Loose Screws Clamming At Lawson's 3/20 - 3/21

Day one AOTY Sat: Carpoled with Sonny, Jed and Jimbo.  Got to see old and meet new friends, eat and drank too much so let Sonny drive home, also he assisted loading yaks for the Tomales trip. Before this trip the worst weather we over-nighted was last year at clear lake. Pam was scared and thought we were going to get blown over, the coach stayed upright but it sure was rocking. Always said one can plan a trip but you can't plan the weather.
Day two Sunday, Tomales Bay: Was relieved to see it calm down in the morning but disappointed by lack of low water. Felt sorry for those that traveled far for so little. The lunch and company of old and new friends made the day for us.
Day three Monday: Survivor Martin and I took the tandem out to the island. Pictures tell the rest of the story.

No "dirty" picture?   

Awesome report you guys are real Troopers.

You guys are animals!  I'm glad you made it to your destination, and clam or no, you guys kicked some ass!  WTG.   

Rain messed with everyone last weekend.

I was up at Gualala and the river was fast & brown.  I wimped out and didn't get in.

Outback up to the lights.  That must have been a sight.

Thanks for  the narrative.

Raydon

Here are the trip pictures...

More pictures...

I guess we didn't get baptized with the name Loose Screws for nothing. That was fun and
I can't wait to do it all over again. Hopefully with better weather next time. Thanks for sharing some clams
BTW Dave and Martin.

Jedmo

So starting with Sat nite phone call with Hobiedave who's on the scene and we were discussing whether to abort or not..Overriding thought was that we specifically picked  hookup for those who only get out on weekends...and some had already committed to hotels etc...
the decision was that sane people would have bagged it but by definition you had to have a Loose Screw to go out in such nasty wx...
I did post though in the Hookup section though that Safety and Common Sense would not be violated and that if needed...an abort decision would be made at waters edge....as it turned out...an updated wx prognosis was that the center of the Low pressure would pass well south plus move out quickly after 3am...
what I did not anticipate though was that the roads there were to be the challenge...and that all the water draining that areas valleys would negate any low tide effects..

re: Martin's post above...I think that the mini lake was before the road closure sign...that pond really spooked me but by the time we entered..it was too dark to see and too late...the stalled Jetta rattled me even further..we did subsequntly come up to a road closure sign which we ventured beyond for a look see and thats when we came upon the jack knifed tanker...I mention this as  I normally dont recommend blowing off road  signs.

someone in  our group once joked that he liked clamming cuz unlike fishing you couldn't get skunked....well we set a new low...and continued to dig...(which further gives my wife ammunition to chide our group and refer to us as "rookies") So we managed to get skunked on that day and I ended up returning empty handed...Only Hobiedave and Martin had the dignity to stick it out and get some on Monday..cheers to you two.

Quite honestly... I never even crossed checked the tides and it was only reported to be a -.2 which if I recall, Sonny once stated that our sand bar needed at minimum -.5 so the window was too short lived.. But again coinciding with the weekend was an emphasis this time.

yet true to form and despite the bust on clamming...we still managed to get a decent party going... Martin had the inspirational comment..."well dave it's afternoon in NewYork"....so beers were popped as was some wine..
I cooked up some chicken which was to be that nights dinner, and Jed brought out some awesome empenadas.. Martin had wife-baked brownies...and various snacks were provided by sonny, Hobdave and others... Thanks Hobiedave for providing the canopy and to Martin who each did white/ red batches of chowder...that really hit the spot for everyone. so we were pigging out by water's edge and it wasnt even past 1030.
we were lucky with getting a fire going and harvesting crabs which we roasted  "sonny" style...yummy..those red rocks were indeed sweet and actually better than the one lone legal dungy that joined our luncheon.

Good meeting new friends..new for me that is.....EastBayCruiser aka John from Rodeo...Auburn Trout  aka Adam and wife Linda who are gifted folks..
and good to meet up again with Nudling.. Thanks guys for braving the drive up and sorry we couldn't get you into some clams..

As for the rest of the Loose Screws...it was a noble effort and I think everyone was relieved that the water was calm and wind virtually non existant...

next good window april 19-20 which is a tues-weds.. but we need to see if our schedules will work first.
daviator

Never let the weather ruin a great hookup    Thanks for the very entertaining report 

'Nother awesome hook-up, fellas. Thanks for the amusing reports.

You guys (and gals) are animals.

looks like you guys had fun anyway.  hope I can make it on the next hookup.

Sucks to hear that the conditions weren't ideal for clamming. However, y'all still know how to make the best out of every outing Thanks for sharing the report, and it's always great to see the camaraderie!!

Clams would have been a bonus, but for me it was more about meeting all of the cool NCKA members.  I wish I could have stayed longer, but the woman sent out a distress call that the dog and kid were getting to be too much to handle!

I'll probably be going by that place up north during an ab diving trip to pick up some of the PVC tubing so the sand doesn't collapse while digging ( unless someone has extra they want to sell!).  I'm also eyeing those low tides in April to get out to that elusive island!

Thanks again for a great time guys, looking forward to other meets.