Written 2001
We have aimed for accuracy, but you use the following information at your own risk.
If you are an adequate blind traveler, but, as I am sometimes, a bit wary of
going new different places, and you want to join us for a BAADS Sunday class
etc. here's how to get there.
As mentioned on the BAADS site, take the Muni Metro line N inbound to
Mission Bay (perhaps sometimes called "Cal Train"). This is also the line to
Pac Bell Park.
After Embarcadero, which is the last underground stop, the train
will turn somewhat right and come
to the surface. The first station is Folsom. You want to
exit at Brannan Street, the second station after Embarcadero. You should
pull the bell cord after the Folsom station because trains do not always stop
at all above ground stations. If you can get to the train
operator ask to have Brannan called. If practical, I recommend being at
the front of the train to try to avoid stupid obstacles on the
Muni platform.
Exit the left side of the train to the Brannan Street platform and turn
right, continuing in the same direction the train is going.
This platform is a clutter of curved glass walls, signs and other obnoxious
overly cute platform furniture designed to throw you off the edge onto the
tracks, so proceed near but not on the rubber edge tiles till you begin
descending the ramp at the end of the platform. Once you're on the ramp,
veer left to find the rail at the left edge of the ramp.
Continue down the ramp till the surface levels out and the rail ends.
Note: for the return trip the Muni ticket machine is directly in line with
the end of this ramp. Because the expiration time is printed on the ticket,
wait until your departure to purchase it.
Now turn left and stop, listen and listen! You are about to cross the north-bound Muni tracks, and although there is a visual pedestrian wait/walk sign,
these signals have not yet been equipped with Talking Signs (although promised
years ago) so they are not accessible.
It is not really that hard to hear any north-bound train; wait for a lull in
traffic sound to be darned sure no train is coming. It is best if you
actually hear a train and wait for it to pass, then you can be fairly sure
another won't follow in less than a couple minutes. But listen as though
your life depends on it anyhow, 'cause it does.
Now, when it's clear, cross the track, proceeding east. You will be on a
street island where you wait to cross the north-bound lanes of the
Embarcadero. If you proceed straight east, you'll find another railing to
stop you going into traffic.
Turn left and go north a few feet along this rail till it quits. Turn right
again, and face east across the lanes of traffic. There is a pedestrian push
button on a pole near the end of the guard rail. When you are facing across
the cross walk, the button should be on your right.
Push the button, for all the good it does you, it means you might win the
law suit if they go against the red and take you out.
It takes a very, very long time for the signal to change. The only way to
tell whether the light is in your favor is to hear a moving stream of
traffic on Embarcadero, and then hear it come to a stop. This is a
pedestrian crosswalk, there is no street intersecting the Embarcadero here,
so there is no cross traffic to travel with. This crossing, although there
are often long breaks in traffic which you can take at your own risk, is an
embarrassment in San Francisco which is supposed to be a model of
accessibility! Contact Richard Skaff at the Mayor's Office on Disability
and harass him about this deadly lack of action.
You'll be glad of sighted help if it is available, and competent.
Cross the lanes of traffic, not a long ways, and find the sidewalk. Climb up
to safety (AAAAHHHH).
Now turn right (south) and bash along the sidewalk. All you need to worry
about is yuppies on skate boards and cell phones, garbage cans, lamp poles
and the usual useless clutter.
As you start south with the traffic on your right, the area left of you will
seem fairly open (it has a variety of cement benches, driveways, and
eventually cyclone fencing and the bay). After perhaps a quarter block, you'll notice a long building on your left. Keep track of that, it varies in
distance from the sidewalk a bit, but you want to find the far end of this
building. It is about half a usual block long.
When you find the far end of the building, things open out to the
left dramatically. Immediately beyond the building to your left
are a few picnic tables and a bicycle rental shed. Then begins
the parking lot for South Beach marina.
Almost directly to your left across the parking lot is what remains of the
old Pier 40. It is now a huge roofed shed containing several interesting
small businesses, Spinnaker Sailing Charters, North Beach Marine Canvas and
the like as well as parking. There are also, in this huge shed,
lockers for boat owners at pier 40 including one belonging to
BAADS.
As you proceed along south with the sidewalk you'll cross the wide driveway for the parking lot. Listen for entering sailors or departing SUV's.
What you want to do is cross the parking lot's driveway straight or on
a diagonal to your left. On a quiet weekday evening, you can just veer left
anywhere, but a safer and more deliberate way is to continue a short
distance south till you've crossed the wide driveway, then veer left.
Soon you should hear another building on your left which is set
back from the sidewalk quite a bit.
This is the Java House, a small, good, greasy spoon restaurant favored by
those of us sailors with less refined and politically correct tastes in
food. Hot pastrami, good breakfasts and so on, bit greasy but good! The
owner, Philip, and his staff are long time BAADS friends and supporters.
The Java house is set back from the sidewalk, so you should probably begin
to veer left after you've crossed the driveway so you don't miss the
building. Turn left just before you get to the Java House itself. There are
dumpsters near the building, large pipes and unidentified fixed objects, and you want to
follow the building's left side but not too closely.
There are also large horizontal logs used as car stoppers running approximately
parallel to the near end of the building, perhaps 15 feet or more away.
There are breaks between the ends of these logs, so you needn't climb over
if you end up on the left (car side) of the logs.
After you have turned left and passed the Java House, you will almost
immediately find yourself on a wood surface.
You are now traveling east away from the Embarcadero, on a
wooden walkway with a fairly high wood rail on your right. This railed walk runs
along the edge of the harbor.
Immediately to the right, near the beginning of the wooden walk,
is the top of a descending metal ramp. The ramp has railings, and
there is a high gate at the bottom. There are nice high fences
all along the walkway, don't sweat falling in, but the bay is just beyond.
