Rocket Red's Glare, Part 2
Painted Seals, Golf Course Assaults, Square Feet and Seeing Blue
Last month, I described attending a raft-up at Glorietta Bay in San Diego over this past July 4th. I mentioned that it seemed like every time we made a trip to San Diego, there was always an unexpected hidden bonus awaiting us. On this trip the bonus was...
A Guy with a Drum?
We were told that the Navy put on a nice little Fourth of July show. Great! I expected, maybe, a guy with a drum on shore and running boat passing by with a couple of sailors on deck in whites at parade rest. In the early afternoon, this naive vision was shattered by a cargo plane dropping Navy Seals from 10,000 feet trailing colored smoke plumes. The Seals landed on the areas surrounding the bay. One followed a huge US flag down as a PA system on shore played the Star-Spangled Banner. Hardly a dry eye in the (pilot) house. Then, a World War II fighter plane (a P38 Mustang) buzzed the boats in the bay.
Seals in burbling high speed assault craft idled amongst the hundreds of boats anchored in the bay for the show. One was a menacing, grey 36-foot rigid bottom inflatable powered by twin diesel jets. Turned out these guys were on an important recognizance mission -- reconnoitering the many well-filled bikinis on the boats anchored about (my personal favorite was the yellow French cut number on the ragboat anchored just aft of us -- but more about this later). The Seals wore camouflage uniforms, “war paint” on their faces and bandanas on their heads making them look more like Sandinista gorillas than US Navy. Three smart assed kids aboard one of the boats started lobbing water balloons at the Seals. I can report two direct hits.
The show continued with more Seals diving from planes high above and huge twin rotor helichoppers dumping Seals in the bay and retrieving them on long ropes -- then flying off at high speed with the men dangling below like ants on a string. All of this was accompanied by an announcer with a powerful PA system on shore describing just what was happening with appropriate patriotic music in the background. The Seal boats then launched mock assaults on the golf course to the North (can you just see a bunch of old guys about to tee off being confronted by six seals in full battle dress and weapons at the ready? “Damn it Clarence, I told you to replace that divot”).
Anyway, targets were blown up on the beach and the boats retrieved the Seals covering them by peppering the golf course with rapid fire cannon (blanks) as the boats backed away. Many more demonstrations followed and the whole thing was capped by a real window rattler -- a very low and loud fly-over of a jet fighter which seemed to scrape our antennas (nobody expected this, it came from behind and, right afterwards, I noticed a good number of people running for the heads!) The show must have lasted for two hours or more. When it was finally over in the late afternoon, we still had the fireworks to look forward to.
Seals Will Be Seals
After the fireworks (accompanied by suitable contemporary patriotic music) it was time to eat, drink and schmooze. As I circulated amongst the rafted boats, I found myself on a 56-foot motoryacht. Passing through the afterdeck, a clean-cut young man approached me, introduced himself and complemented me on the boats. Somewhere, I had seen this guy before. Yes! It was the Sandinista running the 36-foot jet inflatable but now he was in a sport jacket and slacks.
What these guys were doing, see, was circulating amongst the boats in the daytime checking out the single babes. That night (off duty) they returned (in a different kind of battle dress) to meet with the young ladies. Was I upset over the fact that they were using our hard-earned tax dollars to hunt babes? Hell no! After the show they put on, I would have been happy to recruit women for them!
Parcels of Paradise
After the fourth, we had a few days to explore the five counties of San Diego. North County Coastal was interesting -- here not only are the homes measured in square feet but so are the lots! The area is packed - packed with luxury housing (300K and up) -- most on tiny lots because property is very expensive there. Driving around the area, one gets the distinct impression that everyone is scratching and clawing for their parcel of paradise!
The houses are great, mind you, but the property is unusually small (we’re talking “back yards” measuring, maybe, 10’ x 60’ and the house fronts abutting the sidewalks here). Forty-five minutes inland in East County, however, gets you a huge, sprawling house on a hot, arid acre or two of mountain for the price of a much smaller house and lot near the ocean. For us mortals anyway, you pays your money and takes your choice in San Diego -- acres and rattlesnakes inland or ft2 and sea breeze along the coast.
The Blue Enigma
One thing that has always intrigued me about San Diego was the blue boat cover enigma. I have traveled all around this country observing boats from Florida to Maine to the Great Lakes to the Gulf and nowhere -- nowhere except on the Left Coast have I ever seen such a preponderance of blue covers on boats. You hardly ever see blue covers in the East. Just what the hell is it about blue covers that makes them so attractive in Southern California? Look at any Marina and acres of blue prevail. I have tried to develop theories about this but to no avail. Maybe some of you kind San Diegans can write and tell me all about it. The last time I saw this many blue covers was in the Northeast in the 50’s. Do San Diegans harken back to a simpler time? Is the Navy selling surplus blue material cheap? Does it suit people’s mood here? Is it some kind of cult? Is sea gull poop blue in San Diego? As I said, it’s an enigma.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the US Navy for ruining all my future 4th of July holidays. What could possibly top this?
(Reprinted with permission of Regina Fexas.)
If you would like to read more of Tom's pearls of wisdom, tune in next Friday -- "Fexas Friday."
Better yet, why not get a full dose of infectious Fexas whenever you need it -- and buy one of the volumes below. Better yet, why not buy all of them -- we call them the "Fexas Five." They will provide many evenings of fun reading (better than Netflix), and you'll make the widow Regina very happy knowing that Tom will live on with you the way most of us remember him.
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Tom Fexas (1941-2006) was one of the most influential yacht designers of the last quarter of the 20th century. With the narrow Wall Street commuters that were built in the 1920s and '30s always on the back of his mind, he wanted to design boats that were at once fast, comfortable, seaworthy and economical to operate. Over the years, he and his firm designed over 1,000 yachts for some of the most prestigious boat builders in the world, including Choey Lee, Palmer Johnson, Grand Banks, Mikelson Yachts, Burger, Abeking & Rasmussen and many others.
Even though toward the end of his career he only designed megayachts and superyachts, including the remarkably influential PJ "Time" in 1987, he is best remembered for his first major vessel in 1978 -- Midnight Lace -- which became a series of 44-52-footers. They were light, narrow, and fast with relatively small engines. He was also influential in the boating community because of the monthly column he wrote for Power and Motoryacht, which began in its very first issue in January 1985.