Tag Archives: Ed Ricketts
Steinbeck’s famous Western Flyer sails back to Monterey after years of restoration: Photos, inside and out!
The original captain’s desk sits in the wheelhouse, where legendary author John Steinbeck may have jotted notes for his Log from the Sea of Cortez. A guy wire like the one he wrote would “sing under the wind,” stabilizes the mast. Nearby is the galley ventilator where “the odor of boiling coffee” soothed his senses. Neglected, twice sunk and now painstakingly restored, the Western Flyer – dubbed the world’s most famous fishing boat for bearing Steinbeck and his biologist friend Ed Ricketts down the California coast on an ecological adventure — returns Saturday to Monterey for the first time in 75 years to begin a new life in science education. Now docked at the 
Moss Landing harbor, the Western Flyer will be escorted to Monterey by a decorated boat parade, honoring an end-of-the-season fishing community celebration held the day before Steinbeck and Ricketts headed out on their six-week journey. The event will include tours of the boat, activities and live music. Photos, >>click to read<< 10:15
Steinbeck boat being restored – A crew is bringing her back to life, plank by plank, spike by spike, nail by nail.
Somewhere in the Western Flyer there is a spirit, said Chris Chase, project director for the Western Flyer Foundation, the nonprofit group restoring the fishing boat that carried Ed Ricketts and John Steinbeck to The Sea of Cortez in 1940. “I don’t know who it is,” said the 51-year-old shipwright. “It could be Ed (Ricketts). It could be John Steinbeck. It could be Carol Steinbeck (John Steinbeck’s first wife).” Whoever it is, something has saved the 80-year-old, 77-foot purse seiner from destruction. >click here to read< 14:31
