Boats on the Beach
When settlers first arrived on the shores of New England a few hundred years ago, they said lobsters were so plentiful they’d just wash up on the beach after a storm. They were so cheap they were considered junk food (of course they never conceived of how bad junk food could get a few hundred years later). Today, there might be even better deals washing up on the beaches.
Steve Damm, a local small boat sailor and member and instructor at Tradewinds Sailing Center, sent us a few shots of boats washed up on Point Pinole and, like the boat we saw washed up near McNears Beach last week, it remains a mystery as to how they got there. We’ve seen news stories of dolphins and whales that beach themselves, possibly after Navy sonar testing, but somehow we don’t think that’s the cause of these three recent beachings.
Shortly after Steve sent the photos, we received a press release from the state of California announcing the availability of $4.25 million in funding for local public agencies to help keep California waterways safe and clean. Nice timing.
The Division of Boating and Waterways (DBW) will now accept your grant application for the disposal of any abandoned and unwanted vessels with more than $4 million available from the Abandoned Watercraft Abatement Fund. Applications are being accepted from February 1 through April 30, 2018.
While this money is meant to alleviate these eyesores, it isn’t enough funding to polish the teak and bring them back to life. But, just maybe, like the lobsters on the East Coast, some may just find that some of what’s washed up isn’t so bad.
After shooting the photos a few weeks ago, Steve reports that the vessel on the beach was removed on January 31 (the blue/super moon day) during a 7.4-plus tide, with the help of a very powerful powerboat and a lot of determination. The vessel near the old pier wasn’t so lucky. She now has a huge hole in her hull and continues to break apart.
You can learn more about the program here.