South Bay, East Bay and Suisun Bay

It is time to leave San Francisco and we are ready because it has been foggy, cold, and windy, just like Mark Twain said, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." It’s 9:00 a.m., we untie the boat, slowly motor to the south part of San Francisco Bay to Redwood City and watch Alcatraz, Angel Island and the city of San Francisco disappear in the fog that engulfs everything as it rolls into the bay through the Golden Gate. Redwood City is in the south part of San Francisco Bay and also is in shallow water. There is a shipping channel that works its way down to the bottom of the bay but you had better stay within the buoys. We slid sideways when Boris looked away and were rewarded with 3' of water. About noon we are in Redwood Creek working our way back into the estuary, which is getting shallower and shallower as we look for the marina where we plan to stay. After a few more instructions from the Dock Master, by phone, we pull into a gorgeous marina surrounded by lovely apartments. The sun was out, it was warm, it was calm and we were thrilled to be there.

The following day we hiked two miles into Redwood City to tour a museum they had on San Mateo County. What a sweet little downtown area which the train ran through and you could hear the train roaring past every so often. The museum was an old court house that was exquisite. The history about the peninsula up to San Francisco was interesting, especially the way the different modes of transportation changed the landscape; from ships to stagecoach to trains to cable cars and the prize, your own personal car. The first public transportation was the buggy on the right. Traveling in the old days wasn't as easy as today. Apparently Redwood City was always a suburb of San Francisco,  just the first Anglo residents were very rich. The upstairs had an original courtroom and you could tell it was definitely of a different time period. There was a huge oval stained glass piece, mostly yellows, in the center of the ceiling which was magnificent. The judge’s chambers was now being used as a large conference room. It was worth the walk but it was a hot day and we didn’t do much when we got back to the boat.

Now it's time to start heading northeast in the bay. Again we left early, around 7:00 a.m. in order to have a decent ride up the bay. The ride was great, little wind and fairly smooth the entire way. As we were entering Alameda channel we saw another 25' C-Dory, Nan-C, coming towards us, heading out. In the middle of the channel we stopped, chatted and exchanged phone numbers. The Alameda Yacht Club resides at the Fortmann Marina and that is where we stayed for a few days. Years ago the Fortmann Marina was where the Alaska Packers Fleet stayed in the winter and in the summer took the square riggers up to Alaska to be the mother ships for the salmon catch. The Star of India, in San Diego, was one such ship and so is the Balculutha, at the San Francisco Maritime Museum. Several of the marinas where we have stayed have had lots of character. Not necessarily fancy character. There are wooden docks that are in need of repair, the finger docks often tilt, especially when you walk on them, you had better not wear go-a-heads because of the nails sticking up from the wooden planks and when looking at some of the boats you are amazed they still float. After saying that, the people there are friendly and eager to help if they see you might need some. In fact the Alameda Yacht Club Dock Master, at this particular marina, is the one who steered us up to Montezuma Slough so that we could bypass Suisun Bay which is notorious for having a rough time getting through its waters. That led to Suisun City. The following day we met our friends in the other C-Dory, Gregg and Nancy, at Jack London Square in Alameda for lunch. You could see that Boris and I were both excited to talk to someone other than each other, for a little while anyway. We enjoyed our visit, which included a tour of Jack London Square and the wholesale produce market next to it. We also passed the (fancy) Oakland Yacht Club, which is in Alameda at the former site of Bethlehem Steel shipbuilding. This yard also built ships during WWII (see Sausalito on the previous letter) and their slipways are still there, including the offices under the slipways.

The weather had been calm and warm while we were in Alameda. That was about to change as we headed for Berkeley Yacht Club. As soon as we left the Alameda Channel and entered the bay, the wind started building and kept on building. Again, another marina that was a struggle to find the entrance but as soon as we got in we were able to tuck up against the yacht club which protected us from the wind. It was about noon, we put on our windbreakers because it was blowing like stink and walked along the waterfront to the bus stop to catch a ride up to the city of Berkeley. Little did we know that the bus ride would end up being the best part of the day. The bus driver was female, 60ish, black, and had the sweetest disposition. She laughed, talked and wanted to give us any information she thought we might need to have. She made sure we knew where to get the best pizza, best ribs, best tacos and everyone on the bus agreed. There was a young woman who was mentally handicapped, who obviously rode the bus often and I suspect she only rode that bus with that bus driver because the driver was so kind to her and obviously took her under her wing. As we rode along the streets I saw other young people heartily wave to this bus driver. Her and her bus definitely made our trip to Berkeley memorable. We walked by the Cal Berkeley but we didn’t go on campus, it is just too large. While walking down one of the main streets of Berkeley we stopped and got a cup of coffee and enjoyed observing the people who call it home. Boris’ Dad went to school there after he came here from Russia. His mother was going to Graduate School there, Mom and Dad met, and now we have Boris and Mischa. Another Cal success story.

