An Alcatraz City Cruises ferry boat had a mishap while docking at Pier 31 on Sunday evening, leaving dozens of passengers shaken and upset and shattering a row of windows on a passenger deck.

The incident happened Sunday evening, as ABC 7 reports, when a City Cruises boat was attempting to dock at Pier 31. The boat reportedly slammed into the dock multiple times, according to one passenger, who tells ABC 7 that some passengers were also knocked off their feet and one woman tumbled down a set of stairs.

A row of windows on the lower passenger dock also shattered in the collision, as seen in the photo below and this video from TikTok user Genny A.

Passenger Olivia RiosAcuña tells ABC 7 that she "heard a really loud noise and the whole boat shook."

"I was terrified," RiosAcuña said, speaking to the station. "I was like, what on earth is going on? And then I was like, okay, who on earth is driving this boat?"

RiosAcuña also says that her son was frightened as well, and she didn't appreciate it when the crew tried to laugh it off as they were disembarking, saying, "'Have a great day. You guys sure had an exciting entry,' or something like that. I was like, exciting? More like traumatic. My kid's still crying."

Luckily, no injuries were reported and all passengers were able to disembark safely.

The ferry service issued a statement to ABC 7 late Sunday saying, "On Sunday evening, an Alcatraz City Cruises vessel was involved in a docking incident upon return to Pier 31. There are no currently reported injuries, and an investigation of the incident will be conducted to determine it cause. Any impacts to service will be provided as additional information becomes available."

Previously: Video: Alcatraz Ferry Captain Rescues 10 Aboard Sinking Boat

This week: Live music on the ferry, a “boujee” club for all ages, a hand-drawn map of Berkeley, wild radish, and a donkey reality show. Plus, Public Domain Day at the Internet Archive, the local legacy behind an ‘80s hit, and the Asian Art Museum explores rave culture.

Music on the water

Friday ferry rides picked up a new rhythm this month as SF Bay Ferry began hosting live performances on select routes through the month of January. The “Tides and Tunes” series brings local musicians, bands, and DJs onto the fleet’s larger vessels with room to host small performances.

The performances come at no extra cost beyond the regular ferry fare. The series runs at select times on Fridays, with artist Lolah returning for another set on January 23. — KPIX

The legacy of a hit

“Rumors” by Timex Social Club started as a song written by East Bay teens and went on to become one of 1986’s biggest hits, selling more than a million copies. The track still shows up in DJ sets and party playlists, even as most people know little about the group behind it.

In his book, How Do Rumors Get Started, founding member Marcus Thompson details how the band formed in Oakland, recorded the song on basic equipment, and quickly found national success. It also follows what came after, including industry disputes, broken agreements, and the breakup of the group in the years following the song’s rise. — SFGate

Cultural artifacts made public

Each January, a new batch of music, books, and films enters the public domain, and the Internet Archive marks the moment by opening the doors to creative reuse. This year includes works from 1930 like “Georgia on My Mind,” “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” The Maltese Falcon, and early Nancy Drew stories.

The Archive frames the public domain as a way to keep culture accessible, especially as copyright battles have narrowed access to its digital library. The celebration includes a daylong online event and an evening gathering at the Internet Archive (300 Funston Avenue, SF), centered on remixed films made from newly public works on January 21. — Mission Local

Paths on paper

Tattoo artist and illustrator Danielle Hopkins has drawn a hand-rendered map of the Berkeley Hills that traces stairways, rock parks, and winding streets with the elaborate detail of someone who walks them often. After she shared an early version on Nextdoor, neighbors began showing up at her door to buy copies.

She’s sold about 30 so far and given others away, including to neighbors who became friends through the process. The map grew out of her move from San Jose to Berkeley and her attachment to the hills, especially the Tamalpais Path, which she calls a brutal climb with a view worth the effort. — Berkeleyside

Pulse and light

At the Asian Art Museum, Rave into the Future: Art in Motion looks at dance culture through the work of West Asian artists shaped by diaspora, memory, and movement. The exhibition brings together multimedia installations, sculpture, and sound to explore how music and dance create spaces of connection, privacy, and release.

Highlights include Sahar Khoury’s commission with a working DJ deck, Yasmine Nasser Diaz’s bedroom-as-dance-floor installation, and Joe Namy’s copper-tiled floor that records every step taken on it. The show, which is curated by Naz Cuguoglu and features work by 10 artists based in the U.S. and Europe, remains on view at the Asian Art Museum through January 26. — The Chronicle

Candy-colored commons

In Walnut Creek, Ruby Lou’s is opening as a place where birthday parties, cocktail hour, and casual play all blur together. Built by longtime mixologist and set designer Megan Abraham Benshalom and named for her daughter, the space leans into bright color, built-in board games, claw machines, and furniture that looks pulled from a candy shop daydream.

