Overnight Anchoring in the San Francisco Bay

Overnight Anchoring in the San Francisco Bay

My Favorite San Francisco Bay Overnight Anchorages

By Patrick Twohy

In our era of Covid-19-enforced staying at home, we’ve had to live without travel. That means we’ve had to forgo the many opportunities to charter in interesting far away places. We’ve been served some lemons, folks, so let’s stay safe and make lemonade. Let’s charter here as if we were someplace more exotic.  

As a rule, when people boat someplace and stay overnight around San Francisco Bay, they typically sail to a congenial marina, or yacht club, and rent a guest slip for the night. One could go to South Beach Marina in San Francisco, for example, and have a lovely dinner and stroll along the Embarcadero before returning for a cozy evening on board. There’s Jack London Square in Oakland or any number of marinas along the Oakland estuary. Or Sausalito, which is quite popular. I might also suggest Berkeley, or Richmond — either at the city’s marina or at Marina Bay. 

But let’s face it. For the same reasons we can’t travel right now, it’s also not a great time to look for a good sit-down meal or bar near your chosen overnight marina. You could go to South Beach and take out pizza from the amazing South Beach Cafe across the street. Or you could pick up something from the nearby Safeway. But that doesn’t seem quite the thing to replace the exotic destination you’ve had to put on hold. 

Let me suggest you consider one of Patrick’s Favorite Overnight Anchorages in San Francisco Bay. Here they are: 

McCovey Cove

More formally known as China Basin, this is the waterway adjacent to the San Francisco Giants’ ballpark. The water is an appropriate depth to anchor securely and you’ll be generally free from tidal current. On non-Giants game days, you’re likely to be by yourself, though you’ll get frequent visits from other boaters coming in to look around and from dinghy sailors and kayakers coming from the nearby South Beach Marina. You’ll probably get some jealous looks from pedestrians looking at you from the promenade between the ballpark and the cove. 

  • Why I like it: It’s convenient to the South Bay. It’s an easy sail from Redwood City. You can go directly there and drop the hook — it’s 20 nautical miles from the Spinnaker Sailing dock to the anchorage. Or you can sail up early in the day, spend the afternoon sailing around Alcatraz or Angel Island and then dip into McCovey Cove at the end of the day. The next morning, it’s a straight shot back to Redwood City.
  • What to know: If you pick a game day for your trip, the cove likely to be crowded with boat “tailgaters,” kayakers and others trying to enjoy the game without actually being there. Also, don’t anchor too close to Lefty O’Doul Bridge. The traffic going across it might be a bit noisy at night. 

Aquatic Park

This is a motorboat-free zone on the north San Francisco waterfront next to the Hyde Street Pier historic ship museum. As a sailboat, you’re allowed to enter, and you can use your motor to position your boat to anchor. 

  • Why I like it: You have an incredible view of San Francisco, including Ghirardelli Square, the impossibly steep Hyde Street hill, and the historic ships at the pier. You’ll also have friends nearby — all the swimmers who come starting before dawn to swim in the cove. When you come in, please be VERY careful to spot and avoid them. 

Berkeley’s South Cove

So far as I know, no one has written about this area as a good overnight anchorage. Why? I’m not sure. This is where I learned to sail (at Cal Sailing Club). At low tide, the cove can be a little shallow, so watch your depth sounder and don’t go to close the shoreline to the north, where the water gets gradually shallower. But if you anchor close enough in, you’ll be shielded from the stronger westerly Bay winds. There’s no current to speak of and the bottom has good holding. And the only other boats you’ll see will be dinghies and windsurfers from Cal Adventures and from the venerable Cal Sailing Club (which has been operating since god knows when, probably the 1920s. America’s Cup winner and all around difficult hombre Larry Ellison said he got his start sailing dinghies there.)

  • Why I like it: Old times, maybe. But it’s definitely off the usual track. You’ll get a chance to see (and avoid hitting!!) the Berkeley Pier, the wreckage of which extends 3 1/2 miles out into the Bay. Built in 1926 before bridges spanned the Bay, street cars zoomed out to the end to be met by ferries for passengers going to and from the East Bay. Today, the old pier pilings are considered sanctuary for bay wildlife. 
  • What to know: Watch out for Ashby Shoal, which guards part of the entrance to the cove between the Berkeley and Emeryville marinas. It’s a submerged sand bar that dries out at extreme low tides. I once attended a wedding and reception on the shoal during a particularly low tide. The happy couple wore formal wedding attire and rubber boots to keep their feet dry.

Clipper Cove

This was created in the 1930s to be a landing zone for seaborne passenger airliners — the so-called Pan-Am Clippers — back when Treasure Island was being built. The island was envisioned as San Francisco’s modern new airport about the time the Bay Bridge was being built. And Clipper Cove was landing zone for seaplanes coming in from across the Pacific. World War II intervened, and all the plans changed. Treasure Island became a Navy base, and after briefly hosting Pan-Am’s flying boats, the whole airport thing ended. (When the Navy asked San Francisco for the island, it offered Mills Field in San Mateo County in return. That’s how SFO got to be there instead of the middle of San Francisco Bay. 

  • Why I like it: It’s out of the ordinary, for one thing. Despite being exposed to San Francisco’s westerly winds, the water is completely flat because of the causeway just west of the cove that that connects Treasure Island to neighboring Yerba Buena Island. Also, you can visit the Bay Bridge Troll on your way. Since you can see him easily from the water, you won’t have to work quite as hard to see him as these two vloggers did: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvkpnCwUaNM
  • What to know: There’s a shoal across the northern part of the entrance to Clipper Cove. You could touch bottom if you go over that spot at low tide. (No! Of course I don’t know that from experience! How could you ask such a thing??)

If you decide to anchor overnight at any of these spots, here are some general tips. 

  • I’m a bit of a foodie, so I like to cook. Cooking on board is its own special joy, with its own special challenges. There’s not much space, for one thing. And cooking fuel is at a premium. So people who cook on board often recommend one-pot meals. If you have an old-fashioned pressure cooker, you can use that to create a lovely meal. Or you can plan a stew or soup. Be sure to bring any condiments, as well as salt, pepper, oil, etc. Most of the bigger boats at Spinnaker have cooking and eating utensils on board — check with the office or come down and look over the boat yourself to see what you might need before the day you leave. 
  • Boats can be noisy, so if you need quiet to sleep, bring your earplugs. 
  • Don’t forget the rules you learned for safe anchoring: Let out sufficient scope — seven times as much rode as the depth of the water from your deck. Be sure to leave swing room between you and any other vessels or hazards. If your boat has a windlass, be sure the engine is on before lowering or raising your anchor. At dusk, turn on your anchor light.  
Cutline: A Boeing 314 Pan-Am Clipper at the dock at Clipper Cove next to Treasure Island. The then-brand-new east span of the Oakland Bay Bridge is in the background.