05/17 - 05/20 - 4th Annual Delta/Bay Extravaganza

Ron...it's just money...what the heck... I keep hinting around for Sue to get a part-time afterschool job.... you can imagine her answer...yep !

Are you taking your dog?? Roxie would love to go, but Sue does not want her barking if we go out to dinner.... (I know yer dog does not bark, but mine does)

Joel
SEA3PO
 
Dear All-

We know that some of you will be leaving shortly for your journey to the Delta (the largest inland estuary on the West Coast of North America). We are looking forward to seeing everyone and look forward to the journey with a great goup of folks.

Please remember that we want to leave Rio Vista by about Noon (with some slack, but not too much). We want to get down to John's place by not too late in the day.

This will probably be our last post before the trip. Please drive carefully and be safe. If you have any issues or needs that we can help with, please call me on the cell phone. :D
 
I would just like to add that I live about 15mi from Rio Vista. If anyone needs anything local feel free to give me a call.

I plan on getting to Rio Vista Wed. morning.

Steve
 
Hi Joel,

You are so right about its only $$$. Can't take it with us!
Yes Jenna is going. We are both looking forward to it! SHe really likes the duck club! :D
 
seabran":1opmhul7 said:
I would just like to add that I live about 15mi from Rio Vista. If anyone needs anything local feel free to give me a call.
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Another nice one! Thank you, Steve. I even appreciate it and I won't be there.
 
Thanks Mike!

I have been the recipient of helpful C-Dory owners and it made things much easier to deal with.

WooHoo! Only one more day of work this week then it's off to play on my C-Dory and blast around SF bay. I have done much of this trip on sailboats in the past so anything over 7knts is blasting!

Steve
 
Islander, Fistales, and I (Sealife) trailered up to Rio Vista on Monday. Tuesday morning we all headed up river towards Stockton, intending to stop for lunch at a place Roger (Fishtales) had scoped out. Long, windy ride later, we arrived at this deserted, funky resort. Had a quick sandwich aboard and headed back. Wind howled all night, but we were snug at our Delta Marina moorings. Wednesday the rest of the gang arrived and we headed downriver to the Duck Club in Honkers Bay. Wind and tide against us, we could only make about 5 knots, and even then did alot of crashing and banging. Got everyone rafted up at the club and proceeded to explore the island, then having a really great barbecue dinner.

Wind blew all night again, and by now the river was a real mess, with whitcaps everywhere. Small Craft warnings were up so the group elected to stay put at the club for another day, as they would have had to beat into the worst of it going down river. I had to get back up river to Rio Vista to trailer back home for a photography commitment on Saturday, so I called the Coast Guard, and, because Sealife is an Auxiliary CG facility, I asked for and got a radio guard for the trip back. Witha radio guard, the CG checks on your progress every 30 minutes by radio. It was An "E-ticket" ride for about 5 miles, not too bad with the seas to my back, but then it began to moderate, and by the time I arrived at Rio Vista, it was slack tide and flat water. Pulled out and onto the trailer and headed home.

Posted a few pics in the Delta album. Rest of the crew are still up there, hopefully able to proceed down river in calmer conditions. I'm sure we'll hear about it when they return.
 
Sealife":5culj0u1 said:
Tuesday morning we all headed up river towards Stockton, intending to stop for lunch at a place Roger (Fishtales) had scoped out. Long, windy ride later, we arrived at this deserted, funky resort.
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Funky indeed. We were just a few weeks too early for the topless vollyball games at "Lost Isle"

Yep-- spent two days at the Duck Club. Had a great time catching the stripers. I caught a half dozen, most- including the one in the picture, were released. Caught several crawdads for bait.

After returning to Rio Vista, we (Fishtales, Sea3po, Seabran, Islander) spent a day cruising upstream to Miners Slough. Cruised up Miners to Steamboat Slough and over to the Sacramento River. Down river to Locke, where we docked at the Walnut Grove City dock, and walked to "Al the Wops" for lunch.

While cruising in Miners, we saw a small pickup that had missed a turn in the road and stopped just short of the water. We watched as they pulled the truck back up to the road and drove off.

It was nice to see old friends on the water again.

edit :oops: would like to catch the strippers, but I'll settle for the stripers :oops:
 
Hi all, got back late last night -- rained the whole 400 miles home, hoped the boat would be sparkling by then, no luck -- still muddy (from the road), nats and bugs from the trip, etc. Oh well. Oh, reminds me of a little joke I tell when an admirer asks me how fast she goes...I show them my Windex bottle -- have to wipe off the bugs after every trip!

Had a great time, a little adventure mixed in always makes it more 'memorable'. Like Roger said, stayed an extra day at the duck club, tough place to stay over (thank you John and Robin!) -- striper fishing, pot lucks, BBQ fish, nature walks, BBQ fish, mallards everywhere, otters, BBQ fish, get the picture? We were hoping to continue the intinerary Friday morning, no dice, high winds (20-30 kts) and big whitecaps on the Sac. River. Took a vote, all but one decided to turn back to Rio Vista (18 miles) and branch out from there. I decided to plug towards the bay and see how far I could get before throwing in the towel. Made it to within a couple of miles from the bay (another 15 miles from duck club). Water smoothed out, winds settled to 10-15 about 5-8 miles from Benecia Marina, pulled in, got a slip, called the group. They took another vote (very democratic these C-Dory people...!), 4 decided to join me (Pounder, Discovery, Salty-C's, Seabran), we were able to get 4 more slips, not together, but at least on same dock. Seabran turned back after a few minutes, waves just too nasty to battle for next couple of hours. 6 brave souls (3 boats) continued, water smoothed out last 5-8 miles just as it had for me. Was bitter-sweet to not have the whole group together, but as it turned out both groups had a good time separately anyway.

