Progress Coming and Patience Needed for Angel Island Docks
Angel Island remains one of the Bay Area’s crown jewels, but as most readers know, access for recreational sailors has been severely limited for a long time by dilapidated docks overrun by seals and recently closed entirely, in addition to a shallow, silting mooring field. We spoke to Matthew Allen, Deputy District Superintendent, Bay Area District, at California State Parks and Captain Maggie McDonough of the Angel Island ferry to get an update. As we’ve reported, Deputy Superintendent Allen confirmed there are 16 docks currently open with the hope for an additional 6-8 slips coming online for the summer season.
While the Department of Parks and Recreation oversees Angel Island State Park, the Department of Boating and Waterways is providing the expertise for the design and development of the new docks. Angel Island State Park is run by park rangers, so there is no harbormaster, and regular maintenance is managed by park personnel. The good news on the new docks is they will be expanding in both number and size to add capacity to the docking facilities. As already reported, construction won’t start until June 1, 2026, meaning the docks will be out of commission next summer. As with the new marina in Clipper Cove, the allowable season for construction on the Bay is June 1–November 1.
The new slips will also have lighting and water, so there will be opportunity to wash down docks and boats. Allen reported the park service is looking for ways to keep the sea lion/seal population off the docks in compliance with the Marine Mammals Act. It is hoped that the months of construction will eliminate their habit of using the docks for a period of time, and afterward, some form of prevention and increased activity on the docks will keep the marine mammals away.
We also asked about dredging, hoping dock permitting would allow dredging also. Unfortunately, it will not happen concurrently with this project. Allen reported, “This dock project was already too far down the road to be able to combine the process.” Dredging is being planned, though it will require additional funding and permitting. The nonprofit Angel Island Conservancy is working with the park to support harbor and park upgrades and to seek additional funding. Angel Island Conservancy board member Brittany Haning reported the board is looking for ways to do private fundraising with ideas like a charity regatta to help support the funding necessary for dredging.
Along with the dock upgrades, Parks and Rec is also looking to try to incorporate a mooring reservation system, utilizing the same type that it already uses for campgrounds. This would allow boaters to know they have a guaranteed mooring before they plan to head over for the night.
Asked how regulations might impede the progress, Allen relayed, “It’s just a process that’s in place that is necessary. These processes are there intended to make sure that everything that we’re doing is correct, that we’re not going to be messing or damaging the environment, but what we’re going to do is sustainable.” If there were anything to help the process Allen suggested, “It would be really helpful if there were one office to coordinate all the permits as each agency has their own processes and bureaucracy. Yes, fundamentally the state parks mission is balancing, providing recreation along with the protection and conservation of natural and cultural resources.” Regardless, he reports the process is moving forward, the design, permitting and $2.7 million in funding in place so they will be putting the project out to bid and with the intention to start replacement in June 2026.
Captain Maggie McDonough, whose family has operated the Angel Island ferry for several generations, is very active with the conservancy and efforts to keep the docks and facilities up to date. She’s looking forward to the new facilities and added, “In fairness, the State Parks has had a lot of difficulty with changes in leadership and funding, and the reality of it is, while they manage it, it’s the public’s park, it’s our park, so how do we want to handle it as a community?” The island has always had a significant amount of public support since the first 37 acres of the island became a park in 1954.
Captain McDonough also reported the Angel Island ferry system is going green, with the ferries being converted to electric power. The smaller boat, Bonita, will be the first to convert, with the other boats to follow. While the environmental regulations often frustrate many, Captain McDonough, who has been crossing Raccoon Strait since she was a child, reports the increased wildlife that has returned since then includes the harbor porpoises, whales, deer and coyotes she’s seen swimming across the strait, as well as a transitory pod of orcas off Belvedere Point.
If you have input for the Park Service you can reach out to Deputy District Superintendent Matthew Allen at [email protected].
California just can’t getting anything done quickly or efficiently… how long before it collapses and suffocates in its own red tape?!
