The Sailors Place Blog

Starting 2008

2008-01-09T15:58:00.000-08:00

     It has been a long time since I have added anything to The Sailors Place Blog and this year I have resolved to add something at least once a month and, hopefully, twice a month from now on. I have been working hard on The Sailors Place web site for the past couple of months and a lot has been added, changed and updated. Check out the "What Is New" page for all the details -- CLICK HERE.
     One of the most obvious changes is a new web site logo on the Home Page and all of the pages immediately under it. The logo came from a picture I took at the Big Daddy Regatta this past summer. The most recent change, and one I am really excited about, is THE SAILORS STORY PLACE. This is a Forum developed to let sailors tell their special sailing stories so that others can read, enjoy and learn from their experiences as well. This Forum allows anyone to view the stories. Members can put their stories on the Forum with opportunities for other members to comment on them. If you are reading this and have a story for THE SAILORS STORY PLACE then CLICK HERE and share it with everyone that visits The Sailors Place.
     Last of all - some changes have been happening on my Newport 30-III sail boat. For the last few years I have been concerned about the original equipment (1982) DC switch panel. The picture above is of the old switch panel and the hatch is where a new switch panel has been installed. Also, there were lights that have not operated since I bought the boat and I wanted to get them working. I got an electrician to go to work on the problems and do some evaluation of what the electrical problems were.
     One of the first things done was to check out why the Anchor, Steaming and Foredeck lights were not working. Much to my dismay we discovered that the conduit that contains the wires going up the mast, which is pop riveted to the mast, is loose at the top and has pulled loose the connections to the lights on the mast. This means a haul out and removal of the mast from the boat to get everything fixed – about $2,700 worth of work over a three day period. That is scheduled for January 29 - 31, 2008 and will be done at a boat yard in San Rafael.
     After that he got to work on the cabin electrical wiring. The DC lights on the Port side of the boat, aft of the Head have not worked since I purchased the boat. In addition, a lot of the wiring was not fused and I needed to install a float switch on the bilge pump for automatic operation (it has been a manual switch, only, up to now). The end result of all the work is that a new (really nice) switch panel has been installed with breakers on all of the switches rather than only one breaker controlling all of the switches, which was the situation with the old panel. A bilge pump float switch and a 3 way switch to control it is installed, now, above the new switch panel. Wiring was re-routed to allow the Port side cabin lights to work and a fuse block was installed in the battery compartment. There were a few other electrical wiring issues addressed that brought the wiring up to proper specifications and overall the electrical wiring in the boat, now, is in much better shape. When the mast wiring is completed, the boat will be in really good shape and I look forward to getting that all done in about three weeks.

DELTA CRUISE 07 - FOURTH (LAST) DAY 06/30/07

2007-07-13T13:52:00.000-07:00

This picture is one of the ship that passed by on my last day of the trip.

To be honest, I was not looking forward to this day. It was about 49 miles of motoring with the wind on the bow all of the way. I intended to leave at 07:00 AM but did not get out of the Marina until 07:45 AM. The reason – as I usually do I turned on the engine for a bit to warm it up while setting up the boat to leave. I always check the engine instruments when I do that to make sure all of the needles are doing the right thing. In this case, the fuel gauge needle was right up against empty. I was able to refuel there but it took 40 minutes to put 15 gallons in the tank – really slow!
When I left and turned down the Sacramento River I had 25 to 30 knots of wind in my face along with all of the spray from the bow making its way through 4 foot waves. It was pretty raucous and I was really glad to finally get into Suisun Bay. The wind was still at 25 knots but the waves were down to 2 feet now. Right at the juncture of Suisun Bay and the Sacramento River there were dozens of Wind Surfers and Kite Boarders. It was quite a sight and they were buzzing all around me for a really entertaining period.

As the day progressed the water and winds calmed down a lot and it ended up very nice. I put up the sails in Carquinez Strait just to get some time off from motoring and tacked back and forth for about a half an hour. When I got up to the bridge I dropped the sails and motored through and then just kept on motoring until I got back to my slip at the Richmond Yacht Club.
I really enjoyed the trip, especially when I had Jon Hillegeist and my son, Fred with me. Single handing is okay once in a while but having some one to talk to while sailing is the best.

