Oh so sad. This lovely little spot that we’ve spent the past couple months nestled into Smith Slough is about to become just a part of a typical California condo complex. No more colorful liveaboard boats, no more interesting cruisers passing through. So very, very sad. Links: Pete’s  Harbor Official Website Pete’s Harbor Twitter, Save Pete’s Harbor

photo: donjd2 (hosted by flickr)

Even though David and I are just passing through ourselves and aren’t as negatively impacted by this marina closure as the boaters who are from this area, we’re very sad to see the dissolution of this marina community. The original fellow, Pete Uccelli, who founded the marina (in the late 50’s and ’60’s) literally came in and made something from nothing–creating a marina, boatyard, restaurant, and boating community that was very unique and fun. Over the years, the boatyard was shutdown, the once well-respected restaurant changed hands and became less popular, the property values increased, and finally Pete decided to try and cash in on his hard work and long term investment. For over a decade, various attempts to develop the property have been stymied by their grand scale being out of touch with the local community’s vision for development of the environmentally sensitive waterfront property. Visions do change though: Activists only fight for so long–they die or move on–and one-by-one the impediments to the development of this property have been stripped away so that now the stars have lined up in the developers’ favor for getting rid of the small harbor community and putting in those nicely profitable condos. Mr Uccelli passed away a few years ago but his family remains running the little marina. For them, the sale and development of the property is a great thing. Pete and his family’s commitment and hard work is resulting in an impressive financial success that they will benefit from and that they can be really proud of.

The character of Pete’s Harbor isn’t deemed important enough to retain by the developers–the little Italian references, the look and feel of the place? Not desired by the developers or the local city planners it seems. It seems that they’d like to strip away all that and start anew–during the architectural review meeting earlier in the week, the architects actually referred to the “cape cod influences” and the east coast waterfront feel of some of the new buildings. While the character of the place will change, a marina will remain here–but the slips will be for the use of the residents of the newly developed property, not the general boating public. For the liveaboard and the other boaters who will be forced to leave the marina, this is a devastating moment. For the nearby Bay area marinas to absorb more than 200 boats with more than half of them liveaboards–that’s just huge. It is probably not possible in just these few short months between now and the marina’s projected closure in January 2013. Because some of the boats are in such a state of disrepair, some people will be losing their boats–and homes–because there is nowhere for them to go. They must be in good shape to enter other marinas.

Yes, we are travelers. We do have places to go, things to see and do. But I feel like crying. I wasn’t ready to leave yet. We’re very, very sad to know that this community of boaters here at the intersection of Smith Slough and Redwood Creek is being ripped apart and thrown away. I can only say that I feel lucky to have been able to briefly experience this nice little community called Pete’s Harbor.

In the USA, one by one these wonderful marinas like Pete’s are disappearing simply because the land values for residential development bowl over the public good that can be provided by marinas like Pete’s Harbor. It is too bad that the marina and property wasn’t offered for sale by the Uccelli family to the tenants for cooperative development, but it is very realistic to assume that not many marina tenants would have the resources or interest in becoming involved in such a venture anyway. As travelers, we rely on the ability to anchor or to rent slips in marinas open to the public–like Pete’s. We are always saddened to see a marina like this go “private” because it reduces the ability of people who do not own waterfront property from having their own boat and using it.

In the “here and now” we’re tied, by projects, family, and health matters, to the area until at least the marina’s projected closure date. As cruisers, the idea of transiting the Pacific Coast to the North during the winter months is a poor one. Similarly, though the Bay area offers some of the best anchorages on the US West Coast, we’re not particularly enthused about using them during winter storms. We’ll remain in the area though, at least until late spring-early summer time frame when the weather clears for more travels along the coast.