“Oh Lord, I tell people I rise and fall on every tide that flows and turn to face every wind that blows.”
That was Ale Ekstrom, describing life on the water in a profile that KQED's Sam Harnett reported a couple of years back (see the video above). Ekstrom lived for more than half a century as part of Sausalito's "anchor-outs," a vagabond community living in boats anchored just offshore on Richardson Bay. No marinas or fancy services, entirely off the grid, self-reliant in the most elemental way.
Ekstrom died of pneumonia last Wednesday, July 22, at age 78, after a brief stay at the VA Medical Center in San Francisco.
Maria Finn, a Sausalito author and resident of the Gates houseboat co-op, says Ekstrom was a familiar figure.