Many, many years ago, I lived in Mill Valley, California, and commuted to work as an editor of Saturday Review in San Francisco. It was the best commute I’ve ever had (and I’ve had a lot – in Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New York). I rode my bike on a bike path from downtown Mill Valley past the Sausalito waterfront and then took the ferry to the Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco, where it was just a short walk to the office.
The views from the ferry, of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Angel Island, The City (as San Francisco was called), the Marin Headlands, Berkeley, were always stunning and head-clearing. A group of us who worked at the magazine gathered on the ferry to share coffee in the morning and perhaps a glass of wine or a beer going back at night.
But twice a day that bike path took me past all the houseboats on the Sausalito waterfront, and they always caught my imagination. They definitely looked cool; I thought that living in one on the water would be fun. They definitely informed my decision many years later to move on my Grand Banks 36 in Connecticut as liveaboard.
In recent times, as real estate values have skyrocketed in the Bay Area, the Sausalito houseboat community has gone uptown, at least in price. Indeed, one now is for sale for $1.33 million, and it’s a hoot.
It is definitely one of the more whimsical in Sausalito’s 400-strong houseboat community, but in addition to its creative paint job it comes with two bedrooms, a very large bathroom (not a head), a living room with high ceilings, a sitting alcove with floor-to-ceiling windows, a remodeled kitchen, and a dock out back where the owner keeps a Boston Whaler.
If you live there, it will be easy to tell friends how to find your floating home: Just look for the one with the orange and violet color scheme. Read more:
https://sf.curbed.com/2020/3/30/21199794/sausalito-houseboat-floating-home-sale-marin-boat
