Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Monday, November 14, 2005

Spiderweb of lines connects the sails

Note the red-shirted crewmember. Posted by Picasa

Royals sheeted home, she's under full sail!

A big moment for the crew. Under full sail she reached a speed of around 8 knots, not shabby for the light wind. Posted by Picasa

Up royals!

The Star is about to reach full sail, with the setting of the fore and main royals. Posted by Picasa

Before setting the royals

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Oldest operational sailing vessel - the Star of India

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Bow of the Star of India, with the Californian in the distance

That's the Californian off in the fog, the State Ship of California.

http://www.californian.org/ says:
"The Californian is a re-creation of the C.W. Lawrence, a Revenue Service cutter built in Washington D.C. in 1848. In 1849, the C.W. Lawrence under the command of Captain Alexander Fraser was sent to California to secure revenue, relieve distressed merchant vessels and to make scientific investigations of the harbors." Posted by Picasa

End of turn, part 5 of 5

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Turning, part 4 of 5

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Turning, part 3 of 5

Majestic! Posted by Picasa

Turning, part 2 of 5

Stern view. Note heel to starboard. Posted by Picasa

Starting turn, part 1 of 5

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The flying jibs

If I get the names of any sails wrong, I'm sure to hear about it from Paul, so will correct when and if. Posted by Picasa

Star on the opposite tack

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She comes about

She's coming about, about to change to the opposite tack. Note the slight heel from the light wind. Posted by Picasa

The sun breaks thru on the Star

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Wet passengers wait out the fog

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The Star towers into the fog

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Star of India, ghost ship

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Star Of India looms out of the fog

After about half an hour in the fog, the Star looms out of the fog. Quite an eerie sight. Hard to tell, but the sails are set. The VIP guests on the packed poop deck are all getting soaked as water drips off the sails.
My boss Paul Koenig, a crew member for years, told me this morning that they were worried about dropping the tow rope from the tug boat, because they don't have a legal fog horn. But minutes before the fog lifted, they just dropped it and set sail... Positive thinking did the trick. Posted by Picasa

Pt Loma, as we were leaving the harbor - fog!

As the Hornblower Pacific heads out to open sea, we get a glimps of a giant fog bank rolling over Point Loma. The Star has preceded us and is out there somewhere... A few minutes later we're completely socked in. The boat has to slow down, greatly increasing the roll. People are staggering around and the fog horn is sounding once a minute. The Captain announces that he's not sure where the Star is. Good thing we have radar and strong stomachs. Posted by Picasa

Californian on way out of harbor

Here's the Calofornian, state ship of California, on the way out of the Harbor. Posted by Picasa

Star of India being towed out of the harbor

We had breakfast on Coronado and took the ferry over to the waterfront to pick up the Hornblower special tour that followed the Star. On the way over we caught her as she was being towed away from her anchorage. This was about 9:45AM. Note the tugboat. Posted by Picasa