Drama and Discouragement in Delta Ditch

June 6, 2011

"Miserable! Wind, no wind, and lots of rain," was how Steve Wonner of the Wyliecat 30 Uno described this year's Delta Ditch Run. "When the wind did fill, it was 25+ from the east. We were easily leading what was left of our division, when a Martin 243 capsized near us with all four souls in the water, hanging onto the keel. They tried to get it upright, but that was not gonna happen." Steve's crew Bren Meyer took charge and directed the rescue activities. "I just did what he told me to. We dropped our sail and motored up to them, the winds still in the 20s. We ended up picking them off, one at a time and getting them onboard Uno. One older guy in particular was not looking too good. We had radioed the Coast Guard and gave them our GPS coordinates, and they were there within 15 minutes. They must have been in Antioch, which we were just west of. Before they arrived, we transferred the crew to another boat who were friends of theirs [Peter Yates' Wylie 34 Coyote out of Bethel Island, which was sailing in the Cruising Division]. The whole process took close to an hour. I'm sure we could have requested redress, but it was 5:00, we weren't yet halfway, and the wind was howling directly downwind of Stockton. We bailed and headed back to Richmond YC. My heart was just not into beating into the night with rain, big wind and waves. This was not in the Delta Ditch Run brochure!"

For a follow-up to the above incident, see June 13's News Beat.

Pat Broderick, sailing another Wyliecat 30, Nancy, described the 'brochure': "This was the Delta Ditch Run Weekend! Nearly 150 boats, some from as far away as San Diego and Seattle, showed up for the annual downwind parade from chilly San Francisco Bay to warm and sunny Stockton, 67 miles to the east. It's a beautiful sail up the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, through the Delta, to the Stockton Sailing Club's marina. Start wearing foulies and finish wearing bikinis and speedos!

Pat holding out the sail in San Pablo Bay - no wind - rain! ©2011 Jeffrey Gould

"Not this year. We started with 12 other boats in Heavy 2 in driving rain and moderate wind. An hour later the wind had pretty much disappeared, but the rain persisted. An hour after that there was even less wind (see picture above) and the rain continued. We were sailing on the flood, which pushed us along in the right direction, but floods don't last forever and soon the ebb began to kick in.

"The wind came back a little, from every which direction in San Pablo Bay, and we eventually passed under the Highway 80 bridges at Carquinez Strait and sailed past the C&H Sugar factory in what had now become an easterly breeze. The wind coming out of the east meant we were beating, making long tacks from one side of the Strait to the other. At 4:00, after sailing for five hours, we'd arrived at Benicia, with over 40 miles left to sail. Did I mention the rain?

"We decided retiring was preferable to tacking all night in the rain - and the odds that we'd finish before the 9:00 a.m. deadline on Sunday were about the same as winning the lottery. So, we started the engine, turned around, and headed back to Richmond. As soon as we did that the heaviest rain I've seen in years hit us for about 20 minutes. It wasn't hail, but it was close. Huge drops pounded down and the water around the boat looked like someone was dumping barrels of marbles from high above. It was a good test for foul weather gear.

"When we were back in San Pablo Bay the weather changed again. It stopped raining and a nice NW wind kicked in. We actually had a great sail back down from that point on. The GPS says we sailed about 55 miles total, arriving back at Richmond YC at about 9:00 to drop off Leah and Leslie before Jeffrey and I motored back to Sausalito to put the boat away.

"The sunset as we passed back under the Richmond Bridge was nothing less than spectacular. A fitting end to this year's Delta Ditch 'Fiasco'."

Only one boat in Heavy 2 finished, Andy Newell's Santana 35 Ahi.

The Express 27 Elise also turned back, and enjoyed the best sailing of the day on the run home. "After we turned downwind, things became much easier," wrote skipper Nathalie Criou in her blog, "even in 25+ knots of wind. We took the headsail down and we were zipping along nicely under roger-pilot (a special type of eco-friendly autopilot that works with meat instead of gas). It was time to open the wine and start the grill."

The Roger-pilot, with tank about 3/4 full. ©2011 Nathalie Criou & Nathan Bossett

For more photos from Elise, see http://eliseblog.posterous.com and their SmugMug gallery. Also see our report posted yesterday on the Delta Ditch Run.