We're Moving...

This is a hard post to write, our family is leaving Bodega Bay. We've absolutely loved our three years of living in paradise here on the beautiful California coast, but due to job opportunities, we've decided to move inland. We'll only be an hour away and of course we'll be back frequently to visit. We've been coastal people our entire lives and have never been able to stay away for long.

Many thanks to those of you who have followed our blog and given us such positive feedback and encouragement over the years. We have always appreciated the support of our friends and neighbors.

I just discovered another mom who blogs here in Bodega Bay and I encourage you to check her out at Mama Loves the Beach. Darris recently moved to Bodega Bay with her family, and she writes about her coastal adventures with an environmental twist.

So long, but not goodbye. We'll see you at the beach!

Kathlene

P.S. If you're looking for publicity services, I'm now blogging on my business site Carney & Associates. My firm represents authors, experts and businesses who improve our world, with an emphasis on sustainable living, healthy families, and personal development.

Bodega Bay Fish Fest this Weekend

The 38th Annual Bodega Bay Fish Fest is happening this weekend, April 30 and May 1, 2011. Here are some details from their website:

The Bodega Bay community will celebrate its 38th annual Fisherman’s Festival packed with music, food, and entertainment. A favorite attraction is the wine tasting booth, featuring more than 25 Sonoma County wines. Food booths have something for every pallet from lamb or oyster barbeque to local fish and chips, to vegi burders, salads, and sandwiches. Live music and entertainers perform on the band stage all day Saturday and Sunday. Artisans and vendors from all over California and beyond offer a wide selection of arts and crafts.

The festival has its origin as a celebration of the start of the Salmon fishing season and the annual Blessing of the Fleet. Saturday will feature a golf tournament at Bodega Harbour (707-875-3538) and at the Festival site itself a wooden boat challenge where participating teams build a vessel and then compete in a boat race.

Sunday morning will feature the blessing of the fishing fleet, when decorated boats parade out of the harbor to receive a blessing from local clergy. A flower wreath is cast upon the waters honoring the fishermen lost at sea. The festival is a great venue for kids, with a play area for face painting, spin paintings, games, free kit lessons, pony rides and llamas (and guest pets) on parade. There will be a drawing for raffle prizes from local merchants.

The Bodega Bay Fisherman’s Festival is a nonprofit organization run by local community volunteers under the leadership of chair Ginny Bassi. All proceeds of the festival benefit local service and volunteer organizations. For more information call the Bodega Bay Visitors’ Center at 707-875-3866.

Our family has really enjoyed going to this community event over the last couple of years. You can view our previous reports and photos here and here. And the weather this weekend is supposed to be spectacular!

Film Festival Coming to Bodega Bay!

Great news, Bodega Bay is hosting film festival in May! Here's the official press release:

The Sonoma, California coast promises to be lively this Memorial weekend (May 28th-29th) where the inaugural Bodega Bay International Short Film Festival is launching a celebration of independent filmmaking from Santa Rosa, California to Hamilton, New Zealand. Whether filmmakers and audience members are attracted by the spectacular seaside location of the festival at UCD Bodega Marine Lab*, or the draw is from the growing Hollywood panel of film judges, Bodega Bay is quickly becoming a cultural focal point for film.

Ever since Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” was shot there in 1963, the town’s cinematic glory has been relatively dormant. But the sleepy, crab fishing town of Bodega Bay has the necessary characteristics to rival Park City, Utah (where the Sundance Film Festival takes place). It’s a little over an hour’s drive from the robust cultural powerhouse, San Francisco, and the Bodega Bay region is an established destination for wine tours, honeymoons, coastal retreats, and excursions.

