Crew Log 234 – Old Glory

Open the below photos in a full-screen slideshow in Flickr

May 5, 2010 – San Diego, California
By Herb McCormick

On this voyage Around the Americas, we’ve seen just about every sort of weather condition and phenomenon imaginable: storms, calms, snow, ice, even a few waterspouts. Except for a couple of brief instances, the one real noticeable exception has been pea-soup fog. Our trip up from Puerto Vallarta had been difficult and trying, so it was probably fitting that yesterday morning, at just a little after 5 a.m., it descended on us like a cold, thick blanket.

Fog, fog, fog.

Great.

Less than fifty miles away was San Diego, the Southern California oasis we’d been longing to see for weeks and even months. Getting there was becoming a problem. The northerly had filled in with attitude the evening before – there was no sign of it on any forecast – but there it was, one more Mexican nosebleed. There’s a reason they call the trip up from Cabo San Lucas “the Baja Bash.” Consider us bashed.

Then: Fog. It could’ve been waters with which we’re all familiar on Ocean Watch, particularly our respective home cruising grounds of Puget Sound and the coast of New England. We weren’t expecting it now. But that’s sailing.

We couldn’t see North America anymore, but we could hear it. For months, the VHF radio had been mostly silent as we ranged up the coast of South America. It was quiet no more, and the traffic was mostly official: a series of Navy warships on maneuvers and notices to mariners from U.S. Coast Guard operators in San Diego, Long Beach and Santa Barbara. Aye, aye.

Just south of the border, the sky above began to break up; there was a patch of blue sky directly overhead, and closer to the horizon a series of alternating strips of haze and cloud: blue and white, blue and white. All we needed to complete a patriotic scene was a splash of red and we could take care of that easily enough. It was simply a matter of unrolling the U.S. ensign on our transom, the big flag emblazoned with the stars and stripes.

Old glory.

You can usually tell when you cross the U.S./Mexico border by the big bullfighting stadium in Tijuana, but that was still smothered in vapor. But there was something just as telling and familiar, namely, a battleship gray U.S. Navy patrol vessel hovering on the invisible boundary.

Just before we reached it, we toasted Mexico farewell with an appropriate tumbler of tequila over ice, then we made our way across in company with a couple of motor yachts. Appropriately, skipper Mark Schrader, without whom not a one of us would’ve left the states in the first place, wandered up to the foredeck and took it all in from the bow. At quarter to one in the afternoon on Tuesday, he was the very first of us, therefore, to make it back to the good, old U.S.A.

After a brief stop at the customs dock on Shelter Island, we hoisted the main and sailed into San Diego Bay and right up to the pier at the San Diego Maritime Museum, the home of the famous Star of India and a fleet of classic yachts, powerboats and submarines. Towering over our friends and family was a very familiar-looking 7-foot redheaded gentleman, a native of San Diego who made his name playing championship basketball for the U.C.L.A. Bruins, the Portland Trailblazers and the Boston Celtics.

Bill Walton.

A few weeks back, Bill had learned about our expedition and has been following it ever since. As much as anyone we’ve met on our travels, he spoke knowledgeably and passionately about the utmost necessity of protecting our oceans, and it was an honor and privilege to talk about our adventures and show him Ocean Watch. It was also cool to chat about hoops. Bill played a key role for the epic 1985-86 Celtics squad, led by Larry Bird, that dispatched with the Houston Rockets to win the N.B.A. title. Ocean Watch has a patch of parquet flooring in the galley, just like the old Boston Garden, which made him feel at home.

Bill said a lot of things that rang true, and I had to jot down one of his observations, which I think sums up not only voyaging, but life: “Things work out best for those who make the best out of the way things work out.”

Amen, brother, amen.

Ocean Watch will be in San Diego through the weekend before carrying on to a host of California ports: Marina del Rey, Catalina Island, Santa Barbara, Monterey Bay and San Francisco. Details on presentations and open houses can be found elsewhere on our website. If you live in or near any of the above, please drop by and say hello. [ Note from the webmaster: for port-specific information please click on the preceding in-line links or on those at the right in Upcoming Port Calls area.]

Speaking of “Old Glory,” here in San Diego, along with Pride of India, we’re tied up near a couple of boats owned by local hero and America’s Cup legend Dennis Conner – his replica schooner of the original Cup winner, America, and Stars & Stripes, a sleek example of the latest vintage of yachts that compete for sailing’s oldest prize. There’s no mistaking it whatsoever, we’re back on native soil. And, man, it’s good to be here.

-Herb McCormick with photographs by David Thoreson

*This crew log submitted by Iridium OpenPort and Stratos

*To add a comment to this story click on the comment link below the post title. Please direct your messages for the crew to crew@aroundtheamericas.org instead of submitting them here. Thanks for following the Around the Americas Expedition.