DELTA CRUISE 07 - THIRD DAY 06/30/07

2007-07-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

When Jon and I arrived at the Delta Marina yesterday afternoon we were told that 15 boats were coming into the Marina in the afternoon today. As a result Fred and I decided we would leave for our round trip through the Delta at about 6:00 AM with the intention to get back to Rio Vista about 3:00 PM before many boats arrived since the Delta Marina has a "no reservations" policy. We actually left at about 6:30 AM with a nice wind behind us and what looked to be a gorgeous day ahead. We motored under the Rio Vista Bridge which had to open to let us through. We continued to motor until we got into the Sacramento River just after it splits from the Deep Water Channel to Sacramento. From then on we sailed up the Sacramento River to Walnut Grove. At Walnut Grove we dropped and furled our sails, turned into Georgiana Slough and motored down it to the Mokelumne River. The picture is the bank along one beautiful part of Georgiana Slough.We made a right turn, motored to the San Joaquin River (about 30 minutes) and then down the San Joaquin to 3 Mile Slough. We took 3 Mile Slough to the Sacramento River and then made a right back up to the Delta Marina at Rio Vista.
One of the interesting things about touring through the Delta are the Lift and Swing Bridges you have to traverse. On the round trip loop we made we had to have 6 bridges open for us to make our way through: the Rio Vista Bridge on the Sacramento River, the Isleton Bridge on the Sacramento, the Georgiana Slough Bridge at Walnut Grove, the Tyler Island Bridge on Georgiana Slough, the Mokelume River Bridge, and the 3 Mile Slough Bridge at the Sacramento River.
Fred left about an hour or so after getting back to Rio Vista and, by the way, there were not 15 boats in the guest area of the Marina - only 7. I had dinner at "The Point" restaurant again (not as good as last night) but this time, by myself. The 7 boats that came in were from a PICYA group and when the last two boats arrived I volunteered to move my boat to give them more room to tie up as they were BIG. A 30+ foot and a 43 foot catamaran. The offer was rewarded with an invitation to have some wine on one of the big motor yachts which was a really great way to end the day. I also got a tour of the motor yacht and I was amazed at all of the room inside. That, of course, is paid for in the cost of running one of those big motor yachts – takes lots of "bucks".

DELTA CRUISE 07 - SECOND DAY 06/29/07

2007-07-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

Today I would have company! Jon Hillegeist, a friend I met while chartering boats with the Tradewinds Sailing Club before I purchased my own boat, will meet me about 12:30 PM for the sail to the Delta Marina at Rio Vista on the Sacramento River.
When I woke up this morning I was aground at the slip. The Martinez Marina is very shallow and I truly realized that when I saw sea gulls walking on the mud on the other side of the dock where I was tied up.
By the time Jon arrived the boat was floating again and we set sail for Rio Vista. The winds were great - about 15 to 18 knots and off our starboard quarter most of the time. The picture shows some of the "Mothballed" boats stored in Suisun Bay that we sailed past on the way to Rio Vista.
For some reason, I had gotten it into my head that we would be sailing under the Antioch Bridge. That was pretty dumb because the bridge goes over the San Joaquin River and we were sailing up the Sacramento River which was considerably North of the San Joaquin River at that point. As a result I got us sailing the wrong direction and we ended up about a half a mile South of the Sacramento River in some really shallow water. We finally made our way out of the shallows without going aground but one time we were dragging the keel through the mud. The depth finder was showing below one foot of depth a lot! When we realized that we were in shallow water we should have immediately made a "180" and headed back to where we had come from. We finally did that and in about 15 minutes we were back in the Sacramento River again with lots of water under us.
We arrived at the Delta Marina without any more "excitement". My son, Fred, arrived about an hour after we got there and we piled in his car to get Jon back to Martinez to pick up his car and go home. Fred and I ended the day with dinner at "The Point" Restaurant in the Delta Marina back at Rio Vista and I got my Calimari Steak there (and it was really good, too!!).

DELTA CRUISE 07 - FIRST DAY 06/28/07

2007-07-13T13:48:00.000-07:00

I departed my slip at the Richmond Yacht Club at 10:15 AM with the Martinez Marina in the Carquinez Strait as my destination. To get there I would sail under two bridges (San Rafael and Carquinez Strait) and traverse San Pablo Bay which connects to the Northern end of the San Francisco Bay. I was not able to find someone to sail with me so I was set up for single handing the boat for the day.
The weather was nice - slightly overcast with a wind of about 8 to 10 knots. I set sail immediately and kept a close eye on my GPS as I needed to average about 4.5 knots to enable me to arrive at the Martinez Marina with enough water under my keel to make it in. At low tide the Martinez Marina entrance is 3 feet deep and the Viking Lady’s draft is 5 foot, 2 inches.
When I got near the San Rafael Bridge I realized that the Flood Tide I was in was setting me more to starboard than I wanted so I had to turn on the engine and motor under the bridge. When I got to the other side the wind became very light so I continued to motorsail for about an hour and a half.
Finally the wind freshened and I was able to turn off the engine. When I got to the other side of the Carquinez Bridge I had to sail close hauled and tack back and forth across the Strait. The wind now was about 20 to 25 knots and that made the tacks a lot more difficult. The strong winds were still with me when it came time to lower sail and go into the Marina. Since I was single handing and my autopilot was in the shop for repair, I found it really difficult to keep the boat heading into the wind while I lowered the Main Sail. The Jib was no problem as it is on a roller furler. I finally got the job done, got into the Martinez Marina and settled in for the night. The picture is of the Hwy 680 bridge just outside the Martinez Marina entrance.
I chose the Martinez Marina because about 8 years ago I stayed overnight there and had dinner at a restaurant in the downtown area. That restaurant had the best Calimari Steak I have ever eaten and I wanted to repeat the experience. However, as happens so often, you cannot go "back" and find everything as you remembered it. After a long tiring walk from the Marina into town I could not find the restaurant and ended up having a pretty good dinner but definitely not worth the long walk!