Local filmmaker, Dan Schieberl of Santa Rosa, is thrilled to have his very short first film take the stage as an official selection of the festival. His film, a family comedy called “Bathroom Drawer” is story of sibling rivalry that was based on a true story. Schieberl remarked “I’d give up my contracting job in a second if I could make films for a living. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated by movies.” At the other end of the emotional spectrum comes a grim drama from India called “Wind,” (created by Manikandan Mathiyazhagan). It’s the uncomfortable story of a policeman who is the first person dispatched to a grisly crime scene, when suddenly, a cell phone rings in the corpse’s pocket and the caller really wants to speak with the policeman. And among other international selections for the festival, comes “Lily White” a touching drama by New Zealand directors Scott Granville and Ben Woolen, who plan on traveling to the event. Other countries represented at the festival include South Korea, Israel, Argentina, Switzerland, France, Spain, & Australia. Even Hollywood filmmakers are making a show at the festival. Regionally, San Francisco-based director Richard Levien’s film “Immersion” will pull at heartstrings while posing important questions about our education system.

The festival’s growing panel of film judges includes actor Jack McGee, who most recently starred alongside Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg, and Amy Adams in the Academy Award nominated “The Fighter.” Also on the jury is Ed Begley, Jr., (Six Feet Under, The New Adventures of Old Christine, St. Elsewhere) who, apart from appearing in over 200 television and motion picture productions, is an activist for environmental issues. Representing strong women in film on the jury is Hollywood producer Share Stallings, who recently produced “Death At A Funeral” starring Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, James Marsden, and Danny Glover. Due to their jam-packed schedules making movies, it is unclear if any of the judges will be attending the event itself. But they will definitely be watching and judging the finalists and sending in their votes.



The festival takes place on Memorial Weekend May 28th-29th at the UCD Bodega Marine Lab, at Bodega Bay, California. The festival is expected to sell out as the facility only has about 100 seats per screening. For ticket ordering information, along with more details or high definition press photos, please visit the official website: BodegaBayFilmFest.org


*The UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory (BML) is one of the oldest academic marine laboratories in the U.S., and its long history of research and training students has contributed invaluably to our knowledge of coastal systems and the policy that protects them. Throughout the years, BML has led the way in multidisciplinary scientific inquiry required to solve complex environmental problems on the marine and terrestrial sides of the tideline, and BML-trained students have become leaders in the field of marine science and policy. http://www-bml.ucdavis.edu/index.html

Home Cooked Meal Delivery

I just received a colorful postcard announcing a new meal delivery service. Melissa Freeman, owner of the soon-to-open new Bodega Bay restaurant The Birds Cafe, is now delivering fresh, home-cooked meals on a weekly basis.

Melissa has lived in Bodega Bay her entire life. She was a real estate broker for many years, but says her real love is cooking. Her family owns Compass Rose Gardens, where she spent a significant part of her life catering events. Melissa is going through the steps to open The Birds Cafe across from Pelican Plaza, overlooking the bay. Meanwhile she's providing a service that family, friends, and locals have told her is much needed in our community - fresh home cooked meal delivery. Meals will be prepared in a rented, fully equipped commercial kitchen under her catering license from Sonoma County. Far out, I wish her great success!

You can reach her at 707-875-2900 or through www.thebirdscafe.com.

Vanishing Boat Mystery Solved

Many thanks to CalRecycle for solving the mystery of the vanishing boat!

As you may recall from my last post, "Hapi," a boat abandoned in the Bodega Bay harbor mudflats, mysteriously disappeared from last month. We couldn't figure out why nobody saw a thing, and I received this reply from CalRecycle:

Hapi was removed from the Bay in the wee hours for a very good reason! The salvage company used low tide to pump the vessel out and attach flotation and then took advantage of the high tide to help float it so it could be pulled off the mud flat. The highest tide in the window the crew had to remove the vessel occurred at 3 AM. After she was released from the mudflat, Hapi was tied up at Spud Point Marina, and deconstructed the following day. --CalRecycle

Abandoned Boat Removed From Bodega Bay Harbor

An abandoned sailboat that had become something of a tourist attraction was finally removed from Bodega Bay harbor this week.

