Familar with Fremont CA Area?

[John A]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

What do you mean by Maze? It seems a short 1/4 mile jaunt in and out of Berkeley harbor. And I've never noticed any more wind there than any where else on the Bay. Of course, I'm on the Delta now where it blows 25 all day!

The maze is where interstate 80 and 880 and the interstate from Cocorde merge, it fans out to about 20 toll booths for the Bay Bridge before merging to 5 or six lanes to go acrossed the bridge, In the late '90's I drove from Alameda (Grand Marina) to Candlestick park to work, a distance of 19 miles that took 2.5 hours, twice a day!

The average depth of the SF Bay at low tide is 15 feet, so there is alot of skinny water. Fremontt has huge salt ponds and no marinas. The Alviso area is closed as is the Palo Alto marina, both due to silting and lack of funds to
dredge.
Berkely is where the afternoon winds that scream in thru the Gate leave the Bay to continue inland. The slot!

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

San Leandro is a dying marina and will probably be closed in the near future:

Silt could force San Leandro Marina residents out – - Mercury News Media Center


BTW- here is the current state of the Alviso Marina

Yes...This is true...The city wants to turn it into a ..."kayak park". They do not want to spend a nickle on dreadging. If you saw the state of the town itself and the crime there, you can see they do not want to spend a nickle there either.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

They do not want to spend a nickle on dreadging. If you saw the state of the town itself and the crime there, you can see they do not want to spend a nickle there either.

I've been a tenant of San Leandro Marina in the past and have dived boats there as well. You ain't telling me anything I don't know.

[Celestialsailor]

I remember when I had my Ingrid 38 there while I was still living in Hawaii and flying over to do a refit. I was warned not to use an ATM at night and I just laughed it off until later in the week a person was shot in the face by a mugger at an ATM.

[David M]

How can I say this delicately? Sailing in the south part of the SF Bay is boring...at least compared to the central bay there is not much at all to see. I would look no further south than Alameda or just south of the western end of the Bay Bridge where getting to the central bay takes no more than an hour.

It is not more than a half hour drive from Fremont to Alameda when the traffic is decent, which it typically is on the weekends.

There are a few marinas on the western side of the south bay, but they would be more of a commute for you by car and then by boat than by driving north to Alameda or Oakland.

The San Leandro Marina is silting in and getting worse. There are no plans for dredging the marina because it is cost prohibitive. The most popular plan is to remove all the docks and let it become a sheltered basin for small boats and other water related recreational activities. I like the idea.

Fremont has plenty of nice neighborhoods and some not so nice neighborhoods.

I think that in your situation a marina in Alameda or Oakland is your best choice.

[Bash]

A number of Fremont folk end up sailing out of Redwood City, a fairly easy short hop over the Dumbarten Bridge. Best place to put a catamaran in Redwood City would be here: Westpoint Harbor Marina |

Sailing out of San Leandro is fairly limited, although a cat's shallow draft would be an advantage there. As time moves on, San Leandro becomes more and more of a powerboat spot. Interesting to note that the Spinnaker Yacht Club is mostly powerboaters these days, despite the name.

You could look at Ballina Bay on the west side of Alameda, or check into the many marinas up the Oakland Estuary. The estuary will involve a long trek every time you go sailing before you reach the bay proper, but hundreds and hundreds of boats call the estuary home, so there's gotta be something right going on there.

[David M]

Whats cool about going out of the Oakland Estuary is the run or reach back. Its a fun time to kick back and get warmed back up again watching all the ships, restaurants, marinas, houseboats and fellow boaters all coming back from a day on the bay. In the summer quite often you are in the fog in the slot but the fog usually break by the time you get in the Estuary on your way back.

The San Leandro Marina channel was dredged by the Corps of Engineers three years ago but they only dredged as far as the fuel dock.

[zeehag]

alviso marina looks just a smidge drier than it used to in 1978-----the dock is a lot rollier---there used to be almost a foot of water......

[tbodine88]

Originally Posted by zeehag

so the alviso yacht club is out of the question??

Apparently its still good for launching small boats. They've opened a new ramp. but for anchoring not so good.

Yes, it's good now

[John A]

Originally Posted by tbodine88

Apparently its still good for launching small boats. They've opened a new ramp. but for anchoring not so good.

Yes, it's good now

In the sixties and seventies free sprits and hippies established "living quarters" in Alviso and built ferreo cement boats of around the 40 foot size. The current population reflects the second generation of these "free sprits".

In the mid-sevenites Aviso was annexed by San Jose and Silicon Valley invaded the area and the sewage treatment plant was expanded to support the entire southren Bay area.

During the eighties there was several years of drought for the Bay Area and as underground water was extraced from the area the ground settled, partly due to the weight of the buildings. I read reports of over a foot in some areas. When/If winter storms and the twice a year extreme high tide happens in early Febuary. some areas of Alviso are flooded.