DELTA CRUISE 07 - PLANNING

2007-07-13T13:42:00.000-07:00

Before I start the narrative for the trip I made to the Northern California Delta June 28 - July 01, 2007 I thought you might be interested in what I did to plan the trip. On my web site (The-Sailors-Place.com) I have a Navigation Page that gives access to free downloads for NOAA charts and Chart Plotter - Planning software.
I downloaded charts for San Francisco Bay and everything up through the Delta. Along with that I have two planning tools on my computer: SeaClear II and the Maptech Chart Navigator Viewer. I used the Maptech software for planning the trip as it has some features that are not available with SeaClear II. The most valuable tool was the Route Plan page which allows you to have a print out of the route you set up. You can export the page to a spreadsheet - I use Quattro Pro but it works the same way for Excel - and determine what average speed would be required for a start and end time. You can also set a speed and get what time you will arrive at the destination based on a start time.
I printed out route plans (the last day route plan is at the head of this column) for each of the four days and found them to be really handy as a reference to see how I was progressing in real time versus what I thought would be the case when planning the trip. This was especially useful as I was going to two Marinas that had very shallow entrances and needed to arrive (or leave) when the tide was high enough.

Because I needed to calculate tide heights to make sure my boat could get in to the Marina at a reasonable time I developed a "Half Tide Calculator" and a "Per Minute Calculator" to go along with it that figures tide increase or decrease by the minute. Usually figuring when the Half Tide time occurs is enough for arrival or departure planning. However, when Half Tide is less than your draft then you need to calculate when the tide is equal or a bit more than your draft. That is when the "Per Minute Calculator" comes in handy. You determine the depth you want (usually a bit more than your draft) and the "Per Minute Calculator" will give you the time for that depth. Links to the Quattro Pro and Excel versions of these calculators are on the Navigation Page in The-Sailors-Place for you to download.

Unique transportation on Angel Island

2007-06-20T13:36:00.000-07:00

While writing the last Post and looking for a picture to go with it I came across the one you see here. My sailing partner on the Delta Cruise last September (2006) was Bryan O’Hara and I had a day sail with him again last month (May 21st) along with a good friend of his named John Bain. The picture is of Bryan on a Segway and that is the subject of this post.

When we left the slip we decided to go to Sam’s Anchor Restaurant in Tiburon for lunch but once we got there we found that the tide was too low for us to get into the docks. It is really shallow in that harbor area and especially around the docks. I grounded there once before for just over an hour when I was the crew on a boat and its skipper did not pay enough attention to the tide tables.

Since Angel Island is just across from Tiburon we ended up motoring over to Ayala Cove and docking there. We had a light lunch and while eating we noticed a couple of people go by on Segway vehicles. As you can see from the picture here, we were hooked and the three of us ended up renting Segways. The rental fee includes instructions on how to ride a Segway and a Guide that provides the instruction and takes you on a tour of the Island for about two hours.

The name of our guide was Mark Colbert who works for Segway of Oakland. He gave each of us, individually, instructions on how to pilot the Segway and then we took off for the tour. Mark did a great job and we all really enjoyed the trip around the island. The quality of the instruction is really tested on the tour as you go up and down steep hills – really steep hills! Because Mark was so thorough we all did just fine and had a great time in the process.

When we left Angel Island the winds were very light and after about an hour of drifting around Racoon Strait we decided to drop the sails, turn on the engine and motor back to Point Richmond. When we got back we all agreed that we had a most interesting day even if it did not involve much sailing!

Testing my "new" inflatable dinghy outboard motor

2007-06-18T18:22:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I added anything to The Sailors Place Blog. That’s not because there has not been anything to say – just laziness and procrastination. Actually I was somewhat shocked when I realized that I have not added anything new since January.

A few weeks ago I traveled to the Bay specifically to set up my inflatable dinghy and test my "new" (it’s a year 2000) Johnson 6 HP outboard motor. I purchased it in March to replace a 1972 Johnson that gave up the ghost about a year and a half ago. It would not start and needed parts that could not be found due to its age. The 6 HP outboard worked great and I gave it a good workout.

I decided to motor to Marina Bay Harbor and have lunch at a delicatessen there called Amini’s. They have really good sandwiches! At sailboat speed (5 knots) it takes about 20 minutes to get there. The inflatable can easily go twice that speed so the trip was not as long as I am used to. The picture here shows the "Salute" Restaurant (red tile roof) and Amini's is in the smaller gray building on the right (as you look at picture).

Just outside of the Marina I noticed a Catalina 27 stuck in the mud – it tried to cut the corner on the way into the Marina and that does not work as it is extremely shallow outside of the channel. I motored over and offered to help. We decided the best thing to try, first, was to have me take an anchor out and see if the boat could be winched off. We did that and it worked perfectly.

I, also helped him get the anchor raised and back in the boat as the Skipper was with his wife and a very small baby and about a 4 year old boy. His wife had her hands full taking care of the kids so another pair of hands to get the anchor back in the boat was needed. After that, both of us motored back into Marina Bay and I got my lunch. The rest of the day was uneventful. Based on the experience I had getting the Viking Lady grounded last summer in the Alameda Estuary behind Coast Guard Island for 7 hours, I was really pleased that we got the Catalina 27 free as easy as we did.