“Hapi” had been stuck at a tilt in the mudflats since fall 2007, when her owner fell behind in mooring fees at nearby Spud Point Marina and was evicted. The owner tried to move the boat, but the Coast Guard intercepted him and said the boat was not seaworthy. He then anchored it in the channel, and a storm blew it onto the tidelands.

The boat was too badly damaged to save. The keel, which has a ferroconcrete hull, became firmly lodged in the mud; the sail was shredded and flapping in the wind.

Hapi became a great conversation starter and in fact, our local wine bar Gourmet au Bay produced a private wine label in her honor called Tilted Cellars. We enjoyed kayaking around Hapi, people told tales of her being haunted, or a pirate ship.

But while some found the abandoned boat charming, others said it was a hazard that should be removed. A spokesman from Sonoma County said “In reality they blow around, they can be come potential hazards to navigation, they leak toxics into the water, kids go out and play on them, they can get hurt."

This week, according to a press release, Hapi was among five abandoned commercial vessels that state and local agencies removed from the Bodega Bay area. The coordinated effort involved the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office Marine Services Unit, and the Department of Fish and Game.

They said, “Abandoned and derelict vessels along California’s coastal and inland waterways are a threat to public health and safety and the environment. They can harm water quality due to the hazardous pollutants they contain, including oil, PCBs, antifreeze, gasoline, diesel, asbestos, paints, and sewage. As vessels deteriorate, they become sources of debris that wash onto the shore or remain a water hazard. In addition, vessels are typically abandoned on or very near shorelines where they present ‘attractive nuisances’ for additional dumping from the shore.

“The five commercial vessels--the Elizabeth Ann, Ocean Star, Loretta G, Bonnie, and Hapi--were designated for removal because they have no identifiable responsible parties and they pose environmental and navigational hazards to the public. Measures have been taken to prevent a release of hazardous materials during the salvage operations. As a precaution, spill cleanup equipment has been pre-deployed in the event of a release. Fish and Game’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response is overseeing operations to ensure there are no impacts to state waters.

“Funding for this project was provided through CalRecycle’s Solid Waste Disposal and Co-disposal Site Cleanup Program. CalRecycle, which manages the project on-site, contracted with Pacific States Environmental to remove, dismantle, and recycle or dispose of non-hazardous solid waste and hazardous materials from the vessels.”

Surprisingly, no locals seem to have seen or heard a thing during the removal process. Knowing it was controversial, did they quietly haul Hapi out in the black of night? If you saw anything, or took photos or video, please share in the comments section!

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Whale Photos from New Bodega Bay Vet

I love it when blog readers share their wildlife photos with me, and I recently received some whale shots from Dr. Michael Trapani, veterinary practitioner & surgeon. After chatting back and forth, I found out that he is opening a new veterinary hospital here in Bodega Bay! I'm so excited, BB can really use a vet. He's setting up his full service pet hospital in the old laundromat, in the Pelican Plaza shopping center, and hopes to be open by March 1, 2011.

I read more about him on his Facebook page "Bodega Bay Veterinary Hospital." Look through their photos, you'll love the story about the Pied-Billed Grebe that he rescued at Salmon Creek Beach. And check out the video of the deer and kitten---sooo cute!

But back to the whale photos. As you may have heard, it's been a banner year for whale watching here along the Sonoma coast due to an unusually high amount of krill in the water. Here are some images Dr. Trapani took from Bodega Head this fall. He saw four California Grey Whales that day, feeding in the near shore channel northwest of Bodega Rock.






This whale seemed to pay absolutely no attention when fishing boats came through the channel. He'd been underwater when the New Sea Angler approached, then surfaced within ten yards of the craft, which came to a dead stop. The whale took his time moving away, still feeding. (This picture has been adjusted to bring out boat details.)



