DELTA DOO DAH X — T
Page 74 •
Latitude 38
• October, 2018
copious amounts of hearty food. The guitars, amps and lights were powered by a Honda generator in the back of a pickup truck, and most of the clubmembers camped on the island. And what were the DIY'ers up to this summer? Read on for the tale of one couple's excursion.
for us. Our first Doo Dah was in 2012 on our Venture Newport 23, and it was on this trip when we really caught the cruising bug. It was also on this trip (in the middle of Suisun Bay, actually) when we decided we needed to get a bigger boat for cruising. The following year we returned to the Delta on our Baba 40 bluewater cruiser Sonrisa, and we try to get back up there every year. We'd been intending to get up to the Delta all summer, but it wasn't until
The smoke from distant fires made for spectacular sunsets (top and bottom right) and sunrises (bottom left).
FRANK WILSON / DRAMA
LATITUDE / DOODETTE CHRIS
Sonrisa — 1980 Baba 40 Greg & Kristin Torok, Emery Cove The Doo Dah will always be special
MISS IRENE
he 10th Delta Doo Dah cruising rally started out much like the 9th, with a kickoff party and seminar at Richmond Yacht Club the day before Mother's Day. Breakout sessions this year tackled the topics of anchoring, itineraries and the Bay Bash (thanks to veteran basher Tom Lueck of Stockton Sailing Club for leading that discussion). Door prizes were awarded, RYC provided a buffet of hors d'oeuvres, and fleet members had the opportunity to meet one another. The next official event on the DDDX schedule didn't go quite according to plan. June 2's Delta Ditch Run from RYC to SSC attracted 126 entries, including 16 from the Doo Dah, of which Bob Harford's Express 37 Stewball was the only one to finish within the time limit (a total of just six boats sailed across the finish line before the 1 a.m. deadline). An early heat wave had set in and shut down the usual Delta breezes. Many of the sailors — with or without their boats — did make it to SSC in time to enjoy a party that went on into the wee hours, and more DDD door prizes were bestowed the following day at the race's awards ceremony. For a complete list of door prizes and winners, see our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/deltadoodah. Two weeks later, Owl Harbor invited DDD boats to join in their pre-Father's Day BBQ, complete this year with a pieeating contest. For this event, the Delta breezes kept the temperatures pleasant and added an extra level of challenge to games like the goldfish toss, rubber chicken toss and ring toss. It was on July 1 that things got weird. Sitting in a slip in Owl Harbor, we watched a long, thick, ominous plume of smoke drift toward us. It was an early start to the fire season and day 1 of the County Fire in Yolo County. The Mendocino Complex Fire, Redding's Carr Fire and several other devastating named fires — from as far away as British Columbia — would send smoke streaming out over the region for more than two months. On August 11, under hot, smoky skies, we headed down the San Joaquin River to Bradford Island and an event new to the DDD itinerary. San Francisco's Bay View Boat Club invited a small flotilla of DDD boats to join them for their annual BBQ at their primitive Delta property. BVBC's commodore, Larry White, with his wife Kathy and O'Day 37 Namaste, is a DDD recidivist. Four of our fleet's boats anchored off the tule berm adjacent to BVBC's dinghy dock and joined clubmembers for a great party with a dance band and