January at The Sailors Place

2007-01-23T18:32:00.000-08:00

The Sailors Place web site has had many changes over the last few months. This month (January, 2007) three new Screen Savers and 36 new individual racing dinghy photos have been added. Also, because there will be many new photos coming this year as I take pictures of more regattas, I split off the Screen Savers from the individual boat photos and set up a navigation button to a Screen Savers page.

The outboard motor for my inflatable dinghy needs some repair work so I was forced to use my 30 foot sailboat as the platform for my picture taking. For the first session this month (second race of the Small Boat Midwinter Regatta) I single handed the boat while taking pictures and found that it worked quite well. The second session was taking pictures of the Little Daddy Regatta and I had 4 people with me from the Santa Cruz group. I really enjoyed having them aboard for the day as it made the time go a lot faster and it was fun to have people with me who had a stake in the races we were watching. The photo at the start of these comments is of the son (and his crew) of two of the people that were on the Viking Lady.
The weather this month has been excellent for taking pictures. The Midwinters on the first Sunday of this month was absolutely clear and had to be one of the greatest days for taking pictures that could have been scheduled. The Little Daddy Regatta started out in the morning a little dark, with a lot of haze and a light overcast but by early afternoon it was clear and sunny and even a little warm.

Check The Sailors Place often as I will be posting new pictures and Screen Savers on a regular basis from now on.

Sailing Website Helps

2006-12-02T20:21:00.000-08:00

I just completed the research and work to add a new page called "Virtual Sailing" to my web site, that has video clips . Here is the URL to see what I have done: www.the-sailors-place.com/virtual_sailing.htm

After hours of Internet research I found a site where all you have to do is make a couple of entries they request, click on four items and it generates the code necessary to play a video on a web page. The site is: http://cit.ucsf.edu/embedmedia/step2.php?mediatype=WindowsMedia

The first thing you have to do before going to the above site for code is to find a video file you want on your site. That took me a lot more time than I thought it would but I found a perfect one through searching in Yahoo.com Videos. It showed Flying Scots sailing around on a beautiful lake prior to starting a race. Since I owned a Flying Scot in 1973 and 1974 (picture above) it was a perfect video to use. I put the video file in the root directory of my web site so that it was easy to access.

I used "copy and paste" to put the code generated by the above site into my web site. When I did that I could not get the video file to play. I looked at the html code in FrontPage and found that everytime there was supposed to be a "<" or ">" some code was generated by FrontPage instead of those symbols when I pasted direct from the site above. That code had to be removed and I started to do it - one by one but then I got an idea. I tried pasting the code into NotePad which saves files in the ".txt" format and then doing a copy and paste into my web site and that worked just fine.

The "Virtual Sailing" page was fun to develop because it involved researching the availability of Sailing Simulators. The ones I found are listed on the page and most of them have DEMO Programs to download so that you can see what the simulator looks and feels like. I downloaded most of the DEMOs and tried them out and I think I will treat myself to one of them for Christmas. I will let you know which one I liked the best and purchased when I get around to it.

Also, you might like the reference URL for the html code that I used to play the MIDI and MP3 music on my music pages. The place to go to get the code you copy and paste into your site is: www.hypergurl.com/music.html

The Last Two Weeks - 11/20/06

2006-11-19T18:34:00.000-08:00

The last couple of weeks have really been fun and interesting for me. I have been working on my web site, The Sailors Place and I have done a few things that change the site a lot.
First of all, the Racing Dinghy and Catamaran Screen Savers on the site were placed there as Shareware so they could be downloaded for free, but with writing across each screen. This allowed anyone interested to check out the pictures and if they wanted the Screen Saver without the writing across the screen they could purchase it for $10.00, get a registration key and eliminate the Shareware writing. The idea behind that was to develop Screen Savers of regattas and sell them to the regatta participants and Club members for the benefit of Youth Sail Training.
Unfortunately, the pilot project I ran at my Yacht Club (Richmond) did not result in any sales of the Screen Savers I made from the RYC Midwinters Regatta in 2005. I did do some individual boat pictures during the regatta, however, and sold them which resulted in $70.00 that I donated to the Richmond Yacht Club Foundation. However, the Club administration that I dealt with were less than encouraging about my efforts to raise money for the Club’s Foundation/Youth Sail Training. I wanted to advertise the money raising effort on the RYC web site with a link to my site but that got no support from the web master, the Chair of the Foundation or the Commodore of the Club at the time. Without enthusiastic Club support allowing web site and Newsletter promotion of the Screen Savers there was not much chance of the project having any success at all so I decided not to make any further efforts.
The Screen Savers have been on my site for almost 2 years now without any purchase (there were some Shareware file downloads, however). So – I decided that I would remove the Shareware files and offer the downloads for free. If anyone reading this would like to check out the Racing Dinghy and Catamaran Screen Savers I have on the site now CLICK HERE.
I plan to take some more pictures of regattas in the next year, beginning with the Richmond Y. C. Midwinters that are one day each month from December, 2006 through March, 2007 . That will provide some additional Screen Savers which I will put up on the site as I develop them.
The other thing that has changed on the site, that I really enjoyed doing, is setting up a page on "Sailing Music. I found a neat web site called "The Mother of all Maritime Links" which I think is absolutely amazing. I have a number of links to it throughout my site as it relates to a lot of the content on The Sailors Place. While doing that I took a look at one of his categories "Music" and found a link to a site called Contemplator.Com that has hundreds of MIDI files on sailing songs (and other material like Folk Songs, as well). It is featured on my Sailing Music page. I wanted to actually play music on the site and I found the way to do it with some research on the Internet. You can see what I mean by a CLICK HERE.

