Julie Durbin Takes on PR and Marketing for FHA

West Pier resident Julie Durbin has agreed to take on the dual roles of Public Relations and Marketing Manager for the Floating Homes Association. Julie has long been an active member of our community, having volunteered the first time at the 2003 Floating Homes Tour and all subsequent tours. She...

Overtime for Qaddafi’s Cook

The day after the Floating Times announced the production of Qaddafi’s Cook, a play by Lance Belville, the Marin IJ ran a major feature on the production. The article tells the story of a chance encounter between the late Lance of West Pier, and a young hotelier in Todos Santos...

Art Saves Lives

Art Saves Lives is a button I wear. My mantra. In our floating kingdom, the photographers, painters, potters, glassmakers, musicians, writers and filmmakers, my fellow artists, don’t just wear that line. We live it. Right before the pandemic, my husband, playwright Lance Belville, died of heart failure. His play Qaddafi’s...

Cook Safely This Holiday Season

FHA Emergency Services Chair Flo Hoylman passes along these tips for kitchen safety, especially during the busy holiday season. According to the National Fire Protection Association®, cooking is the leading cause of home fires and home fire injuries in the United States. Almost half (44%) of reported home fires started...

Lessons from a Fire

The recent apartment fire on West Pier turned out to be a valuable learning experience for residents and firefighters alike. On October 8, firefighters from Southern Marin, Marin County and Tiburon, plus Sheriff units, were dispatched to a structure fire at an apartment building known as ‘The Whale’ at 28...

A Bit of North Beach on West Pier

“When I walk home down the pier, I am walking away from a noisy, hectic world, away from the dirty sidewalks of San Francisco. I am walking above the water, by the birds, seeing the weather approach me, towards my view of Mt. Tam—to quiet and peace.” Running a restaurant...

Best Wishes to Ted and Linda Sempliner

Two of our community’s most active members, Ted and Linda Sempliner, are leaving their East Pier home to move closer to family in Ohio. During their three decades here, they’ve made innumerable contributions to the Floating Homes Association that benefitted the community as a whole. The couple met while Ted...

Found Kayak

The yellow kayak pictured above was found drifting between Gate 6 ½ and the other Kappas piers on the evening of July 23. It’s now being stored on West Pier. If it’s yours, text Chris at 609-203-9054.

Masks Now Mandatory

As of Wednesday morning, April 22, people over the age of 12 in Marin and other Bay Area counties are required to wear face masks in public. It is now mandatory to cover our noses and mouths when we leave home to go to the doctor, grocery store or other...

Lance Belville Exits Stage Left

Lance Sherman Belville, playwright, theatre director, and journalist died of congestive heart failure March 14, 2020 in his West Pier floating home in Sausalito in the embrace of his wife and artistic partner, Lynn Lohr. Belville always lived somewhere dramatic, from the Mississippi River town of his birth, Winona, to...