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Valentines Day Delta Cruise (w/ Photos)

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lcharlot
Master Marine Consultant

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Antigua and Barbuda
1301 Posts

Initially Posted - 02/15/2004 : 13:32:49

After 4 months of working on the boat, installing gear and replacing worn out or broken items, I finally took her out "for a spin" yesterday, a 15 mile round trip cruise on the San Joaquin River and Three Mile Slough, between Owl Harbor and Brannan Island State Park. The weather was high overcast, temp in the mid 50's to low 60's, and flat calm, so this was a motoring cruise (I never saw enough wind to even think about taking off the sail covers

). Very little boat traffic around, considering that this is a Holiday weekend; I saw a few people fishing, and an occasional large power cruiser. Only 2 other sailboats spotted all afternoon. I had some difficulty with the outboard - the fuel connector started leaking as soon as I pumped the primer bulb, so I had to replace it, then it took a long time and at least 30 pulls to get the motor to start. I drained and refilled the carburetor float bowl 3 times before it would start, so I guess the problem was moisture condensation. This is the first time since last November that I took the boat out of the slip, so it's been 3 months of cold, wet weather since the last time the motor was run. I guess I will make it a point to run the motor for a few minutes every time I am there to work on the boat. Here's some photos, including the installation of the stereo I bought last week:

The stereo is a JVC car stereo from Circuit City, in a Poly Planar housing from West Marine. I bought a car stereo because I wanted a unit that plays MP3 and could not find a marine stereo with MP3 capability.

The speakers are "Dual" outdoor units from Circuit City, mounted in the usual place - the corners of the main bulkhead. My first choice was a pair of Bose 151's, but they are beyond my budget at the moment.

Brannan Island State Park launch ramp and marina. The "marina", if you want to call it that, is the smallest I've ever seen, I think. It has slips for maybe a dozen boats. This is the nearest public launch ramp to Owl Harbor, where I am temporarily keeping the boat until I get a trailer for her, at which time she will move to a permenent home at Folsom Lake.

The Three-Mile Slough lift bridge. This bridge carries State Route 160, and you have to go under it to get from the slough into the Sacramento River. I got turned back here; the bridge tender told me on VHF that he only raises it twice a day for non-commercial vessels, at 09:00 and 15:00. This must be a recent policy change since the last time I did a Delta cruise 4 or 5 years ago.

Three Mile Slough near Brannan Island State Park

Three Mile Slough bridge from the San Joaquin River, looking across the lower tip of Twitchell Island.

Some Cormorants sunning themselves on a San Joaquin River channel marker.

The only other sailboats I saw all day. Right after I took these pictures, they dropped sails and motored in. The boat with the plain white headsail turned out to be a neighbor on the next dock over from mine in Owl Harbor.

It was nice to get out on the water, even though I didn't do any sailing. I also got to play with my tiller pilot for the first time. It is incredibly accurate at holding a compass course, at least in calm conditions, although I could not get it to follow a GPS route for more than a few minutes at a time - it kept dropping out of Nav (GPS) mode to Standby for some reason, and I would have to manually reset it. It is so nice to be able to leave the helm for a minute or two, to get a drink or use the head. With the handheld remote, I can steer while looking out the foredeck hatch, or working on the foredeck, since it came with enough cord to reach anyplace on the boat. The tiller pilot will be great to have this coming July on the San Juans cruise, for those long 6-8 hour passages.
I hope everyone is having a nice President's Day weekend.

Larry Charlot
Catalina 25WK/TR Mk. IV #5857 "Quiet Time"
Folsom Lake, CA

"You might get there faster in a powerboat, but in a sailboat, you're already there"

Edited by - on

Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 02/15/2004 : 13:47:51

I have the same PolyPlanar case. After playing a CD for several hours I became concerned about heat build-up. I am considering sawing the back end off. I removed the stock harness already and that area is open, but it does not seem to be enough.

I think I am using the same speakers too, I bought mine at Radio Shack

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PZell
Admiral

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USA
548 Posts

Response Posted - 02/15/2004 : 14:01:01

Glad y'all had a pleasant time and a chance to get back on the water.
I went to Sparky on Friday. Also a flat calm so washed the boat. Was going to go sculling, but the front came in with some wind so hustled out the marina. The wind quickly built from about 15 to 25 with gusts about 30 kts. Had a wild ride from Brisbane down to the San Mateo
bridge near Coyote point. Started with full main and 125 jib. Went thru flattening reef 1st reef and then head sail change to blade. All single handed (no auto pilot, just bungee setup). It was really cool
the way the boat handled in the wind and the bumpy conditions with
tide running against the wind. A very exhilarating day with boat never under 5kts the whole run.

Edited by - on

Arlyn Stewart
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2980 Posts

Response Posted - 02/15/2004 : 18:55:21

Larry, experienced a similar problem also on last summers cruise with the autohelm dropping out and sometimes not wanting to engage "track" gps link. It had worked flawless for several years so loose wiring was suspected as the gps and the autopilot both seemed to work ok but failed to communicate with each other.

Sure enough, a very small spade connector had never been position onto a lug but had been pinched between the lug and the plastic housing and of course finally developed an intermittent connection.

When it wasn't working, the track function was missed... but even more so was not having the XTE (cross track error) information from the gps displayed on the autohelm control head. A favored gps screen does not display XTE but the autohelm control head displays it very well... when the two are communicating.

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The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.