The California Delta
Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta · near Rio Vista / Antioch · SF Bay Area
Sailing
At a glance
- Difficulty
- intermediate
- Best season
- Late spring–fall (warm water; summer breeze reliable)
- Water temperature
- Mild–warm (60s–70s°F in summer) — far warmer than the bay
What is here
- Amenities
- Endless anchorages & gunkholing · Warm freshwater cruising · Marinas, guest docks & riverside towns · Reliable summer breeze
- Best for
- Warm-water cruising, anchoring & gunkholing
- Features
- Warm freshwater cruising ground · Endless sloughs & anchorages · Reliable summer delta breeze · A world away from the cold bay
Worth knowing
- Hazards
- Strong summer delta wind on open stretches · River current & powerboat/barge traffic · Shallow, unmarked sloughs (run aground easily) · Hot summer days & mosquitoes at anchor
- Good for a first timer
- No
Guides, rentals and operators
- Lessons
- No
Sailing detail
- Styles
- cruising · day-sail
- Breeze
- moderate
- Venue
- delta-river
- Exposure
- 2
- Sailing
- A thousand miles of sheltered, warm-water waterways for gunkholing and anchoring — a strong summer delta breeze (12–25 kt) on the open sloughs, calm anchorages everywhere
- Intl tip
- NorCal's premier cruising ground — a thousand miles of warm freshwater sloughs and rivers for gunkholing and anchoring, a world apart from the cold bay. Reliable summer breeze (12–25 kt) on open stretches; calm anchorages everywhere. WARM water (60s–70s in summer). Hazards: strong wind on exposed reaches, current, barge/powerboat traffic, shallow unmarked sloughs (easy to run aground). Historic delta towns. A hidden inland paradise.
The guide
The California Delta — a vast maze of a thousand miles of interconnected sloughs, rivers, and channels where the Sacramento and…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to The California Delta — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 38.06, -121.7