Ventura Harbor

Aleaky 74-year-old wooden boat, which left Ventura Harbor against the advice of inspectors, had to be towed to safety by the U.S. Coast Guard after it started taking on water Thursday. The vessel set out Wednesday for Port San Luis, where the owners of the yacht thought repairs would be cheaper. It began sinking Thursday morning eight miles east of San Miguel Island, said Coast Guard spokeswoman Brenda Toledo.

With its 12 sails unfurled, the tall ship Lady Washington journeys into the Ventura Harbor next week for nine days dockside during which the public can tour the floating museum. It's not the real Lady Washington, the first United States vessel to sail into the waters of the Pacific Northwest 200 years ago. It's a replica, launched in 1989 by Grays Harbor Historical Seaport in Aberdeen, Wash. But it will seem like the real thing when it arrives at 4 p.m. Dec. 9.

Warning signs were posted at several spots around the Ventura Keys on Tuesday after approximately 900 gallons of untreated sewage gushed into Ventura Harbor. The untreated effluent was discharged Monday into a storm drain near Arundell Circle after something--probably branches or leaves--clogged a sewer line. The sewage traveled from the storm drain into the Arundell Barranca and then to Ventura Harbor. The city of Ventura got a call about the spill about 2 p.m. Monday, county officials said.

Commercial fishermen who have lost their lives while working the Santa Barbara Channel will be commemorated in a new memorial to be unveiled today at Ventura Harbor. A 12-foot-high ceramic archway depicting four life-size fishermen working the seas will be dedicated at 10 a.m. in the Harbor Village. The three-dimensional artwork is located on a pedestrian walkway between Andria's Seafood and Milano's Italian restaurant.

As part of a $7.7-million project intended to improve safety and reduce dredging costs, Ventura Harbor officials last week finished building a 650-foot rock seawall on the beach south of the harbor. The South Beach Groin was initially the focus of protests from the Surfrider Foundation, a group of environmentally minded surfers who maintain that the new jetty will cause beach erosion and destroy one of Southern California's top surfing spots. "We thought it was a real boondoggle.

Itook my son, Teddy, to Lorenzoni's for dinner the other night. Teddy's a good person to take out to eat because, while he takes his food very seriously, he always leaves plenty on his plate for me. It was dark when we got down to Ventura Harbor, so we couldn't enjoy the view much; we couldn't even see it. The whole complex of shops and restaurants was deserted and a bit forlorn. I felt as if we had shown up at a party after everyone else had gone home.

It's the case of the missing beach. Over the past 10 days, a giant chunk of the South Beach, south of the entrance to Ventura Harbor, has vanished, forcing befuddled beach-goers to brave a 20-foot sand cliff to reach the water. Experts say a portion of the beach normally washes out to sea during the winter, but this year's erosion is the worst in nearly a decade. At least 200 feet of prime beach stretching half a mile along the coast has been swept away by unusually large waves and high seas.

Officials at financially troubled Ventura Harbor hope a resident theater troupe will enliven slack sales and restaurant business when it opens its doors on New Year's Eve. Theater-by-the-Sea, an enterprise that over the years has failed to take root at several Ventura County locations, will try again in a ground-floor space at Ventura Harbor Village, below Hornblower's restaurant.

As the St. Vincent One unloaded its cargo in the early morning fog at Ventura Harbor, a crowd of curious passers-by gathered to watch the spectacle. One by one, a crane lifted the giant carcasses of deep-sea swordfish, big-eye tuna, mako shark, dorado and the red-speckled tropical fish called opah out of the boat's hold and onto a dockside scale.

Workers by Monday hope to wrap up a $1.2-million federal project to rebuild a large section of the Ventura Harbor breakwater toppled by high seas in January. The worst damage is to a 100-foot area in the middle of the 1,750-foot-long breakwater, said Richard Parsons, dredging program manager for the Ventura Port District. An area at the south end is also damaged.