The menu mirrors that split personality, with Wagyu hot dogs, short-rib nachos on housemade chips, and a full cocktail program alongside an ice cream bar and “yolo” sundaes for kids. It’s designed for families in the afternoon and adults after dark, without forcing either group to leave the room. Ruby Lou’s is open now for private events and plans to open to the public very soon. — Bay Area News Group

Salt on the buds

Out in the Baylands, invasive wild radish began flowering in late December, its pale purple and white petals standing out against the marsh. Unlike wild mustard, which blooms yellow, the radish can be identified by its four-petaled flowers and its edible parts from top to bottom.

The leaves, buds, and seed pods can all be eaten, carrying a mild, peppery bite, and sometimes a trace of salt from the coastal air. There’s even a small radish root at certain times of year, though most foragers prize the greens and buds. It grows alongside plants like sea asparagus in the San Francisco Baylands, where winter still yields plenty of plantlife. — The Bay Forager

From pasture to prime time

A Northern California donkey rescue has found a national audience through a reality series on ABC. Donkey King follows the day-to-day work at Oscar’s Place, a Mendocino County sanctuary that takes in donkeys from auctions, surrenders, and unsafe conditions, and either rehomes them or gives them a permanent home on the ranch.

The nonprofit has rescued more than 400 animals, and each episode centers on the care and recovery of one donkey, with staff balancing medical needs, transport, and trust-building. The show airs Saturday mornings on ABC, with episodes available to stream for free afterward at donkeyking.com. — The Press Democrat

Top image: Performance by TCS; activation of 'For Your Eyes Only' by Yasmine Nasser Diaz; Photo by Tracy Nguyen/Asian Art Museum

Previously: Field Notes: Fairy Rings, Waterfalls, SF Library Map, and New East Bay All-Ages Music Venue

The concurrent rise in gas prices and return to physical workplaces in downtown SF and elsewhere has spurned a sudden and unexpected boom in ridership for both BART and commuter ferries.

Marin County ferries are seeing a significant rise in ridership after nearly two years of being half empty. As some Marin commuters tell KRON4, they've gotten used to have no problem finding a seat, but all that's changed in the last couple of weeks, and the ferries have been packed again at rush hours.

A one-way ferry trip is $7 from Sausalito to San Francisco if you have a Clipper card — a bit more than a gallon of gas currently, but it saves you parking and traffic, and the Golden Gate Bridge toll is up to $9, or $8.05 if you have Fastrak.

Likewise, BART is seeing some of its biggest ridership days this week since the pandemic began. On Tuesday, BART tweeted that the system "served 7,834 more trips compared to the previous Tuesday." And Wednesday was a to-date record-breaking day for the pandemic on BART, with over 125,500 exits across the system. BART says that exit levels at the Embarcadero and Montgomery stations are up 15-20% over last month.

Also, "Our power supply is 100% greenhouse gas free," BART brags.

Also, in keeping with trends already seen last month, BART is seeing much more of a return on weekends than on weekdays. Both Saturday and Sunday, March 5 and 6, saw ridership back at about 50% of pre-pandemic levels. That's compared to weekdays, where ridership, even with the latest spike, was up to 31% of pre-pandemic levels on Wednesday.

With experts saying that gas prices are going to continue going up before they go down, that likely spells an ongoing boom for BART and the ferry system, which is welcome news — especially as BART was facing potentially another year or two of budget woes if ridership didn't recover.

In related news, the TSA announced Thursday that the mask mandate for public transit, nationwide, is extended until April 18, but local agencies may opt to extend it further.

Related: Gas Prices Jump Above $5/Gal In the Bay Area For the First Time Ever

Photo from pre-pandemic times by Corey Agopian

An idea is moving forward for a temporary ferry terminal to serve the new Warriors arena in Mission Bay, which could be operational by the time the arena opens this fall, fingers crossed.

Amid growing anxieties in the neighborhood about what new traffic nightmares the arena might create on concert and game nights, the Port of San Francisco is floating the idea of adding arena-specific ferry service to the mix.

As the Chronicle reports, a temporary ferry terminus could be constructed using the existing pier just south of Mission Creek. Within two years that could be replaced with a larger, more permanent terminal.

Such a project, the Chronicle notes, will still face a "gauntlet" of approvals in the coming months, including from the Port Commission, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, and the Bay Area Water Quality Control Board.

Mayor London Breed has given her thumbs up to the plan, which was presented by the Port of SF's a senior waterfront planner David Beaupre to the SFMTA board on Tuesday. Breed's spokesperson Jeff Cretan told the Chronicle that the Mayor is "committed to doing everything she can to prepare for the increase in visitors to the neighborhood during Warriors games and special events, including ensuring we have ferry service as an option."

