Charlie’s Cushion: A Successful Treasure Hunt

On the blustery afternoon of March 27, we were motoring down the Sausalito channel back to Clipper Yacht Harbor in our chartered Beneteau when a 20+ knot gust blew one of the two cockpit cushions overboard. The cushion quickly drifted around channel marker #8 and into shallow water. With the low tide, a 6-ft draft and no dinghy, we didn’t dare chase it and watched helplessly as it drifted across Richardson Bay toward Tiburon. We noted its course, hoping to judge where it would land on the rocky shore opposite.

Upon returning to our slip, we hopped into the car, drove over to Tiburon, and walked the path along the shore below where the road to Tiburon is visible from the water. We surmised that the cushion should arrive in line with the tennis courts. It was certainly windy enough that it should have been there by then, but it wasn’t.

The next morning at low tide we returned and walked the entire path again, but no luck.

After we turned in our charter one day later, we decided to try to find the cushion yet a third time. As we approached the shoreline, we saw a woman standing at the beginning of the path watching a child scrambling around the rocks. Maybe they did this regularly and had seen the cushion. Sure enough, the favorite pastime of this precocious, talkative 8-year-old, named Charlie, was to scavenge the rocky shoreline just down the street from his home for hidden treasures. His nanny watched from above to make sure he didn’t get into trouble. Charlie had found many things on his scavenger hunts, including an intact, undelivered package.

When we told Charlie of our dilemma, he asked if the cushion was valuable. I said yes, so much so that I would give him $20 if he found it. His eyes lit up and he said he thought he knew where it was. Charlie scrambled over the rocks, as sure-footed as a mountain goat. While he continued along the shore, we followed on the path away from the shore and around a bluff. He came out on the other side with a huge cushion, but it was not ours. Meanwhile, he had found a floating winch handle, which he gave to us since he didn’t have much use for it and his dad was tiring of his bringing things home.

Following Charlie led us to the other side of the bluff, where the path returned to the shoreline. It was farther north than we thought the cushion would have washed up, but what the heck, let’s look there too. Not too much farther along, Charlie yelled, “I found it! I found it!” and scrambled even more quickly over the rocks while we three adults looked on, incredulously, not seeing anything. But sure enough, he pulled our fully intact black cushion out from behind the wet, black rocks. How he even saw it is beyond us … we probably would have missed it had we walked this stretch without the aid of Charlie’s keen young eyes.

Charlie got his reward and Club Nautique got their cushion back. His dad said Charlie was very excited because that was the most money he had ever made! And if that weren’t satisfaction enough, our hearts were touched by the fact that his name was Charlie, the name of my husband Rick’s deceased dad, who got Rick into sailing, and whose spirit we believe has been watching over us on the water ever since.