| Coordinator’s Line By Laura Holdenwhite  Having the Amigos phone at my house has been an adventure, to say the least. While I often get calls about tours, for directions, and general questions about the wetlands, sometimes I really wonder why people are calling the Amigos. I have gotten a call asking for a restaurant suggestion; help with a mystery author’s plot involving the Bolsa Chica; and recently someone wanting to donate a line - or what us landlubbers would call rope. Ed Harnby, who is a volunteer on the SS Lane Victory, was kind enough to think of us when the line on his ship needed replacing. And a very big line it is. Used to tie the 455’ SS Lane Victory up to the dock where she is berthed near the Vincent Thomas Bridge, one needs a big line.
Why would Amigos de Bolsa Chica need line like this? Because the barricades in the south parking lot are in serious need of replacement. With the telephone poles that the Dept. of Fish and Game has, the only thing missing is an Eagle Scout in search of a project to replace the barricades.  The SS Lane Victory, www.lanevictory.org, is a non-profit educational institution, and is open to the public for tours. She is one of the few remaining WW II Cargo Vessels that carried the materials of war to our Armed Forces in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Launched in 1945 at Cal Shipyard of Los Angeles, she makes her home in San Pedro. As a National Historic Landmark, she is a floating Maritime Museum ship that makes Summer Cruises to Catalina. Guided tours tell the ship’s war time history in the personal terms of the Merchant Mariners and Naval Armed Guard veterans who served their nation faithfully and with extraordinary valor. As a Hollywood movie and TV set, the SS Lane Victory has been used in many movies and TV shows including "Sand Pebbles," "Titanic," "Flags of our Fathers," "G. I. Jane," "The X Files" and "Murder She Wrote."  |