A potential ferry line could connect both Marin and the East Bay to the arena, with a potential stop at Treasure Island as well. And the Warriors cite the demographics of season ticket holders as being concentrated in Alameda, Oakland, South San Francisco, and Marin.

As the Chronicle reported in late 2018, the popularity of ferries has been ballooning as the Bay Area's traffic has gotten increasingly worse, and as BART trains at rush hour have become increasingly cramped. The idea for water taxis and ferries to serve the Chase Center was discussed in that article as well — a water taxi has also been proposed that would connect the Presidio with the arena.

Novel solutions are needed to encourage people not to drive to Mission Bay — even if some ignorant souls are no doubt going to try to do it, at least in the arena's early days when word hasn't gotten out. The 18,000-seat arena only has 950 structured parking spaces.

Also discussed at Tuesday's SFMTA board meeting are the planned shuttle bus services to the arena — shuttles will take people directly from 16th and Mission to the Chase Center, and a shuttle coming down the Van Ness BRT line will also go directly from 16th to the arena. There's also a two-way cycle track being built near the Chase Center, and once the Central Subway opens (maybe by the end of the year), that will also make things much easier for people coming from North Beach, Chinatown, and Union Square.

As SFMTA chief Ed Reiskin tells the Chronicle, "Any way that we can get people to the Chase Center that’s not in a car is a good thing."

Related: Mission Bay Neighbors Begin Pre-Freakout About Chase Center Parking Situation

Photo: Will Truettner

The San Francisco Bay Ferry fleet has just received the first of seven shiny new ferry boats, called Hydrus, which is getting a Champagne christening Tuesday in advance of its first passenger trips in April. The high-speed catamaran is on display currently at Pier 9, as ABC 7 shows us, and it has a capacity for 445 passengers — or, as The Point blog recently said, 400 passengers and 50 bicycles.

According to the Examiner, the SF Bay Ferry fleet will have 13 boats total as of April, and with older boats being put out of service, and the seven new ones coming online, they will have a total of 16 operating in three years.

The first trips by the Hydrus will be used to add capacity to the over-congested Vallejo route, and Point Richmond residents are looking forward to getting their own route in early 2018.

The Water Emergency Transportation Authority, which runs SF Bay Ferry, is looking to greatly expand ferry service over the next two decades to alleviate traffic on the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, and congestion on BART. The WETA is "investing $465 million in capital expenditures, $175 million of which is toward new vessel construction" according to the Ex, and each of these boats costs around $15 million. A September press release from SF Bay Ferry announced a $62.1 million contract awarded to Dakota Creek Industries, Inc. for three new ferry boats, of which this Hydrus is the first.

As the East Bay Times reports, ridership on SF Bay Ferries has increased 74 percent over the last five years, to over 2.7 million passengers annually. They currently only operate out of seven terminals servicing routes to Mare Island, Vallejo, Alameda, Oakland, and Harbor Bay, but they're expecting to grow that 12 routes and 16 terminals.

Using the new high-speed Hydrus, the commute from SF to Alameda is now expected to be just 19 minutes, and even speedier boats are on the way.

In the next four years, in addition to the new Richmond terminal, new terminals will be added in Alameda and on Treasure Island as well.

Related: Tideline, The Chariot Of Ferries, Launches Commuter Service Between SF, Berkeley, and Richmond

Much the way private shuttle buses like Chariot have been invading San Francisco for several years and providing more comfortable alternatives for the Muni-averse, a new public/private ferry service has just launched called Tideline, offering small-scale water taxis between San Francisco and the Berkeley Marina, and between San Francisco and Richmond. As KRON 4 reports, though, there seems to be a bit of a disagreement between the company and the City of Berkeley, with the latter saying Tideline hasn't yet gotten their permit to operate in the city.

The company, launched in November by some Marin County residents, says they thought they already had the green light from Berkeley, and their website says they're "an official Port of San Francisco water transportation service offering public and private commuter service." Launching this morning at 7:30 a.m. was the public Berkeley ferry line, which they say takes 20 to 30 minutes each way — and is clearly being marketed as an alternative to overcrowded BART trains and Bay Bridge traffic — even though each boat looks to have a pretty limited capacity. Ferries leave Berkeley at 7:30 and 8:30 a.m. only on Fridays (for now), and then depart San Francisco each Friday evening at 5:30 and 6:30 p.m., with more days and times to be added according to demand. Each ride costs $8, and leaves from the K gate at Berkeley Marina, arriving at Pier 1.5 in SF. And a 50 percent cancellation fee is charged for any reservation cancelled within 12 hours or less of the departure time. (Reservations can be made here, but it appears walk-ons are allowed too.)

