When My Father was around 30 years old, he owned a 32 foot steel hulled boat named Dordan. He decided to take the trip of a lifetime. He would take his family from San Diego to San Francisco and the Sacramento river delta by boat. In 1962 this was a much bigger undertaking as electronics and technology improvements make this much easier today.
My daughter Becca is travelling for work and we wanted to visit her, but we had a few days to wait until she returned, so we embarked on a nostalgic tour. My sister Barb and I both remember pieces from this trip, so we decided to see what we could find.
We moved from Richmond to Vallejo to pick up some fuel. We got there too late and the fuel dock was closed so we just tied to the fuel dock and stayed the night. In the morning we headed up river to Pittsburg. Our best memories were anchoring in the river and swimming ashore to pick blackberries. My Mom would bake pies from the blackberries as my father read to us from various chapter books. As it turns out it seems there are hundreds of miles of rivers and passages in the Sacramento delta and we had no idea where we went in 1962. We decided to go up the San Joaquin River, through three mile cut and down the Sacrament River for a sampler. It Was a gorgeous day and the sun was a nice 79 degrees. We realized we were not in Alaska anymore when we sighted palm trees and tumbleweeds.
We stopped in Pittsburg as it seemed like a nice place for a night. It was a nice place but the town itself was mostly closed and there was not really much to do. We had a nice dinner at the waterfront café and left the next morning. It was a beautiful day for a cruise and we saw great sights.
We found nothing even close to what we remembered but we had a nice trip and several very friendly marinas and small river cities.
We stopped in Benicia for the night on a recommendation from a fellow boater and it was a bustling, thriving city with a beautiful farmers market and many nice places to explore. I slept well that night knowing that we would not be bothered by ghosts.
This was a fun place to stop.
Tomorrow we head back to San Francisco and stay at fisherman's wharf for a couple of days and spend some time with Becca! I look forward to that.
Technical Data:
Time: 2 h 58 m ( 14:16 to 17:14 ) Distance: 21.37 nm
Fuel: 2.71 Gallons Fuel Rate: 0.91 GPH Fuel Economy: 7.90 NM/G
Avg Speed: 6.98 kn Max Speed: 9.43 kn
Engine Runtime Start: 3071.60 Hours Runtime End: 3074.60 Hours Fuel: 2.71 Gallons Fuel Rate: 0.91 GPH Fuel Rate Max: 8.61 GPH Avg RPM: 1031.35 Max RPM: 1572.00 Avg Oil Pressure: 49.35 Low Oil Pressure: 31.91 Avg Temperature: 164.35 Max Temperature: 192.20
Time: 3 h 19 m ( 10:55 to 14:14 ) Distance: 21.94 nm
Fuel: 2.63 Gallons Fuel Rate: 0.79 GPH Fuel Economy: 8.36 NM/G
Avg Speed: 5.99 kn Max Speed: 7.89 kn
Engine Runtime Start: 3074.65 Hours Runtime End: 3078.00 Hours Fuel: 2.63 Gallons Fuel Rate: 0.79 GPH Fuel Rate Max: 2.85 GPH Avg RPM: 1053.97 Max RPM: 1156.50 Avg Oil Pressure: 50.12 Low Oil Pressure: 31.91 Avg Temperature: 171.24 Max Temperature: 192.20
Time: 5 h 35 m ( 09:51 to 15:26 ) Distance: 39.32 nm
Fuel: 5.45 Gallons Fuel Rate: 0.98 GPH Fuel Economy: 7.22 NM/G
Avg Speed: 6.24 kn Max Speed: 9.66 kn
Engine Runtime Start: 3078.00 Hours Runtime End: 3083.60 Hours Fuel: 5.45 Gallons Fuel Rate: 0.98 GPH Fuel Rate Max: 8.77 GPH Avg RPM: 1094.82 Max RPM: 1787.00 Avg Oil Pressure: 51.03 Low Oil Pressure: 31.91 Avg Temperature: 181.59 Max Temperature: 194.00
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