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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
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    Default What I Saw

    Wednesday night and I was in Monterey watching the sunset series/ beer can race. Del Monte Beach was lined with people doing the same thing: they brought picnics and sat in their cars or on the beach, on benches and tables, and they watched the pretty boats follow that almost incomprehensible movement that we call sailboat racing. I counted at least twenty boats, many of them Shields. What a pretty boat! I'll bet they are wet! There were some J boats, and Santanas, a couple of Cals. It was a good turnout. At the end of the night I watched from the wharf as they came in just after sunset. Nice, crinkly sails and happy crews. It looked like fun.

  2. #2
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    Jan 2013
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    Montara, CA
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    Hmm. Sounds like you need a trailer....sitting on the sidelines works for only the first couple of times, ya know!

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gamayun View Post
    Hmm. Sounds like you need a trailer....sitting on the sidelines works for only the first couple of times, ya know!
    Oh, and there was a pod of dolphins playing close to shore.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Philpott View Post
    Oh, and there was a pod of dolphins playing close to shore.
    And breaching humpbacks farther on.....

    Seriously, one more Cal makes a fleet, right

  5. #5
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    I raced on one of those Shields as a kid.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  6. #6
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    Dura Mater made friends on Monterey Bay yesterday. Dozens and dozens of friends.
    Attached Images Attached Images  

  7. #7
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    Sep 2007
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    I got the new seats installed in the dinghy. I'm ready to go UP THE DELTA!

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  8. #8
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    All these years and I've never been past Benicia in a sailboat. Seriously. Well, except for the skerry.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  9. #9
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    Dura Mater has been in the Delta for more than two weeks, the hottest weeks I have ever experienced. Still can’t stand on the sole of the cockpit without flip flops. I have ocean blue “slippers” which I bought in Hanalei Bay last summer as I waited to greet the singlehanders of the Singlehanded Sailing Society’s 2016 Transpacific Yacht Race. Those were the days. I’m surprised my slippers haven’t melted. All my chocolate has melted. The small mirror above my porta-pottie, attached to the wood with sticky back tape, fell off in the heat. The winches are so hot to the touch that I wear sailing gloves just to handle them. It’s a jungle out there.

    Monday morning DM and I sailed from Owl Harbor to the B&W Resort. I left at about 8:30 am in the gentlest of breeze, past River’s Edge marina through the little slough in between the levee road and San Joachin River where I turned left. We drifted past the Spindrift Marina, with its motor yachts tucked away in their covered slips, boats from places like Petaluma and Denver and Portland. Passed within ten feet of one couple sitting on their back deck drinking their morning coffee. They smiled and waved. Just like people do in Oakland. Well, not really.

    Except for a coupla fishing boats I didn’t see anybody else. Lots of birds, though. Cranes and quacking creatures. Certainly no other sailboats. What’s up with that?

    By 9 am it was already really hot, so I raised my beach umbrella. Lucky for me Pelagic was steering. DM, Pelagic and I continued on until we got to the tip of the Delta Loop (look it up on your navigation map), then we turned left at Pirates’ Lair Marina and headed up the Mokelumne River. Still in the flood, and then we were on a broad reach. Very slowly the wind picked up, the river widened and curved ahead of us. We passed Moores’ Riverboat Restaurant with its big deck, long dock and inviting boat slips. It might be the Sam’s of the Delta. There was a sailboat tied up on an end dock. I’ll check that out next time. Then we were on a close reach and DM was going 6 knots effortlessly. A few more tacks, one more curve in the river and there was the Mokelumne River Bridge in front of us.

    My understanding is that bridge-tenders prefer to see your boat before they start the process of stopping traffic. I used channel 9 to call the Bridgetender: “Mokelumne River Bridge, this is the sailboat Dura Mater approaching from the south. Do you read me?” No answer. I tried again. No answer. I reached for my handheld and called again. This was my first bridge and we were still in the flood. I felt like I was flying toward it. So much for planning ahead.

