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("POCO" Continued from page 2)
re-rigged and put together --- time for some fun ! We checked the tide tables, got dingy gas, diesel , and headed out for Vallejo. I really hadn't checked out the whole route of the Napa river on the chart, and after I flipped over the Chart Guide page at river marker 9, I almost died!--- the river channel gets really narrow at marker 7 and the pole marker is not were the channel is!!! Naturally , the wind is blowing about 15 kts. by now and it's crunch time! Kneshia was watching the depthsounder as it went from 3.6 to 3.2 and suddenly the rudder wouldn't move!! Sure enough , we were aground ! I wondered if we should anchor, but Kneshia said "just relax and eat lunch" --"the flood tide will float us off soon". Of course, half way through my sandwich , the bow rotates around and we are off! So we try again to find the channel, only to go aground again. Finally, we spot the 'pilings' the chart describes on the opposite shore. We mentally judged 2/3 rds. the distance from the pilings to the #7 pole marker, and headed in that direction. Sure enough , there was the channel!! We motored through slowly, and the depthsounder started to read 4 ft. and then deeper --- we were on our way again! We continued on to Vallejo with no problems until we reached the Lift Bridge. By the time we got there, the flood tide was almost peaking at 2.3kts., so forward progress seemed slow. A good thing, as we had forgotten the phone number to the bridge operator. So we called on the vhf. radio, but no answer. Then we called the Napa Marina and they gave us the number --- good thing we had our cell phone!! Later we found out that the bridge operator does monitor ch. 13, but seems to prefer the cell phone since it has become more popular. Anyway, we slowly made it under the bridge --- it seemed like an eternity! Once thru, we were quickly at the 3rd marina entrance, looking for "Dragon Dance". Sure enough, there was an empty slip next to her , just as Rob had described to us on the airplane from Vegas. So we made a 'powered up' entrance, a hard right turn, up into the wind, and straight into the slip --- looking as if we had been doing it for years instead of for the first time!!! What luck !!! Vallejo was a nice surprise --- the marina office was very friendly and helpful, and encouraged us to buy a California Marina Guide book, which shows diagrams of each marina's slip layout and apparent wind directions. This book was very helpful , as it also gives the name and phone number of the Harbormaster or person in charge of berth assignment. We would use it a lot in the next two weeks !!
Thurs., Aug 3 We cast off at 09:30, after returning the shore power adapter [ 50 to 30 amp ] and receiving our deposits back [ $150for the adapter, $20 for the key ]. We left at the start of the ebb-tide , and went "crashing and bashing" into the strong wind and short steep chop of San Pablo Bay. It was a lot like Lake Mead chop, only closer together --- worse! We dipped the bowsprit a few times after encountering a ferry wake, but we made good time (Continued on page 4)
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