Issue #3: Tugboats

We all get by with a little help from our tugboats.

I have a new obsession: SF Bay tugboats. Turns out, there is a fleet of tugboats that help massive cargo ships enter the San Francisco Bay, make their way past the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, and dock safely at a port. How cool that these lil boats PROTECT the massive cargo ships?!

Spotted: tugboat on either end

I did some digging on the tugboats. It’s a perilous, crucial, and lucrative industry:

• “Tugboat companies deal in large sums: the bill to dock a tanker can run from $15,000 to more than $50,000 depending on a number of variables. Captains may earn six-figure salaries, and a new tugboat can cost more than $10 million.”

• Tugboats also provide transport to a crucial constituency: the San Francisco Bar Pilots. Cargo ships are required to have a local captain navigate them to shore. Pre-GG bridge, the pilots board the ship. They then JUMP from the tugboat onto a 15-story ladder, and climb up to the cockpit. No harness. You have to watch the “VR Experience.”

  • “These pilots are responsible for guiding about 8,000 entries and exits in the Bay every year, which amounts to more than $40 billion in annual trade.”

• You can identify any ship in the SF Bay with Vessel Finder.

The more you know. I love these tugboats and the crucial role they play in our Bay. Next time you see one, wave hello.

Grab Bag:

• What’s your $50 million idea to improve San Francisco? The Crankstart Foundation, Michael Moritz’s family philanthropy, is offering $150M to organizations that “make San Francisco a better place to live.” Reader Eli G. is in it to win it. Can you beat him?

• The Mess Hall at the Presidio opens this weekend. The long-awaited new spot hosts three restaurants and serves Wrecking Ball Coffee + Breadbelly pastries. A dream! Something tells me you’ll find readers Lauren R. and Jeremy T. there often…

• Fun fact: the Pac Heights Mollie Stone’s hosts the world’s first grocery Starbucks store. Another fun fact, in 2018, Nestle paid $7B for global distribution rights of Starbucks grocery products. I sound like the Starbucks Acquired episode.

• If you’re looking for an August day trip, book a pool pass and head to River Electric. Highlight of my summer.

  

  My model boyfriend - my perfect cabana - where I actually sat.

Send me your tugboat pictures. Talk to you Sunday!