sailing casita

Monday night the wind continued to be 15 to 20 kt and it did not die off overnight like the pattern we had been seeing. Tuesday was also pretty windy so we decided to skip our planned dinner and to raise the anchor and go to Rio Vista. We had some troubles getting our stern anchor up. We ended up tying the rode to a buoy and casting at off, then after we got the primary anchor up I stayed at the helm keeping us in one spot while Devon retrieved the stern anchor. It was dug in very well and it took quite some effort, but eventually he broke it free. Then we hoisted the outboard motor onto the rail while motoring slowly out to the main channel and towed the dinghy to Rio Vista. Next time we will do it differently! The trip to Rio Vista was uneventful except it was very windy and pretty choppy once out on the San Joaquin River. Three mile slough was calm and the bridge tender was once more very quick to get the bridge up for us. As we made our way across the Sacramento River there was quite a bit of chop and we rolled a fair amount. It must’ve looked pretty dramatic because the bridge tender hailed us on the radio to make sure we were okay. Devon did his usual spectacular docking job and we got tied up at Delta Marina/Rio Vista, then we walked into town for dinner at Lucy’s (really not very good). Wednesday was spent doing laundry, walking to Lira’s for more salt, stowing the dinghy, etc. in preparation for the trip home. Devon also got the radar wired (something that had been on the list since we put the mast back up). It continued to be very windy and we were happy with our decision to leave Franks Tract a little earlier than planned.