Entry date 7 July 2008, Time: 2354.
Location: 32.76N -117.19W,
Peter Durdaller, Maritime Museum Ships’ Operations
And She’s Off…. Well almost
6 more hours, more or less, and our gal, the topsail schooner Californian, departs the warm and friendly waters of San Diego Bay for points and ports north. The museum is sending her on a good will tour of
During the 6 weeks she is gone she will call at Santa Barbara, Monterey, the Festivals of Sail in San Francisco, Channel Islands Harbor and Los Angeles, returning home as part of the Tall Ships Parade for her home Festival of Sail in San Diego.
For many Tall Ships, a 6 week voyage is a ho-hummer. But for us it’s a big deal. Californian is kept so busy here at the Maritime Museum of San Diego with her public and educational programs that getting north of
Speaking of crew, they are all volunteers. Our two captains are paid, but each and every one of the 18 men and 7 women who will serve aboard her during this trip are members of the museum’s 145 strong volunteer crew. These folks work all year long on our 7 vessels doing maintenance and also sailing the Californian, HMS Surprise, Medea, Pilot as well as the greatest grand dame of them all, the Star of India.These folks put in over 37,000 hours of volunteer time in 2007. If anyone has earned the right to go on this trip, its anyone from this group.
While the vessel is fine and the crew is fit, is not to say that we didn’t have to get it in gear to get this going. Especially over the last 2-3 months, Californian has seen an increasingly intense amount of attention. New sails have been bent on. Decks caulked, bright work attended to, rig re-tensioned. Etc, etc, etc… Carving out the time to do all this when she is used for one program or another on an almost daily basis called for a shoehorn’s eye and accurate “get it done the first time” professional execution of many tasks.
Work progressed seemingly around the clock during the past 72 hours. And now it’s done. Final load in of supplies was today. The northern leg cook Kenny Daniels has finished inventorying and storing an amazing amount of food. The crew for the first legs is aboard, maybe asleep, but I doubt it. The sea may be calm; and the blue herons and pelicans may be asleep on our mooring chains, but stillness cannot obscure the presence of an excitement which sizzles like damp fog on an electric wire.
I hope that you will join us here from time to time to read from the crew what this trip is like. I hope you will enjoy meeting them; they are an interesting and varied group. I hope you will come along with the Californian in your own way on our trip. And maybe visit us and say HI when we come to call in your port.
Best Wishes, Fair Winds.
Peter
For more information on the Californian, click here:
http://www.sdmaritime.org/contentpage.asp?ContentID=52
First Mate Bob Nelson and Capt Chuck McGohey
Cook Kennie Daniels
Aimee Kay
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