Gorge Travel Journal from Phil and Lisa Simmons

The SF Bay area and Sherman Island are full on and well into the 2010 season. It took a while for things to ramp up. March, April, May, and even early June offered up storm sailing but little of the normal bay winds (although the coast appeared to be pretty good). Finally in mid June things began to improve with some good Crissy, Treasure Island, and Sherman days. July at Sherman was spectacular. There was one period when the wind stay above 20mph every day and night for almost two weeks with 25mph the norm and lots of 30ties. Since then Sherman and Treasure Island have been 4.5 – 5.0 sailing every day.

A small contingent of Sherman Island regulars did a 9 day road trip to the Gorge the week of July 9th. It was great at Sherman that week with steady winds every day but we broke the rule and “left wind for wind”. Surprise, we had an awesome Gorge trip. The group was Andy (aka “The Counselor”), Johnny (aka “Jumpin Johnny”), Michael (that is “The Air Marshall”), Lisa (refer to as “The Girl”), and me (I have no idea what I’m call when I’m not around).  Oh, Chester and Zende came along too. Out of 7 days of sailing we had 6 days of everything from 3.5 to 4.7 sailing. Mid week we had one day of no wind which gave us time to rest up and start over. We sailed several sites just to check them out but any and all sites worked on any given day. Mid trip we had a day that was 45 to 50 plus at most all sites along the river. We did a wind meter check and registered many of the gust pegging the meter at 60mph. The Event Site that day was a calm 20ish so we had a casual sail there. Having never sailed Maryhill on previous trips we saved it for last. Wish we had done it early on. It was an awesome 4.2 day but we were well worn and wishing we could stay for more.
Every weekend has been a 4-day weekend at Sherman since the Gorge trip. It’s been two and three sailing sessions per day, pot luck dinners, and a variety of parties every weekend. Mid-week has been filled with sailing T.I. and semi-secret spots on the San Pablo Bay.

Most importantly, the 2010 Wave Panthers are great. They are very outstanding looking on the water and have the usual perfect Ezzy performance.

Here are a few shots of “Sherman Goes To The Gorge”. Please note: No sailing pics. We were all too greedy to quit sailing to take pictures.

Phil & Lisa Simmons