Captain Logan Walker has until the end of the month to remove his sailboat, the Chandalar, from the shoreline north of Stinson Beach before it is removed and destroyed by the county. Last Thursday, Marin County sheriff’s deputies charged Mr. Walker with three misdemeanors related to his vessel and its debris. The charges pertain to encroachment, unattended property and unauthorized garbage, and may come with fines or jail time, or both.
“If he is unable to remove his sailboat from the beach by the end of the month, we have some plans lined up,” said Sgt. David Chellson, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office. “We still hope he is successful in his attempts.”
The Light caught up with the 39-year-old sailor last Wednesday as thick fog covered Upton Beach. He was in good spirits and had a new plan to get himself back out to sea with a fulcrum system that involves a sand-braced post, an anchor, two wooden doors and several floats stuffed underneath the hull. He is waiting for a blue moon on Aug. 30, which will bring a nearly 5-foot tide at 11:30 p.m.
Mr. Walker said there is no structural damage to his boat and he is eager to have it returned to sea. Last week, torn wetsuits and grease-stained clothes hung from the frayed lines of the 33-foot ship. Impervious to the efforts of shovel-bearing locals, the 2,900-pound, 7-foot keel remained deep in the sand.
Since the sailboat grounded on July 31, Mr. Walker’s story has made waves across the Bay Area. Numerous media outlets have reported on it, and several people have reached out to him to offer help. A Sausalito man gave him a new anchor after his chain snapped while the boat was beaching, and an Alameda man supplied him with a new chain and line. A GoFundMe campaign has raised $5,700, which Mr. Walker said will help pay for an all-terrain crane that he estimates will cost $20,000.
He said he bought the Chandalar for $5,000 in 2017. “I got a hell of a deal,” he said. “I couldn’t replace a boat like that. It’s worth a hell of a lot more.”
It’s been a rough few weeks for Mr. Walker. His guitar was stolen from the beach, youths have harassed him and trespassed on the vessel, and his phone sustained water damage, which has made communication and accessing tide charts difficult. The refuse he has compiled while living on the beach ultimately led to the code violations. The misdemeanors he was charged with last week can result in fines up to $1,000 or up to six months in jail, or both.
It all began with a nine-day sailing trip to Seattle that was cut short less than 12 hours after Mr. Walker departed from Richardson Bay, where he anchored the boat he lives aboard. The engine was dead, so he was relying on wind. On the afternoon of July 31, he set his self-steering mechanism during fair winds and took a nap. But the wind died, the mechanism failed and just after 1:30 p.m., he awoke to a crowd of people yelling as his boat hit the sandy shore.
Mr. Walker is no stranger to living lopsided on beaches. He has grounded the Chandalar before, but only on the Columbia River in Oregon, where the tides always brought it back to buoyancy.
“The tides are a lot bigger up north, so when you run aground, there’s plenty more water that’ll lift you back up,” he said. “Nothing like this has ever happened to me.”
He originally hoped to sail to Seattle to pick up a kitten, but his plans have changed. Now he is leaning toward New Zealand—if he can get the Chandalar out of the water.
If he fails to do so by the end of August, Sgt. Chellson said the county’s removal effort would involve several entities contributing funds, including Marin County Parks, which manages the beach above the mean high tide line. He would not elaborate on the plan or the cost of removal.