Coastal Cleanup data from 9/21/24 from Claire
The Final Statistics from the California Coastal Commission as of 10/15/25:
- With 100% of the cleanup sites reporting, the statewide count stands at 46,201 volunteers at nearly 750 sites.
- Those volunteers picked up 332,861 pounds of trash and an additional 65,793 pounds of recyclable materials, for a total of 398,654 pounds or 199 tons.
- Order your 40th anniversary T-shirt here for $25: https://www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/shop/tshirt2024.html
Among our volunteer group of 18 Marin Scuba Club members and friends were two children and their dad, who signed up to work with the Boy Scouts, but showed up at the wrong beach. We welcomed them with open arms and gave them a couple of candy bars to thank them for their service.
From Margaret Farley, County of Marin Coordinator, California Coastal Cleanup:
• A large thank you to all the captains who made this day possible.
- With all but two sites reporting (one cleaning this week), here are the numbers for Marin County:
– Volunteers: 1,080
– Miles Cleaned: 80.10
– Trash Removed: 4,055.40 lbs.
– Recyclables Removed: 1,754.24 lbs. - Statewide numbers are partial at 60% as of 9/21/24:
– Volunteers: Over 28,751 Californians
– Sites: More than 750
– Trash Removed: 242,312 lbs.
– Recyclables Removed: 12,461 lbs. - Most Unusual Item Found: $68,000 in Cashier’s Checks (LA)
- Thank you again, Claire and Sue, for helping to organize this year’s event for our club.
- The most unusual items found by Marin Scuba Club volunteers were the daggerboard shown below, a soccer ball, a pickleball, and fishing lures.
Tom Patterson shared this amazing story…
DAGGERBOARD, Lost, Found & Returned to Owner!
Saturday September 21, 2024 – Members of the Marin Scuba Club (MSC) volunteered for the annual California Coastal Cleanup Day by focusing their attention on the beach at Kirby Cove, located about one-half mile west of the Golden Gate Bridge. Volunteer Lilli Ferguson spotted something white and unusual floating close enough to the beach to retrieve and drag back to the group’s record-keeping site.
She thought it might belong to a kiteboard or a boat, but rightly thought it should be removed. It wasn’t until we were all headed for the parking area that I saw this mysterious object that was headed for a dumpster along with all the other beach trash. That’s when the story began to unfold. I knew from markings on it that I was looking at a Formula-18 catamaran daggerboard, and where to return it.
In addition to belonging to MSC, I’m also a sailor and member of the Richmond Yacht Club (RYC), Pt. Richmond, CA. I was aware that RYC was in the midst of hosting two catamaran regattas including the 2024 Formula-18 Americas Championship, a regatta with about two dozen entries from locations as far away as Chile, Argentina, Canada, and from throughout the USA.
At Kirby Cove, Lilli let me take possession of the daggerboard and we all agreed getting it back to its owner would be a far superior outcome. On our way back to our East Bay home, we stopped by RYC. Most of the F-18 sailors were out on the water, but we quickly learned about the boat that had flipped on Friday and that that boat and skipper were still out on the water. We left the daggerboard in good hands to be returned to its owner.
Late on Sunday, while at RYC, I met a very grateful Tom Seibold from Tampa, Florida and learned the rest of the story. It seems that Tom and crew Luka were out practicing late on Friday afternoon and had a spectacular capsize while running down wind not far south of the Pt. Potrero Reach breakwater near Pt. Richmond.
Tom said that as they went over, the daggerboard was literally launched* and that when in the water he had two choices: swim for the daggerboard or for the boat. He made the wise choice considering the rock breakwater was not far down wind. Tom was very appreciative about getting the daggerboard back. He did say that he had a spare, but also that a new daggerboard for his boat costs $1,600! And for those that may not know, a catamaran uses two daggerboards.
It’s interesting to realize that the daggerboard was in the water for about 20 hours and traveled (as the crow flies) about seven nautical miles. Obviously, it didn’t travel the direct route. At the approximate time of the capsize, ebb tidal current was just getting started. During the entire journey there were two ebb tides, a flood cycle and on Saturday morning it was beginning to flood again.
Bottom line: The California Coastal Cleanup was a great success. We left the beach at Kirby Cove much cleaner than we found it, and we successfully returned the lost daggerboard to a visitor from Florida, and kept it out of the landfill. Bravo indeed!
~Tom Patterson
*I learned from one of the other F-18 skippers that the daggerboards are supposed to be tethered to the boat. I did not learn if Tom’s had been tethered or if a tether failed.
