Winter at Angel Island
By Kelly Lindblom, Tiki Too Officer
There’s nothing like a cruise in the San Francisco Bay during the winter. In fact, sometimes the winter offers incredibly clear-yet-stormy skies that just mesmerize me. That’s what winter cruise was like this year. With a storm carrying on to the east of us, the Bay was lightly rainy with breaks allowing the sunshine to come through.
We started cruise on MP90 Liberty at her berth on Bethel Island. Three of our girls, Lily, and our foreign exchange students Yusra and Kawtar, had never cruised before. We got underway and had an easy cruise downriver to Benicia, then had liberty for a few hours where we all enjoyed some ice cream. The next day, we got underway for Sausalito, another easy cruise, and after securing the boat at the dock, we had liberty. We visited the Bay Model, which is an awesome experience for those who are interested in hydrology, like myself. We bunkered down as the weather came in for the night, working on jigsaw puzzles and playing cards until everyone was tired enough for bed.
The next morning was incredible. The stormy skies swirled overhead as we got underway, making our way into Raccoon Straight with the bay swells rolling in strongly from behind us, and seal lions putting on a great show for Yusra and Kawtar (they aren’t familiar with Sea Lions, being from Morocco and Kenya). We moored in Ayala cove, all alone, and Lina took Mr. Julio and me to shore on the Zodiak.
We didn’t see another soul as we wandered the 5-mile road around the island. Angel Island State Park is a special place. Originally home to the Coast Miwok, it also became a rare civil war-era fort, an immigration and POW camp, and a World War II military base for processing incoming and outgoing troops. All of the remaining encampments are like ghost towns. Elsewhere, the island is mostly wilderness. It’s a special experience to stand in the wilderness looking out across the Bay at beautiful cities like San Francisco, and Tiburon, and the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s almost like stepping back in time, peering out toward the rest of the Bay at the future.
We wrapped up winter cruise with a stop at Pittsburg marina, where we had a great meal, celebrated New Year’s Eve (with Martinelli’s and cake), and took Hollywood showers. On New Year’s Day, our tired crew got the boat back to Bethel Island, and bid our farewells.
