Photo by Keira Nakamura
If you need an escape from the hustle and bustle of San Francisco, Sausalito’s waterfront provides a break with a picturesque landscape of sailboats drifting over glistening water in Richardson Bay.
The waterfront faces Richardson Bay, which connects to San Francisco Bay. Within it are various yacht harbors, including the Sausalito Yacht Harbor — the port for several hundred boats. The Sausalito Yacht Harbor was founded by teenagers in 1942 when many of Sausalito’s adult residents had to leave to fight in World War II.
During this same time, the Marinship shipyard opened and constructed Liberty cargo ships and tankers for the war effort. Part of Marinship is located at Pine Point, which had been a residential community before the war, whose residents were forced to relocate when there was a need for a shipyard. Today, people can walk along the boardwalk and visit the Marinship Exhibit to learn more about Sausalito during World War II.
Though the Marinship shipyard is closed, several other shipyards still exist and build ships in the area.
The Spaulding Wooden Boatyard Center is fascinating to visit. It was founded by Myron Spaulding in 1951, while he was a professional violinist in the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. He taught himself how to design and build wooden sailboats and first opened a marine architecture office in the 1940s. He was an avid sailor and participated in TransPacific races from San Francisco to Honolulu, sailing boats that he constructed. Some of his boats, including the Spaulding 33 and Suomi, still sail the bay today.
The Spaulding shipyard continues Spaulding’s legacy by educating the public about boatbuilding and boat maintenance. Take a tour or volunteer to build ships to learn about these traditional skills of crafting wooden boats.
Another interesting exhibit in this part of the Sausalito waterfront is the Bay Model Visitor Center, a 1.5-acre working hydraulic scale model of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta System, housed in a large nondescript building. The Bay Area Model was built by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1955, after John Reber — a theatrical producer and self-taught engineer — proposed that the Bay should be transformed from an estuary into shipping facilities, with the idea that this would save water, employ many and be beneficial from a defensive standpoint.
However, using the model to test this plan demonstrated that if San Francisco Bay were filled in, it would be disastrous for the ecology of the entire Bay area delta region. It serves as a great example of modeling — in an era before computers — and using science to discredit wild schemes which would have had catastrophic consequences. The plan was scrapped.
Photo by Keira Nakamura
At the Bay Model, you can witness the model of the entire Bay and delta and watch the rhythms of the tide drain and fill the waterways. Many significant experiments were carried out here. The tidal cycle in the model fills and drains the bay every 14 minutes. The tides change 200 times a day.
Along the waterfront are opportunities for people to rent sailboats, kayaks and paddleboards. It is notoriously windy on the bay but also thrilling to experience the boisterous waves. If you are hesitant to brave the waters, you can still walk onto the docks to see the sailboats up close. Visitors can also admire the stretch of uniquely adorned houseboats in Galilee Harbor.
Whenever I visit Sausalito’s waterfront, my favorite activity is observing the wildlife that lives close to the shore. Glimmering schools of fish swim beside docked boats, catching sunlight on their scales. Sea lions bob their heads above the water or sprawl on top of each other on the docks. Whales sometimes make an appearance in the Bay, spouting water into the sky. Crabs scuttle along the rocks that hug the coastline, avoiding the seabirds on the prowl.
My favorite animals along the shore are the hundreds of jellyfish that drift and float near the surface of the water. There are amber sea nettles, large enough to spot from the boardwalk, or translucent moon jellies that you can see when venturing down to the docks.
Across the street from the waterfront is downtown Sausalito, filled with dozens of restaurants, artisan shops and tourist traps. Oftentimes there are long lines outside of Lappert’s ice cream, which serves tropical flavors fitting for the warm days.
Though closed during the pandemic, usually you can take the Sausalito Ferry from San Francisco and taste the wind out on the bay. There are no plans to reopen the ferry at the moment, but in the meantime, Golden Gate Transit provides public transportation to Sausalito. Or you can drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, emerging from San Francisco’s foggy microclimate into Sausalito’s shore-side sunshine.
