When explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo and his flagship San Salvador pulled into San Diego Bay on Sept. 28, 1542, he was not just trying to impress the locals with the grace of his three-masted galleon.
He was on a business trip, in hopes of opening up the West Coast of America for Europeans.
And so it is fitting that the full-size replica of Cabrillo's flagship, which took more than $6.2 million and four years to build, has a business-style goal when it makes its long-awaited public debut Friday afternoon.
At 150 tons, measuring 92 feet in length, 24 feet in width, lovingly constructed with wood from Suriname, Nigeria, the Pacific Northwest and Georgia, the San Salvador is set to lead the parade of tall ships, the traditional opening of the annual three-day Festival of Sail.