Spectators jammed San Pedro’s waterfront Wednesday to greet a parade of about a dozen tall ships — but mostly to see the giant “Rubber Duck.”
The mega-size yellow bath toy, towering some 61 feet high, dwarfed the mostly smaller size tall ships that arrived for a five-day Tall Ships Festival offering live entertainment, ship tours and day sails through Sunday.
“There are no words to describe it,” one man said as the duck drifted toward a downtown-harbor boardwalk crowded with spectators.
“Ducky!” cried a small boy sitting on his father’s shoulders for a better look.
“The duck’s freaky!” 5-year-old Bob Jones said as he watched the blow-up figure snake through the harbor from Bluff Place and 40th Street. His older brother, Nicholas, 9, agreed that the duck was really impressive. But he also liked the ships.
“They’re really big and they have lots of sails,” he said. “I think they’re awesome.”
The ships, which visit the Port of Los Angeles every few years, have legions of fans who say they encompass the romance of earlier eras on the seas.
Asked about the appeal, Phyllis Kruckenberg of Walnut said it’s all about the water.
“Everyone loves to be around water,” she said.
“I think it’s the history,” chimed in a friend.
“And the pirates,” another friend added.
Robert and Carol Perry drove in from Tucson, Ariz., hoping to catch a day sail on one of the ships while they’re visiting.
The first glimpse of the duck, which actually is made of vinyl, came just after sunrise as tow boats pulled the giant toy from the northernmost regions of the Port of Los Angeles. Only a few spectators turned out for that appearance that was geared for the media.
“Oh, wow,” said Andrew Naslund of San Diego, who serves as first mate on the tall ship Amazing Grace. “Big.”
From the first peek around the port storage tanks and other industrial structures, the duck slowly came into full view, towed underneath the Vincent Thomas Bridge and into the slip where it will remain through Sunday at the Downtown Harbor plaza near Fifth Street and Harbor Boulevard, just south of the Los Angeles Maritime Museum.
Hazel Martinez and Anthony Dempsey of San Pedro followed the duck’s progress, even discovering its secret hiding spot before Wednesday morning’s unveiling.
“I got really weird and obsessed about it,” Martinez said.
Dempsey called it “overwhelming,” and — with a bit of encouragement — sang a stanza or two of the “Rubber Ducky” song in celebration.
When it was time for the parade to begin, the duck was towed farther south, out to the breakwater, where it joined with the tall ships to parade into the Main Channel. Some of the ships fired cannons as they traveled along. The duck occasionally shifted and turned, facing the crowds that couldn’t seem to get enough of the sculpture.
Created by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, the idea of the giant duck has a story behind it.
According to the poster board narrative at the festival, a shipping crate of nearly 29,000 plastic bath toys was lost at sea in 1992 when it fell overboard on its way from Hong Kong to Tacoma, Wash.
For more than 20 years, the story goes, the toys floated and some washed up on the shores of Hawaii, Alaska, South America, Australia and the Pacific Northwest. Others were found frozen in Arctic ice and others made their way as far as Scotland and England in the Atlantic.
“Today that flotilla of plastic ducks is being hailed for revolutionizing our understanding of ocean currents, as well as for teaching us a thing or two about plastic pollution in the process,” the story reads.
Called “Friendly Floatees” by followers who tracked them through the years, the toys provided the inspiration for a giant duck to connect the global community.
Los Angeles Councilman Joe Buscaino said the duck, and all the attention and publicity it has attracted, proves that Los Angeles’ waterfront is getting ready for prime time.
“This shows that this port is viable for bringing people into the region,” he said.
Vendors and musicians were on hand for Wednesday’s opening day, which was splashed with bright sunshine, cool breezes and comfortable temperatures in the low to mid-70s.
“It’s a gorgeous day, and it’s nice to be down here with all these people,” spectator Carol Westberg said. “I’m enjoying it, even though my binoculars broke.”
Suzanne Sinclair drove from Palos Verdes Estates to watch the parade. It was the first tall ships parade featuring historic-replica sailing ships, she’d seen. When she heard about the duck, she couldn’t resist.
“I think it’s all very exciting and something entirely different on a Wednesday afternoon,” Sinclair said. “I love the frivolousness of the rubber ducky. We’re all children at heart, aren’t we?”
