Cannon Battles in San Diego Bay

The U.S. Coast Guard's Eagle in San Diego Bay

The tall ships sailed into San Diego Bay last week on their tour of the West Coast. Usually we have a few rigged sailing vessels at the docks just a quarter mile from our apartment; they are part of the San Diego Maritime Museum. The most famous is the Star of India, which has the distinction of being the world's oldest active ship (1863). In the summer of 1996, a year after I moved to Los Angeles, I drove to San Diego to meet up with my uncle Paul, who was in town to captain the Star of India on one of her semi-annual voyages.

The highlight of the San Diego 2008 Festival of Sail was seeing the U.S. Coast Guard's Eagle. My uncle Paul captained this tall ship from 1976-1980, and it's played a part in family christenings and a wedding. We went by the ships in the early evening of the first night, and there were Navy, Coast Guard and Colombian Navy (I think Navy, but definitely Colombian) service persons and a host of other people dressed up for cocktail receptions on a few of the ships. It was fun to watch. We didn't pay the $65/person fee to sail on the ships during the cannon battles, but we could hear them from our place. A cannon going off is quite a distinct sound.


Current me by the Eagle's figurehead (Colombian ship in back), and just a few years ago in front of the Eagle with some of the Welling women. I'm the one in pigtails with my hands over my head. Aunt Shelia is holding my hands, and then there's golden-haired, baby Martha, Aunt Joan, my cousin Andrea, my sister Carolyn (in front) and then my mom. I love this photo.