Toured Angel Island next day, picture-perfect weather, smoothest crossing of San Pablo Bay I've ever experienced, then on to Oakland to marina near Jack London Square and the reservations that Jim/Kathy made.

Great trip, great company, great food. Thanks Jim and Kathy (Pounder) for all the planning, reservations and gift packs. Too bad on the weather, under someone else's control. Thanks also to Joel and Susan for the goodie packs, made good use of the munchies while slogging through the weather. An adventure several of us won't forget for awhile!

My puter is acting a bit sluggish, needs some cleanup I suspect, then will add some photos to the album.
 
Fishtales":1fouotwe said:
We were just a few weeks too early for the topless vollyball games at "Lost Isle"

Yep-- spent two days at the Duck Club. Had a great time catching the strippers. I caught a half dozen
Click to expand...

You California guys have all the fun. Did you keep any of the strippers? :wink

(While you were at the Duck Club, did you fish for any stripers?)
 
Dear All:

Thank you for coming to our 4th Extravaganza. As always, it was unpredictable and spontaneous.

Hopefully, there was something for everybody on this trip, and challenging for most all of us. We sure were tired when we got home.

We did not realize until later how great it was to be away from the paper, Internet, TV, and radio for 5 days (all of which can be a constant assault on your senses). These trips are a lot of work for everyone, but they usually force all of us into the moment, and provide some small sense of marine wildness in our lives, along with mandatory relaxation.

We wish to acknowledge the following individuals.

1. John and Robin, thanks again for allowing us the use of your special Duck Club for the 3rd year in a row. This is the highlight of the trip for most everyone
2. Joel and Susan, thanks for the creative captain’s bag. Most fun and original
3. Ron, thanks for Nat’s cookies. They were great as always. Also thanks for your computer assistance on the weather forecasts
4. Roger and Steve S., thanks for catching our subsistence fish dinner on Thursday night. Your fish were superb. Steve S., thanks also for scouting on to Benicia, if not for you, three other boats would not have been able to complete the second half of the originally planned trip
5. Brent and Dixie, thanks for the wonderful job of cleaning the fish and so expertly cooking them for everyone on Thursday night
6. Sam and Kerry thanks for the early morning coffee and Danish, and for your consistent enthusiasm throughout the journey
7. Steve B. thanks for your special food contribution for the spontaneous pot luck on Thursday night and for your heroic lone efforts on trying to join us at Benicia
8. Mike, thanks for showing up your 4th year in a row!

As always, it is not the destination, it is not the journey, it is not even the C-Dory’s that count, but rather it is the people that make these trips so special. Kath and I always say that you cannot not find a better bunch of folks on the Internet anywhere! Everyone did a fantastic job of pitching in on this Extravaganza and making it all happen.

It always blows me away when we go to Angel Island, like it happened again this year, as soon as the Yachties come over on their shinny expensive large vessels, the first thing they always want to do is see our flotilla of cute little small boats and try to understand why we are having so much fun.

This virtual yacht club lives on. We are already looking ahead to our next C-Dory adventure.
 
Hi everyone,

We just made it home from our extended trip from the Extravaganza--via Seattle. We left Discovery at the factory for a little warranty work before our next voyage (San Juans and Gulf Islands for 2 months beginning the end of June).

A special thanks to Jim and Kathy and everyone else on the adventure last week on the Sacramento and Bay. It was a super trip with a bunch of super people. Every SBGT that we have attended has been great and this was just as fun. This was especially good because we renewed old friendships and made new friends.

We are looking forward to cruising again and would welcome any C-Brats to join us in the San Juans.

Brent and Dixie
 
What an excellent adventure! We just returned home from a few days at Lake Isabella...a diversion on the way down the 5 Fwy (certainly not the same as cruising with y'all on the Delta and SF Bay). Just uploaded a few more pictures to the cruise album.

Had it not been for recent changes in our lives, we would not have been able to break out of our time-limited boating bubble. Jim and Kathys' enthusiastic ability to adapt to unforseen circumstances truly added to the experience. Can't wait 'til next year!
 
Sam and Kerry, was sure great seeing you again, been 'hiding' far too long...

Maybe it was just my situation, but for whatever reason it sure seemed like we had much more quality time to sit and talk and really visit with one another. Maybe it was having the cruise SHIP Discovery that made it so easy, or maybe it was the slightly less than perfect weather that kept us around our boats more. Heck, maybe it was the "chillable red wine"? :lol:

Whatever, it was sure a pleasure to meet new friends (via the Internet as Islander Ron pointed out) and catch up with old friends.

I'm ready for August at Catalina and maybe some fishing and diving in-between.
 
Sam & Kerry,

I agree....even though I had to leave early, I really had a blast bombing around the island on that ATV. Every year I've attended it's been different.

Tell us more about Lake Isabella. We have been kicking around doing a gathering there. Is it big enough for cruising? Fishing? Camping/moorings?
 
Lake Isabella is plenty large enough for cruising. I have been considering going there, also.

Been awhile since I was there, but I do know the winds come up rather suddenly at times. Gets hot in the summer. Fall might be a good time to go.

There is plenty of fishing. A few campgrounds, French Gulch comes to mind as it has a marina.

Lake map

Lake Isabella online

There is a $45 annual fee per boat for the lake.[/url]
 
They planted salmon in the lake a few years back and now it is apparently OK to harvest...if you have the prerequisite skills...I might need a bit of tutelage. I posted a pic of the lake in the gathering album from our second day.
 
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