Reader Jeff Cook wrote in to say, “There are several other parts (other than just Hospital Cove) of Angel Island that have protected anchorages, but have the reputation as challenging with anchor-eating bottoms. Unfortunately these are in desirable areas for a lunch stop or an overnight. It seems very doable to developed them for greater use by Californians. I hope the Park Service would look into placing multiple, single-point mooring balls on the more easterly shores, I.e. from China Cove around to Quarry Point. Having anchored in those areas years ago, it seems numerous well placed single balls would be sufficient, and the boats could swing around them. Especially near East Garrison.
Thanks, and I look forward to helping this happen.”
Jeff Cook
Jeff, we couldn’t agree more. There are very few good or legal anchorages in the Bay and mooring balls would be a solution for many destinations. Southern California seems to do a better job managing this issue with mooring balls in Newport Beach, San Diego Bay, Catalina and other places. Legal, managed mooring balls on San Francisco Bay would be a great option on Richardson Bay, the east side of Angel Island, the estuary, Paradise Cove or China Camp.
The BVI and many popular charter destinations utilize mooring balls to expand the options and also to protect the reefs and bottom from environmental damage from repeated anchoring. Secure, managed mooring balls would be a great addition to the Bay.
Dennis, what I love best about the phrase “Stuff a sock in it” is the recognition that there is just ONE sock, which suggests the loss of the other. This is a sadness overcome by the serendipitous use of the remaining stocking in such a way as to brighten the world by the silencing of one who should never have spoken to begin with.
Thanks for this insightful and thoughtful comment, Dennis.
John…you seem to favor taking away one of life’s true remaining joys (swinging on one’s own hook for free) in San Francisco Bay…by endorsing the idea of mooring balls where there is little need. Yes there are places that really need them, like Ayala. Having them off the immigration station would get rid of the problem of fouled/lost anchors there. But, sticking them in Paradise Cove? Richardson Bay? China Camp? These are wide open anchorages, especially since Richardson has cleaned up a bunch. The thought of managed mooring balls in these places is really ugly…next we can put them in Clipper Cove, Drake’s Bay, Pillar Point, maybe even up in the Delta, right?
If mandatory moorings are placed in all the available anchorages in SFB (or even many of them), where are budding cruisers to learn how to anchor? It is a skill that takes considerable practice to perfect. The lack of such practice is painfully evident in many of the anchorages that newbies frequent as they spread their wings and set off cruising. I know… I thought that I knew all about anchoring when we sailed south in 1986. I was wrong. By now I feel competent, but there have been some embarrassments along the way
Jim
Jim/Al – it sounds like you read into our comments as ‘mandatory moorings’ or ‘taking away one of life’s true remaining joys’ though neither of those thoughts were expressed. The words used were ‘a great option’ and ‘a great addition’ – meaning the idea is not mandatory and not an either or choice. It’s a yes/and. Anchoring is wonderful but not legal in places like the Oakland Estuary. Wouldn’t it be a great option to add some mooring balls there? Ayala Cove is a great place for moorings since it allows more people than would be allowed via anchoring. San Diego and Newport Beach successfully have mooring fields and San Diego also has designated anchorages. The reason the BVI now has many moorings is to protect fragile ecosystems from damage from anchoring. Increasing the mooring options in a place like Richardson Bay says nothing about eliminating anchoring options or making them mandatory.
There are a lot of people and boats in and around the Bay. Adding moorings to certain places on the Bay (plenty of room for discussion here) would add options for Bay Area sailors but doesn’t have to eliminate options for those who want to anchor. Before any marinas were built all boats on the Bay had to have an anchor or a mooring. Marinas have added the opportunity for more people to have boats on the Bay without eliminating the options to anchor or have moorings. It is difficult to suggest change and balance the wide variety of opinions held by sailors in a densely populated area like the Bay Area but other areas have ‘successfully’ navigated the controversies that naturally arise with adding moorings, marinas or other ideas.
Last Friday, March 7, I planned to go to the docks (being a weekday, there were plenty of open spaces), but got stuck in the mud instead. I had planned to go to one of the inside slips and was motoring straight towards the end of the dock and parallel to the mooring field, something I have done many times. It was at low tide (0.0ft) and my boat draws 6’2″. Luckily, I had 5 people on board so we could heel the boat enough to get out by turning towards the ferry dock. Without dredging in the plans, does that mean we can’t go to Angel at anything less than a mid-tide?
But we have an electric train to nowhere. 😆