Midway between old and new…

I sail.

I hate to say, “I am a sailor.” That implies some Navy thing too much.

I sail. I possess a sailboat, I sail it, and I love it. I love sailing.

And, just like a computer nerd loves computers, a photographer loves cameras, a race car driver loves cars, a jockey loves horses… you get the point…

I love sailing craft. And the bigger the better. And it just doesn’t really get much bigger than this.

Brought to you by the Star of India. Its one of the oldest and largest ships like this still left in the world that isn’t stuck in some harbor somewhere. The Star of India floats free.

I spent the day on the waterfront in San Diego awaiting my next travels.

Its not just sailboats. Submarines, barges, sailboats…

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…and aircraft carriers.

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If you’ve never climbed all over a ship like this – even a battleship or destroyer – its truly worth it. I’ll check out the HMS Belfast (that I regularly walk right by) in London now, I’m kinda juiced again. Awakening the kid in me again.

And I really don’t think its because it has anything to do with the military or war machines necessarily…

Its probably just the boyhood fascination with things that are really huge, really fast, or just really really cool…

Speaking of which, while I’m on the subject… in the photograph below, there is another aircraft carrier on the horizon there. Yes, I’m standing on the bow of the USS Midway looking across the San Diego harbor.

That aircraft carrier is the USS Carl Vinson. It made a beeline here after a certain mission in Asia not too long ago. If you don’t remember click here for a little refresher.

The other boat coming across in front of the USS Carl Vinson is a training craft for the Navy. They’re really easy to look up if you see the giant number on the side and Google it. They’re all on the Navy.mil registry.

Yep, I’m that much of a nerd.

But, remember… I like me some boats.

Lots of boats…

I also like photography, but I really find this statue to be downright comical.

I wonder what Alfred Eisenstaedt would think of that one… or this statue.

Here’s a view of the USS Carl Vinson again, btw. And an America’s Cup IACC racer to the right of the frame: the really really huge black sail amongst the others.

So, I hope you’ll pardon the all black and white post today. All Leica M8 with the CV 28/2 and CV 15/4.5. There are color versions, but… straight up black and white conversions are how I see them to begin with.

Tomorrow, I cross the border at the border into Tijuana and south into the Baja.

Please… stay tuned…
-Noah D.