Juan Cabrillo’s September 28, 1542 landing in San Diego has some historic heft. It was the first time any European set foot on the western coast of what’s now the United States. It took place 78 years before the Mayflower reached the East Coast, and the event put all of California under the control of Spain. Yet no tour of San Diego visits the landing site. Most locals couldn’t tell you where it happened.
The Cabrillo Monument at the end of Point Loma might come to mind. But that’s on the top of the point. Only seagulls land there. Nor did the explorer and his men disembark at the cliff base directly below the monument, where breakers create treacherous passage for anyone who’s not on a surfboard.
Instead the expedition made landfall in the calmer waters at the base of Point Loma inside the bay. Ballast Point, as the site is known, lies within the Naval Base that’s beyond the western end of Rosecrans Street. In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, entrance to the base has been substantially restricted. But every September 28, the Navy opens the gates to civilians interested in watching a re-enactment of Cabrillo’s 
consequential visit.
After living in San Diego for more than 34 years, I finally made it to the Cabrillo Festival yesterday. It’s an event that has an old-fashioned charm and scale. A couple of food tents had been set up and volunteers were selling thematic items like Portuguese sweet bread and Spanish paella and Indian fry bread. (Cabrillo reportedly treated our natives with courtesy.)
The highlight of the afternoon was the moment when a rowboat skulled into view of Smuggler’s Cove where the crowd of several hundred was gathered. At the water’s edge, a couple of fellows in conquistadorial and clerical garb clambored out and pretended to claim the beach for Spain. But truth be told, this was a low-tech, low-key highlight. The bayside setting is almost unrecognizable from Cabrillo’s day. A jumble of ugly dry docks, tacky apartment buildings, cranes, tennis courts, and other military flotsam have grown over the natural landscape, and the shoreline was long ago reshaped to meet the needs of a 20th-century harbor.
Fans of Cabrillo and old boats point out that there are plans in the works to add some class to one aspect of the celebrations. The San Diego Maritime Museum has announced plans to build a historically accurate, sailable replica of Cabrillo’s 200-ton galleon, the San Salvador. They’re be laying the keel at the end of 2009, with launching planned for the fall of 2011.
