Home	'Round Alameada - January 1, 2017

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

What a great turn out by your Islander fleet! 30 people representing 11 Islanders sailed aboard 6 boats on the waters of the Oakland Estuary and San Francisco Bay around Alameda Island to ring in 2017 in style. Here's the list of boats and crews:

The weather was about as good as it could get. A cloudy morning cleared to clear blue skies with a light northwest wind. With air temperature in the mid 50s, sitting on the sunny, wind-sheltered deck at Aeolian Yacht Club, it was practically bikini time! The crisp skies made for good pictures at Ballena Bay YC and the afternoon sea breeze kicked in gently to provide a sparkling sail home for those that rounded Amaleda and sailed back down the Oakland Estuary to their berths.

You can see above who sailed on which boats. While Zenith and Natural High charged off under the three bridges about 1045, Smokey steered Evanescence to round up Some Day and Moondance who had not done the bridges before, and wait for Serenity to complete her 3 hour run up from Coyote Point. Then all 4 Islanders, plus a cute red power boat and a boat under spinnaker majestically completed the run under the bridges to Aeolian without incident.

A great crowd at Aeolian filled the deck and spilled around onto the surrounding beach. The chili, as usual, was excellent with jalapaneos,onions and cheese for granish, plus corn bread, green and black-eyes peas - and plenty of Gin Fizzes and Bloody Marys for the thirsty.

Natural High, with Dennis, Judy, Gary & Pat aboard, led the first group under the Bay Farm bridge into the shallow passage out to the Bay, with Serenity and Moondance in the pack. About 20 minutes later Some Day and Zenith headed out. Evanescence, with John Melton and his newly-replaced knee aboard, headed back to Fortman marina, where Smokey & Laurie, John and Nanci, Rick & Sandy with Adam Perrell, all drove over to Ballena Bay Yacht Club. Natural High, Moondance and Serenity were there enjoying themselves. Zenith used the nice weather for a great sail up the Bay and back to Marina villiage.

Once again your Islander fleet was the only one that had an organized presence. A great way to kick off the 2017 sailing season. If you're in the bay area, come join the fun, and if you're one of our wonderful far-flung members, plan a visit and we'll get you out on San Francisco Bay!

This annual tradition is called various names: " 'Round The Island Parade"; " 'Round Alameda Parade"; or just the New Year's Day Island Circumnavigation. There's talk of visiting "all six yacht clubs", and "getting your circumnavigation" certificate. But, whatever the name, it can be great fun when conditions are right. Despite being able to find just about anything on the Internet these days, even going to individual yacht club web sites didn't fill in the picture very much. You can check for yourself what they did (or didn't) say about this annual event: Island Yacht Club, Oakland Yacht Club, Encinal Yacht Club, Alameda Yacht Club, Aeolian Yacht Club, and Ballena Bay Yacht Club.

For those that would like to know more, here are some basics. Alameda, CA is actually an island, just west of Oakland, separated by the Oakland Estuary. While the Estuary, particularly at it's entrance, is wide and deep enough for 1000' container ships, when it narrows at its eastern end where three bridges connect it to Oakland, its 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 a 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. Here's what it looks like on the chart:

Alameda - Overview

Alameda - Bay Farm

Alameda -Little channel

As you can see, there's not enough water to take 6' of draft out into San Francisco Bay at low tide. At least 3.5' of tide is necessary, so that's the first requirement for a successful New Year's Day 'Round Alameda parade!

These are Aeolian YC's navigation hints:
http://www.aeolianyc.org/aeolian-navigation.html
http://www.aeolianyc.org/uploads/1/2/3/6/12363585/bayfarmapproach.jpg

So enjoy the pictures and have a great 2017 season on the water.

Pictures, so far, by Rick Van Mell. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

Happy New Year!	Aboard Evanexcence	a power conference ...	wisdom below, with ...	hot cider and ...
goodies.	start her up ...	Laurie on lookout ...	Natural High dashes by ...	headed for the bridges.
Here comes Zenith	Headed for Park St.	they go through.	Back astern ...	we wait for ...
Some Day ...	want one of these?	Behind the tall one ...	is Serenity	Here's Moondance ...
bow on.	Chute show-off!	Our line for ...	Park St. Bridge	easy does it.
safely astern.	Foredeck crew.	Smokey concentrates	Now we're ...	waiting for ...
Fruitvale Bridge ...	thank you!	Single file ...	Wild crowd cheers ...	Pirates attack ...
couldn't be bothered.	Last is High St. ...	Chute's still back there ...	Looking good.	Islander 32.
Single file ...	Love high tide!	Arriving at ...	Aeolian Yacht Club	Proud Islander ...
flags fly.	BIG crowd ...	Our Commodore Susan	Hi Rob ...	and Ruby too ...
Dennis & Judy ...	Pat, Sandy, Gary Adam & Dennis	Get tickets, sign in ...	the chow line ...	Melinda likes greens
Delicious!	Gary, Roy & Pat	Phillip likes Sandy	Some Day crew	Smokey, Laurie, ?, John & Nanci
Bay Farm Bridge ...	Natural High, Moondance,	and Serenity	In thin water!	Now Some Day ...
lines up ...	and heads through.	Zenith in this group.	Evanescence squeezed!	Laser ahead.
Love high water.	Picture perfect ...	Surf Scoters ...	fly.	Opening for a ....
paddleboard???!	Nope, just a ...	fun boat.	Back through Fruitvale ...	and Park Street.
On the Bay side is ...	carrier Hornet	Ballena Bay Marina ...	Serenity	Ballena Bay YC ...
is jumping.	Moondance crew ...	heading out.	Pat, Ruby, ?, Rob	Myphi, Judy, Pat
Luna Sea crosses ...	the sun.	Natural High ...	powers on past ...	to wrap it up.

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