Whale watching season out here is traditionally January through May, when thousands of California Gray Whales pass right by Bodega Head. I wrote a little about it here. Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods are looking for docents to help out every weekend for the five months to help the public spot the whales and to answer questions about them. For more information, please contact Ruby Herrick, Programs Manager, at rherrick@mcn.org or (707) 869-9177 ext. 1# or visit Stewards of the Redwood Coast.

Thankful for Bodega Bay Wildlife

This is part 3 in a series of my conversations with former Bodega resident Merritt Clifton. He’s now editor of ANIMAL PEOPLE magazine, and was surprised by the abundant wildlife photos featured thoughout BodegaBayLife.com. Here are his words:

"Your world is unimaginably different from that of the rural working poor community that I remember -- no one there then could ever have imagined it.

"But along with the affluence has come recovery of the local wildlife population, whose habitat was destroyed by logging, grazing, and hunting during the 20th century.

"Your site offers many wonderful photos of wildlife we never saw. Turkey vultures & sheep, yes. We had those. We sometimes saw deer, though they were mostly represented by heads on the walls of the Casino bar & grill in Bodega and The Tides, which was then the only restaurant in Bodega Bay. No one had seen a bobcat in 30 years.

"Our world would have been much richer with the wildlife. Instead, what I had was a 1900 edition of True Bear Stories, by Joaquin Miller, describing the wildlife that used to be there & was no more, even then.

"Looks as if you have the critters again, all except the extinct California golden bear. The last one, Monarch, was captured and ended his life in the original San Francisco Zoo, in Golden Gate Park, before the present zoo was built. Miller covered the capture as a newspaper correspondent, & included the story of the bear's subsequent life in his book."

This was all news to me and it makes me even more grateful for the abundant wildlife here on the coast today. And there's more good news--Merritt will dig this recent article in the Press Democrat,
Birds of Prey Thrive at Jenner Headlands.

Here are a couple of our more recent bobcat photos. Maybe we can get some raptor shots soon...

Behind the Scenes of "The Birds" in Bodega

I recently spoke with former Bodega resident Merritt Clifton, editor of ANIMAL PEOPLE magazine, and he had some fascinating stories to share about his time growing up in this area. I roared with laughter over his tales about being an extra in the famous Hitchcock movie, "The Birds." Merritt’s a gifted writer so I’m posting everything in his own words. Take it away Merritt:

I started school at Potter School in Bodega in 1958, and attended it most of the time until it was closed & moved temporarily into the fire hall at the beginning of 1962.

My father was the last principal of Potter School. My younger brother & I were among the four Potter students who were selected to be extras in The Birds.

The meeting hall that formed the top floor of the schoolhouse was converted into the interior of the house where the bird attacks were supposed to have occurred. The exterior shell of the house was set up on the baseball diamond beside Potter School.

The running scenes were filmed at Bodega Bay. The film was edited so as to move Potter School from Bodega to the location of the much less picturesque Grange Hall in Bodega Bay.

Although I was actually in only the classroom and running scenes, I was on the set for the filming of almost every scene involving bird attacks--which was accomplished in just four days of actual shooting time. (The set-up took much longer.)


Suzanne Pleshette was a natural teacher, off set as well as on, and spent a lot of time with the extras just because she liked children. She had an authoritative presence, but in a quite warm & gentle way.


Tippi Hedren was a constantly frightened nervous wreck--and the least visibly interested in animals, of anyone involved, other than Rod Taylor, who was terribly ill and spent most of the time when on the set in his chair, exhausted and apparently in pain. Some of the crew might have played mean tricks on Tippi, as she was not well-liked. Hitchcock and Pleshette were looking out for her, though Hitchcock also scolded her at times, more harshly than he ever scolded anyone else. Once she stuck her hand in a bird cage, was nipped by one of the normally quite well-behaved mynahs, and Hitchcock went ballistic.

