Trip to Sacramento

[Capt Paul]

The wife and I decided on a somewhat impromptu cruise to Sacramento this week. I had to burn some vacation days and the wife new job is very flexible on hours so away we went. It's about a 200 nautical mile round trip to Sacramento from where we berth our boat in Alameda, CA. The trip would be my wife’s first official cruise on any boat other then a major cruise line. The trip took us through the bays, San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisan Bays. All three can get fairly ruff this time of year because of the wind patterns. Going up stream the wind is generally at the stern. Coming back down it can be on all points of the bow depending on the wind direction

I decided to make the trip interesting by not making reservations at any of the marinas along the way before we left. We were traveling during the week so there were no weekend crowds to deal with anywhere which made it very nice. Only rule I had put on me by the admiral was that she needed to have a clean shower facility available where ever we wound up spending the evening. I even had her agree to one night on the hook, which we never wound up doing once we were in the river system. We loaded up the boat with our gear and food on Sunday evening and spent the night at our slip and after breakfast Monday morning took off about 11 AM. Winds were moderated going through San Francisco and San Pablo Bays. A fairly comfortable ride and since the winds were not increasing we decided to do the long haul through Suisun bay and make our first night stay Rio Vista. Rio Vista is located on the Sacramento river just a couple of miles south of where the Sacramento deep water channel and the “Old Sacramento river “ split off. It’s a small sleepy river town. It does have a comfortable marina which is well protected form the river currents. Luckily they had plenty of space for us. The marina has a restaurant on site but it was closed on Mondays. A 15 minute walk to ‘Main street” provide us with and assortment of restaurants.

After dinner the winds came up, and I mean they came up. We had 35-40 mile per hour winds which blew all night long. We were in a protected area but the boat did keep rocking throughout the night. Not the best nights sleep. When we woke up the winds were still blowing, a quick looks at the weather showed them diminishing in late morning. Interesting thing is this was just localized to our immediate area we were in. The area we were headed to was reporting balmy 5-10knot winds. I took a peep over the levy and the river was a little ruff but doable. I still decided to wait it out some and leave a little later then expected. We walked back into town for a good breakfast. Buy the time we got back the winds had come down quite a bit. We took off about 11 AM again. Sacramento or bust!

A couple miles up river we turned onto the old Sac and we would be pretty much on flat river water for the next 50 nautical miles. We would pass under a few bascule bridges as we wound our way up to Sacramento. With my antennas down and with the current river level we would not have to wait for any of them to open up for us. I had also promised the wife we would make some stops along the way at some small towns along the river that had small shops and such. We made about an hours stop at Walnut Grove. Another sleepy river town. They had a very nice city dock to pull up to which you could actually spend the night on if you wished. We thought about it some but, no shower facility available and we were not that far away form Sacramento. So off we went,

About 3 PM I remembered we still did not have berthing accommodations for the evening. I started making some phone calls and I was lucky that I did since many of the marina offices close fairly early during the week in this area. So I learned anyway! The one marina I was planning to stay at closed at 1PM. So that was out, I called a second marina just about a mile away and caught them going out the door. They provided me with a slip but would not leave a key out for the facilities. Admiral did not like that idea. We wound up staying at the Sacramento City Marina, a very large Marina off the river. Only thing I did not like about the facility is that the guest’s showers were quite a hike from where our berth was. Other then that we were all set.

We got ourselves situated and took a short boat ride up to our real destination which was “Old Sacramento”, a restoration of the original part of the city in the old west building format. It looks allot like New Orleans in my opinion. This was a big surprise for the wife as she had no idea this existed in Sacramento. We spent the couple of hours there taking a quick look around and had a excellent crab dinner at a place called “Joes” located right on the river. We decided to stay a couple of nights in this area and roam around. BTW, it was at this point I decided I did not really do my homework as well as I should have, I noticed there was no diesel fuel available at the last couple of fuel stops. We explored a little further up river the next morning and spoke with one gentlemen at one of the marinas and found out the last “last chance” for diesel fuel was down river a little ways. A good thing to know ahead of time.

Thursday morning we decided to head back down river and again since the winds looked like they were going to behave themselves we figured we could make the long haul and get through Suisan bay to stay at a town called Benicia. Benicia is located on the east end of the Carquinez Straights and also has some shops and nice restaurants. We stopped at the “Last Chance” fuel dock and topped of the main tank, we took on 62 gallons of fuel, quick calculation showed us burning about 4.5 gallons per hours doing 12 knots. Not bad in my opinion. Off to Benicia.

