Stranded sailor stuck on Stinson Beach ordered to ship out by next week
Captain Logan Walker has until 12 p.m. Monday to get it out before the county will come out to assess the area to remove it.
STINSON BEACH, Calif. (KGO) -- A stranded sailboat off the shore of Stinson Beach has been stuck in the sand for more than a month.
The stranded sailor goes by Captain Logan Walker. He says he was enroute to Seattle from Richardson Bay, took a nap, and woke up to find the boat in the surf zone on July 31.
After a hearing full of expletives and interruptions, a federal judge extended a temporary restraining order giving the stranded sailor a few extra days to move his boat before the county intervenes.
Captain Walker walked out of the hearing without shoes, lighting up his tobacco pipe he says was filled with marijuana.
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According to the judge, Walker has until 12 p.m. Monday to get it out before the county will come out to assess the area to remove it.
"Do you think you'll make it?" ABC7's Stephanie Sierra asked.
"Yeah, it can be out of here real soon," Walker said.
"How soon?" Sierra asked.
"The next tide."
Until then, the clock is ticking.
Walker was previously asked to remove the boat by the end of August, according to the Marin County Sheriff's Office. But that didn't happen.
According to Logan, the day he got stuck he tried using his dinghy to set anchor and haul the boat back offshore, but it didn't work. He says he was detained and handcuffed by a deputy to perform a sobriety test.
Last week, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing the county from intervening. Walker says he was concerned if the county moved it, his boat would be ruined.
"Their fix to the problem is to cut up my boat, which is really bad for the environment," he told ABC7.
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The county argued in court the boat is interfering with the public's right to enjoy the beach.
"A beautiful beach decimated with all this garbage," said Sarah Atherton, a local visitor and former Stinson resident. "People are upset because they feel he's taking advantage, people are making him meals everyday, they set up a GoFundMe to get his boat towed out. There's a lot of frustration."
But other residents argue maybe it's worth the wait.
"I understand it's an eyesore, but it does cost people a lot of money. I was told $50,000 worth of taxpayer money to remove it by the county," said Erica Lowry, a local Stinson resident. "And it goes into Mother Earth, which we're trying not to do."
There's mixed emotions tied up on the issue like the rope and tackle stuck in the sand. All of it, ironically, is bringing the community together.
Over the past week, community members banded together to move the boat about 90 degrees to get it one step closer to the water.
"I'm really happy to see the community members come together and work in the middle of the night while the tide is high," Lowry said. "We have learned a lot of what it takes to get a boat off the beach."
Marin County deputies will return to the beach to assess how to safely remove it if the boat isn't in the water by Monday at 12 p.m.
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