The Pride of San Pedro

Last night the rain started about 1:30 in the early morning.

and the day started out damp as I had left my New Balance running shoes in the cockpit of my boat and they were wet. I and my son's dog Dede live on a sailboat in Holiday Harbor Marina in San Pedro, Califorina. Actually the little bitch dog (been reading Henry Miller) is my dog too as I got her out of a cardboard box in front of large market in the desert a week before the Christmast Holidays many moons ago

Some morning I ride with  fellow sailboaters on our bicycles around our waterfront. Being the senior member of the crew I sometimes wait till the sun is higher in the sky and the air warmer before riding.

Today I waited and on my ride around the harbor I encountered a funeral procession and the motorcycle cop in his brown uniform stopped the traffic to allow all the car with funeral stickers on their car window.

There was a long snake of cars winding through Ports of Call from the fish docks at 22nd Street to the Fire Boat dock on Harbor Blvd.

I waited for several minutes as cars and pickup trucks drove by then I bye passed the stoppage and rode towards 22nd Street. When I got to the fish docks the procession of cars had stopped and the rear motorcyclist proceeded forward to escort.

After I finished my ride and was back at my sailboat I asked  around about the large funeral procession and since the path of vehicles went right by the fishing fleet it was suggested that maybe a fisherman had passed away.

So I changed from my cycling kit into my street clothing, got the dog and we walked back over to the fishing boats off the main channel.

We stopped for a minute to look at the empty spot that had been Canetti's for many years (Est. 1949) and continued on for clues on who had recently died here.

Several large trucks were loading pallets of fish and the air above was filled with seagulls. Not to be a target of the hungry gulls we moved on until we reached the fishing boat San Pedro Pride. In the Captain side window was a new decal honoring Ciro Ferrigno who had died on October 31, 2010.

Now that I had an answer to my question we continued on to marvel at the boats and all the nets and traps used to harvest the sea.

I am not sure how many boats are berthed here now and I forgot to bring along a notebook to take a count but I will try to take an inventory for a later blog.