The official tall ship of the State of California, the Californian, aims her bowsprit to pass beneath the Oakland Bay Bridge.
Yesterday we traveled to San Francisco by sea, taking the wonderful high speed catamaran ferry out of Vallejo. If one has to go to "the City" it's the best way to get there from here as it eliminates all of the horrible traffic, the excessive tolls to cross the bridges, and even the time involved. It's a delightful one-hour ride from the extreme northern end of the bay to "Baghdad by the Bay."
We didn't go to just fill a need for fresh crab or egg rolls in China Town. No, our goal was more selfish, at least on my part, as the TALL SHIPS are paying a visit to The Bay. Well, some of the ships on display are locals still there were others that had voyaged considerable distances to show off for we fans of sail.
Notably amongst this latter group is the U.S. Coast Guard training vessel Eagle (officially rated as a Barque due to the fore and aft sailplan on her mizzen). She had sailed through the Panama Canal from the left coast to be a part of the celebration. This regal old lady still struts the light fantastic on a breezy San Francisco Bay Afternoon.As far as the sailing vessels were concerned, the only one in the parade that could legitimately be called a ship was the three-masted Bounty. A sailing vessel is only a ship when it has three masts, each rigged with square sails. Originally built for the filming of the film "Mutiny on the Bounty" starring
Marlon Brando in 1960, she currently is privately owned and sails frequently while participating in tall ship events around the world.A recreation of one of the vessels sailing in the fleet used by Christopher Columbus, La Nina, sails along the San Francisco waterfront.
Also featured was the Jeremiah O'Brien, the WWII era Liberty Ship, one of only two (or is it three?) still operational. Lovingly restored and home-ported in San Francisco, she plied the waters, sans sails of course, thrilling the many hard-working volunteers aboard as she was loudly hailed by the thousands of onlookers along the shore.
It was a wonderful day and, though the parade of tall ships was not as large as that I've seen covered on television news programs throughout the years, it was still a thrill for me to watch them glide bye. Thanks to everyone who worked to make this event such a neat sight to see.
