A Sailing Adventure
Oct 20
2008
My friends lived on their boats, in their respective marinas, out in sunny California. Joe had a 26 foot, Bermuda rigged double hull sailboat, Dutch made and allegedly suitable for sailing in the North Sea. Frankly, I wouldn’t want to try that. The living quarters was cramped and all below decks, with no upper cabin space. There was room for two, but those two had better be prepared to to get to know one another. My other friend, Herb, lived at the Martinez marina in his twin diesel fishing boat. About 40 feet with a high wheelhouse, this was the kind of boat made for daylong fishing outings. It had a smallish but serviceable galley, a large below decks living area and the master bedroom was up under the bow. I usually slept on the aft deck on those occasions when I would visit overnight.
I would often visit Joe, since I lived nearby in Berkley and often had time to spend with my friends. Joe had recently acquired his sailboat, but he had no real sailing experience. For that matter, neither did I. One of the first purchases Joe got for his sailboat was a small 3 1/2 horsepower electric motor, which he used for tooling around the marina. After some discussion one fine day Joe and I had decided that we would sail from the Berkeley marina to the Martinez marina, to visit our buddy Herb. It would be a great trip, and a good opportunity for both Joe and I to get some sailing experience.
The journey would be a relatively easy one, starting from Berkley marina we would sail through the San Francisco Bay and under the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge into San Pablo Bay. This would take us to the Carquinez Straight, past the C&H Sugar refinery and right up to the Martinez marina, nearly to Suisun Bay - where the U.S. Navy keeps a mothball fleet of ships. Joe gathered his tidal charts and studied the waterway regulations and the day finally arrived for our much anticipated journey.
The day was perfect with blue skies, light winds and calm water. Our journey was uneventful going across one end of San Francisco Bay under the Richmond bridge. Into San Pablo Bay were were feeling pretty good and making good time. We watched the high speed ferries on the opposite side of the bay, heading back towards San Francisco from Vallejo. At some point along the way Joe made the decision to stop at Vallejo and visit his daughter, who had recently moved there. So we crossed over San Pablo Bay and made our way to a marina there. By this time the tide was on the way out. As we approached the marina we came in too close to one side of the entrance and there we encountered the bottom of the bay. We were beached, stuck in the marina entrance. Eventually someone came out in a powerboat and pulled us free and towed us into the marina where we tied up to the dock. It soon became obvious that we were not welcome there, that we were taking up valuable space alongside the pier and we had to go. And so off we went. A small mishap, it could happen to anyone. We sailed along under the Carquinez Bridge and pulled out our fishing poles as we sailed alongside the C&H Sugar refinery. Luck was with us as we caught several large striped bass. We finally arrived at the Martinez marina after a three or four hour trip, and we had dinner with us. Herb was happy to see us both.
We spent that night in Martinez and had planned to do a little sightseeing the next day before we left. The folks at the marina were happy to let us dock for the night. That is, until Joe decided to move his sailboat. The problem was, once again, the tide was out and the water level in the marina was rather low. Joe, sailing alone with the aid of his electric trolling motor, managed to get his boat stuck again. And once more a friendly face in a powerboat came along and pulled Joe to the nearest dock. I spent that night sleeping under the stars, on the stern of Herbs boat. Joe slept in his sailboat.
The following morning we had breakfast and wisely waited for the tide to come in. Once the hour had passed we set off towards Suisun Bay for a spin around the mothball fleet. We got out of the marina just fine. As we headed toward Suisun Bay we were pushed toward the shoreline, and neither of us being very experienced, thought that we could get in behind a refinery pier and get turned around. It didn’t quite work that way. We did get behind the pier, which was a monstrous concrete pier, but we immediately beached the sailboat yet again. No problem, we thought, the tide is coming in, we’ll be free soon enough. As the tide rose around us so did the wind. After an hour or so we floated free and the sails went up. Immediately we were headed right at this huge concrete pier. I though we were going under it, actually. And that would have been bad, really bad, because our mast was taller than the pier. But Joe managed to get us turned at the last minute, and now we were drifting sideways into one of the support pillars at the end of the pier. And we were coming in rather fast. So I reached out and pushed against the pillars to at least try to minimize the collision. Amazingly, I managed to keep us off the pillar. As I continued to push, the boat slowly inched away from the pillar. At some point I realized my predicament. I was leaning way too far over the edge of the boat with my hands on the pillar, and we were drifting away. Finally I went overboard and took my first, and last, swim in the Carquinez Straight. Since I’m not an accomplished swimmer this was more than unpleasant, it was scary. Meanwhile, Joe looked around and saw that I was no longer on board and he started looking for me. When I managed to surface he threw me a line and helped me back aboard. I lost some pride and one shoe, and with the rising wind I was now getting cold. We somehow managed to get back out into the straight and together we decided the trip to Suisun Bay could wait another day. We started back towards Berkeley.
The water and wind in the Carquinez Straight is nothing less than treacherous on most days. We found ourselves on that day going against the wind and the tide. For hours we tacked across the straight, trying to get under the bridge without smashing the sailboat into the bridge supports and possibly killing ourselves. Finally, after several hours, we managed to clear the bridge. We passed so close to the bridge support that I could have reached out and touched it. After several more hours we found ourselves less that one-half mile past the bridge. We continued to tack across the straight, and our progress was measured in inches. During all of this we had to stay clear of the huge oil tankers that made their way through the straight and further inland to the refineries. It was late in the day when Joe called it, “We’re going back to Martinez.” I was disappointed, feeling certain that we were about to experience a change in tide, winds, and good fortune. I was ready to keep trying. But Joe was the captain of this vessel, and it was getting dark. And so back we went.
The next morning Joe told me that he wasn’t going to try to sail back again. He had spoken to the marina manager in Martinez, and his new home was now in Martinez. So I said my goodbyes and walked into Martinez and boarded the Amtrack train back to Berkeley. Some weeks later I went back out to Martinez, by train, and discovered that Joe had sold his sailboat and purchased a nice fiberglass fishing boat. It had power! He wasn’t going to get stuck in that straight ever again. But Joe also was to never get back into that straight. As it turned out, he started drinking again, and his boat was littered with empty beer cans. Irt wasn’t long before Joe sold his boat and wandered away, never to be seen again.
Tags: bay, berkeley, california, carquinez straight, marina, martinez, sailing, san francisco, suisun bay
0