Fisherman spots two-story house being towed across San Pablo Bay

A two-story home making its way across San Pablo Bay turned an ordinary day on the water into something even an experienced Bay Area fisherman had trouble believing.

Zach Medinas, 57, was fishing with his crew Wednesday morning when he spotted a full-size house being pulled across the bay by a small recreational boat.

“I saw him coming and I had the reaction of everybody else — what the hell is that?” Medinas told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Video on social media showed the yellowish two-story structure, complete with an upper-floor porch, secured to a barge as a motorboat pulled it through the water.

It was apparently heading to Oakland.

Medinas is a Concord resident who owns Gatecrasher Fishing Adventures and spends much of his time on the water.

Medinas said he and his crewmates heard the US Coast Guard issue a radio warning to mariners about the houseboat being towed along the northeastern portion of San Pablo Bay.

The windy conditions and rough currents immediately made him question whether the house could safely make the trip.

“It looked incredibly dangerous and just totally bizarre,” Medinas told the SF Chronicle.

His video quickly attracted attention online, drawing almost 140,000 Instagram views by Friday evening, which is far more than his typical posts about fishing and marine life. 

Several commenters questioned whether towing an entire home across the bay was even legal.

According to the Coast Guard, it was.

Lt. John Thompson, a public affairs officer for Coast Guard Sector San Francisco, told the SF Chronicle that a crew from Station Vallejo met the boater and confirmed he had the required safety equipment.

The home itself had no motor and was secured to a barge, Thompson said. 

The person towing it also was not operating commercially but was instead moving the home as a favor for a friend. A commercial operation would have required a license the boater did not have, Thompson said.

The unusual journey began on the Napa River and ended at Jack London Square in the Oakland-Alameda Estuary. That’s where the home was safely anchored, according to the Coast Guard.

It’s also not the first time a house has floated across Bay Area waters. 

In April 2024, another two-story home was transported by water from Redwood City to San Rafael, according to the San Francisco Standard.

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