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National Geographic : 1969 Nov
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in the summer whenever warm Pacific winds meet cold water welling up along the north ern California coast. San Francisco Bay owes its record of mari time safety to the Coast Guard and to the skill of veteran ship pilots. More than 400 aids to navigation-lights, buoys, fog signals, and radio beacons-guide a steady stream of ves sels, many of them bound for Sacramento, California's capital, 80 miles inland. In the days before radar, pilots depended largely on instinct and a keen ear to thread the narrow river channels in dense fog. Here and there along the San Joaquin River, wind ing through rich farmland to the port of Stock ton, one still sees occasional remnants of out moded "echo boards"-huge wooden panels designed to reflect the sound of a ship's whistle, giving the pilot a "fix" on the riverbank. It was a crude system, and I once asked a retired 613
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