    Finally the bridge-tender responded. “I see you,” she said. “Do you plan to sail through or motor through?” “Well,” I responded, “I have good wind, so I’ll sail through.” She did ask. But then I was horrified to hear, immediately, the sound of the Ding!Ding!Ding!, that sound of a train approaching, except that I was the train. I watched as all the trucks and cars stopped. The bridge started to move sideways for my little sailboat and all of a sudden my progress toward that bridge seemed to be pitiably slow. Did I mention that DM has been having battery issues? One battery works but the other one? Not so much. I was trying so hard to eek out a little more speed that I didn’t want to go below to switch to the #2 battery which works to start the engine. So there we were, making everybody wait. And wait. I send my apologies out to all you motorists.

    As we sailed past the bridge-tender on her perch above me, I waved and thanked her. She leaned over and yelled “Most sailboats motor through!” To which I replied, “Sorry!” But that’s a lie. From now on I will always wait until I am much closer to bridges before I call. I will circle ‘round until the bridge-tender decides to open and I will be sure to use my engine in the future. But I’ll never be sorry that I really did sail through my first swing Bridge, up the Mokelumne River. It makes me happy to recall it.

    At B&W marina I staggered into the cafe, light headed from the heat. Inside is a terrific, well stocked market. Lots of top shelf liquor, plenty of low shelf liquor, too. There were “slippers”, sunhats, toiletries, engine supplies like impellers and gas additives. There were fishing lures, spools of line and lots of candy. Many choices for soft drinks and a great choice of beer. There is a pool table in the middle of the café and several small tables with red and white checked oilcloth tablecloths. What’s oilcloth? It’s that material that rubberized rain jackets are made from. Sailors use ‘em.

    The B&W café serves a limited menu of microwaveable or toastable food. Interestingly, it serves espresso, cappuchino and lattes. Most impressive: the B&W café has a soft serve machine with chocolate, vanilla, and chocolate/vanilla swirl!

    “Do you like your soft serve in a cup or a cone?” asked the pretty girl behind the counter. Instead I went awalkin’ over to the ice cream fridge and got myself an orange sherbet pushup. Yep. They have ‘em. Worth the sail, if you ask me. Then, while I caught my breath I sat down on the swivel stool at the counter (there’s a counter) and ordered lunch. An English muffin with jelly. It arrived perfectly toasted, and I was again asked my preference. Strawberry or grape jelly? The jelly arrived in a big quart jar, and I was handed a spoon. That’s the kind of place B&W Resort is.

    Little kids love B&W and there were a lot of ‘em running around outside. In a well-behaved way, don’t get me wrong. No yelling. Well, not loud yelling. No loud laughing. Well, not too loud laughing. They were awful cute. If you don’t like little kids, you might not like B&W Resort. If you have your own little kids, you all
    might like B&W Resort. Your kids sure will.

    The kids’ parents all have motor boats. I don’t know what kind of motor boats because I’m not a motor boat person, but they were all shiny and brightly colored, like big toys. Sitting in the bow of his parents’ boat, one little tow-headed boy looked slowly up the length of DM’s luffing sail. He turned his head and I heard him say, “Mama! Look! I’ve never seen a real sailboat before.” Which says a lot.

    What does it say to me? Why, it says that poor child may have doting parents who like to spend time with him in quiet, bucolic settings. And those parents may have expensive boats and BIG engines. But I can see into that child’s future. That child faces the inevitable day when he’ll realize that he has been deprived. Deeeprived. And who knows where that may lead? Sailboat deprivation: a diagnosis with its own ICD-10 code. Look it up. Go on!
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    Last edited by Philpott; 07-22-2017 at 06:38 PM.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Seattle, WA
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    Default

    Wow. Great report. Thanks for the story and the pictures.
    Lee
    s/v Morning Star
    Valiant 32

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