Private Island Resort, Public Docks & “Repel Boarders @ 4 am”….#16

Leaving the Vallejo docks was a happy day. We had stayed for over a week and were ready for a change of view. We were headed inland to meet up with our son Chase and his buddy Cole. We found an easy spot to dock at Antioch Public Marina for the kids to take BART from SFO and join us. It is always fun to welcome new guests. Getting ready, meal planning, food bought, beds made & boat clean! We’re ready! Kids found us easily and we headed to our destination of Tinsley Island, an out station of the St Francis Yacht Club, a private island for members and guests only.

It was like a resort with swimming pool, VB courts, horse shoes, BBQ pits equipped with real mesquite, covered tables, fire pit, light house, and private docks! There was lots of nice friendly help and during the week pretty quiet. Had the swimming pool all to ourselves, cooked great meals, used the jet ski/wave runner, SUP and lots of down time. We had a great stay and enjoyed our time with the kids. While Dan and I hiked up to the top of the lighthouse while Chase and Cole were swimming. I just snapped a pic of the pool and didn’t know Cole was attempting a back flip. After the pic was taken Dan yelled that Cole just did a back flip. I looked at the pic to see if i captured it. Well…. with it blown up you can see the accidental capture of his back flip. Too cool.

After our 3 days at the resort, we headed back to Antioch public dock and let the kids go hang with friends in the city (San Francisco & Berkeley) as we did a couple projects and enjoyed our new location. The Smith Landing Restaurant had nice happy hour & dinners and near our dock. They told us that the restaurant had only been open for a couple weeks. John and Karen Enloe came to visit us for a couple hours while they were commuting home from a visit with other family members. It was nice to see them and had a great late lunch at the restaurant. The kids came and went all weekend long.

Early Sunday morning around 4 am I heard a noise on our back deck. (I always hear noise, I wake Dan up and it is nothing) so here I go again…..Dan is waken up by his crazy wife who hears a noise, thank goodness he humors me. We sit quietly and listen and nothing…. we tuck ourselves back into bed when a loud creaking happens above our heads. When someone walks on the back enclosed deck it is a unique noise. We both hop out of bed, Dan grabs his high intensity flashlight and heads up to see what is happening.

Our back deck has zippered canvas and a flip door gate about thigh high. Someone would have to unzip and climb over to gain access to our “Sapphire Deck”

He finds a female type person sitting in a chair on our sapphire deck. He loudly told her to “LEAVE OUR BOAT NOW” she doesn’t move and starts to tell her story to Dan… “I love boats and use to be in the coast guard….blah blah blah..” she continues. He repeats himself loudly. “LEAVE OUR BOAT NOW”  and many more times. She still continues to sit and seems to thinks she can explain herself and we will let her stay on. Finally she leaves the boat, meeting up with her bicycle she left beside the boat. By this time Chase and I are on the phone with 911 asking for police. As she moves to the dock, she continues to explain herself to Dan, which he just keeps the flashlight on her, thinking she will talk long enough for the police to arrive. Of course she leaves just before they arrive. We tell the whole story to the police and then head to bed in hopes the police will find her. It takes us a while to fall asleep due to the adrenaline charge we all had.

We all got up a bit late after the event from that night and sat chatting about what just happened. I looked up and saw a similar shaped female person heading down the dock towards our boat. Dan stepped out to check to see who it was. When she started talking I knew it was the same person. The voice stuck in my head. She said “I want to apologize for last night and I brought you a peace offering of a banana”. YES, she had one WHOLE banana for us. I guess we were rude because we didn’t accept her offering of this wonderful gift. She asked if she could come on board our boat. Now Dan is angry and told her “please leave you scared my family and you need to leave now”, which again Dan had to ask multiple times. Because she had to explain herself, you know….  She finally went up the ramp to the sidewalk area, Dan quickly called the Marina and explained what had happened that night and now she was back. We couldn’t believe she came back, she really didn’t think she had done anything wrong, I guess. The Marina called the Police this time, but she left again before they arrived. But this time we had pictures. Our back deck camera took one while she was sitting and we took them when she came back to explain herself. We turned them over to the Police. We have since made an adjustment to the zipper, so that it can’t be unzipped, and we are planning on putting in different lighting system. Adding a bit more security is a must. Luckily she wasn’t dangerous. She was probably just high on something and seemed to be taken with the beauty of our boat.

