California Delta Boaters forum picnic?

D

DeltaDawg

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Is there interest in a California Delta Boaters forum potluck picnic at Sugar Barge say from 11-1p followed by a cruise to Mildred Island from 1-3p? I was thinking one of the Sundays after Labor Day, Sep 14,21,28 or Oct 5.

I will organize a Google spreadsheet of screen name, boat make/name and potluck item. I am getting pretty good at grilling boneless chicken thighs over direct fire so that's what I will sign up for.

I have some left over red, green and plain wood bouy key chain floats from the Boat Builder Rendezvous I organized 2 weeks ago. I got a chance to finally meet Flutterby at the Rendezvous and I would really like to meet the rest of the forum members.

If interested reply with a prefered date, boat make/name and home made potluck item and I will get the Google spreadsheet together in view mode so we can all see what we have and what we need. Thank you. Delta Dawg
 
Sounds like a fun event! Does SB have an area for us to rent/use? Or did you plan to use their docks? Have you discussed this with the SB management, etc? I'm not prepared to commit to this activity yet, but you can put me down as a maybe for now.
 
I reserved the 6 picnic tables under the gazebo between the RV park and Willow for the Rendezvous and that worked very well. I will talk to the manager at Sugar Barge to see if I can reserve that area again when we converge on a date; I am a Sugar Barge dry storage customer. Which of those dates I listed works best for you Flutterby? Here's the spreadsheet; you need a free Google account to access it.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pP3bITpdDiHxYRfqOiOJidg&hl=en
 
Thanks! I have all of those dates available at this point. Thanks for the spreadsheet!
 
DeltaDawg,

That sounds great - I have never been to Sugarbarge, but always up for a new spot. I would love to meet the people here - it is a really nice group and would be fun to faces to the names. I am a member to the Delta Bayliner Club and we have a meet one of those weekend so I will have to see which one, but other than that, should be open. Thank you for setting it up - I will help if you need it.

Jim
 
I'll check with the Admiral, but I'd sure like to meet everyone. Given the price of gas and the club activities this year, we'll probably drive up to Sugarbarge and just do the picnic 'thing', but it sure sounds like fun.
 
Sounds good to me. I will just have to make sure it doesn't conflict with the wifes baby shower. With this being our first child I really don't want to mess that up.
 
dbdude, congratulations on the new baby!!!!! You definitely want to keep your priorities straight. I hope you start taking the baby boating early in her/his life. The sooner they experience boating on a regular basis, the easier it is----especially for Mom!!!!
 
dbdude,

Congrats! Kids are the best - lots of work, but so rewarding. I always tell people my daughter was raised unde the deck of a ski boat - start them young and it will be in their blood.

Jim
 
DeltaDawg
Just checked the calander, and our Bayliner outing is Sept 6-14, the SF Bay cruise, so I am good for any of the other dates. I tried to fill in the Spread sheet, but it would not let me. My Wife is Suzy, sign us up for Fried Won-Ton - her's is killer! I've never been to Sugar Barge - just checked their web site and it looks pretty nice, and a long way from Oxbow! Should be fun.

Thanks, Jim
 
For those of you who have never been to Bethel Island, do not go into Franks Tract unless you are familiar with it. It is definitely passable, but requires local knowledge to stay out of trouble.

Take Piper Slu from west or east to get to Sugar Barge.
 
Thanks ComfortablyNumb I updated the spreadsheet to put you down for fried won-ton. Is your screen name from the Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon album? Thanks for offering to help to that's really nice.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pP3bITpdDiHxYRfqOiOJidg&hl=en

Flutterby are you ready to change your status from tentative to a specific homemade picnic potluck item?

I know it seems Sept is a long ways away but it does take some planning to pull this off and I am not going to ask Sugar Barge for the 6 picnic tables under cover unless it looks like we have at least a dozen committed. I like doing the homemade potluck items it gives us something to commit and share of ourselves. We are now looking at either Sep 21,28 or Oct 5.
 
Sorry, DD, but I will not know for 2-3 months..........it all depends on how things are going in my personal life by the.
 
