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China Camp Anchorage

ChrisS

Member III
Does anyone here have experience anchoring off of China Camp State Park? I'm thinking of overnighting there soon, and am looking for firsthand anecdotal information about currents and holding, etc.
 

dwigle

Member III
I've anchored there several times and it can be a really nice time. That said, watch currents and avoid days when the current is strong as it does rip through there and people have been known to drag. We usually anchor between McNears park and China Camp in about 15 feet of water.

If you have a powered dinghy and have the time, a trip up Gallinas Creek is entertaining. I like to go early in the day to have a better trip back. High tide is best, just follow the PVC pipes. Keep them to starboard as you approach the entrance.

Also go ashore and have a shrimp cocktail at China Camp and visit the museum. Very shallow water as you approach the beach.

Don Wigle
Wiggle Room
E38 #8
 

FullTilt E28

Member III
I've anchored there several times and it can be a really nice time. That said, watch currents and avoid days when the current is strong as it does rip through there and people have been known to drag. We usually anchor between McNears park and China Camp in about 15 feet of water.

If you have a powered dinghy and have the time, a trip up Gallinas Creek is entertaining. I like to go early in the day to have a better trip back. High tide is best, just follow the PVC pipes. Keep them to starboard as you approach the entrance.

Also go ashore and have a shrimp cocktail at China Camp and visit the museum. Very shallow water as you approach the beach.

Don Wigle
Wiggle Room
E38 #8

Few years back the slip neighbor next door was caught at China Camp in a bad blow - tore up their anchor gear and they just barely managed to get out of there. Odd case but still..So if for some reason you see a weather front causing the rare case of wind from the north watch out. Other than that I've been told it is a great place to park and goof off.
 

ChrisS

Member III
Thanks for the replies. I was planning on singlehanding over there from Sausalito this weekend, and spending a night there--but am watching to see if the wind will be from the west or north. It seems pretty exposed if it comes from the north.

The max ebb is in the middle of the night at about 3kts, which isn't too bad...so we'll see what the wind does.
 

Phil MacFarlane

Member III
well?

Chris, did you make it to China Camp?

I will try to make it there this weekend (Friday -Saturday). Tied will be bad for me both ways. Oh wel, more sailing, thats what we came for.

Let us know what happend.

Phil
 

ChrisS

Member III
Phil--

On Saturday, I did sail singlehanded over to China Camp from Sausalito, leaving the dock at about 3:30 pm and passing through the Slot to watch the Blue Angels en route. I took a downwind tack from Alcatraz to Southhampton Shoal, then reached from there to the Richmond Bridge. The wind is a westerly, and after the bridge it came from the north a bit more--so I had a nice pointing leg. It was an easy sail and I got over to the anchorage at about 6:30. I counted three other sailboats and four motorboats anchored in the stretch between Mc Near's Beach and China Camp Pier.

I anchored in about ten feet of water about 200 yards off the beach, digging the anchor in quite agressively and setting the anchor alarm on the GPS because of the 1.5 kt current at max ebb in the middle of the night. The wind was out of the NW in the evening, and so when the tide ebbed, it was a little rolly. After the wind died down at midnight, it got quiet, but since the shoal in the area is fairly shallow and the ebb had me abeam to the beach, any time there was commercial traffic at in the main channel at night I got tossed around a bit and worken up. But I didn't drag anchor at all.

In the am I made eggs and coffee, listened to an interview on KCSM, and read a bit (I am a high school teacher, and have two small kids of my own, and this was the first time in a while I had been by myself for any stretch of time--quite nice!). The water at this point was like glass. After motoring past the anchor to get it out of the mud, I motored to the bridge and sailed back to Sausalito against a flood, staying out of the deep channel to avoid the worst of it.

Overall, China Camp is a nice spot. It was a quick trip for me, and I'd like to return there for more than one night in the future. It'd be a good place to stop on a trip up to Bencia or Vallejo as well. Also, if you have kayaks, bring them, as there's a lot of great shoreline to the north of the anchorage. There's also an old time beer bar at a boat yard called Buck's Landing at the mouth of Gallinas Creek.
 
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