We did enjoy our time on the Antioch dock. Folks would go the the restaurant and then swing by to see our yacht. We would chat with them as they would ask lots of questions.

On Monday afternoon Clark Nelson joined us for our trip south. Tuesday morning we left Antioch Marina and headed back to Sausalito for an easy leave from the bay.  We had such a great time in the Bay Area. AND lots of stories to tell too. ha ha ha

Heading towards the bridge
Golden Gate in our rear view

Stay Safe and Cheers from the Angelique on Day 92 of our Trip!

Teaser … Upcoming article – The Dinghy Saga Continues & Our Trip South

Motor Vessel Angelique Takes on Water? … #15

This is a scary thought for boaters to see they are taking on water, unless it is in your water tanks for drinking. Dan tells me… “Keep the sea water out of the people tank!!” Meaning… keeping it out of the bilges of Angelique.

Did I wake you up yet? Good, because safety is #1 priority, and this could easily have happened to us. Dan and I talk a lot about “what if’s” and safety around those items. So much can go wrong and you can die if you are thinking the risks aren’t real.

“People we know; one had a fire and they jumped overboard, the other took on water and was able to stay afloat, but came close to sinking”

So, if we were to take on water that was more than our normal Bilge Pumps could handle. We have portable pumps that can assist with the incoming water. But determining what the cause of the leak as soon as possible and stopping it is critical, otherwise we will be abandoning ship.

If we have to jump in the water an Immersion/exposure suit would be a good thing, which we have.  It is a waterproof dry suit that will increase our odds of surviving hypothermia while exposed to the water and elements.

The other option is to deploy our Life Raft and get in, if we have enough time to do that.  Once we are inside the raft we need supplies. We have to survive (food, water and protection from elements) and attempt to communicate what happened and where we are at. Which is where the  Sea Ditch Bags, EPIRB, (emergency position-indicating radio beacon station) & our Garmin InReach  satellite communicator come in to play.

We work hard to stay safe and not use our safety gear, but if we did, we will be grateful for our planning. I spent one full day early September refreshing, organizing, and putting in new items in our Ditch Bags. When was the last time you reviewed yours? Is it time? Have you done your planning and prep for safety?

One day while we were in Sausalito CA I saw a Chandlery (shop selling nautical items). We love going to these types of shops.

“It is the hunt for what we didn’t know they had, that we need”

As we walked in, we could smell the salty, nautical, items waiting for us to snap them up and have a new home. The owner asked as we browsed the shelf’s “what are you looking for” One of the items was a sea anchor, but the likely hood of them having the right size was extremely rare. Shop owner said “I have one, but it is really big”… that’s what we need, really big. It ended up being the exact right size for us and we purchased it. It had never been used. We felt very lucky as it was an item that we didn’t have before leaving Portland.

Sea Anchor  is parachute shaped and is used in rough weather and/or if we had to stop for some reason in the ocean and couldn’t put down a real anchor. When deployed, it keeps us facing in the direction of the waves and almost completely stopped, about 1 mile a day.

 

 

 

 

If you are a boater you know how important safety is… and I’m guessing that most non-boaters would say safety is really important part of boat life too. Everyone needs a reminder once in a while. Whether you are a boater or just a home owner, take time to checkout your safety gear, smoke detectors/extinguishers etc. Don’t assume it won’t happen to you.  Make Safety First and make it a habit and it won’t be hard.

