Hi all,
As Mitch said, we made it safely and
Loving It is now securely tied to the broker's dock. My wife, Sue, decided to join us at the mast moment so we had a crew of four. DLL picked us up at the Sacramento train station and took us out to a great dinner at Peal By The River. We enjoyed great food while sitting above the Sacramento River. Dave then delivered us to the boat and went over her operation with us. It was time for bed time we had a 6:30am departure planned.
We got away from the docks a few minutes late, but made great time as we were running with the tide. The only downside was that I forgot to bring coffee. Most of the piloting was done by Martinez Mitch and my son. Daniel also recorded the ships log at 30 minute intervals so that we'd have a record of our positions and speeds. The boat ran great and other than a little wind, the water was fairly smooth.
We did have a little excitement as we approached the Carquinez Bridge ... there were several sail boats tacking in front of us and as we looked farther out, we could see over a hundred sailboats approaching us form San Pablo Bay. I suddenly recalled that yesterday was the Delta Ditch Regatta/Race. Sailors from all over the SF Bay race from Richmond Yacht Club to the Stockton Sailing club. We wended our way through the fleet trying not to interfere or slow down any of the racers. They appeared to be having a fine day and there was some good competition among individual boats.
Later while passing Angel Island and gazing at the western span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge, we noticed an odd phenomenon. The towers were glowing and appeared to be illuminated with very bright lights to show up so brightly during daylight. We determined that it was the sun reflecting over the cross members of the towers. In all my years of living in the Bay Area, that was the first time I had ever observed this.
When we arrived at the broker's docks, I contacted him by phone for docking instructions. He let me know that two boats which had been scheduled to leave had not, so we were going to be shoe horned into a tight spot .... great! Most of you that have read my posts, know that I don't think much of bow thrusters or the need for them. As I pulled into a fairway with insufficient distance to even rotate the boat without first getting the stern into a slip, I decided that maybe this was a time to swallow my pride and use the thruster. We managed to slide the boat into a slip just wide enough for the boat and fenders on each side and no extra space. The thruster was handy and made things a little easier.
All in all, it was a great trip with great company. Thanks Mitch, my son, my wife and DLL for allowing me to deliver your boat for you. I put together an album of our pics that can be seen here:
http://s69.photobucket.com/albums/i77/allheating/Loving It Delivery/?albumview=grid
