Bill Jansen

Bill Jansen’s on my mind.  According to his wife, Linda, he passed away quietly in a nap. There will be a memorial for him late in June.

A favorite regular at Quinn’s Lighthouse. Bill and his friend Al discovered chantey singing at the Whale’s Tale on Alameda Island where they stopped in after working on boats in Ballina Bay. There they first discovered the Sons of the Buccaneers with Banjo Jim, Steve Wainwright, and myself. They followed us to Quinn’s while Skip was away sailing his schooner through Panama. Bill sailed in every Thursday night like clockwork with a different crew each week till Quinn’s closed for Covid. When he was moved we all loved to hear him lead, “It’s all part of being a pirate“.

On his way from his home port of Alameda he would sail down the Estuary and back to Jack London Square for happy hour at Scott’s Seafood and then to Quinn’s After 10pm he’d sail back to Heinhold’s First and Last Chance Saloon, firing off his cannon at Black Boat Faye on the way to charm her neighbors.

— from a Facebook post by Mordechai Ben Herschel 4/14/2026.