The only live birds used by deliberate intent were several very highly trained mynahs, who were quite carefully handled at all times. Alfred Hitchcock was extremely strict about what was done with them. Presumably there was an American Humane Association set rep present, but even if there wasn't, neither Hitchcock nor Suzanne Pleshette would have put up with any animal abuse.


Hitchcock was very pro-animal anyway, liked to have the young extras following him around, and took many opportunities to explain things, including his intention of improving human treatment of birds. He asked if any of us had BB guns (none did), and vigorously denounced boys who shot birds with BB guns for fun.

Most of the birds used were:

a) Mechanical crows, dozens of them, that clipped to a person's clothing or hair like a bow tie.

b) Papier mache birds -- by the hundreds. The crew left some behind. My father gathered some of them up for souvenirs, and still has them.

c) Masonite silhouettes. There were hundreds of these, too. They were still visible, nailed to fences and rooftops, until many years later. They disappeared, I believe, during the hippie influx into the region of 1968-1973.

d) Wild volunteers. Birds frequently visited Potter School anyway, including gulls from Bodega Bay and all sorts of birds who fed along the banks of nearby Salmon Creek, but the bogus birds had the effect of decoys, bringing thousands of additional wild birds into the vicinity to see what was going on.

At that point, I had attended Potter School for three years, but had never before seen so many wild birds, there or anywhere. Hitchcock kept interrupting his own staged scenes to make sure the wild birds were captured on camera.

The other Potter school children who were in The Birds were my younger brother Ted Clifton; Debby Chenowyth, a gorgeous blonde whose father owned the sawmill just northeast of Bodega, & had two glamorous older sisters; and Vickie Lynn Nichols, a very hefty girl whose younger brother, Jerry Wayne Nichols, inherited & for some years operated the family dairy farm just west of Bodega, about halfway between Potter School and the Watson Valley schoolhouse.

There are only a couple of kids I can identify: me, twice; my brother Ted, who is the little guy at the extreme left of the classroom photo; and Vicky Lynn Nichols, who is running more or less beside me.




The running scenes were organized in two different ways: with all the Hollywood kids in front, and with all the Hollywood kids in back. Us locals were just to fill out the crowd.

The Hollywood kids were all an obnoxiously bratty lot, in my recollection. Bodega was a very warm, friendly little place where everyone knew everyone else & almost everyone was related, at least by marriage, so at first we were very taken aback by the sheer nastiness we encounted from the Hollywood kids. Even Debby, to them, was trash, several socio-economic levels below them, & they did not let her forget it.

But they were playing ball in our park. What the Hollywood kids learned in a hurry was that while they were all cut-throat rivals of each other for parts & hopes of future stardom, we were a team, including all the kids who were not part of the filming. Mess with one Bodega kid & you were messing with all.

Some of the Hollywood kids also may have seen that Alfred Hitchcock & Suzanne Pleshette, in particular, were warming up to us in a way that they didn't with the Hollywood brats.


Meanwhile back at the ranch -- well, in front of the Mantua Ranch, which included the hillside behind the school in this scene, that's me in front and my brother Ted right behind me, almost dead center in this scene, with Veronica Cartwright to the left, Morgan Brittany in front of me, and Tippi Hedren to the right, with another lad directly beside me. I believe the third girl from the left in the row of five, ending with Suzanne Pleshette, was Debbie Chenowyth. The girl directly beside Suzanne Pleshette may be Vicky Lynn Nichols. I can't identify the four blurred kids in front, except that they were all from Hollywood.

This is part 1 of a 3-part series. Stay tuned for my next post in which Merritt recounts how they threw one of the Hollywood child stars into the creek behind Potter Schoolhouse!

New Bodega Bay Sign

We have a newly refurbished sign at the south entrance to Bodega Bay!

