Sunday, February 25th - Sailing the Californian

After a late breakfast at the coach, we drove down to the Maritime Museum near downtown San Diego. I had already purchased tickets online to sail on the Californian, a topsail schooner. These tickets also allowed for entry to the rest of the Museum. We had 50 minutes to kill so we visited B-39, a Russian diesel electric submarine, and the Star of India, a full-rigged ship, built in 1863.

After a 15 minute safety indoctrination, we got under way, motoring away from the pier. After we got several hundred yards out, we all pitched in to haul the sails. We sailed around San Diego Bay for over three hours. The wind was initially strong from the west and then moved to a northerly (and colder) wind. MA and I really enjoyed the experience of sailing in this tall ship! These are pix of the Californian, taken from the air, a panorama of downtown San Diego (notice the aircraft carrier, Midway, on the right), and a pic of six of the crew furling the sails as we neared the end of our voyage.

Later, we ate dinner at the Old Town Mexican Cafe where, two nights before, we saw chickens being rotisseried over a wood fire. The dinner was quite good and the restaurant quite crowded.