Every year for an unknown amount of time, at least by me, there is a regatta around the island of Alameda. Last year we …I wanted to go but there was talk of rain. So there was no trip for me. Some went, but not me. I watched them go through the mud flats from our Apt.
The mud flats are an area that at low tide there is no water just mud. Except for a small area about 24 ft across that is barley deep enough for a shallow draft boat to fit through. It is famous for that.
The trip around the island NY event includes going under 5 draw bridges, and stops at 5 Yacht Clubs around the island. It was our plan to make the NY run with the Zen 24 and do some showcasing of the boat since I installed the side banners.
I started day early at 7:00, the start was not until around 9:00. I was up to do my morning meditation, and Tai Chi practice. I also washed the Zen24 to have folks get a good impression.
I went to the first club, the Island Yacht Club to sign in and there I got breakfast. A half a bagel and a mamosa. I had half of the drink and took the rest back for LZ, who was still in bed.
After getting her up and going the next stop wad over to the Encinal Yacht Club. I was expecting to encounter my club group there, the islander 36′ers. However I saw no one from the club. I heard that they came later and made the start around the isle but the water was too shallow for their 6 ft draw so they turned back and hung out at the Encinal YC and ate and drank all day. They know how to enjoy themselves.
From the EYC we made our way back down the Estuary toward the first bridge, I figured to go there and wait for some others and for someone to call to have the bridge open, since I was unsure on how it was done other than to radio the bridge guy
As we got near the the first bridge there was a boat in front of us and several starting to bring up the rear. As it turned out we lead the way under the first bridge and fell in line for the other three bridges.
The route was not well marked however we made it to the next Yacht club without incident, I heard others were not so lucky. We were directed to a docking spot and tied up. From there we headed to the club for chili, corn bread and bloody Mary’s. The corn bread was not that good, I heard from LZ the chili was very good as were the bloody Mary’s. I had a taste of the BM , however the taste did nothing for me.
We hung out at the club for a while waiting for the tide to change so if we did get stuck with the flood coming it would not be a long grounding. While waiting for a group to leave so I could follow and not get grounded, we came across Capt. Mary. I told her we were waiting for a group to leave who knew the way through the mud maze. She said I do ! Ok great said I, we will follow.
We set out this time it was a larger group heading out through the mud flats. About 10-25 boats . We made it through the next drawbridge with no problem. We followed directly behind Capt Mary.
We went along well for about 10 to 15 min. Then I noticed a boat stopped, I thought they were just waiting…
As I am coming up behind Capt Mary they start waving us to pass on the other side of them. As we got closer I hear them say they are also stuck. I go as directed to their port. We are just pass them when the Zenboat also stops!
I gun the motor to see If we can break free. That worked a bit then we stopped again. A smaller boat with the group with only a 16″ draft came to the rescue of us grounded. They set out anchors for kegging for some and in our case a guy came aboard and with him and LZ on one side and the guy hanging off the side, that gave us enough heel to plow our way into deeper water and we were free… Harrah!
One by one everyone got loose and we carefully made our way our of the danger zone. Capt Mary said they were passing up the next stop and were going to do a bit of sailing before heading to the next Yacht Club which had better food. I agreed with that as I knew the next club after this one so we also just motor sailed for a ways.
We continued around the island trying to catch some wind with the motor as a helper.
As we were making the last leg before turning back down the Estuary on the final leg. I am feeling something is not right…
Usually there is some wind to sail down the Estuary. Today there was light to none. We sailed, err really we motored mostly, motorsailed Now I am noticing we are going slower and I needed turn dial up the motor higher to maintain some speed. I did a quick test and yes there was something wrong we were running out of power, even though the gauge I thought said we had plenty.
I tried to call Capt Mary on the radio to inform her of our issue, However the boat battery was not the only one on death row, my radio battery was also going dead! Great! I gave up trying to call I could not hold the connection. We motorsailed on. Since I knew she was behind us and if we stopped she would pass. So we had backup. We continued on for another 20 min or so at a very slow pace. Finally I saw Capt Mary’s boat drop their sails. As they were going by I flagged her down and we got a tow the last couple of miles to our marina. Once there we cut loose and motored to a slip and plugged in for a couple of hours to bring the batteries up some to make the last part of the trip back to our slip.
It was an interesting day. It was successful in showing the Zenboat, and we had a mild adventure. I will need to do some research on the proper reading of the power gauges. All in all it was a good first day of the NewYear.
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