Pelicans hover at Star's bowsprit

 

Star of India with Pelicans!

The star was under full sail when this string of pelicans flew along side, nicely seen against the white sails. The crowning moment of a great sail. 

Spiderweb of lines connects the sails

Note the red-shirted crewmember. 

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. 

Up royals!

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

Before setting the royals

 

Oldest operational sailing vessel - the Star of India

 

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." 

End of turn, part 5 of 5

Turning, part 4 of 5

 

Turning, part 3 of 5

Majestic! 

Turning, part 2 of 5

Stern view. Note heel to starboard. 

Starting turn, part 1 of 5

 

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. 

Star on the opposite tack

 

She comes about

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

The sun breaks thru on the Star

 

Wet passengers wait out the fog

 

The Star towers into the fog

 

Star of India, ghost ship

 

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. 

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. 

Californian on way out of harbor

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

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. 

A crocodile posed cooperatively at the San Diego Zoo