RamblingDyna

Thanks to my friend for sending me this news article about the boat's status. Don't even recognize it with all the graffiti. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/01/26/BACS15G4VE.DTL The National Park Service hauled the boat away about two weeks ago but the article didn't explain in detail of how and why the boat was stranded there except that it was used in a Coast Guard operation. What's more outrageous is that the Los Altos owner refused to pay for for the $4,000 haulting and storage bill! Ocean Beach is not a free parking lot. Expired parking meters in San Francisco will cost you $50 and the meter maids are hawks. The park will bring the owner to court but if he stands his ground, I hope the court revokes his license, impose additional fines or some sort of penality to make him accountable for his actions. I was shocked to see the grafitti on the boat as my video was taken a few days before it was hauled off. Come to think of it, why don't t...

I took these cell phone videos about two weeks ago. My favorite boat more vandalized than the last time I laid my sympathetic eyes on it: beaten and stripped by elements of humans and weather. I returned yesterday, thinking it would welcome me as usual. But yesterday was different. I turned left on Noriega, crossed Great Highway and expected to see the 3655 foot boat in the horizon once my eyes reached past the top of the staircase column but to my surprise…nothing, nada, zip! The familiar white and bare boat that I had grown accustomed to as an Ocean Beach fixture was gone. I panned a 180 several times looking like a tennis fan standing on the bleachers watching a Wimbledon match. My eyes narrowed, my face tightened and my heart raced. Question marks raced out of my head. My eyes zig zagged and darted up and down the beach for any signs or remnants of the boat: rudder, wood planks, or an anchor. Zero. I jogged north towards Lincoln, a and made a U turn to Sloat Blvd but came up ...

Here's an update: I called the local coast guard about the beached boat and to my surprise the dispatch who answered is not aware of it. He gave me another coast guard number to call, which I left a message. HMMMMMM, still a big Mystery. Stay tuned. Will post the latest from the coast guard the minute I hear back from them.