SAN PABLO BAY ACCESS IS HAPPENING

windfind · Joined: 18 Mar 1997 Posts: 1901

Hi thorner,

Great story! Glad you survived.

Davis Point on big SW days definitely has Gorge class swell. Not the steep breaking monsters of the Hatch but more like the glassy long period huge monsters of The Wall or Arlington. But if the tide is ebbing the combo of very shallow water and current can give you big breaking swell.

The imagery below shows how far you are from shore when you get to the Nav. Aid. where our sensor is located. And that is where the big swell is located. Look at the haze in the distance...somewhere in that haze is your launch site. This is really big water. On the best days you can sail 8 miles on a reach riding huge swell before jibing. There is almost no boat traffic here so have a plan.....

This July was one of the best Davis Pt. days in several years. The GREEN bars show the days with some mid 20's periods while the YELLOW bars show mild low 20's days. As you can see there were loads of both.

You can see that in most years the peak strong winds are in July.

Sometimes when the Sherman Island dawn winds are much weaker than forecast I will mention that the marine surge winds are going SOUTH straight up San Pablo Bay and being diverted into Napa rather than Sherman. If you see that in the 7AM forecast and you are on the road to Sherman Island make a diversion to Davis Pt. and sail for a couple of hours then get off the water when the winds go SW and head Sherman Island for a morning session.

Mike Godsey
iwindsurf.com

airwave · Joined: 29 Jun 2000 Posts: 386

Awesome charts.

Gotta pick the ebbs though.

I can see the launch and the marker from a block down the street.
Hope there is a day or two left for the season to get out there.
If not, next season for certain.

Glad some things are happening in Rodeo to get this spot sailable again.

windward1 · Joined: 18 Jun 2000 Posts: 1400

pthorner, GREAT Story!!!

radross · Joined: 10 Apr 2000 Posts: 142

Responding to Andy D.'s ?, here is the old thread from last year with a photo showing the parking/ramp area. When we went yesterday, the 4 Fools guys only asked that we drive under 5 mph to keep the dust down. They even offered to unlock the fence for us to let us in. I think the key to the access and parking is respect, checking in and patronizing the winery. Ross