Swim Support, Sailing Tours, Small Boat Expeditions

I'm a USCG licensed captain with 15 years experience on San Francisco Bay. I provide boat support for swims and on the water events, plus some sailing tours too.  Let me help you with your local water based adventures.

Let's Get You On The Water!

Swimmers prepare to Jump

Swim Piloting

As an experienced open-water swimmer, with extensive experience of SF Bay currents, I organize and pilot custom open-water swims..

Boat Support

From swim events to sailboat races, rowing and paddling regattas, and even whale entanglement response, I can provide on the water support and safety with the 18' RIB, Arias
Sailing on Pip

Sailing Tours

Vising San Francisco? Want a personalized introduction to sailing on the Bay? I enjoy taking people out on my 22' sailboat Pip. All proceeds go to ocean conservation causes.
Nightswim the Golden Gate

Custom Adventures

Spearfishing, Whale watching, Scuba Diving. Arias is available to be trailered up and down the coast for custom on the water adventures.

Swim: Extra Alcatraz

By James Dilworth | June 20, 2023

Popular lore has it that Alcatraz is a difficult swim. And it probably was if you were a prison inmate who couldn’t swim, and who didn’t understand the tides and currents. But if you have a good pilot who can time it right, it’s usually a manageable 1.25-1.5 mile swim from the south tip of…

Swim: Bay to Breakers

By James Dilworth | June 20, 2023

Bay to Breakers is a very popular running event, usually held in mid-May in San Francisco. It’s a seven mile run across town from the Ferry building to Ocean Beach. Some people take it seriously, but for most it’s a colorful fun-run in costume. There’s a much less popular swimming version of this. Bay to…

Swim: Marin Headlands

By James Dilworth | November 10, 2022

We were initially planning to swim from Fort Point to Aquatic Park, but gusty north winds were making the original plan look unwise and unfun. But flexibility is key to having fun when swimming, and there’s almost always a good alternative plan. For this day, we headed for the shore of the Marin headlands, which…

Swim: Golden Gate Bridge to Bay Bridge

By James Dilworth | September 16, 2022

Kate & Rory came up to visit San Francisco after Kate completed a Catalina swim the week before. The swim from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Bay Bridge is about 9 miles, but it goes pretty quickly when you have the currents working in the right direction. Biggest challenge with this swim is keeping…

Swim: Escape to Alcatraz!

By James Dilworth | July 24, 2022

The classic swim from Alcatraz to San Francisco is a well trodden path. But the tides aren’t always right for it, and it’s also kind of a short swim. A really fun alternative is the Escape TO Alcatraz… or rather Golden Gate Bridge to Alcatraz. It’s 2.5 miles, but if you time it on a…

Swim Ocean Beach to Aquatic Park

By James Dilworth | May 15, 2022

This is a fun one…. never too far from shore, but with plenty of tricky current and swell to deal with. Sarah and the DFS team left Ocean Beach at the beginning of the flood with Steve, Terry and Kel supporting. We had some incredible light with the sun filtering through the fog. One of…

Swim: Bay Bridge to Golden Gate in Under an Hour?

By James Dilworth | December 4, 2021

Jari’s at it again! This time we had our sights on the bridge-to-bridge record. Is it possible to swim from the Bay Bridge to the Golden Gate in under an hour. We picked a rocking ebb at the end of the year, and pushed him into the water in what looked like a river!

Point Bonita to China Beach

By James Dilworth | October 2, 2021

This is just an incredibly tricky swim. Point Bonita on the Marin shoreline to the San Francisco side. Distance is only 3.5 miles. It’s difficult to because it’s exposed to the ocean, it crosses the main shipping channel in and out of the Bay, and it’s hard to escape the cross push of the currents…

Angel Island Row, Camp ‘n Swim

By James Dilworth | July 28, 2021

A fun swim with some of my fellow Dolphin Club members. Cyrus, Steve and Kaitlin decided to swim around Angel Island before breakfast. Distance 5 miles. Timed to catch the last of the ebb and the beginning of the flood!

Oakland to SF (and Back again!)

By James Dilworth | June 18, 2021

So Jari is a machine in the water. Rumor has it he was on the Finnish national team. No-one’s going to question that. So we’re looking at the Dolphin Club record board, and something crops up. The women hold all the fastest times for the Oakland to SF crossings. So Jari set out to challenge…