This ramp leads down to the floating docks of the marina. You
need a harbor key to get past the bottom of the ramp, and you
should probably only go beyond that gate with an experienced or sighted helper.
There are 3 or 4 picnic tables just left of the wooden walkway,
and this is where Sunday classes usually meet in anything but the
worst weather.
Continuing east on the wood walk with the fence on your right, you'll
come to a gap in the rail with a ramp veering right at about a 45
degree angle. This is a ramp down to the "public dock", sometimes called the
"guest dock". This dock is not railed and I do not recommend exploring it
until you have considerable dock experience.
Beyond the guest dock gap, follow the left side of the wooden walkway.
Almost immediately there is a building with deck on your left.
This is South Beach Yacht Club. If you can follow the walkway
edge of the deck, amidst the planters with rose bushes, etc., you
will find steps leading left up to this deck, then a ramp going
the same way you are moving, which also gets you up to the deck.
The steps are sometimes blocked with a
sign stating that this is a private club open to members only.
If you are a BAADS member or guest, you are one of the elite, and
are welcome at South Beach Yacht Club. Even if the club isn't
open, this deck is a good place to meet if the weather is wet.
Amenities: the deck has a bench left of the stairs and often has
tables and chairs as well; there is a public phone at pavement/walkway level on
the west side of the Yacht Club building, restroom for Club
members and guests (needs harbor key to unlock), free snacks and
hot and cold drinks for a small price when the Club is open.
Just for further fun, at the far end of this guest dock are 2 "pump out
stations" where boats come to pump out their holding tanks of human waste.
That'll keep you off the guest dock!
The afore mentioned picnic tables are for public use, so hang out whenever
you want and see with whom you can strike up a conversation. A mention of
BAADS will almost always get recognition from hangers on, workers, sailors,
and who knows who.
Once you are a member of BAADS, or a guest of one, you are welcome at South
Beach Yacht Club. The folks are friendly (unless there is a race imminent,
then they're just in a hurry.)
But be darned, darned careful. There are no fences, only very small rubber
rub rails at the dock edges, and there is lots of stuff to trip over. Dock
boxes for each slip, lines, cords, cleats, junk clam shells, seagull
leavings (think of those happy sea birds), possibly even seagulls and so on. There are also occasional
bowsprits and anchors to ring your head chimes.
Here's how the docks are set up just so you know what you're getting onto.
The afore mentioned ramp leading down to the docks just east of the Java
House goes to so-called Gate 1. Going through this gate, moving south, puts
you on a long north-south main dock which follows the shore. The shore is
to your right and usually, depending on the tide, above you.
There are 7 docks which leave this main dock to your left and contain the
slips into which boats are tied. The docks are lettered A to G, and A is
the first one you'll come to not far after getting through the gate. At
some of these docks, including dock B, there are gates to your right which
lead up to the shore. There is a public phone on the right side of the main dock,
just after the B dock gate.
Each of the lettered docks has boats on either side of it in slips. The
bows of the boats point in at the dock, and sometimes things like anchors
and bow sprits hang over the walking area ready to bop your incautious bean.
Walk slowly, use your stick or trust the heck out of your guide dog. If
your dog hasn't been on a dock before I do not recommend trying this alone.
There is just too much temptation about. Some guide dog users have
recommended to us that dogs should not be taken on boats.
Again caution is an absolute must. A fall will not only get you wet and
cold, but may leave you tangled between a multi-thousand pound boat and the
dock. A very unhappy predicament indeed.
BAADS boats are on dock B. With careful examination you can find dock A by
listening to concrete pillars which hold the floating docks in place. They
occur to your right, a pair of them across from where dock A starts. There
are other pillars along the main dock, but the lettered dock pillars occur
in pairs.
Looking for BAADS boats, turn left out dock B.
Travel along between tied up boats, finding plastic triangular dock boxes
one at each corner of each double slip. There are narrow "fingers" of dock
which go out between each 2 boats. The dock has angled corners which very
roughly follow the bows of the boats. Remember the fingers occur between
each 2 boats, with a dock box for storage at the corner of the dock and
finger. There is water between each pair of boats in any double slip.
BAADS boats are about 6 or 8 boats from the last on dock B on the left. They are in slip numbers 61 and 63, but that doesn't help you without sighted
assistance.
Once you've become familiar with our boats, it is a neat trick to try to
recognize them by getting close and trying a slip or two.
However be tactful in messing about with other people's boats, Never, never
board an unfamiliar boat, it is a gross breach of sailor's ethics, and
darned dangerous besides.
As you're exploring, just a grasp of life lines, or a tactile tactful glance
at the side decks will soon tell you if these are your friends or someone
else.
I have found, amazingly, that generally people treat me like I have a right
to be there when I'm on the docks. but maybe that's cause I am sometimes a
familiar figure thereabouts. There are security folks about on bicycles
often and perhaps one of them might question your activities.
Again, I can not over-emphasize caution here, it can be a truly fun place to
look at and learn, but it would be easy to get hurt, and that'd be tough on
the club's insurance premiums. If you go out there and you're not a little
scared, then you absolutely don't belong, go home and grow up.
Despite all my caution and silliness, finding BAADS is quite practicable and
a fairly unscarey trip. It feels grand to go by yourself to a sailing club
activity to meet friends and go sailing.
Just think: you can become a member, and maybe a skipper and go hang out on
a boat whenever you want.
Happy traveling, and "We'll See You On the Bay."
Tom Fowle
Staff Commodore BAADS
Totally blind skipper
American Sailing Association "ASA" Basic Coastal Cruising
Certified skipper since 1994.
Last updated: 9-3-2001