Clipper Cove, Treasure Island

The wind is practically constant in this anchorage.  It starts building in the late morning.  Sometimes, it blows a steady 15 knots all day and all night. Occasionally, it gusts to 20 knots.  The whirling wind generator, sounding like a fan left on high, produces a reliable 5 amps, keeping the batteries topped off after the sun dips behind the island and the solar panels register 0.0. 

There have been just four or five boats anchored each night since we arrived. Tonight, there are 20 and there is still plenty of room in this cove that holds 50.  It’s the middle of a long holiday weekend.  We have watched many boats make this a picnic stopover while others arrive for the night after a brisk afternoon sail in the bay.  The entrance is shallow and requires one to hug the wharf.  We’ve seen some boats start to cross the bank and then stop and turn around. 

We have enjoyed the convenience of this anchorage.  The Navy moved off of Treasure Island and the City of San Francisco now owns and manages the property.  At what used to be the guard booth, there is now a small store jam-packed with every conceivable convenience food, a mini 7-Eleven with just as much stuff.  The kids working in it are proud to live on the island, to have the opportunity to live in a place with sky and wind and space and fantastic views of the city, to live in a place where access was denied for so long to anyone except military personnel.  The BOQ where we stayed for a month when we moved here in 1986 is now an apartment building. The EM Club is now a pizza joint.  A winery has moved into one of the warehouses.  The former HQ is now a leasing office and apartments.  Restricted places are now public places - recycled, reused, repurposed. 

We took the bus every day into San Francisco, leaving in the morning fog and returning in the warm evening.  It arrives every 20 minutes at the old guard booth and drops off at the Transbay terminal, smack dab in downtown.  We walked to Market Street and caught the bus to our destination of the day.  We studied the art, walked the city’s history, admired the architecture, breathed the incense in the oldest Chinese temple, picnicked in the park, spent hours in bookstores, shared the sidewalks with people of all nations. 

We retraced our footsteps of long ago and are grateful for the years that we lived in this dynamic city, for having been infused with the spirit of this inimitable place.