Petaluma River Not So Bad

On April 14, we posted a story from ABC7 News about islands of silt in the Petaluma River, the cancelation of Petaluma Yacht Club’s Memorial Day event, the lack of yachts at the club and the general headaches boaters have been dealing with.

But the situation isn’t quite so bad, according to one Alameda couple.

On April 17, Erik and Brian Jones wrote: "We just returned from a trip up to Petaluma on our Island Packet 370. We successfully navigated the river and entered the turning basin on a high tide through the D Street bridge without any issues."

The Joneses went on to say that once they docked, they never touched bottom through a 0.4 low tide during a three-day stay, but said there is substantial silting that might cause problems for bigger boats drawing more than six feet.

"Boaters, particularly those with shoal draft or shallow draft, can still enjoy Petaluma and all that it has to offer," Erik said. "We planned our departure on a plus 2.4 tide and navigated around a little hump just off the end of the dock, but otherwise had no issues leaving on an ebb tide through the river and back into San Pablo Bay."

We’d like to thank the Joneses for the clarification. If you’ve been on the Petaluma River recently, we’d like to hear from you.