Crew members of Gutsy Lady were on the deck of their fishing boat gutting fish this morning for the Saturday Tuna Harbor Dockside Market!
They were cleaning their fresh catch to be sold to anyone in San Diego who enjoys a healthy, tasty meal.
Gutsy Lady’s captain told me they are based in San Diego, after having made Honolulu their home. They sell fish to restaurants and dockside buyers. Every part of their catch is eagerly bought, fish heads and all!
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Well over a thousand volunteers came out this morning to clean up San Diego Bay. Operation Clean Sweep was well underway when I walked down to the water!
I saw families between Grape and Laurel Street on the boardwalk and among the shoreline rocks filling bags with litter. I was told 14 tons of garbage was removed from San Diego Bay during the clean up event last year!
Operation Clean Sweep is made possible by volunteers, local businesses and the Port of San Diego.
Thank you for protecting the environment and keeping San Diego beautiful!
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When hundreds of thousands of people come together for a good time, that’s a very, very big party. An epic party of that size was held around San Diego Bay today, as folks from all over converged on the waterfront to watch the Big Bay Boom fireworks display and celebrate the 250th birthday of America! Not your everyday Fourth of July!
I’ve never seen so much humanity crowded onto the Embarcadero. Even as I left, shortly after nightfall, people were still arriving from seemingly every direction–filling the boardwalks, Embarcadero Marina Park South and North, the steps of the San Diego Convention Center, Seaport Village, the USS Midway, nearby piers, Waterfront Park…
These America 250 photos were taken as I walked south from the Grape Street Pier to the Rady Shell (where a concert featuring all-American music was being held).
People are more interesting than fireworks to me, so my photos mostly focus on those who came down to San Diego Bay for a patriotic party like no other…
As you can see, the new Ringer’s roller skating rink in Seaport Village is now finished. It opened yesterday!
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A pirate ship was observed this afternoon sailing through San Diego Bay. What were these pirates up to?
The pirate ship pursued tiny, helpless sailboats competing in a regatta. The rascals!
Fortunately, the shore battery on the barge behind the Maritime Museum of San Diego noticed the mayhem. A gunner quickly prepared several cannons.
(Yes, the Carl Vinson aircraft carrier was entering the bay at the time. Did they notice these sneaky pirates?)
Cleaning the cannons and inserting cartridges with a ramrod.
Two swords and an axe were kept within reach. Just in case dangerous pirates must be repelled hand to hand.
Uh, oh. The pirate ship has come about and is steering toward the Maritime Museum’s defensive shore battery!
A shot is fired across the pirate ship’s bow! Will the brazen invaders retreat?
They promptly fire back with a ship’s gun!
The shore battery fires once again. Is there any hope for San Diego?
A miss! The situation now appears hopeless!
We wave the white flag and surrender!
Fortunately, those swords weren’t put to use. The pirate ship, triumphant, would sail away in search of treasure at Skull Island.
OKAY! What happened here?
Maritime Museum of San Diego visitors on the barge got to watch a sailing adventure that takes place on their Spanish galleon replica San Salvador. The fun shipboard event is an interactive experience called Boarded!
Families and kids sail with a crew of pirates out on San Diego Bay. This hilarious interactive pirate show in San Diego puts visitors right in the middle of the action. Participants will be sworn in as part of the ship’s crew, trained how to navigate, sword fight, bail water from a sinking ship, escape from the King’s Jail, swab the deck, and learn other pirate skills.
Whew! I was worried there for a moment!
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If you’ve wondered what it was like to sail into San Diego Bay on a Spanish galleon back in the 16th century, you have the opportunity to enjoy the amazing experience!
San Salvador, the seaworthy replica galleon built by the Maritime Museum of San Diego, sails out of downtown San Diego a couple time a month, taking visitors on a memorable adventure on the water!
San Salvador, a full size replica of the Spanish galleon flagship used by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo to explore the California coast in 1542, was built by the museum back around 2015 on the shore of Spanish Landing. You can see photos of its construction here.
Today, passengers board the ship at the museum and typically enjoy a four hour sail off Point Loma. That’s what I did yesterday!
The trip was nearly a sell-out, so between passengers and about a dozen crew members, the galleon was quite lively. It really became lively out on the open ocean, when the round hulled galleon really rocked and rolled! (If you are susceptible to motion sickness, take a Dramamine in advance of your journey, and keep your eyes on the horizon.)
One cool aspect of the trip was everyone learned a lot about the history of Cabrillo’s exploration, Spanish conquistadors, and San Diego as it was many centuries ago.
During the sail, I recommend hanging out on either the raised foredeck or quarterdeck, where you have the best views and can watch the dynamic crew working the sails and yards.
After Captain David briefed the passengers on safety, we were on our way through San Diego Bay using San Salvador‘s two diesel engines. Because galleons are square rigged, you can’t sail into the wind. On the way back into the bay from the Pacific Ocean, we sailed with the wind and didn’t taken our sails down until back near the Embarcadero.
Okay, let’s see some photos!
We are ready to pull away from the Maritime Museum’s barge…
Here we go! I started out by standing near a foredeck ladder looking back at the shrinking San Diego skyline.
I climbed up onto the foredeck…
Crew members getting to work…
I shifted my position to the quarterdeck. You can see the whole ship from here and observe the captain, who was standing near me.
