DAY SEVEN, PART TWO (25 September 2015):
Watching the sunset over the ocean was important to me, so
that’s why on all my visits (including this one), I’d try to view that
spectacle from whatever location I was at (usually being the Seal Beach
Pier). But on this trip, Mum wanted to
be able to see if from the ocean, so she recommended we do a harbor tour. While there’s many places along the coast which
offer this, we’d made the arrangements to have one done out of Newport Beach .
For
the amusement factor, we had a little adventure just getting there. It didn’t make a lot of sense to go all the
way back to Seal Beach
and then come back down a few hours later, so once we departed Mission San Juan
Capistrano, our goal was to find a place we could get
an early dinner and loiter until it was time for the tour to start.
I knew the general area of where we wanted to
be, so that’s why I started to question the route the GPS was giving us. It sent us on to Balboa Island
I wanted to stick to streets I knew during the
daytime, as it would be after dark when we left. Plus it wasn’t the route I had originally
plotted. Of course, I plotted that route
originally with the idea we’d be heading south from Seal Beach , which meant a whole different way
to get to our destination. It made sense
to me to U-turn out of Balboa
Island Balboa Blvd to bring us to where we
needed to be. Once there, we learned
that’s where the ferry would’ve deposited us off any way, but it was nicer to
get a feel for the area. It was a bit
more spacious to drive here.
This area had some pedestrian streets which
served as a nice boardwalk, with some small touristy shops and
restaurants. We loitered at a place
called Newport Landing where we could have some drinks, a light dinner, and people
watch the area while we were waiting.
Our final destination was just a few doors down, the Fun Zone Boat
Company.
At the appropriate time, we and the other
passengers boarded, and the boat chugged out past all the slips in Newport Bay ,
and rounded the peninsula to bring us out towards the Pacific
Ocean .
Along the way we passed Corona del Mar State
Beach, where this nearby cove served as locations for filming of Gilligan’s Island and a few other shows. Taking a close look at the contours, it
really looked like a fun place to hang out.
To our west was a barrier known as “The Wedge,”
which was built as a break-wall to make a more easily-navigable channel to the
bay. Soon we were beyond that, and out
on the open ocean.
The skipper had already said we’d head out for a
distance, and then turn around and come back in the way we came. So if you didn’t have the seat facing the
sunset on the way out, you would on the way back in. We made sure to sit in the very front bow of
the boat, but that didn’t stop other rude tourists from crowding our position
or getting in the way of our shots. They
didn’t have very good sea legs, and one of the tourists nearly dropped his
camera off the edge of the boat. After
that, he sat back down in his seat for most of the remainder of the trip.
Since I was on the edge of the boat facing the
sunset on the way out, I snapped what shots I could initially, and then just
enjoyed the rest of the trip. Some
clouds had rolled in, but not enough to obscure the view. And it wasn’t like the “green flash” happens
out of the Pacific anyway.
On the way back in, we passed a buoy with a
bunch of sea lions piled on it. The
skipper explained because these are mammals, they do need to sleep, and they
leave the water to do so. They couldn’t
float and nap at the same time (for very long), but in the evening as the water
temperature dropped, so the already-cold ocean became even colder.
As we came back in the entrance channel, it
afforded more opportunities for me to take some artsy shots of the sunset
contrasted with dark objects in the foreground.
The lone person walking on the “Wedge” was a great subject matter for a
beautiful picture.
Seeing the sunset was only half of the trip,
because a tour of some of the more interesting homes on the harbor was
included. The tour was designed to do
the “harbor home” portion of the tour before or after the sunset, depending on
the time of year.
As it got dark, it was harder to see specific
structures which were pointed out by the skipper. Here’s a place where the first female Coast
Guard captain lives, there’s the house that John Wayne lived in at one point,
and over yonder is a philanthropist’s mansion.
We also got to wave at the passing party boats, and other harbor
traffic.
One thing which I found as nice as the sunset
was the way the full moon reflected on the water. Little sights like that provide me a lot of
visual pleasure. At the conclusion of
the tour, we disembarked where we began, and the restaurants and bars in the
area were ready to receive patrons who wanted a late-evening snack. The views of the sunsets over the ocean to me
were worth the price of the tour, and that’s why I recommend this to be done.
More Information on Places Visited or Mentioned:
Fun Zone Boat Company: http://funzoneboats.com/
Corona
del Mar State Beach:
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=652
“Green Flash”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_flash
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