OCSC Sailing | Help with SF Bay Oil Spill

Dear Friends,

We share your grief and disappointment at the shoddy way our beloved bay has been treated and both understand that the ecological impacts will be long standing for marine life of all sorts.

And, with all of the news, some of it accurate, lots of it not, you may have a dire picture of the Bay. However, we want to assure you that we found the Bay extremely clear of sheen, oil slicks or tar. We traveled from Berkeley out into the Bay between Angel Island and Alcatraz, circled Angel Island and toured Ayala Cove. To see for ourselves, the two of us went out to reconnoiter this morning. We found that virtually the entire area of the Bay, including our docks, Berkeley Yacht Harbor’s entrance, Berkeley Circle, West Bay and Raccoon Straits, were oil free. We did find a very small slick up near the shore in Ayala Cove, but the docks and moorings were oil free.

The other sailing schools in the Bay are operating as are shipping and ferries. Most of the marinas in the Bay are now open and we only await official word from Berkeley Yacht Harbor that we can legally operate. We are working as hard as we can to get open again and hope to do so by Saturday. If so, we will certainly hold our traditional BBQ as we all need something to celebrate.

Thanks for the phone calls of encouragement and concern. We hope you keep your plans to sail this weekend as we expect it to be a great one!

Rich and Anthony

You can support our Save the Bay partnership by sending money. It sounds trite, but there it is. Money would really help them protect new plantings, oyster beds, bird nurseries. You can:

Send money by Mail— Make the check out to Save the Bay, put “Oil Spill” on the memo line and send to Save the Bay, c/o Adrien Andre, Fund Development, 350 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Suite 900, Oakland, CA 94612

Send Money On-line—Go to www.savesfbay.org and click “Supporters,” donate with a credit card there. If you use this method, please e-mail Adrien Andre at adrien@savesfbay.org and tell her you have made a contribution that is to go to the “Oil Spill.”

Call (800) 228-4544 to VOLUNTEER. OWCN asks for your patience - you will probably get a busy signal - keep trying. They will hold several volunteer trainings on Saturday.

Call (877) 823-6926 to REPORT OILED WILDLIFE. Do not attempt to help oiled birds yourself, please call instead. Do not call this number to volunteer.

Baykeeper Volunteer Sign-ups - Baykeeper asks citizens to sign up now if they would like to be informed of volunteer opportunities in the days ahead. They will ask for the public's help when they have assessed the spill's impact.