Blue Angels highlight Fleet Week in S.F.

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Oct 3, 2007 | by Scott Marshall

SAN FRANCISCO -- Fleet Week is back, and it won't just be the Navy's Blue Angels gliding beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. Besides the Blue Angels, other teams including Team Oracle and the Air Force's F-16 Demonstration Team will be on hand.

And seven vessels will parade into the Bay on Saturday, including the 453-foot frigate USS Vandegrift (215 crew); the 509-foot USS Shoup, an Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided missile destroyer (325 crew); the 175-foot Coast Guard Cutter George Cobb (25 crew); and four Canadian vessels.

There will be fireworks and a parade, a concert and other festivities throughout the weekend.

During the parade of ships, mariners must remain out of security zones throughout most of the central San Francisco Bay from the Golden Gate Bridge, south of Alcatraz, to just south of the Bay Bridge.

For more information about security zones, call the Coast Guard at 510-437-3325.

FLEET WEEK

-Thursday: The Blue Angels will conduct survey flights from noon to 2 p.m. and 3-4 p.m.

-Friday: Air show and Blue Angels practice, 1-4 p.m. (Blue Angels at 3 p.m.); 1st Marine Division Band concert, 6-7 p.m.; fireworks 8:30 p.m., Pier 3.

-Saturday: Parade of Ships, opening ceremony, noon to 1 p.m.; air show and Blue Angels, 1-4:30 p.m. (Blue Angels at 3 p.m.); Fleet Week celebration 4-7 p.m., Pier 39; meet the Blue Angels, Pier 39, 7:30 p.m.; fireworks, 8:30 p.m., Pier 3.