Check out the Lyra Leader, a massive box-like car-carrying ship as it heads down San Diego Bay toward the National City Marine Terminal. These cool, very unusual type of roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ships are often seen passing close to downtown. They’re bringing in thousands of new cars from Asia–Japan and South Korea–which are driven off a ramp into a massive parking lot. Many of the vehicles are then loaded into car-carrying freight trains and sent off toward their final destinations.
In this photograph, note the active aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson docked at the North Island naval base on the left.
UPDATE–I finally got a couple more pics of another ship while I was crossing San Diego Bay on the ferry. All the passengers were excited to be so close to the massive thing!
Sailboats, skyscrapers and one super enormous ship!Swift Ace car transport ship leaves San Diego Bay.
ANOTHER UPDATE–Here are more photos that I took at later times…
Sailboats pass live bait fishing boat docked at Tuna Harbor pier.
Venture anywhere along San Diego Bay and you’re in for a show!
Look at these pics of huge blue fishing boats, colorful sailboats, and the big gray Navy ships glimpsed in the distance!
Of course, sailboats are easily recognized, and everyone loves watching them dance on the big bay. On any given day you’ll see many white sails. Often you’ll see a group of sailboats racing together, tacking, tilting, running on the sea breeze.
The big blue fishing boats with the square wells that we seem to be standing beside are commercial live bait boats docked at Tuna Harbor’s G Street Pier. Seine nets are utilized to gather schools of small fish, which are then dumped into the deep wells. The live bait is then used by fishermen who depart from several sportfishing locations around San Diego. Pelicans, egrets, black-crowned night herons and gulls often perch on the sides of idle live bait boats. Perhaps they think something tasty will magically appear!
The distant Navy ships are an oiler and two active aircraft carriers docked at Naval Air Station North Island, situated on the northern half of Coronado Island. The two homeported carriers that you can glimpse are the USS Carl Vinson and the USS Ronald Reagan.
Sailboats pass a commercial live bait fishing boat.Seine net with floats stretches along edge of Tuna Harbor pier.Sailboats and a Navy oiler docked at North Island in the background.Pelican and gulls on the edge of the Tuna Harbor pier.Small sailboat passes live bait boat on San Diego Bay.The rusted bridge of a live bait catching fishing boat.Dangling ropes and the seine net coiled on a huge cylinder-like winch drum.Live bait boat Cougar docked at the picturesque Tuna Harbor pier on San Diego Bay.Snowy egret perched on square well perhaps hopes to find a fish.One live bait boat is named Rival.Cougar tied to G Street Pier between watery hunts for small fish.San Diego Bay and many colorful boats!