By Bob Diamond
Coyote Point Harbor makes a good destination for those going north of the San Mateo for a day’s sail. There is a regional park with picnic tables and barbecues. There is also a restaurant at the golf course near the park entrance, which is a short walk from the harbor.
Transient slips next to the fuel dock are free for use up to a few hours during the day.
Navigation
In the morning on most summer days the wind doesn’t amount to much so full day trips often involve motoring; sometimes as far as the San Mateo Bridge. Once past the bridge the main hazard to look out for is the shallow area on the west side of the South Bay Channel. It shoals up quite suddenly north and south of channel marker number “8A”. It’s important to keep “8A” well to shoreward on the west side of the bay. It doesn’t get deep enough to safely head toward the Coyote Point channel entrance until about half way from number “8A” to marker number “8”. At this point the normal wind direction puts Coyote Point in the dead area so it’s often necessary to sail beyond number “8” before tacking over towards the harbor.
The Coyote Point area is readily apparent from much of the South Bay. It looks like a dark green hill against the background almost like an island viewed from north of the San Mateo Bridge. From far enough northward to avoid the shoals, head just to the right of that dark green hill to find the harbor entrance markers.
Mariners are advised to have a marine GPS or navigation apps on their phones to avoid going aground in shallow water. Navionics and iNavX with charts of the San Francisco area are very popular. The Garmin 78sc is an excellent dedicated marine hand held GPS that comes with all U.S. marine charts. Do not use non-marine mapping apps such as Google Maps because these do not show the necessary details for safe marine navigation.
Entering the Harbor
Stay close to the middle of the channel as you pass the rock jetty on the starboard side. Once past where the jetty makes a bend to the right you’ll be able to see the launch ramp straight ahead and the fuel dock and harbor office just to the left of the launch ramp. Continue toward the fuel dock until you can see the transient docks just to the left of the fuel dock. The transient slips are doubles meaning you can only tie up on one side. You’ll probably be sharing the slip with another boat. These slips are not as long as what we’re used to in the Redwood City Marina so be careful to avoid ramming the dock in front of you by overrunning the space inside the slip.
The docks require a key to get back in so it’s a good idea to leave someone on the boat while going ashore to make sure someone will be on duty at the harbor office to let you back onto the dock. The harbormaster, Mark is friendly to visitors from Spinnaker since he used to be one of our sailing instructors. Park rangers take up harbor master duties when Mark is off. Let whoever is in charge how long you intend to stay in the park so you can get let in when it’s time to head back to Redwood City. Then you and your crew can walk over to the park and have lunch.
Returning to Redwood City
If it’s windy the bay can be pretty choppy once beyond the rock jetty. Coyote Point locals often pull up their mains inside the harbor so as to have more stability when past the protection of the jetty. There isn’t much room to raise main inside so you may have to head up to raise the mainsail after leaving the harbor channel. If it’s too choppy for you to do that you probably don’t need the main anyway and can sail back just using the jib. In any case, head out toward number “8” until you get out into the deeper water of the South Bay Channel before heading south toward the San Mateo Bridge.
Once clearing the bridge, it’s important to keep red markers “12” and “2” to starboard but it’s hard to see them from as far away as the bridge. Just head for the left-hand (eastern) end of the Dumbarton Bridge and the markers will come into view as you head down the South Bay Channel toward Redwood City. Be sure to stay far enough to the left to leave all the red markers to starboard. Redwood City channel number “2” can be hard to see against the Dumbarton Bridge so continue toward the left hand side of the bridge until you get far enough past South Bay “12” that you can clearly see “2”. It’s about ¾ of a mile beyond “12”. Once clearing “2” and turning into the Redwood City channel you’re practically home.