March 26 - Setting Sail!

We were up not too early, and this morning gave us high clouds, it was calm, and 60° F.

Sunrise over San Pedro Harbor

After going down to the motel’s breakfast buffet, where they had scrambled eggs, bacon & sausage, etc., and my morning coffee, we packed up and left our bags at the motel while we took a walk before going down to the ship, as we didn’t need to be there until 2 p.m.  We headed south on Gaffey, commenting on the L.A. smog

What ever happened to the Clean Air Act?

to Angels Gate Park, birding our way and getting good looks at the local Black Phoebes, Hooded Orioles, Mockingbirds, and the local sparrows and finches.

White-crowned Sparrow

Male House Finch

The Marine Exchange is a prominent feature above the road.

We dropped off the hill from the park and down to the Joan Milke Flores Park picnic area at the Paseo del Mar, and along the bluff.

The ocean is truly Pacific

We saw some people with optics focused on the cliffs, and stopped to see what they were seeing.

Photographers are as bad as birders?

It was a big female Peregrine, perched at a favored crag above the water, and there were several photographers there who apparently shoot her pretty regularly.

Peregrine Falcon

As we departed, the male came streaking by, and they both flew out over the sea before coming back to Point Fermin.

Such a beautiful bird . . .

The headland was given its name by the British explorer George Vancouver, who visited here in 1793 and decided to thank Father Fermín de Francisco Lasuén de Arasqueta for his hospitality at the mission in Carmel.

Random lizard

We came down the bluff, past the “Sunken City”, an area along the Paseo that slumped into the ocean in 1929, and where one can see the remnants of the street, sidewalks, gas and water lines, and such.

We got to sort through the Tern flock at Cabrillo Beach

We walked through Cabrillo Beach Park and past Fort MacArthur, which serves as a residential community for personnel of the Air Force Space Division Based at El Segundo, then back up the hill to the motel, retrieved our bags.

The Emerald Princess berthed at Pier 92

Walking down West 1^st to the harbor and over to the World Cruise Center at Pier 92, we stopped for some strange reason at a Taco Truck for a quick lunch (as though we wouldn’t get enough food on the ship…).  We checked our bag and went through the line to be processed by TSA-type security before boarding the Emerald Princess.

The lines were much shorter than I remembered from the last time I made this trip

The check-in runs pretty smoothly, and we made it to our stateroom on the “Aloha” deck in room 749.  Our Steward was Savio, who was from Goa, and was very informative and accommodating, and made certain that we had all our bags and ensured that all our needs would be taken care of.  We attended the compulsory safety and information briefing, where all passengers gather in their “Muster Stations”.

All important meetings should take place in a bar . . .

Anders paid rapt attention to the presentations, and we know that we are all safer for having watched the video.

Anders is all ears for the safety briefing

We went up on deck and watched a container ship come into port, which had to clear before we could leave.

Captain Martin Stenzel eased the ship off the dock at 4 p.m. by the aid of Crowley tugs,

the thrusters kicked in, and we moved out of the harbor past the U.S.S. Iowa and the US Coast Guard docks.

USS Iowa - BB61

US Coast Guard ships with their distinctive paint jobs

The Los Angeles Police Dept. K-9 unit made certain we left.
The pilot disembarked at 5:27, and we were on our way north to Vancouver, past Palos Verdes Point and the Rolling Hills.  There was a pretty stiff 23-26 knot SSW wind, and we watched from the Deck 8 “Promenade” bow as Los Angeles faded into the distance, and went inside.  We decided to eat at the Horizon Court buffet and had a drink at the Wheelhouse Bar before going to bed fairly early, as it’d been a long day.

Angel’s Gate Park eBird Checklist is Here

Joan Milke Flores Park eBird Checklist is Here

Cabrillo Beach Park eBird Checklist is Here

Los Angeles Harbor eBird Checklist is Here