Mound House boat in water

The Vera Cruz drew spectators to the Mound House shipyard where it was built, tied up traffic on its way to California, and on Monday, touched water for the first time.

"She's the biggest one in the marina," said Vera Cruz Captain Charlie Brown in a phone call from Mission Bay in San Diego. "She's beautiful. She's floating in the water and there are no problems. Everything went smoothly."

There might have been a few people who doubted that the boat built in landlocked, bone-dry Nevada would float when it actually hit the waters of the Pacific. There was a land christening for the boat in Mound House in September, but the Vera Cruz was properly christened Monday with water.

The ship is a replica of an 1898 Burgess Rhodes-designed bug-eye (gaff) brigantine schooner.

This is a type of shallow-draft ship that was typically used in shallow coastal waters in the East Coast's fishing industry.

Brown built the Vera Cruz in Mound House because it was cheaper to build the $750,000 boat in Nevada than at a traditional ship yard. And there were few restrictions to hinder Brown's constant construction.

For Brown, seeing the ship in the water is a dream come true.

"It's fantastic," he said. "It's the end of a five-year journey, and now the adventure begins when we leave port."

Brown had guessed the weight of the boat to be around 48 tons but said the Vera Cruz weighed in at 55 tons. The 106-foot-long, 20-foot-wide boat left Mound House a week before Thanksgiving, crawling towards California at 25 mph.

Brown said the trip through Nevada and California was smooth sailing until they hit Interstate 15 and added a further obstruction to Southern California's perpetual traffic problems.

At least from Victorville to nearly San Bernardino, traffic on a four-lane road was reduced to one lane while the boat went over the El Cajon pass.

"When we hit I-15, we backed up traffic," Brown said. "There were a lot of mad drivers. There was only one lane of traffic open, but California Highway Patrol said, "Hey, you paid for the permits.'"

Brown said the schooner's two masts will be raised today. The boat probably won't leave Mission Bay until the middle of December.

Brown estimates it will take about three months before the Vera Cruz reaches its home of Puerto Penasco, Mexico, in the Sea of Cortez.

"We've got so much to do," Brown said.

Brown has worked around sea craft for most of his life. A Florida native, he started building the boat in 1995, which will eventually be used for chartered sailing trips in the Sea of Cortez. Brown operates a boat charter company called Rocky Point Charters based in Rocky Point, Mexico.

For information on the Vera Cruz, head to the Web at www.rockypointcharters.com.