About the Book

A deeply personal nine-year account of the lives of the “anchor-outs”—an unhoused community living off the California coast on abandoned boats—that explores the struggles and resilience of those surviving on the fringes of society.

In the wake of the financial crisis, the number of anchor-outs living in Richardson Bay more than doubles as their long-simmering feud with the wealthy residents of Marin County—one of the richest counties in the country—finally boils over. Many of the shoreline’s well-heeled yacht club members and mansion owners blame their unhoused neighbors for rising crime on the waterfront. Meanwhile, local politicians accuse them of destroying the Bay Area’s marine ecosystem and demand their eviction. When the pandemic breaks out, a slew of city and regional authorities heed the call: they seize and crush the anchor-outs’ boats, arresting dissenters as they dismantle one of the nation’s oldest unhoused communities.

Kloc’s near-decade-long firsthand account of the joys, hardships, and eventual demise of the anchor-outs is in many ways the story of being poor in America. Examining the profit-driven policies that exacerbate the contemporary housing crisis, Lost at Sea weaves together tales of comradery and survival on the anchorage with the rich history of the region, from the creation of unspeakable wealth during the San Francisco Gold Rush era to the aftermath of the devastating earthquake and fire of 1906, when the first unhoused people dropped their anchors in Marin County.

Along the way, Kloc discovers the quiet beauty of the world the anchor-outs built: how they’ve learned to care for each other, band together to fend off real estate developers and NIMBY neighbors, and fight for a way of life that is entirely unrecognizable to those on shore. Lost at Sea explores the often overlooked world of poverty and homelessness that exists in even the wealthiest enclaves of America, where people who have fallen on hard times struggle to rebuild their lives among those who would rather just wish them away.

Critical Praise

“A magisterial but unsentimental journey.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Hardscrabble lives can be lived on water, too, as Joe Kloc shows in this exploration of the floating world of Sausalito’s ‘anchor-outs.’ Spending nights on their vessels and at the places they congregate on shore, he sets flashes of beautiful, eccentric humanity in a sober context of the history of the Bay Area, in particular its current housing crisis. Kloc is a smart and sympathetic witness to a precarious life in which these singular off-gridders, who ask for little more than to be ignored, seem like stowaways on their own boats.” — Ted Conover, author of Cheap Land Colorado and Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing

“In Lost At Sea, reporter Joe Kloc deftly leads us into and through the world of these housing insecure urban boat dwellers, vulnerable and colorful, as they attempt to find pleasure and beauty in the shadow of the failed American dream. It’s the most beguiling tale about houseboat dwellers since Penelope Fitzgerald’s classic Offshore.” — Alissa Quart, author of Squeezed and Bootstrapped

“Lost at Sea is an invaluable account of an unconventional community struggling to stay afloat. The story of the anchor-outs will resonate with all Americans, even the land-locked.” — Malcolm Harris, author of What’s Left and Palo Alto

“The depth of Joe Kloc’s reporting made me understand the history of California’s anchor-outs and the stakes of their fight against their millionaire neighbors and their local government. The vividness of his writing, meanwhile, made me care deeply about his characters—the pensioners, street preachers, and hemp farmers whose lives on the edges of our society are too often left out of stories about wealthy areas like the Bay Area.” — Megan Greenwell, author of Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream

“An absorbing chronicle of inequality in America. Kloc is a great writer and his careful attention to compelling details of place and speech—and to the rhythm of days and nights spent floating on the water—will make you feel like you’re bobbing on the bay with his characters through the last days of their outcast community.” — Anthony McCann, author of Shadowlands: Fear and Freedom at the Oregon Standoff

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Product Details

• ISBN: 9780063061699
• ISBN 10: 0063061694
• Imprint: Dey Street Books
• On Sale: 04/15/2025
• Pages: 272
• List Price:40.50 CAD
• BISAC1 : HISTORY / United States / State & Local / West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY)
• BISAC2 : SOCIAL SCIENCE / Regional Studies
• BISAC3 : SOCIAL SCIENCE / Poverty & Homelessness
• BISAC4 : SOCIAL SCIENCE / Social Classes

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