Last Fall's Dredge Sets the Stage for Petaluma's Holiday River
November 12, 2026
November 12, 2026
Why does a boat parade that has been running for about four decades still print "subject to change due to tides" next to its date?
Petaluma's holiday season opens and closes at the Turning Basin. Santa arrives there by tugboat on November 28, and the lighted flotilla ties up there on December 12. Both events depend on a tidal channel that slowly fills with mud between dredges. This year the river has more water under it than it has had in a while, because a dredge worked its way up from San Pablo Bay last fall and was past the D Street Bridge by Thanksgiving week of 2025.
Visit Petaluma's 2026 holiday calendar lists the Petaluma Yacht Club's Lighted Boat Parade for Saturday, December 12, 2026, "date subject to change due to tides." The club's 2026 parade page asks skippers to arrive at the Petaluma Marina at 5:30 p.m., leave at 6 and reach the Turning Basin downtown around 6:30. Boat owners who want to join can register there.
NOAA publishes tide predictions for a station called Petaluma River, Upper Drawbridge. Here is what the prediction for December 12 looks like:
| Time on Dec. 12 | Tide | Predicted height |
|---|---|---|
| 4:43 a.m. | High | 5.28 ft |
| 9:46 a.m. | Low | 2.82 ft |
| 2:39 p.m. | High | 6.43 ft |
| 10:30 p.m. | Low | -0.30 ft |
The flotilla leaves the marina a little over three hours after the day's highest water, and the river keeps dropping all evening toward a low that night that falls below zero. These figures are predicted water levels at one station. They are not channel depths. Still, they show what the organizers are working around. The boats come upriver on a falling tide, and the lowest water of the day arrives a couple of hours after the 6 to 8 p.m. window the Petaluma Downtown Association lists for spectators.
The Petaluma River has had a mud problem for a long time. In 2015 the Argus-Courier reported that the river was so choked with silt that boats got stuck on exposed sandbars at low tide. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredged it in 2020 and took out 194,000 cubic yards of material. Silt kept building after that. When the Corps returned in the fall of 2025, the Press Democrat called it the river's first deep clean in five years. The paper described the plan as clearing built-up silt from the downtown Turning Basin out toward San Pablo Bay.
The City of Petaluma's November 13, 2025 project update estimated that 77,000 to 89,000 cubic yards had been removed by that point. On November 24, the Yacht Club's commodore told members in the December 2025 newsletter that the dredge had made it through the D Street Bridge and was approaching the Turning Basin. The Corps' Petaluma River project page lists the FY2025 dredging campaign as complete. The page also gives the channel's target: 8 feet deep across the flats and up to Western Avenue, with a Turning Basin 300 to 400 feet wide and 8 feet deep.
By early summer, the Yacht Club was seeing the difference at its own dock. Rear Commodore Rich Brazil wrote in the club's June 2026 newsletter:
"Our recently dredged river has allowed local cruisers to enjoy our charming city and sparkling clubhouse. Many call it their favorite cruise out of the year."
This December is the first holiday season on that dredged channel. The silt is still coming in. The City's Turning Basin visitor page, updated in January 2026, warns that silt under the transient docks can leave the dock surface sloped as much as 20 degrees at low or negative tide. The Corps budgets $996,000 for the project in FY2026. Even with fresh dredging, a tidal river is never a fixed stage.
The first river event of the season lands two weeks ahead of the parade. On Saturday, November 28, Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive at the Turning Basin aboard a Lind Marine tugboat. The Pacific Empire Chorus starts singing carols at 11:30 a.m. Dancers in Nutcracker costumes from the Petaluma School of Ballet then walk the couple to their thrones at River Plaza Shopping Center, where photos begin at noon. The event wraps up at 1:30 p.m.
The tugboat is the detail that ties this event to the river's maintenance. Lind Marine describes itself as a Bay Area marine-services company that has worked the West Coast since 1906. Its services include tug-and-barge work and dredging. In a 2004 series on the working Petaluma River, the Press Democrat reported that Jerico Products, led by Mitch Lind, brought Santa up the river every year. The Argus-Courier later identified Lind Marine as the company formerly known as Jerico. So the company that brings Santa up the river is also in the business of keeping rivers like this one open.
Both events finish at the Turning Basin, which is where the Petaluma Yacht Club has its clubhouse, at 10 C Street. The parade began there too. In a 2020 club newsletter, a member recalled that two members' Christmas-decorated boats moored in the basin probably sparked the annual parade, "probably in 1986."
Today the flotilla is open to power boats, sailboats and people-powered craft of all sizes. The Downtown Association says several thousand people line the shore to watch. Viewing is free and needs no reservation, and the listed spot is the Petaluma Turning Basin at 12 C Street. For skippers, the club's 2025 notice asked boats to line up largest to smallest and to carry a mounted or handheld marine radio on Channel 68.
Last year's parade had 24 boats registered by late November. The Yacht Club sponsored it, with Mayor Kevin McDonald, City Manager Peggy Flynn and Police Chief Brian Miller serving as judges. That was the 2025 lineup. The 2026 page currently invites registration and says more information is coming soon.
The two Saturdays on the water frame about two weeks of downtown events. Most of them sit within a short walk of the basin. Here is how the calendar lines up, according to Visit Petaluma:
The Pacific Empire Chorus sings at both the November 28 riverboat arrival and the December 5 stroll, and Santa appears at all three of the downtown Saturdays. The Hen Hunt map is the one event that runs through all of it, from the morning the tugboat docks until after New Year's.
Only one date on that list depends on the river's depth. The Visitor Center prints the parade date with the tide caveat, so the Yacht Club's 2026 parade page is the place to check the week before. If the date holds, the evening's high water comes at 2:39 p.m. and the boats start downstream from the marina around 6.
The Petaluma River has carried tugboats, barges, Santa and a lot of decorated sailboats. If you'd like to talk about life near the Turning Basin or anywhere else along the river, Rob Sullivan would be glad to hear from you. Let's Connect.
If you are seeking a real estate professional whom you can trust and count on for the long haul, then look no further. Rob will earn your loyalty and turn your dreams into reality.
