Help choose a route!

[westdelta]

We're planning on taking the sailboat from Rio Vista down to Antioch in a couple months. Our two possible routes are:

1) Down the Sacramento River to Pt Sacramento and turn south, through broad slough to Antioch. 14NM.

2) Down the Sacramento River to 3Mi Slough, go under the bridge and around to the San Joaquin at Red 28. Then straight on to Antioch. 14NM.

3) Same as #1, but come down the Sacramento River and cut across Sherman Lake, slip through Mayberry Cut, and pop out at Antioch. 11NM.

It'll be a sailboat - an Islander 26, with 4 feet or so of draft. #1 would be a piece of cake, #2 is a little more involved with 3 mile slough, and #3 is the shortest, and depending on conditions could potentially save as much as an hour. But Mayberry Cut is narrow, and Sherman Lake is shallow.

For one thing, do you think it's advisable to even consider cutting through Sherman Lake on anything other than about a +3 high tide? Depending on which tide we come down on, we could be hitting Sherman Lake on a 1.5 low tide, or a -1 low tide! The more I think about this option, the less I want to do it.

 

[Flutterby]

My powerboat draws 30 inches and I avoid Sherman Lake except at an incoming tide. I've never been in Mayberry Cut. I presume you will be under power and not actually "sailing" her?

 

[manticore999]

I'd be more worried about Sherman Lake than Mayberry cut. The cut has more than enough draft even at low tide, but I wouldn't do Sherman Lake at low tide. High tide might be doable, though

 

[westdelta]

The plan is to be under sail. Donno if the wind will cooperate, but that's the plan. I'm leaning towards the easier route down the Sacramento, and if we're ahead of schedule we could always loop around past Pittsburg, adding 5 1/2 NM.

The one reason I looked at Sherman Lake is if we have a lack of wind, or counter-productive wind, Sherman Lake could possibly cut 1 hour off the trip - but I don't like the looks of the shallow depths. We'd likely be riding the tide down from Rio Vista, so by definition we'd be coming through at at least a low-ish tide.

 

[chiselchst]

#1 & #2 are fine...

I wouldn't do #3 in a powerboat. Only because of Sherman Lake, and crossing the berms getting in/out of the Lake.

 

[FlyWright]

I have taken all 3 routes in my 34 Californian, but I never cut across Sherman Lake until I had an old saw onboard who showed me how it's done. My boat draws 3 1/2 feet and the route I'll describe is 5-7 feet deep at low tide, but you have to travel in a straight line....NO SAILING!

Starting at the west opening of Sherman Lake near the deep hole, track a straight line from the south end of the hole to the mouth of Mayberry Slough/Mayberry Cut. If you prefer, you could take Mayberry Cut (the north/south cut that heads straight south from the entrance to Mayberry Slough. Take the westernmost cut since it's a little deeper (11-15 feet) and wider. If you want to tour the rif-raf, you can take Mayberry Slough, but it'll be longer.

Once you make it out to the SJ, you can hoist the sails and celebrate your passage of Sherman Lake!

Al

aka FlyWright

 

[westdelta]

Wow, 5-7 ft, really?

We're looking at probably morning of July 4th for this, and low tide in that area is looking like -0.7 around noon. 4 foot depths on the chart, 4 foot draft and a minus tide pretty much scared me away from this idea, but you think it's actually possible? I'll have to take a trip through there in my friend's power boat and pay close attention to the depths, he draws less than a foot.