I also put some music on the page that has my story of a trip I made on a C & C 43 footer from Seattle to San Francisco in 1996. To see (and hear) that you can CLICK HERE.

Delta Cruise: Day 9-Friday, 09/22/06

2006-11-02T16:58:00.000-08:00

This picture is of the Viking Lady at Pittsburg Y. C. but not on this day. This was taken the morning of September 16th before we left to go to the Stockton Sailing Club.
Fred and I intended to leave early today as the forecast was for strong winds of 25 to 30 knots in the area with gusts up to 45 knots. BUT - when I tried to start the engine it would not start - big downer! I messed with it for a few minutes but nothing I tried worked. Someone walking by from our group mentioned that Juan Stompinato was a mechanic so I went over to his boat and knocked on the cabin. Unfortunately, I woke him up but he was very nice and said not to let it bother me. He came over to my boat in a little while and started to do some trouble shooting. He identified the problem right away – the Lift Pump was not working. He checked to see if fuel was getting to the Pump and it was. About that time I discovered a loose ground wire. When we got that wire connected the pump worked and the engine started! Juan was a real help – I do not know what I would have done without him and I really appreciated it!

When we left we experienced 25 to 30 knot winds from the North for about an hour with lots of chop and spray. Then the wind went to about 15 to 20 knots just before the Martinez Bridge. We unfurled our Jib, shut off the engine and sailed from then on. When we got past the Carquinez Bridge we set the Main Sail and were in full sailing mode until we got to a short distance from The East Brothers Light House where the wind disappeared and we had to motor into the Richmond Y. C. The trip from Pittsburgh Y. C. turned out to be really great compared to the expected miserable slog into over 30 knot winds that I thought was going to be the case the day before.

I really enjoyed the Richmond Yacht Club Delta Cruise for 2006. The first five days were especially good as Bryan O’Hara was a great partner on the trip and helped make the time together fun, interesting and just overall - good! The two single handing days were not as boring as I thought they would be as we were able to sail a good part of the time because of the unusual Northerly winds we experienced. The last day with my son Fred along was a really good one and because the high winds did not appear and they stayed Northerly, we had some great sailing in warm, sunny weather.

Delta Cruise: Day 8-Thursday, 09/21/2006

2006-11-02T15:34:00.000-08:00

We had to time our departure from the Delta Marina today for the same reason we did at Oxbow Marina. The water was deep enough by 12:30 PM and we left for the Pittsburg Yacht Club. The trip was short - about 2 hours - and we took the Sacramento River all the way.
This is a picture of the Pittsburg Yacht Club Clubhouse.

When I realized that we were not going to go into Three Mile Slough and down the San Joaquin as indicated in the E-Mails prior to the trip I immediately unfurled my jib as the wind was from the North again and about 15 to 20 knots which was perfect. Everyone else (except the "Ciao") did the same thing shortly after they saw my jib come out. We motorsailed again for most of the way until the wind disappeared about 30 minutes before the end of our trip.

The Pittsburg Y. C. welcomed us as they always do and we had a potluck dinner there with them that night. My son, Fred, met me there about 9:30 PM so that the two of us could sail back to Richmond Yacht Club the next day. We sat in the cabin and talked until about midnight and then hit the sack.

Delta Cruise: Day 7-Wednesday, 09/20/2006

2006-11-02T15:31:00.000-08:00

We had to time our departure from Oxbow Marina to the Delta Marina in Rio Vista so that we had enough water over the bottom of the Oxbow Marina entrance. We must have picked the right time as everyone got over the bar with no problem. The trip up Georgianna Slough was calm, warm and beautiful.

This picture is of Dan Seifers on "Double Delight". As you can see it definitely was warm and the boat has an autopilot!

When we turned into the Sacramento River the wind came up and now it was off our Beam so we all deployed our Jibs and motor sailed almost all the way down to the Sacramento Deep Water Channel. We were getting gusts to 30 knots and I broached a few times but, overall, had a great sail.

We pulled into the Delta Marina about 3:00 PM. It is not as much fun sailing now, since I am single handed so I was glad to get tied up at the Marina, get a shower and relax a bit. Juan and Eva Stompinato in their Catalina 34 "Ciao" were there to meet us and to continue on the trip with the group.

We all gathered at The Point Restaurant at the Marina for dinner. I had Calimari Steak and it was absolutely great! I was sitting next to Dan Petersen’s wife, Gerri, who drove in to have dinner with the group tonight and she ordered a mixed seafood grill that included Calimari steak. She said she did not like Calimari so I said I would help her out and eat it for her. When my meal arrived I convinced her to take a taste of my Calimari Steak and she really liked it. Unfortunately, for me, she backed out of our "deal" and I did not get to help her out with her Calimari.

Delta Cruise: Day 6-Tuesday, 09/19/2006

2006-11-02T15:28:00.000-08:00

This is a non-travel day and as far as I am concerned, a real blessing. I was really tired and sore last night. Today I topped off the fuel tank, set the cockpit awning, got more ice for the ice box and ice chest and other than those few chores, just laid around the boat.

