TravelTales: Spring...ish in San Francisco Bay
S/V Moonshine, San Francisco Bay
Daniel and Lauren
6/16/20267 min read
San Francisco Bay June 2026
Total Swam: 0
Total Urban Hiked: 11 miles
Mylar Balloons Retrieved from Mother Ocean Total on Moonshine: 51
Well we did it. I’m not really sure how it happened. It just happened. We spent some time poking around the SF Bay. We weren’t able to explore the city much when we lived in Pacifica because that was in 2020 so we took this as our redemption opportunity. Not just to sail the infamous Slot in SF Bay but to try and get to know another city. People have always given us their opinion on wherever it is we go. Normally I dismiss it because it's the usual American view on a place. “ Well, I had a long holiday weekend to visit and it rained the whole time. I’d never go back to Seattle.” We had a similar amount of time to not only do the touristy things we NEEDED to do in SF but squeeze in time to poke around and find the daily life of the people that live there. I won’t be laying out the detailed stories in this one. It’s too much. Come have a pirate juice somewhere around the world with us and I’ll talk your ears off for hours. For now, just know, from the time our faithful crew left us to our own devices to the last look over our shoulder at our new best friend, a boatyard cat, it was another trip of a lifetime. San Francisco and a cat won my heart. Two things I never thought these hands would type.
Side note: Met Ian. An octogenarian Scottish salt living on his boat in Sausalito. Got drunk as he told us sailing stories of his past down below in his Endeavor 37 at Schoonmaker.
We sailed to a Giants game with friends and family. Stayed in the marina outside the ballpark for a few days. What I don’t think they show on TV is the shirtless fans (including my father in law) in the freezing cold or the 1000’s of seagulls that rush the stadium to help the cleanup crew 20 min after the game finishes. Once everyone left Moonshine, Lauren and I took to the streets. We hadn’t had our usual exercise of swimming and hiking every day and were craving it. We Urban Hiked. It’s our favorite way to learn about a city, no matter how big. We hike 10 miles the first day. Ate at a delicious bakery with the best chocolate croissant. Had “breakfast” in a Chinese place where they hang chickens in the front window. Saw everything we could walking from Dogpatch to Chinatown. If you haven’t spent at least a morning walking around either of these places and seeing them for what they are, you should. Not just drive in, grab dinner, and drive out. Walk around. You’ll see vibrant communities alive and thriving. From back decorated alleys to corner lots filled with cardboard boxes encircled by men gambling and/or playing chess, there’s always something to see. Sailed to Pier 39. What’s the deal with all the scooter tires and chains tied to everyone's dock lines here? Well, after a sleepless night of the surge ripping us back and forth in our slip, we knew why. We walked to Gihardelli for some free samples. Of course we stopped along the way for chowder in a bread bowl. Two Irish coffees later from The Buena Vista and we were in line for a trolley. It was a tourist day I guess. We hopped off halfway back to walk another part of the city. It didn’t disappoint! Met fam for another spectacular dinner only to end up downing jugo de pirata all night before chasing down our Waymo in the middle of the night and the middle of the street.
Sailed back to Sausalito. The fam picked us up and we went for a walk with all the kids at Rodeo Beach and beyond. Checked out a dead seal on the beach with Hayes and Ruby. Highlight for sure! Had some pizza in a wild pizza joint filled with kids baseball teams on their last day of the season. We walked a couple miles back along the shoreline there and got to Moonshine for an incredible moonrise right at sunset. Still a waning gibbous but it would be full the next night. We finally decided to stop. We anchored in Richardson Bay for a couple nights just to be. We took a relaxing Twinkie ride around the bay there. It’s good to see all the eel grass coming back although I couldn’t help but feel the presence of the free living community that existed there just years earlier. It’s a fine line we draw between living our entitled lives and destroying our planet. Unfortunately, humans generally lean on the latter.
Our trip through Racoon Straights and to Berkeley was uneventful, until it wasn’t. Going to the windward side of the bay brought our new challenge. A small craft advisory. Once clear of Angel Island and Alcatraz, the afternoon winds, and waves picked up. Not under sail we were taking all the brute force of the SF Bay winds and waves directly on Moonshine's beam. It was unpleasant. On top of this, the entrance to Berkeley Marina is unprotected from this swell and less than a fathom on the depth chart. A couple frantic calls to the marina and they assured us that we were golden and in fine fashion, the marina manager told us to send it! Rented bikes. What a great city layout with bike lanes and infrastructure for it! Got tattoos on a whim. Saw the sights. Ate the best egg rolls ever with some Pho. Walked around UC Berkeley campus. We loved all of it!
It was time for the Napa River. A small craft advisory was planned for the San Pablo Bay for the afternoon but we didn’t want to make the trip with the morning falling tide. Headed out and skimmed the bottom leaving the marina to starboard. Quickly turned around and headed out the other way. Not much better there with some 3 foot soundings. That means 6 feet of water in a 5’10” draft boat. The current was still ripping out of the delta and through the SP Straight. We were doing 3 knots SOG at full power. A couple hours in the wind filled in directly behind us so I rolled out the 135 to give us a boost. Once in the Napa River, you have to follow your chart precisely to stay in the channel. Duck boat. 3 bridges later, we get to the marina only for them to tell us they don’t know how deep the entrance channel is. We cruised back and forth up and down the river blasting Jimmy Buffett to keep our spirits high. With a 3 foot tide, we decided to send it. 10 feet. F*#k. We would have been fine all along. We stayed at the guest dock for a few days. There, a cat named Charles decided we were his new family and tried to come aboard. Trying not to scare a mouse that we were trying to ensnare, we shooed him and his constant meowing at the companionway hatch. Once we were hauled out and in our spot, he climbed the ladder every night around 21:30 and made himself some biscuits as he prepared for bed. I guess we have a cat now. Of course some strange heat wave comes though as we haul out and it's 90-100 degrees for two days as we pack up and ready Moonshine for her 18 month stint out of the water.
After a botched Uber ride due to our tardiness, when the cat wouldn’t leave the boat on the last day, we were on our way. A 40 min Uber and a 50 min train ride on the BART and we got to SFO.
18 months you say? It’s time for our trip. We’ve had the usual “must be nice” comments but the majority has been nothing but supportive of our wild journey thus far and to where it leads next. We have skrimped and saved(aside from being side tracked by spending $4000 on Pho one year). We lived in the van for 5 years. We didn’t know what we were saving for exactly until about a year ago. Lauren and I are in Louisiana. We are visiting family. At the end of this month…damn. It’s here already. At the end of this month, we are off. We have plans to travel for 18 months or until our adventure money runs out. Now that can be longer or shorter than 18 months. I guess we’ll see how DogWifHat responds to the Clarity Act! Only kidding about the last part…sort of. Our first stop is Norway. 40-ish days in Norway that includes a 12 day sail around Svalbard north of the 80th parallel. A week in Sweden. 10 days in Iceland aaaaaand that’s mostly what we have booked so far. The next stop after that is 3 weeks in Italy before a 20 day trek booked through India getting us into our two weeks in Nepal.
From one of my favorite Bubba songs, “These moments we’re left with, may you always remember, these moments are shared by few, there’s wind in our hair, there’s water in our shoes, honey, IT’S BEEN A LOVELY CRUISE”. Each and every ending brings each and every new beginning. I’m forever grateful for everyone in our corner for every wild and crazy decision we make. “So drink it up, this one's for you. It’s been a lovely cruise”.
