Thursday, January 16, 2025

Story of Greg Baker old salt and sailor

Now where do I start sharing my experience with Greg Baker and I will start with the first times I ever met him he was working for schoonermaker boat yard in Sausalito as a security guard and lived in both a trailer on the premises and on a boat simultaneously anchored offshore of Sausalito and is one of the earliest and if not the earliest anchor out live aboard that I could think of of hand except for English Roger Packard who has been around since the late 50s and has on and off lived anchored out and building and designing boats and Skiffs of what she ultimately build a sailboat and took his family to Mexico to live for a long time for returning back to Marin and I remember Greg Baker at times and in fact often times wearing a security guard outfit and badge and even wearing a gun if I recall sometimes and for he inspects the Boatyard of which my father also work there as a mechanic, refurbishing train engines recent to South America. He also worked for Hans German Motors in Sausalito before Hans was robbed and murdered in Mexico. Never be flashy with money in Mexico is a lesson that scuttlebutt said he did or was spending money like a rich man and I don't know the details and I know that he used to have a Volkswagen dune buggy type thing and go to the Marin Headlands dirt roads and the bag deer and a slaughtered and clean them in his garage business in Sausalito of which has been herited osmosly or spiritually by Sports Auto and Sausalito and whose owner lives on a houseboat at Galilee Harbor in Sausalito and has Hans Auto old sign as  relic or a sign so to speak of the handing down of a mechanic garage business, to another generation!                              Now going back to Greg Baker story he's telling me that he lived originally in Marin County on Tamales Bay Area in Western Marin County and move the Sausalito and anchored out many and many years ago and up to recently, finally moved to land to get extensive care if I recall or believe right?! Up in years he was getting and I remember him saying that he's going to live on a boat anchored out until he's not able to climb aboard his anchored out vessel anymore and apparently that time finally came as it came for me also after around 40 years living on three different boats and mostly anchored offshore, when I wasn't in a marina called Galilee Harbor in Sausalito for 3 years and prior to that some years anchored out and I wanted to try to see if it was like living in a marina and I didn't like it after living with free anchored out and eventually, was forced to Anchor out again after being delusioned by Galilee Harbor which touted itself as a working Marine Harbor, of which it wasn't anymore and their permit was predicated on that and has slowly turned into a liverboard houseboat community, in violation of their permit as a 24-hour Marine Service Harbor and unless they politically had their permit modified of which I have never heard of such thing and are politically connected and able to do anything as one of its members became a Marin County supervisor and city council/ mayor of Sausalito and as a whole the community turned its back on the anchor out community and even took out there dinghy and skiff talk Talking call the police if an anchor up even road to shore and landed on the public Shore next to them.                                 Back again to the story of Greg Baker one of the longest surviving live aboard Anchorage dwellers and eventually he moved his Tugboat converted to a houseboat into Schoonamaker Marina and he was kind of cocky and arrogant and a little paranoid at times and a little too proud of himself at other times and having to dance Between Two Worlds and one being an anchor out living in his boat on the bay, originally and being part of the anchor out and live aboard community and also working for Schoonamaker Marine as a security guard and having to enforce rules, restricting the anchor out's access and egress to the marina and as just part of his job and hard to get a job when you're anchor out and live aboard on the bay at the same time and having to deal with both worlds without being called a snitch or a traitor and are working for the man and he has been able over the decades to accomplish that goal and loved by everyone eventually, even though he didn't feel so he told me, laughing.                           I had mixed feelings about Greg when I lived anchored out at first and eventually he proved himself to me by coming out and assisted me, for instance in the removing someone from my boat that was acting odd and freaky. Thank you again Greg Baker for that and I owe him a debt of gratitude and another time I can't quite remember he came to my rescue and he had the only emergency service inflatable with an outboard motor on Richardson Bay that was on call 24 hours and would reach out and help assist and rescue people, without any pay or support and supported himself. He would show up long before the Coast Guard would show up in an emergency and be out there in howling winds and storms of which can reach over a hundred miles an hour at times. He also eventually converted or built a emergency fire boat with Cannon hose and everything and even had his own makeshift vintage looking antique fire truck at Scoonmaker Marina and he used to shout from the PA system at the marina over virtually the entire Richardson Bay, if people were speeding down the channel and creating waves in there or by their vessels and he used to shout at the top of his lungs 5 miles an hour in the channel and you could hear him all over the inhabited part of Richardson Bay and it's amazing when I think about it and look back, what a voice he had with that PA endless Fearless in his command Authority and shouting, at the offenders to slow down to help protect the marina from potentially damaging wakes and waves.                                                                          One day on the bay wins started blowing around 60 miles an hour steady, with over a hundred mile an hour gusts and coming from the Northeast, whereas most storms come from the south in the winter and it lasted for 3 days and it was the worst storm that I had ever been through on San Francisco Bay, off the shores of Sausalito. A steel fabricated sailboat that was built in Australia by someone from Switzerland and sailed his approximately 40 ft about from Australia up to Japan and then Non-Stop sailed from Japan to San Francisco and had a lady friend with him and no heat on his boat and one could imagine how cold or hot an iron boat can get and yet so strong and dependable in the middle of a breaking ocean and hurricane or typhoon that he went through where he said the ways looked as high as to himalayans and he hunker down with this lady friend and rode out the Tyfoon...

No comments:

Post a Comment