The Life in My Years

She reclines at an angle in the mud flats off Lone Tree Point near the Rodeo Marina, from where the squawks of a pair of peacocks breach the quiet of dawn.

The Polaris was a once a proud working boat when she plied the waters of San Francisco Bay. Her story is documented in a nearly two year old Facebook thread. Given that the story is on Facebook, I can’t vouch for the veracity, but it seems reasonable.

According to the story on Facebook, a man name Jay owned the boat for 23 years. Buried in the thread is a mention of a “dinner cruise biz.” I can’t imagine taking a dinner cruise on a tugboat. Then again, I never imagined that a double dealing reality show star and convicted felon would be the President of the United States. So there you go. Apparently anything is possible.

The story goes on that the Polaris was sold by Jay to the California Maritime Academy (CMA) which is across the nearby Carquinez Strait near Vallejo. According to Jay, the Maritime Academy and the tugboat instructors “ruined her.”

The story is picked up by a man named Mike who used to work at the CMA. “Back then , seeing future problems , and spending a ton of money repairing the hull and engine , management at CMA wanted an extreme sale …. Fast. . The buyer had a very shady record . He was know (sic) as a scrapper … always looking for salvage . When he got the tug they said get out of here . So he did . And for several years he searched out free docks and shorelines. The tug was sold with over 3000 gallons of fuel . … essentially, when he ran out of fuel he beached it at Rodeo . . . The tug began to sink … it sank , and was left to the Coast Guard to arrange the removal of all the toxic water inside.”

I discovered the Polaris when I was taking my dog for a walk. I decided to go back later with my camera. I’ve been back three times now, in different kinds of weather for backgrounds.

It’s not often that we get some spectacular weather. Earlier this month the edge of a muggy tropical storm in Southern California swirled around the San Francisco Bay Area, dropped a little rain and produced some lightning, a lot of sweat, and some great clouds.

The Polaris sits in a small cove surrounded by the rotting remains of piers.

According to the Facebook thread, “The owner is nowhere to be found . And since clean up , the Coast Guard no classifies the tug as a wreck.” I would hate to see what the CG does classify as a wreck.