More than two years after they disappeared, the buoys and rafts at Shell and Heart’s Desire Beaches are back in place. The equipment was maintained by Tomales Bay State Park, but when maintenance man Roberto Barajas retired in 2019, the park stowed it for the winter. By the time warm weather returned, the pandemic was raging and the park had effectively shut down most operations. Mr. Barajas, the longtime guardian of the rafts and buoys, wasn’t there to restore them. “During that period, the knowledge and experience was lost, the equipment was degraded and forgotten,” said Marshall Livingston, an Inverness resident and regular bay swimmer who ultimately helped restore the rafts and buoys. After two summers with just a solitary buoy at Shell and a couple at Heart’s Desire, Mr. Livingston began reaching out to park staff early this year to get the ball rolling. The park was understaffed, and it took the push by Mr. Livingston and his friends and family to find the Shell Beach raft’s mooring. They tried several times using a snorkel, but Mr. Livingston only found it with the help of an underwater metal detector. Last Tuesday, Mr. Livingston guided park staff to place repainted buoys from Clear Lake in roughly the same arrangement they had been in before the pandemic. Last Wednesday, the team secured the raft, which now has new repurposed floats. Later in the week, state park staff reinstalled the Heart’s Desire raft, and by next summer, the park promises to have all new equipment in place. The news holds special significance for Tomales Bay Waterdogs, the 75-year-old midsummer swim program now run by West Marin Community Services. For generations of West Marin children learning to swim in the bay, the raft at Shell Beach was a goal to reach. “When a kid can swim to the raft and back, they’re swim-safe,” said Mr. Livingston, whose children and grandchildren learned to swim with Waterdogs. The pandemic canceled the program in 2020, and last summer, the nonprofit had to enlist a community member to station a portable raft at Shell Beach during the two-week program. “It was attached to a boat, so it was a little more precarious and less safe,” said Madeline Hope, who runs Waterdogs. “And it was someone’s personal property.” Ms. Hope was excited to hear that the permanent, sturdy, familiar raft was back in time for this year’s Waterdogs, which starts July 25.