Passagemaker Magazine

13 miles up the Sacramento from Rio Vista. The good municipal dock in town provides access to the Chinese town of Locke and Walnut Grove. Do take the time to visit Locke, which is a short walk upriver. Locke was home to the Chinese immigrants who contributed so much to building California’s early infrastructure. While visiting Locke, quench your thirst at Al the Wop’s, which is housed in a building dating back to 1915. Al opened his joint in 1934, becoming the first non-Chinese business owner in town.

He was an eccentric character and started a continuing tradition of pinning money to the ceiling. So look upward, check it out, then order the grilled burger on buttered Texas toast with your favorite brew.

Following lunch, we began a meandering traverse to the San Joaquin River by requesting a bridge opening at the northern end of Georgiana Slough and heading south. This part of the trip has a bit of the feel of the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. In place of rhinoceroses, you will see turtles along the shore, river otters, blue herons, green herons and egrets.

Just past the Tyler Island Swing Bridge and 8 miles from Walnut Grove, we stopped at Oxbow Marina, our base of operations for the next couple of days. In particular, we like the various bike-ride loops that originate there. The Delta Loop takes you past many of the local marinas, for instance, each one providing shaded grassy areas to picnic or lounge. Upon returning, we always cooled off in Oxbow’s swimming pool prior to barbequing dinner.

This center part of the Delta is fun to explore by dinghy. We tow a 13-foot Boston Whaler and use it to make day excursions to wherever the spirit moves us. It also provides access to those areas we don’t feel comfortable taking the trawler. We often use it to scout new routes or anchorages prior to taking the big boat there.

The next several nights we anchored out at various spots off the San Joaquin, first just 7 miles away in Little Potato Slough, accessed in the vicinity of green channel marker 51, and finally at Mildred Island, just 10 miles away, south of the San Joaquin River on Middle River. Both anchorages offer good swimming and a starting point for epic dinghy explorations of surrounding areas. Midweek, you are likely to have these anchorages all to yourself. On weekends, they fill up. Depending on conditions, we sometimes used bow and stern anchors to control our swing.

GOING HOME

Too soon, the day came to head home. Benicia, 40 miles
west, was our one overnight stop on the return journey.
Leaving Mildred Island, we rejoined the San Joaquin River
just after a large freighter passed. We followed the freighter
all the way to Benicia. The freighter continued out the
Gate, while we stopped at Benicia Marina. We arrived early
enough to bike and enjoy the vistas from the Rim of the Bay
trail to Glen Cove Marina and back. Upon returning, we
showered, ate dinner and headed to the park for the Friday
“Movie Night under the Stars.” This is a great local tradition,
and the park fills with families who come to enjoy a picnic,
popcorn and a movie on a warm California evening.

Stopping in Benicia also set us up for a smoother crossing of San Pablo Bay, as the winds are lightest in the morning. They typically build to about 25 knots in the afternoon, so we were up at sunrise to cover the final 21 miles back to San Rafael. We experienced moderate wind chop on the return voyage as we chased the fog back toward the coast. East Brother’s Lighthouse came into view, indicating we were almost home. Safely back in our slip before noon, we began the process of cleaning up but also updating our wish list of where to cruise next.

P h o t o c r e d i t g o e s h e r e

CRUISE LOG

Distance Travelled: Trawler: 140 miles Dinghy: 80 miles Diesel Used: 70 gallons at

$4.04/gal = $282.80

Marinas Rio Vista, Delta Marina Yacht Harbor Oxbow Marina Benicia Marina

Anchorages Little Potato Slough Mildred Island

The author lives up to the spirit of Hal Schell’s old cruising guide to the region Delta Dawdlin’. Below cruisers buddy-boat on the Sacramento River between the city and Isleton. That picture was taken by Bill Wells of the Delta Chambers & Visitor’s Bureau.