Shelter Island Webcam – Watch San Diego Bay from Bali Hai

The Shelter Island Webcam looks north from the Bali Hai Restaurant on Shelter Island in San Diego, California, across a calm stretch of San Diego Bay. Palm fronds and the restaurant’s waterfront terrace fill the bottom of the frame, and a white gangway drops over the rock seawall to an L-shaped floating dock. Past the dock, open water runs to a low far shore of warehouses and parked vehicles, with sailboat masts and hillside neighborhoods rising behind it in the haze. The planes climbing away in the distance have just left San Diego International Airport, also known as Lindbergh Field, and the sound on the stream is the airport tower frequency, so you can hear departures being cleared while you watch the bay.

About Shelter Island

Shelter Island is not a natural island. It began as a sandbank in San Diego Bay that showed only at low tide. From 1934, dredged material was piled onto it, and wartime Navy dredging for a deeper harbor channel built it up further. In the late 1940s the San Diego Harbor Commission used more spoil to join it to Point Loma, raising the ground to about 4.3 meters (14 feet) above low tide. The finished strip is about 1.9 kilometers (1.2 miles) long. Hotels, marinas and restaurants went up through the 1950s, and a city overlay zone still asks every building here to follow a Polynesian theme, the reason for the carved tiki post and wooden chairs at the bottom of the frame.

The camera sits at the Bali Hai, 2230 Shelter Island Drive, on the island’s northern tip. The building opened in 1953 as one of the Christian’s Hut restaurants and became the Bali Hai in 1954, when Tom Ham took over the struggling business. A carved headhunter figure known as Mr. Bali Hai has guarded the front entrance since Ham’s first year, and his family carried the restaurant on after his death in 1973. In 1971 Ham also opened Tom Ham’s Lighthouse on Harbor Island, across the water to the northeast.

San Diego International Airport lies about 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) northeast of the restaurant, and the operator notes that the planes seen taking off in the distance are its departures. The feed comes from San Diego Web Cam, a channel paid for entirely by its viewers, which also runs cameras on the Shelter Island Pier and at Tom Ham’s Lighthouse.

Weather and Climate on Shelter Island

The weather on this part of the bay is mild in every month. At Lindbergh Field, the official station a short way across the water, January averages a high of 19.1 C (66.4 F) and a low of 10.2 C (50.3 F). Rain totals only 249 millimeters (9.79 inches) a year and falls mostly from December through March, so winter is the season most likely to bring rain clouds over the far shore. August is the warmest month, with highs of 25.2 C (77.3 F) and lows of 19.7 C (67.5 F), and October stays warm at 23.7 C (74.6 F).

Late spring brings the local pattern known as May Gray and June Gloom, when a marine layer of low cloud and fog settles over the coast in the morning and can hang on into the afternoon. On those days the hills behind the far shore may fade out completely and the water can look flat and gray. From September through April, Santa Ana winds push dry desert air toward the coast on about 10 days a year. The bay itself warms from about 15 C (59 F) in January to 22 C (72 F) in August.

Things to Do Near Shelter Island

Shelter Island Shoreline Park runs for about 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) along the bay side of the island. The Yokohama Friendship Bell, a gift from San Diego’s sister city in Japan in 1958, is a bronze bell 1.8 meters (6 feet) high with no clapper inside; it is struck with a wooden ram hung beside it. Tunaman’s Memorial, Franco Vianello’s 1988 bronze of three fishermen hauling in a tuna, stands before a black granite wall listing tuna fishermen lost at sea, a reminder that San Diego was once the Pacific headquarters of the tuna fleet. Pacific Rim Park holds James Hubbell’s Pearl of the Pacific fountain, and Fathom Bistro, Bait and Tackle sits at the end of the Shelter Island Pier, a small tap house and bait shop under one roof.

Several outfits on the island put visitors on the water. Action Sports Rentals rents out boats, boards and bikes, Learn to Sail San Diego teaches sailing on the bay, and Next Level Sailing runs whale-watching excursions. The Kona Kai Resort was the first development on the island, and Humphreys Half Moon Inn is known for its outdoor summer concerts by the bay. Cabrillo National Monument sits about 5.6 kilometers (3.5 miles) to the south as the crow flies, near the tip of the Point Loma peninsula.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Shelter Island located?

This Shelter Island is in San Diego, California, on the west side of San Diego Bay. It is a narrow peninsula joined to Point Loma, about 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) southwest of San Diego International Airport. It is not the Shelter Island at the eastern end of Long Island in New York.

What can you see on the Shelter Island Webcam?

The camera faces north from the Bali Hai Restaurant. Palms and the terrace sit in the foreground, a gangway leads down to a floating dock, and open water runs to a far shore of warehouses, boat masts and hillside neighborhoods. Planes departing San Diego International Airport climb away in the distance.

What is the weather like on Shelter Island?

Mild all year. January highs average 19.1 C (66.4 F) and August highs 25.2 C (77.3 F) at nearby Lindbergh Field, rain falls mostly from December to March, and May and June often bring morning fog and low cloud.

Why can you hear air traffic control on the Shelter Island Webcam?

The operator streams the San Diego International Airport tower frequency as the audio, so the radio calls you hear belong to the same airport whose departures climb out in the distance of the view.

Is Shelter Island in San Diego a real island?

Not anymore. It began as a sandbank that appeared only at low tide, was built up with dredged material from 1934 and was joined to Point Loma in the late 1940s.

How old is the Bali Hai restaurant on Shelter Island?

The building opened in 1953 as a Christian’s Hut restaurant and took the Bali Hai name in 1954, when Tom Ham took it over. It is one of the oldest classic mid-century tiki restaurants still in business.

Source: San Diego Web Cam