Port/Harbor Conditions

Anchorages

Vessels waiting outside the entrance for a pilot will find good anchorage in 11 meters or more southeast of the entrance to the channel although permission to anchor in the restricted area must be obtained from the local naval authorities. The area in the lee of Point Loma, south of Ballast Point and west of the east line of the project channel, is reserved for pilot boats and harbor patrol or U.S. Government craft. All the numbered mooring buoys in the bay are for use by the U.S. Navy.

The anchorage grounds for general use include all the navigable waters of the harbor except cable and pipeline areas, the special anchorages, and the Naval Restricted Areas.

Vessels anchoring in portions of the harbor other than the areas excepted in the above paragraph shall leave a free passage for other craft and shall not unreasonably obstruct the appproaches to the wharves in the harbor.

Quarantine, Customs and Immigration

Pleasure craft and yachts subject to such inspections can make arrangements through the Harbor Police at Shelter Island. Officials usually board documented vessels at their berths. Small commercial vessels and fishing boats are boarded at the B Street Pier. Pleasure craft are boarded at the police berth at Shelter Island. Quarantine is enforced in accordance with regulations of the U.S. Public Health Service.

Tides and Currents

The mean range of tide is 1.25 meters at San Diego, and the diurnal range of tide is 1.74 meters. A range of about 2.44 meters may occur at the time of maximum tides. Daily predictions are given in the Tide Tables.

The currents set generally in the direction of the channels. In the vicinity of the entrance the usual velocity varies from 0.5 to 3 knots depending upon the stage of the tide. South of the end of the jetty there is a slight set toward Zuniga Shoal on the ebb. Great care should be taken while passing Ballast Point as a vessel may take a sudden sheer because of a crosscurrent deflected from Ballast Point.

The eddy usually encountered along the ends of the municipal piers makes docking difficult. The velocity and direction of the eddy are irregular, and the greatest care must be exercised by even the most experienced.

Bridges

A fixed, high-level, steel and reinforced concrete highway bridge, the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge, spans San Diego Bay, approximately 0.55 kilometers south of the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal. This bridge extends from Cesar E. Chavez Parkway in San Diego to Fourth Street in Coronado. The bridge has three major spans—two spans over the navigation channel, each with vertical clearance of 59.5 meters at MLLW and a clear width of meters, and one span at the pierhead line with a vertical clearance of 53.3 meters at MLLW and a clear width of 152.4 meters

Weather Conditions

In the San Diego Bay area, the prevailing winds and weather are tempered by the Pacific Ocean, with the result that summers are cool and winters warm in comparison with other places along the same general latitude.

A marked feature of the climate is the wide variation in temperature within short distances. In nearby valleys, daytimes are much warmer in summers, nights are noticeably cooler in winter, and freezing occurs much more frequently than in the city. Although records show unusually small daily temperature ranges, averaging only about 7.2° C between the highest and lowest readings, a few miles inland these ranges increase to 16.6° C or more.

Seventy-five percent of the rainfall occurs from November through March, but wide variations take place in monthly and seasonal totals.

Bay Pilots

San Diego Bay is served by the San Diego Bay Pilots Association, Inc. The pilot office and boat monitor VHF-FM channel 16 (156.80 MHz) one hour prior to a vessel’s scheduled arrival. VHF-FM channel 12 (156.60 MHz) is used as a working frequency. Arrangements for pilots are made by telephone (619.233.3096) or by calling “Pilot San Diego” by radio; the pilots request the incoming vessel’s estimated time of arrival and draft. A 2-hour advance notice is required if any changes occur.

Pilots board vessels in the vicinity of San Diego Bay Approach Lighted Whistle Buoy 1 (32° 37.3’N, 117° 14.7’W). When boarding, pilots request vessels maintain a speed of 7 knots and rig the pilot ladder about one meter above the water on the starboard side or as directed by the pilot.

Entering the Harbor

A jetty extends 1.6 kilometers south on Zuniga Shoal from Zuniga Point, the southwest extremity of North Island. The outer two-thirds of the jetty has only small sections visible at high water; the submerged jetty is marked by lights and by a light and fog signal at its seaward end. A submerged jetty extends about 200 meters west from Zuniga Point.

When entering the harbor, Buoy 5 and Ballast Point are easily identified targets, thence Shelter Island, the radar reflector on North Island, and the various piers on either side of the channel; thence Harbor Island, the Coast Guard station pier, B Street Pier, and the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal. Click on the "read more" link for specific information.

Location and General Description

The port of San Diego is on San Diego Bay in southern California, about 96 and 455 nautical miles southeast of Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively, and just north of the United States-Mexico boundary line. By State law, the port area is under the jurisdiction of the San Diego Unified Port District and includes corporate areas of the cities of Coronado, San Diego, National City, Chula Vista and Imperial Beach.

San Diego Bay is a landlocked, crescent-shaped bay about 22.5 kilometers long and from 487 to 3,660 meters wide, with an area of about 46.6 square kilometers at half tide. It is separated from the Pacific Ocean by a low, narrow sandspit that extends in a northwesterly direction from the mainland and expands at its outer end (North Island) to a width of about 2.57 kilometers. The City of San Diego is on the north and northeastern side of the bay; National City and Chula Vista are south of San Diego on the east side of the southern part of the bay; and Coronado is on the southeasterly side of San Diego Bay. The opening to San Diego Bay from the ocean is between Point Loma—a high-ridged peninsula on the west—and North Island on the east. Vessels enter the bay through the Entrance Channel, which passes Ballast Point on the east side of Point Loma and a jetty extending southward from Zuniga Point of the southwest extremity of North Island.

When making the approach to San Diego Bay, useful radar targets are San Clemente Island, Los Coronados, the pleasure piers at Imperial Beach and Ocean Beach, the jetties of Mission Bay, Point Loma and Ballast Point.