Bodega Bay continues to see out-of-town tourists during coronavirus pandemic

Despite cooler, cloudier weather, a steady stream of visitors flocked to the Sonoma Coast on Saturday, only to have their plans thwarted by closed beaches, shuttered businesses and determined parks employees and security guards.

For locals who are generally observing public health directives to stay home as much as possible, people went about their new, pandemic-altered routines - with far fewer tourists around.

Staff at the Pelican Plaza Grocery & Deli, a small market nestled along a section of Highway 1 overseeing Bodega Harbor, have kept busy during the coronavirus pandemic, said store manager Kelly Martin.

She credited the store’s good fortune to locals in the coastal Sonoma County town, where the virus has her taking extra precautions because about a third of the fewer than 1,100 residents are older than 65.

Frequent visits and takeout orders have kept the store afloat even as tourism has decreased in recent weeks, Martin said. Activity in the town has slowed as a result of county and statewide shelter-in-place orders enacted in mid-March and the closure of beaches on March 24, days after Fourth of July-sized crowds thronged the Sonoma Coast for the weekend after being asked to stay home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

“We have a lot of local support,” Martin said. “This business has been here for 35 years; it’s not going anywhere.

Statewide and regional stay-at-home orders haven’t kept away everyone, though. Before noon on Saturday, Martin had spoken to one customer who had traveled to Bodega Bay from Sacramento, she said. Last weekend, a group of motorcyclists from Colorado visited the store.

Customers from Napa, other parts of the Bay Area and Sacramento County were a common sight, often stopping to ask staff whether it was likely they’d be able to enter nearby beaches, Martin said.

“I tell them, ‘nope, nope, nope, there’s a fine,” she said, referring to the potential $1,000 penalty for people who violate the county’s health order. “They don’t seem to understand the whole shelter-in-place thing, or they don’t care.”

Overall, Bodega Bay residents and business owners say they’ve largely avoided the massive crowds that swarmed Sonoma County beaches after the start of the local shelter orders.

Some mention the state and county park rangers who station themselves in front of popular beach entrances on weekends, causing most cars to turn around immediately. Orange cones block areas along the west side of Highway 1 north of Bodega Bay with enough room for cars to pull over, serving as another physical deterrent. Other deterrents are not as obvious.

“Everything is closed and there’s nowhere for them to sit and eat,” said Alicia Ginochio of Ginochio’s Kitchen near the town’s Porto Bodega Marina and RV Park.

In the Bodega Harbour subdivision near Doran Regional Park, there hasn’t been a noticeable influx of people driving to the community to enter beaches from trails in the area since the pandemic began, said Catherine Pochari, a 20-year resident of the neighborhood who on Saturday morning was walking with her son. Private security guards seem to be making their rounds more often, her son chimed in.

“I expected a to see a lot of COVID refugees here, but that’s stopped,” Pochari said, explaining that landlords were banned from renting out homes to vacationers during the pandemic.“It’s been empty.”

Weather can have a big impact on the number of people who travel to the area, said Thomas Johnke, a park aide for the Sonoma County State Park. He tallied each car that drove toward the Bodega Head beach entrance, which he was blocking with his car and orange traffic cones. The number was up to 60 by 1 p.m., which was lower than he’d expected but made sense given the cloudy skies, he said. The number was closer to 200 by the same time a week prior, when the weather was warmer.

“It’s not locals coming out here, in fact, it’s locals that are calling the cops on everybody,” Johnke said. “Most people are very reasonable and understanding of why we’re out here and why parks are closed.”

Pat Viboonlarp and Stefan Brunnschweiler, a couple from Alameda County, were one of the families who tried to access Bodega Head by car Saturday, only to turn around after seeing Johnke at the roadblock.

The pair was accompanied by Viboonlarp’s brother and his partner, who were visiting from Los Angeles. They planned to visit one of their favorite restaurants in Bodega Bay, but learned it was closed when they arrived.

Viboonlarp said the group was not concerned that they might catch or spread the coronavirus on their trip.

“It’s just family, we drove straight here from our home and only stopped to get gas.”

Brunnschweiler added that he supported the loosening of shelter-in-place restrictions for beaches as long as people practiced social distancing and wore face coverings.

“If they want to wear masks at the beach, fine,” he said.

Sonoma County Regional Parks Director Bert Whitaker said his agency, state park rangers and local law enforcement expected to speak with Sonoma County Health Officer Sundari Mase this week about the Sonoma Coast closure this week. So far, his rangers were primarily educating people about the public health order and issued citations only for the most egregious violations. Much of their focus over the weekend was away from the county’s coastline, at the county parks that opened to the public Wednesday.

“We’ve got skeletal resources on the coast to keep an eye on things, and all other resources are inland in facilities that are open now,” Whitaker said.