Wear your PFD/Life Vest! There are so many varieties today, you don’t have an excuse. Do your safety checks and refresh your safety gear not just for big trips for your weekend and river trips.

I’m glad this was just an article about safety and I wasn’t telling you about something bad that happened. Hope you didn’t mind me starting off the article with a scare. It is sometimes needed to get the attention. Please also don’t assume that these are the only safety items. There are so many safety items. Do your own analysis and update what is right for you and your boat, trip, size and risk.

Thank you all for being safe!

STAY TUNED for our upcoming articles; ** Angela called “Repel Boarders @ 4am and Dan responds” (true story)  and ** The Dinghy Saga Continues

Good Marinas with Great Food – Sharing both with you!…#14

While in Northern California, we have seen way more cloudy/foggy days than Portland. Granted we are in the bay area… but where is the sun? It is cold, foggy and windy in the morning and by 1 or 2 pm the sun comes out and it is warm for a few hours. Then it happens again and again and again…each and every day. I’m ready for Southern Cal… just saying!

After making our transit south we landed in Sausalito for a few days at the Clipper Yacht Marina. We had a nice side tie spot and the docks were wonderful. City was fun too, lots of cool shops and restaurants. Our friends from Walnut Creek, Wendy and Kurt took us out for a day on land, we had a great time with them checking out the areas around us. Call the Marina before to get in, very nice and friendly.

Chase took this and the sunset looks like a fire! CRAZY

We then went to St Francis Yacht Club, which is a private club and we were honored to be guests of a member, Jeren (Dan’s friend from work). Because this is private you need to know someone to get in. The club is awesome with a restaurant/bar open for business Wednesday through Sunday for members & guests. Menu was great! Very old honored club of sail boaters and motor boaters and is the oldest sailing club in the western US. It was really cool to be right in the city. We took the subway to a Giants baseball game one night & went to Nob Hill to visit Grace Cathedral & have lunch. Grocery store close by marina too. It was the best location and the view of Golden Gate Bridge can’t be beat!!!

Then headed to Vallejo Municipal Marina, with a large dock for us to use. I went wine tasting with the ladies and my good friend MaryJean!  Had a great time with my lady friends. Dan and I went to a Friday night dinner at the Vallejo Yacht club. Much less formal than St Francis Yacht Club . We took the dinghy up to Napa and had snacks and enjoyed the trip and views. Municipal Marina has tons of room, very easy to get to and the Yacht Club would take us but we were just too big. Give them both calls ahead of time.

City monument from days when this was the entrance to the Naval base shipyard. Dan worked here for a couple months in 1979 after graduation from Annapolis

Beth, Angela & MaryJean (Joan taking pic)

One of my favorite things to do is cook healthy food for us and our guests.  I really like to  cook fast, easy meals where I don’t have to follow directions. Cause I’m not one for following the rules….. ask my Mom. (thanks Mom for putting up with me)  I love to ad-lib, adjust, recreate & be a bit creative with everything in my life, including cooking. BUT.. I did write down a couple of my favorite recipes this from this trip..SO FAR. I hope you enjoy them.

pic of crab cakes w-sauce

This recipe can be adjusted to the spiciness level very easy.  You can make 4 large ones or 8 smaller ones for appetizers, I’ve done both.  Serve with Lemon and you can add a bit of lemon in the spicy sauce too. Angelique Crab Cakes w-sauce – print or save 

pic of banana oat muffins

I have made these so many times and always a hit. Ad-lib on these too, but only remove 1 item at a time if you don’t want something in your diet or dislike.  DON’T over cook.   Angelique Banana Oat muffins – print or save 

pic of pesto sauce

This is a staple in our house, I use for so many things. It is very healthy and adds good flavor to anything.  Message me if you need ideas. Angelique Pesto Sauce – print or save

We have enjoyed our time in Northern California. Please let me know if you try the recipes or Marinas.

Cheers and I’m toasting to no wind, sun and increased temps while we are here.

 

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