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

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

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