Looking at the charts again we decided to visit a couple of more towns along the way that describe themselves as being involved with the history of the area, before we take the boat out of San Francisco Bay/Estuary. The first town is Benicia, up past Vallejo and on the Carquinez Strait between Suisun and Pablo bays. The town was founded in 1847 and ended up being a departure point for the gold miners going to the Mother Lode. At 6:30 a.m. we left Berkeley hoping for a decent ride. No luck, it was an ugly ride, even that early, up through San Pablo Bay and the Carquinez Straits. We gathered that area is more often than not a nasty place to travel. We had standing waves and following seas. Boris had a real workout on the steering wheel trying to keep the boat going in the direction we wanted and learned to surf down waves. The picture shows our wake as we're going downhill. At 9 in the morning, before the wind is supposed to come up, we even saw big tugs going the other way take green water over their bows. More anxiety than I like. The town is close to the marina and this marina’s character is on the plus side. The facilities are comfortable and pleasant. We walk into town for breakfast and this little place is lovely. After I get the laundry done, late afternoon, we walk back to town and they have a farmers market set up on the south end of town. There is a pony ride, singers, food to eat and fresh produce to buy. Sitting at a corner restaurant outside, we watched the locals visit and chat with each other, enjoying the summer activities. After dinner we walked one more time through the market and picked up one basket of strawberries, which were, of course, delicious. On our way back to the boat we decided to walk along the river that we came up this morning, by the old railroad station. My, how calm it was. Boris and I looked at each other wondering how we got the weather so wrong. The morning being so windy and early evening calm. Certainly the opposite of what we understand. I guess up here it all boils down to the extreme heat inland and the chilly ocean air rushing in to cool off the hot inlands areas. Every area has its own local weather. It warmed up in the afternoon and was a gorgeous evening. It was a full moon and we saw the moon reflect off the water. I do not think there are many things more captivating than watching the reflection of the moonlight dance on quiet still waters.

Boris got up and walked into town to get the newspaper, which is a treat for us to have during breakfast. There was a gas station and grocery store about a mile from the marina. Today would be an errand day. After breakfast Boris took the dock cart and took our two gas cans to the gas station, filled them up and brought them back. Gas was 1.50/gal cheaper there than at the marina gas dock. Then he offered to take the dock cart up for me to do grocery shopping. I immediately took him up on that offer because it was time for some provisioning. After our jobs were done we decided to take another walk through the town. We noticed some houses that were assigned numbers on signs, so we figured that they were probably a part of a walking tour. After some research we located the walking tour guide at an old refurbished train station. It was located where a ferry ran which brought sections of trains across the Carquinez Strait to Benicia, from Port Costa. This ferry ran from approximately 1870 – 1930, until a bridge was built. There is so much history in this little town; the gold rush, Jack London (actually, a saloon at which he drank,) the State Capitol for 13 months and much more. We finished the walking tour with the State Capitol Building, which was tenderly rebuilt and refurnished in the 1950s to bring it back to its original elegance. We were thrilled to have included this town on our exploration of San Francisco Bay.

As we lay in the V-berth, awake but not ready to get up, I see the low clouds or pieces of them through the hatch zip by as the San Joaquin Valley is sucking in any cool air from the San Francisco Bay. I know it will be windy again today. This day we will leave for Suisun City, just off the Montezuma Slough, the last city on this trip, but we can’t leave until 10:30 because of the low tide and currents. Today we will be traveling marshes through the upper part of Suisun Bay. The wind didn’t seem to be blowing much in the marina but was building as we waited to leave which made us anxious and it seemed like 10:30 would never get here. 10:30 did finally arrive and we left for our next destination, Suisun City. Fortunately the wind and current were going into the same direction as we were, thanks to Boris' planning, but the winds were up and it was blowing. We would see wind lines on the water and white caps keeping up with us as we motored through Carquinez Strait into Suisun Bay up to where we pick up Montezuma Slough to Suisun Slough and then work our way up to Suisun City marina. It was quite a ride, along with the three freighters that were on the water with us, going up the river as soon as we came out of the marina until we entered the sloughs. We went by the moth-ball military fleet they store in Suisun Bay. After we entered the sloughs it was an easy ride, we just needed to keep a close eye on the chart for shoaled areas. This town is also cute; it does not have the history but is a comfortable destination for boaters. The waterfront is boater friendly with nice facilities and restaurants. Before we left Benicia we checked the weather and the winds were suppose to be 10 – 15 knots. It ended up being a small craft warning with gusts up to 25 knots and in some areas as high as 30 knots. All afternoon it blew like stink but now we didn’t care because we could sit in the cockpit, protected from the wind, and just enjoy the day.

It was decided that we would catch the bus from here to Rio Vista, pick up the truck and trailer, drive back and pull the boat out of the water here in Suisun City.

We had cruised San Francisco Bay and environs. We used a cruising guide, San Francisco Bay by Mchaffy, which we bought from Amazon, though out of print. It was interesting and very good. However it discussed anchoring, such as in Richardson Bay and down in Redwood City, places that once we got there, we didn't anchor. In fact we never anchored. We looked in Treasure Island, and it was packed with old boats, and we kept on going. The other item of interest were the rivers and sloughs. The guide gave careful and explicit directions, such as "stay close to the #7 marker or you'll go aground, etc." If you're used to So Cal, the sloughs sound like a place for a 12' rowboat. However by being determined and following those directions, we had three of our best trips, and found lots of water. The picture shows a fishing boat, which strayed out of the channel, and was aground on a submerged island. The wind and waves were pushing it into the shallows and increased our care and navigation. Boris and I had several discussion as to the state of the tide at our destination versus the start. Fortunately, the CAPN software never let us down for tides and currents.

Hope you have enjoyed our little adventure. We were quite pleased with what we discovered in the way of history and the discovery of some of these small out of the way towns.