I had a great week on the Delta, managing to anchor out for six of the last nine nights.
The Hilton fireworks were the best I've seen. The pyrotechnic assortment seemed pretty fresh and the finale was the best.
Overall boat numbers must have been smaller than previous years, owing to the Fourth falling on a Wednesday. There didn't seem to be as much general boat traffic. I didn't actually make it to Mandeville & Three River Reach this year, though.
Living through the heat without air conditioning was fun. A Delta Dip every hour or so during the afternoon kept my body temp down. I'd hit the water as soon as the shorts dried out. We saw 105 degrees for two days where we were anchored out. Stockton hit 110 and Sacramento 108!
It got so hot that the spiders hiding in the crannies and folds the cockpit canvas dropped to the deck looking for relief. They only found death from my deck rag.
Here's how to keep ice for five 90-something to 105 degree days in an ordinary red-colored Igloo cooler... keep it covered with wet white towels. I had to wet it down every four hours or so during the day. The evaporative cooling kept the outside of the cooler cold to the touch.
I finished transforming the transom from white paint to stain and varnish on June 30. The kids came up with the boat name 10 years ago soon after I bought it. There has been no name on the boat until now.
Later that day the sailboat raft-up dragged anchor and came within 20' of the bow. I woke up the snoozing crews with the horn. I'll give the sailboaters credit for doing a good drill: they had two motors on within a minute and avoided making contact with my boat and anchor chain.
At night, the Delta breeze and stars were outstanding. Saturn, Jupiter and the late-rising orange moon were quite a sight. Wish I had shots of those, but I didn't think of it at the time.
The Hilton fireworks were the best I've seen. The pyrotechnic assortment seemed pretty fresh and the finale was the best.
Overall boat numbers must have been smaller than previous years, owing to the Fourth falling on a Wednesday. There didn't seem to be as much general boat traffic. I didn't actually make it to Mandeville & Three River Reach this year, though.
Living through the heat without air conditioning was fun. A Delta Dip every hour or so during the afternoon kept my body temp down. I'd hit the water as soon as the shorts dried out. We saw 105 degrees for two days where we were anchored out. Stockton hit 110 and Sacramento 108!
It got so hot that the spiders hiding in the crannies and folds the cockpit canvas dropped to the deck looking for relief. They only found death from my deck rag.
Here's how to keep ice for five 90-something to 105 degree days in an ordinary red-colored Igloo cooler... keep it covered with wet white towels. I had to wet it down every four hours or so during the day. The evaporative cooling kept the outside of the cooler cold to the touch.
I finished transforming the transom from white paint to stain and varnish on June 30. The kids came up with the boat name 10 years ago soon after I bought it. There has been no name on the boat until now.
Later that day the sailboat raft-up dragged anchor and came within 20' of the bow. I woke up the snoozing crews with the horn. I'll give the sailboaters credit for doing a good drill: they had two motors on within a minute and avoided making contact with my boat and anchor chain.
At night, the Delta breeze and stars were outstanding. Saturn, Jupiter and the late-rising orange moon were quite a sight. Wish I had shots of those, but I didn't think of it at the time.