Many thanks to Shona Weir, of Business Services Unlimited for sending me this information and photos. She said local artist Jody Shipp, Local Color Gallery co-owner, cleaned and repainted it. It took her more than eight hours to complete the job, plus she paid for the paint and new bolts to rehang it. Jody made the signs at the north and south entrances to town many years ago, and plans to refurbish the north sign soon, as well. It's a little more damaged. The poles holding the sign up need to be straightened and more securely put in the ground, but Jody is willing to repair it and repaint it too.

Eric Crumley, of Pipecleaners Chimney and Fireplace, volunteered to take care of the removal, transportation and replacement of the sign for Jody. A local surfer friend named John Lowry helped Eric put the sign up.

Bodega Marine Lab

The UC Davis Bodega Marine Lab offers free docent-led tours for the public on Fridays 2:00-4:00 p.m. so I went over to check it out.

I remember visiting the lab with my Drake High School marine biology class in the 1970's but it has expanded considerably since then.

Bodega Marine Laboratory (BML), perched above Horseshoe Cove on Bodega Head, is one of the oldest academic marine laboratories in the U.S. Bodega Head has been a field site for researchers and students since the 1920s. The Laboratory was founded in 1960 by UC Berkeley and the first building was completed in 1966. The second building was completed in 1977. BML was transferred to UC Davis in 1983.


Rather than re-word their story myself, I've pasted some copy from their website.

A rare combination of natural and academic assets makes BML a unique marine laboratory. The facility sits on wind-swept headlands in Sonoma County on California's north coast, where a 362-acre coastal reserve meets a state-protected marine reserve. This stretch of ocean is also one of a handful of places in the world where "upwelling," caused by a combination of geography and physics, brings nutrient-rich deep waters to the surface and nurtures a vast array of sea life. This phenomenon makes this coastline among the most biologically productive in North America.

In addition to these remarkable "living laboratories" the Bodega Marine Laboratory is equipped with sophisticated technology, an instrument and sensor network and long term data set, the Cadet Hand Library, teaching classrooms and lecture hall, wetlabs, greenhouses, Dive Training facility, seawater system and vessel fleet. BML is administered by UC Davis, one of the nation's top public universities and a leader in both the marine and life sciences.

I was fascinated to learn that their location on Bodega Head is unique because it includes a rich mix of eight protected coastal habitats to study: rocky intertidal areas, protected and exposed sandy beaches, extensive lagoon mudflats and sandflats, and tidal saltmarsh, sand dunes, coastal bluffs, coastal prairie/coastal scrub and freshwater wetlands. Plus, plant communities, soils and microclimates vary sharply over relatively small distances due to geological factors associated with the Pacific Ocean and the San Andreas Fault Zone.

The Marine Lab is located in the Bodega State Marine Reserve, a fully protected no-take reserve extending 1000 feet offshore, managed by the California Department of Fish and Game and BML. The Bodega State Marine Reserve is contiguous with NOAA's Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, providing additional research sites and opportunities.

But back to the tours, if you go over expecting something like the Monterey Bay Aquarium, you'll be disappointed. The Bodega Marine Lab is primarily an education and research facility with a few displays for the public.


They had a nice "tidal mesocosm" out front with various marine life including sea stars, bat stars, anemones, and my favorites, purple sea urchins. I asked our docent why I haven't been able to find any sea urchins in the tidepools along the Bodega Bay coast for several years, I used to see them all the time. He said he had no idea and in fact, had never visited a tidepool in the Bodega Bay area. Oh well...



I enjoyed the beautiful displays in their expansive lobby and actually learned more there than on the tour itself.








They also had two large tanks displaying local fish.




I would have liked to hear more about some of their current local studies. We were shown a lobster study in progress, although there aren't any lobsters in the Bodega Bay area at all.


We were also shown these tanks, where they're conducting an algae study.


You can read more about the Bodega Marine Lab tours here. For a more complete Bodega Bay marine life experience, I'd suggest visiting some real tidepools during low tide before or after your tour. You can see some of our tidepool photos here. Also, during the months of January-May, you can go whale watching up on Bodega Head, with knowledgeable volunteer docents answering questions and providing a wealth of educational materials. You can read more about whale watching here. Although as a side note, some people spotted whales offshore just this past week!