I worked this morning on the SeaClear chart program (see Note below) and set up the route from Pittsburg YC to Richmond YC. I transferred waypoints from the Sea Clear program on my computer to my Garmin GPS 76 so that I would have references on the way down to Richmond to keep track of our progress and have some idea of how long it would be to the next check point. That breaks up a long trip into small segments and helps make the time pass faster.

I think some of the group went to the Marina swimming pool but I was too lazy again and just messed around the boat. At the Bar-B-Q in the evening we had drive-in vistors from some of the former Delta Cruises – Roy Howard, Gene Serex and Mary Gulbranson.

NOTE: You can get the Free SeaClear chart program for your computer by going to my website at the URL: http://www.The-Sailors-Place.com/Navigation.htm

Delta Cruise: Day 5-Monday, 09/18/2006

2006-11-02T15:17:00.000-08:00

This morning Bryan went for a swim again and liked it so much he did it again about noon time. I guess I really am getting old as the whole process of getting ready, getting over the initial cold shock, and then putting on my clothes again was just too much effort. How lazy can you get???

We all left the Potato Slough anchorage about 2:15 PM and motored up the San Joaquin River and made a starboard turn into the Mokelume River. We had our first bridge opening when we approached the turn into Georgianna Slough on our way up to the Oxbow Marina. Unfortunately Kooyah went aground about a half mile below the bridge. Double Delight helped Kooyah get off the "high" ground. That took about 20 minutes but during the process of getting unstuck, Kooyah ended up with a clogged raw water filter and the engine started overheating. Kooyah had a tow from Double Delight up to the bridge and later, into Oxbow Marina but was able to motor most of the way to Oxbow. We all arrived okay, otherwise, and Don Farquharson had the filter cleared up very quickly after pulling into the Marina.

Bryan left for home shortly after we arrived and I know I am going to miss him. I really enjoyed sailing with him for the past 5 days and going it alone for the next two days will not be any where near as much fun as before.

In the evening we all gathered at the Oxbow Marina Bar-B-Q area and each of us cooked up our "goodies" on the Bar-B-Q, had lots of good conversation and then adjourned to our boats. Dan Peterson told me that he had to save his Sausages for Oxbow as they "were not allowed to cook something like that" on the Bar-B-Q’ s at the St. Francis Y. C. Facility at Tinsley Island. I think he was kidding me but then, maybe not??

Delta Cruise-Day 4-Sunday, 09/17/2006

2006-11-02T14:48:00.000-08:00

Today was our trip to the spot we would stay "on the anchor" for the night. It was a short motor up to Potato Slough. The area we set anchors (or at least tried to) was deep right up to the marshy island we picked. We were about a half a mile up into the slough and just off the channel traveled by the motor boats and motor yachts every now and then. The other boats were able to get their anchors set but the "Lady" could not seem to get the anchor to dig in. We did find a metal post set into the mud on the end of the marsh island and we dropped a loop around it for our bow tie up – that worked great. Dan Seifers came over in his dinghy and took our stern anchor out and dropped it but in the morning we found that it had just dragged and we were broadside to the "tules".
Bryan took a swim but I was too lazy to change into my swim suit so I just sat and watched the sun set. We all gathered just before sunset on the "Kooyah" for a Happy Hour and then Bryan and I went back to our boat (ferried on Dan Seifer’s dinghy) and cooked up some spaghetti about 8:00 PM – a really late dinner for me who is used to eating about 5:00 PM.

Delta Cruise-Day 3-Saturday, 09/16/2006

2006-11-02T14:43:00.000-08:00

We left Pittsburg about 10:00 AM on our way to the Stockton Sailing Club where we would rejoin the other 3 boats who had overnighted at Tinsley Is. As we passed Tinsley Is. we saw one of our boats, the Queen Anne, come out of the channel. We did not recognize it as it turned down the river when we came in instead of going up the river to Stockton. Also it was towing a dinghy and when it arrived in Benecia, the last time we saw it, the dinghy oar ends were dragging in the water and that was not the case with the dinghy behind the boat we were looking at.

We turned in to Tinsley Is. just to get a few pictures of it as I was sort of curious as to what it looked like. We did not try to dock but just motored around a little and then left. The clubhouse there is the former lighthouse that was installed on Southhampton Shoal many years ago and when the light was de-activated , St. Francis Y. C. acquired it and transported it up into the Delta to its Tinsley Is. Facility. The picture above shows the top of the lighthouse.

When we got back into the San Joaquin River we were able to sail wing on wing and gradually overhauled the boat we had seen leaving Tinsley as we entered. Now we could read the name on the stern and realized it was Dan Petersen and his sister on the Queen Anne. We said Hello as we sailed by and then we could see the Double Delight about a mile ahead of us. It is a 34 ft. Gemini Catamaran and we did not catch up to it but we tried!! We had 20 to 25 kt. winds all day and I was amazed at how well the boat moved on a broad reach and/or run with the big Genoa pulling us along. We were consistently sailing at very close to 7 knots most of the day. As we entered the Stockton Sailing Club marina we had to make our way through about 50 Flying Junior dinghys with 100 teenagers in them racing in a major regatta.