Delta Dawg,

Thanks for filling in my info. Gotta love Pink Floyd. I was racking my brain thinking of a name for my 3270 - she is a real classic - when on come Pink Floyd. I said thats it! In my younger days I was a hippy, for real, in SF, Haight Ashbury. Over the years I became a reasonably responsible adult, actually a pretty straight laced company CEO building space hardware, but the name just fit the boat soooo well! I guess once a hippy, always a hippy... I'm working into retirment now, so it doesn't matter what people think, but I must admit when my employees see the name, they really give me a strange look! Pretty cool, I love it. I look forward to meeting everyone.

Thanks, Jim
 
quote:
Originally posted by Flutterby

For those of you who have never been to Bethel Island, do not go into Franks Tract unless you are familiar with it. It is definitely passable, but requires local knowledge to stay out of trouble.

Take Piper Slu from west or east to get to Sugar Barge.

Click to expand...


I guess I made the right decision to go around Franks Tract last week when I ate lunch at the Sugar Barge rather than go across it. Are the hazards where the levee used to be, or out in the middle as well? I've been across the northwest section at low speed for the air show last year, but nowhere else.
 
TowCapt gave us these coordinates for sunken duck blinds in Franks Tract. Have they moved that you know of TowCapt?
DuckB3 N38.04225 W121.60233
DuckB4 N38.04570 W121.59650
DuckB5 N38.05042 W121.58968

This coordinate is from the map sounding survey done by a group of graduate students and sold in the Marina store. It coincides with a wreakage symbol on my Garmin Mapsource Blue Chart map.
Tractor N38.02857 W121.58960

This is the coordinate for the Sugar Barge launch ramp so your GPS can give you an ETA.
SUGAB N38.02707 W121.61201

This is where I will be with the dogs this Sunday it is the intersection of Piper and Sandmound sloughs
SWINGB N38.02009 W121.60610
 
Maybe I'll have time to plug these into my new GPS this weekend!

etyppo, yes, there are hazards away from the levees. Beside the sunken duck blinds, there are two "islands" to watch out for in the area which is in the west-south-west section of Franks. One is Mandy Island, which is nothing more then a lot of tules and sand. Nice to beach your boat at low tide; mostly submerged at high tide. A long sandbar extends out towards the northeast that will polish your props if you don't watch out.

The other is Snag Island. This one is extremely dangerous and I always get it into my eyesight prior to venturing into Franks. I also have it marked on my GPS. It is a former knoll with tules growing out of it. Surrounding this innocent looking clump of tules are several old tree stumps. They are usually underwater except during a minus tide. They have put holes into cabin cruisers and flipped speeding fishing boats over.

Then there are the weeds out there. I haven't been able to check the condition of these this season. Check out info from pkjryan on this forum for the details. They have been working on eradicating this pesky weed. It can get wrapped around your prop and/or get sucked into your intake, plugging up your cooling system.

At mean low tide the water can be skinny, about 5-6 ft and much less at a minus tide. Also if windy conditions, the chop gets pretty rough out there especially with an opposing tide. Other then these, Franks is a piece of cake!!!! [^]
 
Great advice. Franks is scary! I have only been around the end, from the Jan Joaquin hugging the shore into Old River and it was not too bad, but I am way too cautious to venture out in the middle! Too many tales of woe for my liking. It looks like for me, comming from Oxbow, it would be best to head down the San Joaquin and either just go to False River, or if it is good, save some time and take Fishermans cut. Any thoughts on which is better?

Jim

Jim
 
Fisherman's Cut is a very protected waterway, so if it is windy, use that. Then go across False River to Taylor Slu. Follow that to the fork, and turn to the port into Piper Slu. Go way up Piper Slu to Sugar Barge. Almost all of Piper is no wake zone, so it will take some time. Good for listening to some nice music and smoking a cigar! No "ta-killa" until you get tied up at the dock though. [:-weepn]
 
It has been a week and it doesn't look like there is enough interest for a forum picnic so I withdrawl the question. ComfortablyNumb, maybe we can get together after Labor Day, maybe I can treat you to my favorite lunch "bimini pizza" (4 slices of frozen Costco Delhi pizza in a ziplock thrown on the bimini top to warm up while on the hook).
 
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