That guy in the open window is the helmsman. From a sheltered spot he can observe the sails and way forward, while manually steering San Salvador under orders from the captain. He uses a vertical lever whipstaff to move the tiller, which turns the rudder.
A sail is being readied from the foredeck.
There’s Spike Africa! The schooner participated in last weekend’s Schooner Cup race, which I enjoyed from aboard Bill of Rights. See those photos here!
Heading out to sea down the channel, with North Island on our port side. A sailboat was watching us! Captain David is still using the diesel engines.
Almost out into the Pacific Ocean. That’s the New Point Loma Lighthouse down by the water.
Shortly before, we saluted Cabrillo National Monument by firing one of the galleon’s swivel guns. Fingers in ears can’t hold the camera!
It turned out to be a perfect, partly cloudy day.
We’re starting to roll! Hanging on!
Many hands raising the galleon’s sails…
Now I’m looking rearward from the quarterdeck.
Some folks headed down to the lower main deck where the rolling is less severe.
Lots of exciting action closeby!
A sailboat ahead requires a steering maneuver.
A NOAA research ship was also heading down the channel away from San Diego.
If you want, you can train to become a volunteer crew member on the Maritime Museum of San Diego’s amazing tall ships!
We’re being slowly propelled forward by wind power! Galleons aren’t terribly fast. We managed 3 knots. (That’s about 3 1/2 miles per hour–the speed at which I walk!) Imagine being an explorer in the 16th century rolling about on the open ocean moving at this quite modest speed!
There are various places where passengers can safely sit during the voyage.
After we tacked and began sailing back toward Point Loma, I headed to the galleon’s beak.
I turned around…
We are under sail almost all the way back to the museum. Once we enter San Diego Bay, it’s much smoother sailing! This is the life.
Now I headed once more to the foredeck…
Looking down at the beak as yards are squared to capture the wind from our rear.
There’s Spike Africa again, off of Harbor Island!
We all raise a lusty cheer for Spike Africa. Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!
After a few moments, they return the cheer!
If you’d like to enjoy a similar adventure, check out San Salvador‘s webpage by clicking here!
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Three classes of schooner raced from a point off Shelter Island, out of San Diego Bay through the channel, around a couple of buoy markers, and back.
I was privileged to be aboard Bill of Rights out of Chula Vista. Our primary opponent of similar size during the Schooner Cup was Californian of the Maritime Museum of San Diego.
Bill of Rights began its journey out of Chula Vista Harbor under its diesel engine. At this time we got our sails ready. Once the race began under watch of the SGYC Race Committee boat off Shelter Island, it was all wind power!
Several dozen people were aboard–crew members plus passengers–and many volunteer hands were employed pulling on lines when raising the sails and tacking during the race. The ship’s dog Justice kept watch on all the activity!
I took lots of photos!
Mind you, I’m a complete novice when it comes to sailing. I asked a bunch of questions, and I hope my descriptions here have been accurate.
Who won? As of this moment I don’t know where to find the results. (UPDATE–they’re now on the Schooner Cup webpage.)
As I understand it, we DNFed because we missed our first mark! (UPDATE–we sailed the wrong course!) No matter. It was a fun, wonderful day for all on an amazing, historic tall ship, sailing out on the sunlit water.
My photographs begin as we start out from Chula Vista Harbor…
We’re near Shelter Island, where the various schooners are sailing around before the race begins…
Maneuvering for position as the America’s Schooner Cup race is about to begin!
Here we go!
Soon after this dramatic moment out on the Pacific Ocean, the schooners chose different tacks and became widely separated. No more close up photos of our competitors.
Finally, sailing back into San Diego Bay. That’s Justice the ship’s dog keeping lookout!
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The impressive 17 deck, 2770 passenger cruise ship, which launched in September last year, arrived in San Diego this month to begin operations on the West Coast. The adults only Virgin Voyages ship will be cruising down to Mexico and up to Alaska. It’s the fourth ship in the Virgin Voyages fleet.
I saw the new cruise ship this morning docked at San Diego’s Broadway Pier.
These metal benches line the boardwalk behind the San Diego Convention Center. They face San Diego Bay. They were commissioned in 2008 and created by noted artist Nance O’Banion.
As her website explains: Nance produced 13 original designs, each of which was fabricated, once in its original form and once as a ‘mirror image’, in plasma-cut powder-coated steel. The installation of 26 art benches was titled Reverie.
I took these photos yesterday…
Today, a plaque can be seen embedded in the boardwalk near the benches, very close to the entrance to the Fifth Avenue Landing Superyacht Marina. It resembles the Reverie plaque shown in the gallery on Nance O’Banion’s website. The plaque includes her name and the same 2008 year.
But the title of the current plaque is different!
Why is the title Caesure, and not the original Reverie?
At some point, was the name of the installation changed to Caesure? The Latin word caesūra means “a cutting” or “a separation,” which might apply to the mirrored bench designs, or possibly how these benches were made.
Or . . . does Caesure concern another work of public art somewhere nearby? If so, what and where?
It’s a mystery with no solution that I can find!
If you know more about the history of this art bench installation, and why there have been different plaques with two different titles, please leave a comment!
UPDATE!
During a later walk along the boardwalk, I spotted a plaque titled Reverie. So that leaves the question: What was/is the public art titled Caesure?
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