RECREATION / BOATING : A Cruise on the Rippling Harbor Whets Appetite

Nearly 100 hungry diners were sipping champagne and enjoying their Sunday brunch on the Pavilion Queen when entertainer Jim Mahoney stopped strumming his guitar and said: “Hey folks, look out the window at that blue shark.”

A shark at Sunday brunch?

Don’t panic. This one was only 8 feet long and was strapped to the transom of a passing fishing boat. But still, it gives you an idea of the exotic difference between brunching on land and dining on a boat on the move through Newport Harbor.

The food may be the same, but brunch cruises offer a different setting from the usual land-bound locations. Where else can you see a fast sailboat tacking across your stern while you munch on muffins? Or watch a flotilla of Sabots fly across the water like small sea birds? Or wave to the captain of a fancy yacht as it glides by?

“I like the water and I like to eat so this is the perfect combination,” says Ronald Livingston, who was celebrating his birthday by dining and cruising aboard the Pavilion Queen one recent Sunday. The brunch cruise was a surprise gift from Livingston’s friend, Ardena Bartlett of Tustin.

In Orange County, brunch cruises are offered every Sunday during the summer months in Newport Harbor at the Balboa Pavilion, which operates the Pavilion Queen, and at Hornblower Dining Yachts, which operates a fleet of boats up and down the coast. The length of the dining season depends upon the weather, says Betsy Sturgeon, who helps coordinate cruises aboard the Pavilion Queen, a 65-foot Mississippi-style river boat that takes people on brunch excursions from Easter through September. “Sometimes we continue into October, depending on the weather,” Sturgeon says.

Over at the Cannery Restaurant, 3010 Lafayette Ave., Newport Beach, brunch cruises are offered every Saturday and Sunday, year-round aboard the 58-foot Isla Mujeres. Two cruises are offered each day from 10 a.m. to noon and from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. The menu includes chicken cordon bleu, stuffed baked potatoes, French toast with pineapple cream cheese, mushroom caps stuffed with hot sausages, apple pastries and blueberry muffins, plus assorted other goodies. Also included are coffee, orange juice and champagne. Food is prepared at the Cannery Restaurant and then taken aboard the boat just before departure. Cost is $25 per person.

The Pavilion Queen brunch cruise departs at 10:30 a.m. and lasts 2 1/2 hours. It includes a buffet consisting of salads, roast beef, ham, scrambled eggs, chile relleno casserole, Portuguese sausage, blueberry muffins, strawberry blintzes, bread pudding and trifle. Also included are champagne, coffee and orange juice. Cost is $25 per person. Food is prepared at the Tale of the Whale Restaurant in the Balboa Pavilion.

The Hornblower brunch cruise lasts 2 hours and also includes a lavish buffet, prepared aboard ship in a restaurant-style galley. The Hornblower buffet includes pastries, assorted salads, carved baron of beef, eggs, fresh fruit, coffee, tea, juice and champagne. Cost is $35. The cruises depart at 11 a.m. and are offered on either the 105-foot Pacific Hornblower or the 72-foot Newport Hornblower, according to Kori Stephens, who works in Hornblower’s San Francisco office. The San Francisco-based company operates a string of dining yachts up and down the coast.

“We offer such a wonderful, unique location,” says Stephens. “Anybody can go to brunch in a restaurant and you may have a great view, but where else can you eat where the view is constantly changing? Most people do not get to experience brunch this way.”

Stephens, who describes the Hornblower cruises as “elegant dining,” emphasizes that the brunch excursion is not a harbor tour. “We try not to intrude upon anyone’s experience,” she says. “But the captain does point out some sights of interest. And everybody is encouraged to visit the captain in the pilot house.”

Brunch aboard the Isla Mujeres and the Pavilion Queen is a tad less formal and does include a narrated tour of the harbor in which the captain points out interesting houses--such as the one that recently sold for $14 million--and recites some of the history of the harbor. “The favorite thing is to see John Wayne’s house,” says Betsy Sturgeon. “You can’t believe the number of people who love to see where John Wayne lived (in the Bayshores community).”

The Pavilion Queen attracts locals and tourists. “We get tourists,” says first mate Carlos Zayas, “but we get quite a few people from around here. Mostly what we get are people celebrating a birthday, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day or an anniversary.”

And then there are locals such as Mary Gass of Balboa, who brought out-of-town guest Tom Burns from Phoenix. “It’s a good idea,” Burns says. “A great way to see the area.”

Both the Pavilion Queen and Hornblower cruises include live entertainment. Advance reservations are essential. For information on the Pavilion Queen, call (714) 673-5245. For information on the Hornblower cruises, call (800) 950- 0150. For information on the Cannery brunch cruises, call (714) 675-5777.

And you are advised to be on time or the boat may leave the dock without you.

“If people are left on the dock, we try to come back and get them,” says Sturgeon of the Pavilion Queen. “The boat goes out toward the ocean first and if we have missed someone we stop and pick them up. We try to accommodate everyone, but it’s better to be on time.”

Snowbird exhibit--Longtime Newport Beach sailors know that a Snowbird is not really a bird but a type of small wooden sailboat that used to be the most popular boat raced in Newport Bay.

From the 1940s to the 1970s, this 12-foot sloop was so popular with young sailors that each summer culminated in a large race called the “Flight of the Snowbirds.”

Over the past 20 years, the Snowbird has given way to more modern boats--such as Kites and Lasers. The Flight of the Snowbirds was replaced by the Flight of the Kites for a few years and is now called the Flight of the Lasers. But if you’d like to learn more about the legendary Snowbird, visit the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum any time through September and you can see a beautifully restored Snowbird, original photographs of the Flight of the Snowbirds and other memorabilia relating to that era.

The Snowbird exhibit is on view at the museum, 1714 W. Balboa Blvd., from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. For information, call (714) 673- 3377.

Shipboard theater--The final performances of Daniel Trent’s one-man show based upon Richard Henry Dana’s “Two Years Before the Mast” will be presented today and Saturday aboard the tall ship Pilgrim in Dana Point Harbor. Two performances are held each night. Tickets are $26. For information call the Orange County Marine Institute at (714) 496- 2274.

Day sail--The Women’s Ocean Racing Sailing Assn. will hold a day sail at noon Saturday at the Balboa Yacht Club, 1801 Bayside Drive in Corona del Mar. For information on the event or on how to join the women’s sailing organization call Jane Golding at (714) 641-9210.

Fishing fun--A two-day fishing class for beginning and intermediate anglers is being offered July 30 and Aug. 1 by the Dana Point Harbor Youth and Group Facility, 34451 Ensenada Place. The first class will meet from 10 a.m. to noon and will be be spent fishing from shore. The second class will meet from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. aboard a chartered fishing boat. Cost is $35. The class is open to persons 9 years old and up. For information call (714) 661-7122.