Berkeley YC had an organized cruise to Petaluma over the President's Day weekend. It was terrific, other than the still air and fog over San Pablo Bay. We (Tom and I) motorsailed up on Saturday with John Demeter, navigating the long dredged channel through the top of San Pablo Bay using a charting GPS. When we got to a spot where a group of us had grounded an OCSC boat 10+ years ago, there was one of the Berkeley boats, aground. They'd been sitting there since the previous day, and managed to float free in time to join the rest of us for dinner that night. The channel is marked with fixed daymarks, but they're difficult to see and judge in the fog, andit's easy to wander out of the channel and into very shallow water. Been there, done that.
Once we got into the river, the fog cleared, and we had a beautiful drive 12 nautical miles up the river to the lifting bridge at "D" Street in downtown Petaluma. Once through the bridge, we were in a the turning basin in the center of town, right below the Petaluma Yacht Club, tied up with six other Berkeley Yacht Club boats. A couple of the boats had turned back rather than try and navigate in fog across San Pablo Bay.
We spent Saturday night and Sunday in Petaluma, enjoying the old homes, great restaurants, and a visit to the North Bay Rowing Club. The "D" Street bridge opened at 9 a.m. on Monday, and we all filed out in the fog, for the long motor down the river and into the bay. Unfortunately, the fog was even heavier on Monday morning, and we took the lead position, following our incoming track on the GPS, and locating the channel markets by radar. With six boats behind us, we led the group safely through the channel, occasionally checking that everyone had the boat ahead within sight, and making certain that each skipper was aware of the channel markets as we approached them. Once we out of the channel, we started sounding our fog horn every two minutes, and luckily the fog lifted, land was in sight, and we all motored back to Berkeley in calm air.
