Sausalito, CA - It began the night of Sept. 9, the night before I left Denver to join Steve on the boat.
Around 11 p.m., Steve was safely aboard the boat, enjoying his last night of solitude in Sausalito and listening to gusts of 30 knot wind outside. He heard someone yelling "help" and when he looked to see where the voice was coming from, he saw a dinghy with two people and a dead outboard drifting out to the Golden Gate. So, he hurriedly jumped into his dinghy (in his underwear) to give a hand. They got the outboard started but things were not over for the couple. Their boat had dragged in the wind and was also headed for the Gate. After all the excitement and having been outside with few clothes for 20 minutes, it seems he must not have tied our own dinghy properly.
Later, that night, he was awakened by the wind and went to check on things outside. The dinghy was gone. Steve immediately checked the tide tables, hoping that the tide had turned. Nope. With a nearly full moon there was a strong ebb out the Gate. He notified the Coast Guard at 4 a.m.
Around 9 the next morning, after much worrying and gnashing of teeth and yelling obscenities into the wind, the Park Service called, reporting a dinghy washed ashore on Ocean Beach, 3 miles south of the Cliff House on the ocean side of the S.F. peninsula. Maybe it just wanted to be free, but had second thoughts after the big, scarey ocean. It hadn't even been rolled in its eight-mile journey in 30-knot wind-whipped seas because the unsecured gasoline tanks were still aboard. But it got a little beat up in the surf when it fetched up on the beach. Steve had to find someone to take him ashore, rent a U-Haul to get the dinghy, and call me to say he might not be able to meet me at the designated place. But at least he'd recovered the dinghy. Now, to see if the outboard would fire up.
Thanks to Brian Morrison, who will be joining us aboard in a few days, Steve got the dinghy back to Sausalito, returned the truck, and met me at the BART station in downtown San Francisco. I just had to wait an hour or so where apparently the medical marijuana brigade hangs out.
We went back to Sausalito on the number 10 bus. The outboard wouldn't crank, so we moteled it that night and got a tow to the boat the next morning. Our spare outboard is now on the dinghy, which is securely tied to the boat. The other outboard has a lot of sand in various engine parts, but hopefully is salvageable. No complaints from Steve. He is very thankful that dink is not on its way to the South Pacific.
