The Voyage Of 2006 Began And Ended With A Margarita
No battle in 2006 but the ride was worth the trip to San Pedro! The Lady Washington sailed for three hours out amongst the supertankers and freighters of the 21st century! Cannons were a blazing and sea gulls were scared to death! Great crew and a great time was had by all! Afterwards we landed at Acapulco for a hot cup of coffee (for our hands) and a cold margarita for our... whatever!
While We Waited We Visited The Museum
The Los Angeles Maritime Museum creates an awareness and appreciation of the maritime history of coastal California, with an emphasis on the people and institutions of the port city of Los Angeles. The Museum is located in the 1941 Municipal Ferry Terminal, now on the National Register of Historic Places. From 1941-1963, a ferry system transported thousands of passengers to the canneries and military bases on Terminal Island, where they could also make connections to neighboring cities and towns. Today the "ferry building" is still a place for making connections…to the community and to our shared maritime experiences
Time To Go For The Sail!
The Most Wonderful Part Of The Trip; Being With Sue
Who do you think likes to go sailing on the bounding Long Beach Harbor?????
The 2006 Journey Continues With A Biplane Flyover
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing. Improved structural techniques and materials, as first pioneered by Hugo Junkers in 1915, and the need for greater speed, made the biplane configuration obsolete for most purposes by the late 1930s.
The Coast Guard Also Came By For A Short Visit
Time To Return Home To The Harbor
The Angel's Gate Lighthouse has stood at the entrance to the port since 1913.
The Los Angeles Harbor Lighthouse, also known as the "Angel's Gate" light, welcomes ships into the harbor of the City of Angels, Los Angeles. Don't let the name confuse you, Los Angeles Harbor is nowhere near downtown Los Angeles, but is located in San Pedro several miles south of the city's cluster of skycrapers. The lighthouse, completed in 1913 at a cost of just under $36,000, was built around twelve steel columns and sits at the end of the 9,250-foot San Pedro breakwater. The bottom of the lighthouse is octagonal, while the top three stories are cylindrical. The twelve columns, now covered with black pilasters, give the lighthouse a Romanesque feel. No other lighthouse was ever built to this design.
Angel's Gate Lighthouse
The bottom story of the lighthouse originally housed the station's fog signal equipment along with water and fuel tanks, and the floor above this was used for storage. The top two stories of the tower contained sleeping quarters for a four-man crew, whose families were housed on shore, while a kitchen and pantry were located on the tower's third story. Atop the lighthouse is a cylindrical, helical-bar lantern room whose light is exhibited at a focal plane of fifty-nine feet.
The original plan for the lighthouse was a wooden, square, two-story building like those constructed for Oakland Harbor and Southampton Shoals. Fortunately, the plans were changed and a more stout structure was built, as a wooden structure never would have survived the various forces which seemed bent on destroying the light. For five days one year, the lighthouse was battered by large breakers, spawned by a gale. After the storm, the keepers dropped a plumb line from the lantern gallery proving their suspicion that the storm had given the tower a slight lean shoreward. Over the years, rust in the supporting columns has also contributed to the lighthouse's lean.
In another incident that occurred in the early 1930s, a keeper was startled one night, when a tremendous blow was delivered to the base of the tower. Scrambling to the window, the amazed keeper saw the silhouette of a large Navy ship, which had rammed the breakwater. The ship received damage to its hull and propeller and had to make a trip to Mare Island for repairs.
Long Beach was hit by an earthquake in 1933 that killed 115 people. The keeper of the L.A. Harbor Lighthouse at the time reported that it shook violently for about twenty seconds and that mercury slopped out of the pool used to float the lens, but no significant damage was done to the tower.
When Returning Home, The Rigging Must Be Stowed
Rigging (from Anglo-Saxon wrigan or wringing, "to clothe") is, on sailboats and sailing ships, the collection of apparatus through which the force of the wind is transferred to the ship in order to propel it forward. This includes masts, yardarms, sails, and cordage.
Cordage - Standing rigging is cordage which is fixed in position. Standing rigging is almost always between a mast and the deck, using tension to hold the mast firmly in place. Due to its role, standing rigging is now most commonly made of steel cable. It was historically made of the same materials as running rigging, only coated in tar for added strength and protection from the elements.
Running rigging is the cordage used to control the shape and position of the sails. Running rigging must be flexible in order to allow smooth movement of the spars and sails, but strong enough for the role it plays. For instance, a halyard, used to hoist heavy yards up and down, must be very strong and durable. On the other hand, a sheet, used to control the orientation of a triangular sail, must be very flexible and smooth, and need only be strong enough to support the tension caused by the wind.
Sails - Sails are fabric aerofoils designed to catch the wind and manipulate the air currents surrounding the vessel. They are attached to spars and rigging in various ways, such as metal clips, rope hoops, or in a luff-groove. Sails are usually rectangular or triangular in shape, which determines their use and placement. Rectangular sails attached to yards, and hanging perpendicular to the keel line are referred to as square sails, because they are "square" to the keel line (not because of their shape); and this type of sailplan is known as square-rigged. Sails hanging along the keel line at rest are known as "fore-and-aft" sails, and the sailplan as fore-and-aft rig; although when under way both square and fore-and-aft sails can fly at a variety of angles relative to the vessel. Fore-and-aft sails may be triangular (see Bermuda rig), or quadrilateral (see Gaff rig). Sail material must be durable against weather, lightweight, and non-porous. Common materials include kevlar, twaron, dacron, and canvas.
Spars - Spars are solid beams used to stabilize and manipulate sails. Masts, yards, booms, gaffs and battens are the most commonly encountered spars. Spars are attached to the sails by systems of clips and cordage designed to allow an appropriate range of motion while maintaining the aerodynamic properties of the sails. Spars can be made of any sufficiently strong material. Flexibility and weight are primary concerns for materials; ideally, spars would be sufficiently rigid to maintain control over the shape of the sail, as well as lightweight in order to maintain a low and stable center of balance. Commonly used materials include wood, steel, aluminum and fiberglass.
Masts are spars firmly attached to the deck of the ship. They are the main support for most sails, and all but the most speculative sailboats have at least one, generally set along the keel line. The classification of a mast is determined by its position, size and use.
A ship's vertical masts are named, from bow to stern, the fore-mast, the main-mast, the mizzen-mast and the jigger-mast. There may also be a bowsprit, which extends forward past the bow.
The Wind Was Really Blowing!!
We Know We Are Home, The Lane Victory Greets Us
The Lane Victory was awaiting our arrival