SF Fleet Week Air Show 2014, Featuring the Blue Angels

The airshow was held on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of Fleet Week. I watched from different venues each day: a ferry somewhere between Sausalito and Alcatraz on Friday; a hill atop Sausalito on Saturday; and aboard the fishing boat pictured above on Sunday just off Fort Mason. The weather was poor on Friday causing much of the airshow to be canceled. The stunt planes flew, a stealth bomber appeared and then quickly disappeared into the fog, and the Blue Angels made a few courtesy passes, but that was it. The weather in SF was better on Saturday, but the Golden Gate bridge was fogged in the entire day. The early parts of the airshow took place as scheduled, but by 2:30 the fog was advancing, at which point the Blue Angels flew a limited show. Fat Albert, the Blue Angels' command plane, usually leads off their part of the show, but the Angels went first on Saturday, followed by a brief Fat Albert fly-by.<br />
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Since Friday had been disappointing, I came home and started searching online for any boats that had availability for Sat or Sun. Just as I was about to give up, I found a charter company that claimed to have "open load" tickets. Turns out, it was a last minute decision by the operator to try to get enough people for a Sunday outing. What luck for me! The boat was a 50' fishing vessel moored in Emeryville (bypassing all the crowds in SF) with lots of deck space and, even better, just 20 people onboard, so getting from bow to stern was easy. It was a warm, cloudless day with little wind - perfect. We left the dock around 12:15 PM and were in position by the time the Navy Seal parachuters led off the show around 12:45.

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The airshow was held on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of Fleet Week. I watched from different venues each day: a ferry somewhere between Sausalito and Alcatraz on Friday; a hill atop Sausalito on Saturday; and aboard the fishing boat pictured above on Sunday just off Fort Mason. The weather was poor on Friday causing much of the airshow to be canceled. The stunt planes flew, a stealth bomber appeared and then quickly disappeared into the fog, and the Blue Angels made a few courtesy passes, but that was it. The weather in SF was better on Saturday, but the Golden Gate bridge was fogged in the entire day. The early parts of the airshow took place as scheduled, but by 2:30 the fog was advancing, at which point the Blue Angels flew a limited show. Fat Albert, the Blue Angels' command plane, usually leads off their part of the show, but the Angels went first on Saturday, followed by a brief Fat Albert fly-by.

Since Friday had been disappointing, I came home and started searching online for any boats that had availability for Sat or Sun. Just as I was about to give up, I found a charter company that claimed to have "open load" tickets. Turns out, it was a last minute decision by the operator to try to get enough people for a Sunday outing. What luck for me! The boat was a 50' fishing vessel moored in Emeryville (bypassing all the crowds in SF) with lots of deck space and, even better, just 20 people onboard, so getting from bow to stern was easy. It was a warm, cloudless day with little wind - perfect. We left the dock around 12:15 PM and were in position by the time the Navy Seal parachuters led off the show around 12:45.

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