California's Gold

A man named Huell Howser used to have TV show called California's Gold. We watched it often and my favorite part was when Huell would say, "That's amazing!"

Well, California is kind of amazing and we certainly enjoyed our two months there. Our last day was spent in and around the Presidio in San Francisco. By driving out to the Golden Gate Overlook near Battery Godfrey, we were able to get this view of the bridge.

Nearby is the Palace of Fine Arts, on the site of the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. This beautiful pavilion is surrounded by the fine art buildings and is still a popular attraction for visitors.

At Disney's Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio, find the Yoda statue we did.

Here are the "Painted Ladies" a famous row of Victorian houses, and our transportation for the last two months: our daughter's 1971 VW bug. She never drives it and it's really nice to have a garaged car in San Francisco for our use. Thanks Katie.

And last but not least is a sunset from our sailing club parking lot, out across the channel with Mt. Diablo in the distance. We managed to attend a few Friday Night Dinners there and enjoyed catching up with old friends.

Just a few examples of California's Gold for you to enjoy.

E. Charlton Fortune Exhibition

We recently had the pleasure of seeing an exhibition of E. Charlton Fortune's paintings at the Crocker Museum of Art in Sacramento,  California. The Captain is a first cousin twice removed of the artist. He remembers meeting her as a child, but she passed away in 1969, so I never got to meet her. What a pity; I hear she was quite a character and had a great sense of humor.

When Effie was 21, she and her mother survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. For several years she traveled, studied, painted, and exhibited her work in New York, Scotland, and France.

Returning to California in 1912, she divided her time between Carmel, Monterey, and San Francisco. This painting, "Afternoon (Waters Off Monterey)" was painted in 1912.

"The Pier (Late Afternoon, Monterey)" 1914

"Wharf, Monterey" 1915

"El Rancho del Carmelo (Hatton Ranch)" 1920

In 1921 Effie again went to Europe to paint and exhibit her work.

"Conversation Piece" Cromwell House, Scotland, started in 1921, finished in 1962

In St. Ives, Cornwall, UK she did several 12"x16" plein air studies of the harbor. Above is "Scavengers" 1922.

This one is called "Mackerel Season: Bidding on the Catch" 1922.

From these and other studies she did this large studio painting "Summer Morning, St. Ives" in 1923. This painting won a Silver Medal Certificate at the Société de Artistes Français Salon in 1924 in Paris.

"Wine Cargoes"  St. Tropez, France 1925

"Drying Sails"  St. Tropez, France 1926

"The Old Port"  St. Tropez, France 1925

Effie is recognized as one of the great California Impressionist painters. We saw a retrospective of her work at the Carmel Art Institute back in the 1990s, but there are more pieces here. I love her work and sure wish I could afford one of her paintings.

This is just a small sampling of the exhibition. It runs through April 22, 2018 at the Crocker Art Museum, 216 O Street, Sacramento, California.

From there it moves to the Monterey Museum of Art from May 24 to August 27, 2018.

Tea and Touristing in San Francisco

My first big adventure in San Francisco was a tea party for the birthday girl. She likes to dress in Lolita style fashions and opened her closet to me so I could dress for the tea party too.

Based on my preference for a more somber and mature look, she selected a dress from Alice and the Pirates, Teatime Nostalgia, and I selected this accessory for my hat. 

Here we are at the tea party. We had a wonderful time feasting on salad, sandwiches, fruit, scones, and tea. And of course, the birthday girl got a tiny cake with a candle. I can see in this photo that she's taller than me. Dang!

One day I walked down to the Hyde Street Pier where the ferry boats disembarked for Sausalito and Berkeley before the bridges were built. See the "Hwy 101" sign on the right?

Today the pier is home to San Francisco's Maritime Museum, and historic ships like the Balclutha, C. A. Thayer, Eureka, Alma, and Hercules are berthed there.

I also visited the Cable Car Museum. The cable cars in San Francisco are literally the only cable operated transportation system in the world! At some point the city wanted to eliminate them, but thank goodness the fine citizens of San Francisco raised a stink and these three lines were restored. Who could imagine San Francisco without cable cars?

At the "barn" I learned that the entire system is powered by these huge pulleys. See the names of the lines on that beam above the pulleys? Each line has miles of cable running under the streets, but they all lead back to this building where the cars are stored at night, and maintenance is done.

If a cable shows signs of wear, the cable maintenance team splices on a new piece of cable, runs the new cable out through the line, and splices it back into a new loop in about five hours. This work is done in the middle of the night so the line is up and running the next day to the delight of the tourists and locals.

Here you can see a huge pulley guiding the cable out to the California Street line. For perspective, those are 55 gallon drums on the floor.

I also rode Caltrain to Palo Alto to visit Machine Zone where my daughter works. It was interesting to see the modern, open workspace where the magic of game creation happens.

All too soon my time in San Francisco was over and I crept to SFO in the wee hours of the morning and boarded my flight to Newark. Eventually I landed in Portland, Maine and the Captain picked me up. It was good to be "home" again because really, home is where the boat is, isn't it?

Tourists in San Diego

Since we got all our chores done, we thought we should act like tourists a little bit here in San Diego.

First we visited the Maritime Museum with all its old ships.

Then we walked up to the Little Italy area and enjoyed the sights.

Tomorrow we will do some final provisioning and laundry so we will be ready for the skipper's meeting and party on Sunday and the start of the rally on Monday.

In San Diego

We left Santa Cruz Island Sunday morning about 7:00am and arrived in San Diego this morning about 11:00am. We had an uneventful passage, mainly motoring due to lack of wind.

It's always exciting coming into San Diego because of the Navy's presence. There's always something to see; helicopters, warships, submarines, and the Navy's trained dolphins.

Here is a picture of our buddy boats; Flibbertigibbet and Brown Sugar. It's been fun traveling down the coast with them and I'm sure we will all have more grand adventures on the HaHa. 

Off Catalina Island

We enjoyed two quiet days at Yellowbanks Anchorage on Santa Cruz Island. We are just now passing Catalina Island (seen above). We are now heading to San Diego and expect to arrive tomorrow afternoon.

Rolling Past Pt. Conception

We left Santa Cruz Wednesday morning around 9:00 am headed for Smuggler's Cove on Santa Cruz Island in the Santa Barbara Channel. Above you can see our track on the chart plotter. We try to stay on the track, but we zigzag a bit now and then.

We are doing well, Thistle is performing beautifully, all is good on our little ship.

Santa Cruz

We arrived safe and sound in Santa Cruz this afternoon. We left San Francisco last night and had a lumpy ride down here.

We mainly motor sailed because the winds were from the South; exactly the way we wanted to go!

The weather forecast isn't good for tomorrow, so we will probably stay here two nights or until the weather improves.

Snapshots of Our Day