We stayed the night at the Stockton S. C. and cooked our meal at the Clubhouse on their Bar-B-Q. Bryan and I sat in the boat’s cabin after dinner talking about our experiences on the Cruise so far and all of a sudden it was midnight. It’s amazing how time goes by when you have good company.

Delta Cruise-Day 2-Friday, 09/15/2006

2006-11-02T14:36:00.000-08:00

We woke up to a beautiful bright sunny day with nice gentle calm winds - a great contrast to 35 knot winds and overcast skies the day before.
The other 3 boats left before us with their destination the St. Francis Yacht Club facility on Tinsley Island - a short distance above Stockton on the San Joaquin River. They had a fairly long sail so they left pretty early.

Bryan and I had decided not to go to Tinsley Island and instead, we made our overnight stay at the Pittsburg Y. C. On our way there we took a side trip to the Mothball Fleet in Suisun Bay. We sailed up to the Eastern end of the group of ships - taking pictures all the way - and then back down again still taking pictures. It was a little more difficult sailing on the way back down as we were beating into the wind and doing a lot of tacking. Wind was about 25 knots so we furled the Genoa to about 95 %. The boat, as a result, had to stay about 15 - 20 degrees more off the wind when close hauled as the furled jib is not very efficient.

When we got to Pittsburg we were able to participate in their "famous" Friday night meal. It’s "famous" because it is cooked and served by a Culinary class from a local Junior College. A Pittsburg Yacht Club member is their teacher and supervises the whole thing. Everyone serving the meal is dressed in a Chef’s uniform. The food is very good and your plate when you get it at the end of the serving line looks like something served up on a first class Cruise Ship. We both really enjoyed the dinner, the very friendly and helpful club members and our overnight there.

Delta Cruise-Day 1-Thursday, 09/14/2006

2006-11-02T14:28:00.000-08:00

We left the RYC marina at 11:30 AM for Benecia. Don Farquharson in his E-Mails prior to the trip had indicated that they would probably leave about 10:00 AM but we did not see anyone leaving and finally decided to set off at 11:30 AM. As it turned out we were the first to get going.

The picture is of the East Brothers Light House in San Pablo Bay, a short distance North of the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge.

On the first part of the trip there were three other boats other than the Viking Lady, a 30' Newport Mk III. They were Kooyah a 35.5' Hunter (Don and Mary Farquharson); Double Delight (Dan and Carol Seifers) a 34' Gemini Catamaran; Queen Anne a 30' Hunter (Dan Peterson and his sister Muriel). The Ciao a 34' Catalina (Juan and Eva Spampinato) linked up with the cruise on September 20th.

The wind in the morning at Pt. Richmond was about 20 to 25 knots and the forecast for the day was still gale force winds and small craft warnings.
When we set sail we just unfurled the 155% Genoa Jib and left the Main down. When we got into San Pablo Bay we had consistent 30 knot winds with gusts to 40 kt. and 4 foot waves off our Port quarter.

As a result my Newport 30 ( not known to be a very fast boat by any means) was surfing off the four foot waves and going from 9 to 10 knots during the surfing period. My GPS showed, one time, while I was looking at it during a surf - 10.1 knots over the bottom. Average speed to Benecia was 7 knots. That is the fastest I have ever had the Viking Lady go from one place to another in the 4 years I have owned her.

The four boats going on the Delta Cruise arrived at the Benecia Marina spaced out over a 2 hour period in the afternoon. We all met on the cruise leaders boat (Don Farquharson’s Kooyah) to get "organized", have some adult beverages and snacks. After that we walked into downtown Benecia for dinner at a Chinese Restaurant. As it happens the food there was the best Chinese food I have had in years.

Richmond Yacht Club Fall Delta Cruise September 14 - 22, 2006

2006-11-02T14:25:00.000-08:00

Before the Richmond Yacht Club cruise to the Delta ---

About a month before the 2006 Delta Cruise dates of September 14th to 24th I sent an E-Mail to everyone I could think of that might be interested in going with me. I was fortunate in getting a reply from Bryan O’Hara who had replied to some E-Mails I sent to persons on the Latitude 38 Cruising Crew List earlier in the year. Bryan indicated that he would be available for the first five days of the trip and my son (Fred Pelz) volunteered to meet me on Friday, September 22nd and go with me back to the Club. I decided that I would leave the trip a little early and go back on Friday rather than Sunday (which was the official last day).

I picked up Bryan at Oxbow Marina which was our destination on the fifth day so that he could leave his vehicle there. That let him leave the cruise at that point and drive back home without anyone having to pick him up.
We drove to the Richmond Yacht Club marina, unloaded all of the "stuff" for the trip which took a couple of trips with the Dock Cart, stowed everything and then went to a restaurant for dinner. When we got back I tuned into the VHF weather channel on the boat and we got a forecast of gale force winds and small craft warnings for the next day. Bryan asked me if I had been in that kind of weather with this boat and I assured him that I had. He did not say anything more but the next day before we left the subject did come up again – with good reason as the wind was blowing pretty good by the time we decided to leave.

