clear sunshine at home, neither Art nor Rick had packed a GPS. Same story on Natural High. So now there was nothing but fog ahead, a paper chart, a compass and a watch for navigation. It was actually kind of fun to revert to good old Dead Reckoning, partucularly when radio traffic confirmed that Smokey has both GPS and Radar up and runnning -- guess that accounts for the smiles on their faces!!!

Using timing and depth countours, we worked our way west into deeper water, then north and finally east into Balena Bay Yacht Club. By the end Smokey was in the lead - knowing when to take short cuts as Dennis and Art held conservatively to the deeper west. Balena Bay was warm and gracious, with a great Burger and Chili spread and fine Bloody Marys.

About 1230 we all shoved off, back into the fog, for the last leg to the north end of Alameda and the Estuary entrance. Again DR did a nice job of finding a pair of channel markers two and a half miles under way. Shortly thereafter an anchored ship and the western side of the Bay began to appear. Then the tops of San Francisco's buildings and the towers of the Bay Bridge. By the time we turned the north end back into the Estuary, bright sun sparkled everywhere and the last whisps of fog were retreating und the Bay Bridge away to the west.

After making fast in their own slips, Smokey & Laurie, and Dennis, Judy & Matt (plus Tucker) conviened aboard Zenith for mulled cider and cookies. It was bright, calm and 60 degrees as we toasted a really great way to start the 2007 season.

Happy New Year to all, may you be sailing soon.

Pictures by xxx. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

Hazy at 0930	Encinal Yach Club	Commodore Fowler at the helm	Gathering in the haze
More joining	Downtown Oakland	Evanescence	Lots of boats of ...
all kinds.	Natural High ...	with prancing Tucker ...	good sea dog ...
on watch ...	"Hey Look ..."	makes Dennis smile	Park Street Bridge ...
goes ...	up for our group	On to the next one...	with the fleet astern ...
as Park street closes	Happy New Year group	Beautiful morning	Fruitvale going up
Ok, we won't anchor	The gaggle gets through	"Now where's that next one..."	High Street goes up ...
Pilot Laurie	Headed the other way	Aeolian YC before the next bridge...	Beautiful ketch...
headed the other way	Bay Farm Island bridge ...	hints of fog to come ...	going up ...
Dennis leads ...	limited operation ...	"Deep" water hugs the shore ...	so do we in the fog ...
getting thicker ...	Navigation by feel ...	Dennis approaches shallowest part ...	Smokey isn't concerned ...
their Radar & plotter are fine ...	Pea Soup ...	So, you want me to lead?	Sure!
Into Balena Bay	Ducks in a row ...	almost there ...	narrow channel ...
crowded harbor ...	cozy slip, but ...	nicely rafted.	Happy New Year!!! ...
Tucker agrees	Smokey goes for Bloody Mary ...	and Rick gets in a picture!	On around in fog ...
but starts lifting ...	buildings appear ...	bright sunshine ...	as fog retreats ...
turning into the Estuary ...	with San Francisco way astern.	The turn for home	Goodies to ...
Celebrate a great ...	Happy New Year!

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