The sun was setting over Tomales Bay on a cold night in January 2024 when someone noticed smoke pouring out of the boat shack at Nick’s Cove, a nearly century-old destination with 12 cottages and a restaurant nestled along the waterfront.
A party for the artists-in-residence program was underway on the Tule Deck, where dozens of people were chatting and enjoying the cozy atmosphere. When they saw the plumes rising out of the chimney from the window, “everyone just kind of panicked,” spokesperson Caitlin Sandberg remembered. A few of her co-workers ran out to the pier with fire extinguishers, but it was too late: The smoke had already turned into flames.
By the time a couple of nearby fire departments arrived and extinguished the blaze, everything inside was gone: the 70-year-old Burmeister piano, the rowboat in the rafters, and all of the vintage fishing rods and other maritime memorabilia that adorned the walls, including a 50-year-old tortoiseshell.
“Some things that we probably won’t ever see again,” Sandberg said. “They had to demolish what was left of it and start from scratch.”…