New Photo Gallery On The Sailors Place

2006-08-15T19:01:00.000-07:00

I just finished setting up a new system for placing photos on The Sailors Place website http://www.The-Sailors-Place.com/photo.htm

I was having some difficulties with the Photo Album that is part of FrontPage 2002. So -- I checked out the Internet for Photo Album programs and found one that I downloaded and used. It has some very interesting features: 1. It is FREE (love the "price"), 2. It has "Skins" that allow many varied backgrounds and colors for the photo displays; 3. It can have photos posted to it by e-mail; and some others that I will not go into here -- check it out at http://jalbum.net/ . This is a really nice program for individuals to use to place pictures you want your friends and relatives to see using the Internet.

I plan to place quite a few additional pictures on my site within the next couple of days. The slip for my sailboat looks out on the Potrero Reach in Point Richmond, California (North East end of San Francisco Bay just a short distance from the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge. As a result I see lots of large ships making their way up the Reach to the Port of Richmond. Originally I planned just to have sailboat pictures on my site but the large ships are really interesting to me and I think that might also be the case with others. Any way -- there will be other pictures of ships other than just sailboats.

Also, I am intending to post a daily commentary on the Delta trip which starts September 14th and ends September 23rd. If you are interested in doing a Delta Cruise then you might find my comments of interest. Even if you do not want to go on a cruise in the Delta (or cannot, for some reason) I will try to make the comments entertaining and interesting.

The Sailing Experience - New Navigation Page

2006-08-05T13:18:00.000-07:00

I am excited about the new Navigation Page on The Sailors Place. It was developed as a result of reading an article sidebar in the May, 2006 issue of "Sail" magazine. I downloaded the free Computer Chart Plotter software (SeaClearII) and all of the charts I needed for San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay, Suisun Bay and the Northern California Delta.

I have been using SeaClearII to plan my trip to the Delta and also to update and check all of the Waypoints in my Garmin GPS 76 that I hook up in front of the Viking Lady's steering wheel.

SeaClearII is not a fancy program, but, heck, it is FREE. Can't ask for a better price and it does what I want it to do and much more!

If you have not done it yet, check out the information to get free charts and free chart plotter software on The Sailors Place (http://www.the-sailors-place.com/Navigation.htm).

The Sailing Experience - My Boat Gremlin

2006-08-02T14:43:00.000-07:00

This is the first post to The Sailors Place Blog.

The biggest thing, for me, on the horizon is planning a 11 day trip to the Delta on my sailboat, a Newport 30 Mk III, named the "Viking Lady".

I am really looking forward to this as I have not been able to sail anywhere near as much as I wanted to this year because of a "Gremlin" that got into my engine compartment shortly after I changed batteries in March. Some really strange "coincidences" happened as problems that cropped up were solved. I think I finally got everything fixed but it has been an ordeal that seemed to have no end.

First thing that happened was that after putting new batteries in the boat in March I found a number of things that did not work -- my AM/FM/CD radio, the Wind Point Instrument in the cockpit, and the Voltage Meter . I got everthing but the Wind Point Instrument fixed (still have that to work out) and then the day after the battery change, when I tried to start the engine it would not start.

A week later a new sailing friend I met through the Latitude 38 Crew List - Rob Cram - came down to sail and did some trouble shooting. Rob has some diesel engine experience which I do not have and was a real help. I thought it might have something to do with the Glow Plugs and as it happened, while checking circuits and wires we discovered a wire that had broken off its connector. As it turned out, when we re-connected the wire the engine started. The wire was part of the Glow Plug circuit so, in a way I was right but the reason it was broken was also my fault. The day the engine would not start, the first time, I had taken my inflatable dinghy out of the Lazarette and snagged the wire and broke it off of the connection.

Twice after that, when I got to the boat after it sat for a week, it would not start. Each time the fuel lines were bled, the engine started, we sailed and started the engine a couple of times in the process and everything worked fine. But a week later it would not start.

The third time after the boat sat for a week it would not start again so I, by myself, bled the fuel lines and in the process stripped one of the bleeding screws on the Secondary Fuel Filter. As a result I had to replace the bracket holding the fuel filter which took a month and a half to get.

Finally I found a mechanic that would come to my boat and work on it and he discovered that the second bleeding screw did not have the copper washer on it and very slowly was seeping out fuel and letting in air. I had taken that screw all of the way out the same time I stripped the other bleeding screw and the washer dropped off without me realising it. I did find it on the engine compartment floor, however, and saved it. I mentioned that I had found a copper washer, the mechanic said get it - I did - he put it on and that solved that problem.

However, after getting all of the air out of the fuel lines the engine still would not start. Ray said a couple of times he thought that I had a problem with the Glow Plugs. To make a long story short, I did have a problem with them as one did not even get warm and the other was just barely warm. Purchase and installation of two new glow plugs got the engine to start better than it ever has.

So -- engine is now working great and I went sailing the next week. While out for about an hour the throttle cable broke. I quickly set up a "Jury Rig" with a thin metal bar I had on a V-Berth shelf that was there when I bought the boat 4 years ago. That worked good enough to get us back into the slip. I replaced that cable and the gear shift cable at the same time and hopefully, now, the Gremlin is tired of causing me problems as I just got back from a full day of sailing yesterday and nothing broke or stopped working.