The Richmond service is a private shuttle that began in November and appears to operate Monday through Friday for $11 a ride, via prepaid packages only. That service also uses Pier 1.5, and arrives at Marina Bay in Richmond, with trips taking 35 minutes each way. Tickets are sold in packages of six for $66, or as monthly passes for $240, and no walk-ons are allowed.

"Redefine your commute," says the Tideline site, adding that each boat comes with wifi, beverage service, and flat screen TVs onboard. Also, they appear to be ready to launch a private commuter shuttle between Tiburon and SF as well, though that is still "pending."

At the time the company's Richmond service launch, Tideline Marine Group president Nathan Nayman discussed the venture with Richmond Confidential. “San Francisco Bay historically was all about boats," he said. "It was all about clipper ships, transportation, bringing goods and services into the bay area. With the advent of the car, bridges and BART, we lost our focus on the bay. [At Tideline] We believe [we need] to have a complement of all sorts of waterborne vessels throughout the Bay.”

Major amounts of large debris, including whole tree trunks, have washed down from rivers and other waterways in recent storms into San Francisco and San Pablo Bays, creating potential hazards for boats. CBS 5 reports that "specialized boats equipped with cranes that are trying to keep the shipping lanes clear of debris," but that didn't save the propellers of one commuter ferry.

Kixon Meyer, a boat captain for the Army Corps of Engineers, shows the station one tree that was retrieved from the water with clear boat propeller marks on it. But that might not be the same tree that got in the path of one Golden Gate Ferry boat over the weekend. That boat is in dry dock getting repaired now, according to the service's general manager.

Amusingly, Meyer says they find all kinds of debris after storms like we just had, including, once, a jacuzzi, and fairly often, whole refrigerators — but where they coming from!?! "We get a lot refrigerators,” he tells CBS 5. “Most of them still have food in them!”

Elsewhere around the Bay, the storms washed out whole sections of roads in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and major land- and rock slides along Highway 1 in Big Sur has shut down the highway for as long as three weeks, with a lot of very big rocks that need to be hauled away.

Related: January's Rains Were Some Of SF's Heaviest In 168 Years

A crash on Saturday afternoon between a small pleasure craft and a Golden Gate Ferry departing Sausalito for San Francisco cost a man his life. The man was piloting the speedboat that collided with the ferry in Raccoon Strait, a waterway near Angel Island. Another person onboard the speedboat was also airlifted to the hospital and is still being treated for his or her injuries.

As NBC reports, the crash is still being investigated. The five-person crew aboard the ferry have all been placed on administrative leave, as a precaution. None of the ferry passengers were injured.

The speedboat, while heavily damaged, remained afloat and was towed into harbor by the Coast Guard.

[NBC]

While we wouldn't recommend heading out on a boat in the bay right this minute, the Golden Gate Bridge transit district that operates ferry service from Larkspur and Sausalito to the city is set to test out new wind-powered catamaran style passenger ferries in April. The Napa-based Wind + Wing Technologies has been pitching the vessels, which use a combination of a hard "wing" sail and diesel power, as a replacement for the current diesel-only fleet for at least a year now and has finally gained enough interest from the bridge district to give it a few practice runs.

Starting as soon as next month Wind + Wing will operate daily, but unfortunately passenger-free, ferry runs from San Francisco to Sausalito using a Navy-built catamaran. While the trial boat is relatively small, Wind + Wing has pitched using 300 and 750-passenger ferries with 110-foot masts that top out at a speed of about 17 knots.

If the test runs prove successful, wind-powered catamaran ferry service would start right around the time the America's Cup kicks off in 2013 and is projected to reduce fuel costs and carbon emissions by 40 percent. If you're itching to get out on the Bay with a wing for a sail, Adventure Cat Charters, a sister company to Wind + Wing, already runs catamaran tours that use similar technology to the America's Cup racers we spotted the other day.

[SFExaminer]
[NBCBayArea]
[SFist]

From the SFist tipline comes a seemingly improbable tip that the Water Emergency Transit Authority (neé Water Transit Authority) is considering using hovercraft in place of traditional ferries along routes in the Bay Area. Confirmation from WETA Manager of Public Affairs, Leamon Abrams via email reveals that the Authority is indeed "evaluating the feasibility of utilizing hovercraft" on the proposed Hercules-San Francisco ferry route as they work to add seven new routes and triple ferry patronage by 2025.

Hercules, it seems, has a particularly sandy shoreline that could pose challenges to dredging efforts, meaning it's probably easier to just ignore all that and just drive ferries right up on the beach. While the idea of zipping around the Bay on a floating bag of air is actually kind of appealing in a The-Future-via-the-1960's sort of way, we're not really sure this bodes well for patio umbrellas around the Ferry Terminal. On the other hand, Abrams did imply that the agency wouldn't be evaluating the possibility if not for new advances in hovercraft design, which hopefully means these things aren't as noisy as the hovercraft we've seen in the movies.