Have fun!

Bodega Marine Laboratory
2099 Westside Rd.
Bodega Bay, CA 94923-0247
(707) 875-2211

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Gorgeous Day at Bodega Head!

It was absolutely gorgeous in Bodega Bay yesterday! After endless days of summer fog, the sun finally broke through in the afternoon and we enjoyed some t-shirt weather.

My husband and I drove over to Bodega Head and hiked up the north trail to the Horseshoe Cove Overlook. I've never seen the trail so overgrown, maybe due to State Parks budget cuts. But it didn't matter, we just made our way gently through the tall blooming vegetation and marched up the hill. The hillsides were filled with a variety of wildflowers, there was hardly any wind, and the visibility was excellent. Here are some photos from the trail, click to enlarge.











View toward Doran Beach, U.S. Coast Guard and Bodega Harbour.

View toward downtown Bodega Bay.

From the top of the trail, you look down on Horseshoe Cove and the UC Davis Bodega Bay Marine Lab. I took their tour recently and will be writing about it soon.



Here are a couple of videos we shot up on the Head. Not very exciting, but you can kick back and get a feel for what it's like up there.

Bodega Fire Department's Big Event

The Bodega Volunteer Fire Department is holding their 30th annual Big Event on Sunday, August 15, and it looks like a lot of fun!

Located in the nearby town of Bodega (about 5 miles inland from Bodega Bay), the BVFD is an all-volunteer fire department with no paid staff and operates solely with volunteer firefighters, community support and donations.

These guys have a lot to celebrate his year, they're in the process of building a new fire station! Their current facility is nearly 60 years old and no longer meets modern requirements for equipment, storage and training. For the past 20 years, they've stored their emergency vehicles either outside or in neighboring barns away from the fire station. Firefighters must carry their safety equipment in their personal vehicles, which lengthens critical response time.

Last fall, Bodega broke ground on the new building, replaced and realigned a failing storm drain, and completed the building pad. During the winter months, they finalized the building permits and a successful USDA loan. When the sun came out in 2010, they were able to prepare the building pad for the foundation of the new station. On June 14th the prefabricated metal building arrived and after one month, the building shell was almost complete and ready for roofing and siding. They hope to get the building enclosed and functional by the end of summer, and will continue fundraising to complete the interior. The final new facility will include a 100% emergency standby generating capacity as well as a water storage system.

Here are some photos from Josh Perucchi, firefighter for both Bodega and Bodega Bay Fire Departments, showing the new building under construction. You can check it out for yourself at the Big Event in August!





BVFD is currently looking for donations for the "big raffle" at their Big Event. They're seeking gift certificates to anywhere or donated items. If you can help, please contact Asst. Chief Gary Watts at 8701@bodegafire.org!

Children's Swim Program in Bodega Bay

Photo credit: Shay Pickton

I just found out about an inspiring swim program here in Bodega Bay. Now in its 11th year, it's designed to teach swimming and water safety to children, and is put on jointly each summer by Bodega Bay School and Bodega Harbour Homeowners Association. Sandy Horn, wife of our famous coastal lifeguard Brit Horn, is the teacher...and she is phenomenal!

There were 52 children enrolled this year! Many of the kids' parents worked and couldn't get them to the pool, so volunteers drove them.

The students had several days of instruction in the Bodega Harbour pool, then a day down at the ocean. We happened to see them all lined up along the shore, and then bravely walking into the chilly surf together.

On the last day, they had a party with pizza, salad (made from lettuce and carrots grown in the Bodega Bay School garden), and cake. How cool is that? Many thanks to Sandy for volunteering her time, and to BHHA for the use of the pool and facilities. Not only did she give the children valuable swim skills, but also memories to last a lifetime.