The trip down river was a nice ride. Another thing I should mention is there a many “5 mile per hour zones” which need to be respected as many marinas and privately maintained docks are right on the river. Once back on to the main river system I noticed the winds were staring to pick up again although nothing like they were the last time we went through this area. I made a quick call ahead to Benicia and was insured we had a space on their guest dock for the evening. As we entered Suisan bay I knew things were going to get ruff. Winds at this pint were a sustained 25-30 miles per hour I told the admiral we better make sure everything is stowed away in the cabin and here eyes got real big. And ruff it did get. Steep 3 to 5 foot wind rollers on the bow space about 5 feet apart for about 35 minutes. The boat handled it pretty well. I slowed down and just pounded through it. Every time the bow dug in, the water would shoot over the helm cabin and into the cock pit as well as completely blinding our forward looking view for a few seconds. The windshield wipers came in very handy!. The wife was not very happy about this but we were dry and warm and making our way.

When we finally made it to Benicia it looked like allot of boats decided not to make their way through Suisan Bay (smarter then me I guess), the guest dock was completely full. The marina office is now closed. This is where I get to vent a little. Guest dock spaces should be used sparingly. As I looked at the boats that were tied up, I noticed allot of “space” that if tightened up a bit could have easily made room for another 30ft boat. I talked to one of the skippers and he was willing to move, but the person forward of him was not around and he did not feel comfortable moving the other person’s boat. I don’t’ blame him but this other person had at least 16 feet forward of him with at least 3 to 4 usable cleats to tie off too. There was no one forward of him as the rest of the dock length forward of the additional 16 ft was for the pump out station and fuel dock The gentlemen I first talked to said there looked to be some usable space on the inside of the dock. As this was my only option as this point I decided to check it out. I pulled the boat into this area slowly and had 4.5 ft of depth with a rising tide. A quick look at the tide tables showed that I still should have 2.5 feet underneath me for a slightly negative tide the following morning. Having had a long day, and being hungry we decided to spend the night here.

I’m curious to hear any opinions about proper dock etiquette/procedures. Would any of you have moved the other boat to make room? I was hesitant, and decided not to. If the marina office was open I probably would have asked them.

Anyway, Benicia wound up being a vey good stay over location. We walked to the down town area and was surprised to find a “ farmer’s market” street fair going on. We picked up what has to be the sweetest bunch of local strawberries we ever had. We had a good dinner and decided to call it an early night as we had to get back home the next day.

San Pablo Bay behaved itself on the way home with some moderate winds, nothing compared to what we had endured the previous day in Suisan Bay. San Francisco Bay on the other hand was true to it’s nature for a typical summer afternoon’s 20+knots winds. To get to where we were going we needed to take the wind waves on our beam. A few of them were large enough to put us a 45+ degree angle, again the wife was not to happy about this, but she was a trooper and hung in there, literally at some points. We made it to the lee side of Treasure Island and it was smooth sailing from that point on to our berth.

This being the first cruise that the wife and I took together, I have to say I’m pretty happy with the boats performance; it handled the ruff waters well. It provided us with adequate comfort for overnight stays and room for storage without having to mover things around. I will say that a 28 is not a boat I would consider taking an extended cruise on. 4-5 days max with me and the wife on board is about right. Maybe adding some motel/hotel stay overs for lengthier cruises would be the ideal mix.

Here are some pictures of some of what we saw.

Delta Marina, Rio Vista

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Isleton Bascule Bridge.

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Sacramento Old Town Bridge.

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Railroad Swing Bridge

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Sacramento Marina, nice covered berths.

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Sunken ferry next to a wing dam, we saw quite a few recks along the river shore on the way.

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[jcollins]

Capt. Paul,
Very good description of your trip. I always enjoy reading about the travels of others. Good pictures too!
I will chime in on your question about moving someone else's boat. Never. I would leave that up to the dockmaster or marina owner. If they are not available or willing to accept responsibility then it stays put until the owner returns. It's quite possible that is where he was told to dock. At the very least, your setting yourself up for a very unhappy neighbor for the night. At the worst, you could be blamed for damage.

Just my 2 cents,

John