New boater planning trip from Martinez to Sausalit

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Waynepj4

Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
RO Number
30904
Messages
398
Hello All,

Im planning a trip to from Martinez to Sausalito in February. Its really a Valentines day surprise for my wife. The plan is to go dock at Sausalito marina and spend one night at the Inn above tides. The next night we will go to Angel Island and use one of the mooring bouys and stay the night there.

As a new boater I know I dont know what I dont know. So is there anythign I should be aware of. Is there a particular time that is best to cross the San Pablo bay? Where can I get wind AND swell information about the San Pablo bay?
 
Wayne,

In general it is best to get across San Pablo Bay early in the morning before the wind has had a chance to build up. If you must run later try to time your passage for an incoming tide, even though you are fighting the current, as the waves and wind will be aligned and won't stack up as much. I assume you are going the weekend prior to Valentines Day and the tide will be ebbing in the morning which should provide ideal conditions. I recommend doing a search for WXTide32 and downloading the program; it will give you access to the tide prediction for many, many locations for any date you choose. For wind predictions, you can use the following link: http://sfports.wr.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/wind/windbin.cgi

Another thing to be sure to bring are two long ropes. When you enter Ayala Cove, try to do it at slack tide, you will want to have a line attached at the stern and at the bow. Lead the bow line back outside the rails to the cockpit on your boat for easier attachment to the buoys. I approach the buoy which will be at my stern and run the stern line through the eye and back to my boat where I can secure it (and monitor it to ensure it doesn't get in the prop as I pull forward. Pull along side the forward buoy and run the bow line through the eye and walk the end up to the bow where you can secure it. You can now shut the engines off and adjust the two lines to position your boat between the buoys. When it comes time to leave, you simple untie the ends and pull them back to your boat. No need to maneuver close to the buoys again.

Hope this helps somewhat.

Blue Skies,
Dave

PS. You can also go www.coastsidefishingclub.com for links to additional weather sites on the lower left side of the page. The best one is the "Point and Click"
 
You can get the WXTides free software here. Don't get it anywhere else. Pirated versions of WXTides get sold on Ebay and other sites offer hacked versions that include spyware.

http://www.wxtide32.com/
 
quote:
Originally posted by AbsoLoot

Wayne,

In general it is best to get across San Pablo Bay early in the morning before the wind has had a chance to build up. If you must run later try to time your passage for an incoming tide, even though you are fighting the current, as the waves and wind will be aligned and won't stack up as much. I assume you are going the weekend prior to Valentines Day and the tide will be ebbing in the morning which should provide ideal conditions. I recommend doing a search for WXTide32 and downloading the program; it will give you access to the tide prediction for many, many locations for any date you choose. For wind predictions, you can use the following link: http://sfports.wr.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/wind/windbin.cgi

Another thing to be sure to bring are two long ropes. When you enter Ayala Cove, try to do it at slack tide, you will want to have a line attached at the stern and at the bow. Lead the bow line back outside the rails to the cockpit on your boat for easier attachment to the buoys. I approach the buoy which will be at my stern and run the stern line through the eye and back to my boat where I can secure it (and monitor it to ensure it doesn't get in the prop as I pull forward. Pull along side the forward buoy and run the bow line through the eye and walk the end up to the bow where you can secure it. You can now shut the engines off and adjust the two lines to position your boat between the buoys. When it comes time to leave, you simple untie the ends and pull them back to your boat. No need to maneuver close to the buoys again.

Hope this helps somewhat.

Blue Skies,
Dave

PS. You can also go www.coastsidefishingclub.com for links to additional weather sites on the lower left side of the page. The best one is the "Point and Click"

Click to expand...

Thank you for the great advice. I have a program for my iPhone called TideGraph that works great. It tells me when there is high and low tide. I dont know if it is an outgoing or incoming tide however.

The plan is to leave out of Martinez Marina at 10am. That should put me in Sausalito at about 1130am. I hope thats early enough.
 
yzer, thanks for that link! I was a victim of the one which also downloaded spyware, so I was afrid to get that program for my new computer. Now I've downloaded the zip file and have it on my hard drive for future reference.

Wayne, it really is important to know whether you are traveling against or with the current created by the tides. Not just in San Pablo Bay but also in the Delta....... Have a safe enjoyable trip!
 
WX tides is a nice program. It will produce tide info for quite a few Bay/Delta locations. After you get to understand it a bit, you can set up tide values for custom locations like I've done here for my marina location. I've customized this graph for myself so it shows the data I want: high and low tides, current direction, moon phase, day/night, etc. WX Tides will give you the info for past, current and future dates. You can pick the colors, graph types, etc.

I didn't take the time to get the data for this exactly right for Spindrift Marina so the info can be off by a minute or two, but it shows me the easiest time to dock my single screw boat at this San Joaquin River location. I just print these WX Tide graphs and take them with me before longer trips. Along with NOAA charts, that's about all I need to get around.

today1.jpg
 
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