The Delta Ditch Run 2010

by Brenday Busch, Get Happy!!

 

When I first got requested for a recap of this year's Ditch Run, my first
response was that "I'm too tired to write one".

Breezy upwind conditions at the start made our choice to bring 3 people a little dubious and though we had a pretty good start, we had a tough time fending off some of the boats with 4 or 5 people.  El Raton gave us the most trouble, passing us near the Richmond bridge and getting out ahead before separating to the North in San Pablo Bay.

A little confusion had us overstood on the entrance marker to the Pinole Channel, which we footed to go around.  Though not a restricted area (the first real channel markers are straight off Pinole Pt), we got a bunch of boats to bear off and go around it, including El Raton who were quite over-stood for this non-mark.  So we got the pass on them and had to work very hard to keep them from sailing over us (again suffering with only 3 people on the rail).

Fortunately we were able to sneak away after the Carquinez Bridge and get a bit of a lead on El Raton and several other E27s that were forming a considerable group not too far behind.  We tacked our way up into Suisun Bay and finally started getting freed up enough to hoist the kite periodically. Boats in front of us showed us were the wind would go on the nose and we went jib/kite/jib/kite all the way past Pittsburg and Antioch.

This was only good for maintaining, but not building on our lead.  However we generally had no traffic and got to sail our course up the river.

We went around 19, and I think El Raton decided we were making up marks again, because I believe they might have gone inside...

We finally got to sail downwind after the chicane in increasingly lighter conditions, and managed to ghost into the finish just before dark.

Many thanks to Ian Klitza, who worked very, very hard in the cockpit, and Jim Korkosz, my old Worrell 1000 crew, who came up from LA for the trip both ways on the river.

We delivered home on Monday from Tinsley--a very pleasant 11 hour motor-sail.  Maybe I'm twisted, but I always prefer the sail home rather than the trailer shuffle re-rigging hell.


--brendan