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Thanks to a collaboration between Dennis Conner’s America’s Cup Experience, a replica of the yacht America, and the San Diego Maritime Museum, visitors to San Diego from now until April 15th can have a unique on-the-water experience: whale watching aboard the schooner America, a replica of the yacht for which the America’s Cup is named. The four-hour sail (tickets run from $34 on weekdays and $44 on weekends from children 12 and under, from $65 on weekdays and $85 on weekends for the rest of us) carries 85 guests through waters teeming with dolphin and whale activity. In fact, they’re so confident that you’ll see a whale that if you don’t, you can return any other day during the season for a free ride and a second chance. Also, the company claims that the sail will be so smooth that if you become ill and purge your holding tank over the side, they will give you a $40 gift certificate to the Fish Market restaurant (to get back the lunch you lost). For more information, visit www.stars-stripes.com, or call (800) 644-3454.
The Marine Industries Association of South Florida will be holding the 33rd Annual Waterway Cleanup this Saturday (March 6) from 9:00am to 1:00pm. The annual event helps to clean up the waterways of the Broward County area. Attendance to 2009’s annual cleanup was impressive: approximately 2,800 people volunteered and were able to clean almost 41 tons of rubbish from the canals and waterways. For more information on the event, visit www.miasf.org/waterwaycleanup.htm.
Alright, you’ve got the frayed, salt-encrusted “older than fiberglass hat,” the wooden boat, the worn and battered L.L. Bean chamois shirt-but you’re not quite a classic man of the sea-yet, that is. Starting this Saturday, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, and continuing on every Saturday in March, you can learn the skills needed to complete the package with the Music of the Sea: Chantey’s, Ballads, and Fo’c’sle Songs program at the Mystic Seaport. The program, led by the Seaport’s “chanteymen,” will explore the history of music on the sea, showing the function of sea chanteys in the work of 19th-century sailors, all while practicing your own musical skill. Class registration, which is $80 for members and $85 for non-members, includes a set of “bones” and a “Songs of the Sailor” booklet and CD. For more information, visit www.mysticseaport.org.
