Bay Area houseboat's whimsical relocation mirrors the magic of ‘Up'

This wasn't your normal moving day.

A two-story home was floated from Redwood City to a new spot in Sausalito.

The marine move across the Bay left an impression that won't soon drift away.

"It reminds me of when I watched the movie 'Up,' except this time it is more like down on the waves," Tommy Breeze of Marin said.

The home's journey started Monday morning at Docktown at the Redwood City Marina.

The floating home was one of the last remaining houseboats after a legal battle to evict dozens of people ended with many residents settling with the city and promising to relocate.

New neighbors at the Commodore Marina in Sausalito gathered to watch the boat come in.

They said they’ve been anxiously waiting for it to arrive.

"It was about midnight when it was supposed to come in and people where like, 'Where is it?!' Phil Hott of Sausalito said.

The trip took a little longer than expected. According to the new owner, they ran into some complications, forcing the home to spend the night floating in Richardson Bay.

Hott said moving a houseboat is no easy task.

"It was up a twisty channel, so you have to have the tide right and you have to come down without the wind blowing you into the bank," he said. "These things are very heavy. Then it has to travel through the Bay. And the winds and the tide changes and the current is going out. You don’t want it to drag you out to the Golden Gate Bridge."

The next step in the process is movers have to actually wait for another high tide to ensure the waterline is high enough to swap the old houseboat for the new one.

"It's all about timing," Hott said. "When it comes in here, you have to have a tide over a certain height. You don’t want it to get halfway and stuck."