Sea

The actors in Shakespeare By the Sea's productions, coming to Newport Beach today and Sunday, could definitely be said to suffer for their art. How else to describe building a theater set, then donning a heavy costume and performing one of the Bard's plays in summer heat five days a week? "We've had higher attendance because the weather has been great ? because by the time 7 o'clock rolls around, it's a great time to be outside," Shakespeare By the Sea's founder and producing artistic director Lisa Coffi said.

"A Sea of Adventure" awaits visitors at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum when the opening this weekend of an interactive exhibit exploring maritime history. The exhibit highlights the relationship between man and sea, as well as the emerging role of Newport Harbor in oceanic exploration, museum Executive Director Rita Stenlund said Wednesday. "Man's relationship with the sea has no boundaries," Stenlund said. "The possibilities are almost limitless — it is the last frontier of exploration.

A local water enthusiast is among a growing number of sailors who help people celebrate the lives of -- and say goodbye to -- departed family and friends. Captain Bob Harrison didn't know what was in store when he purchased an 80-year-old schooner named Curlew. A sailor all his life, Harrison waited until the time was right to make the big purchase. In his four years of owning the 82-foot schooner and operating a charter company, Harrison has discovered a unique way to share his love of sailing and help others say goodbye to a loved one. After clients expressed interest, Harrison began offering memorials at sea, an opportunity for family and friends to set sail on Curlew and scatter the ashes of someone they have lost.

"I touched the crab!" "I touched it longer." "No, I touched it longer." Students from Harbor View Elementary gathered around the touch-tank at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum on Thursday and took turns feeling each of the sea creatures in the tank. "The starfish is really rough like pumice that you use for your feet," student Taryn Beaufort said with excitement. The touch-tank is one of the newest exhibits at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum, which recently moved to the Balboa Fun Zone.

With his bulbous seashell nose and a few spiky tufts of seaweed hair, Bill the octopus seemed to want to crawl back into the ocean as soon as two Newport Elementary School students and their art teacher finished etching his tentacles out of sand Friday afternoon. “I think the tide is working against us,” said art instructor Jeni Erickson, who teaches sculpture with the Newport Elementary School’s After Class Enrichment program, as one wave after another washed over Bill.

Lolita Harper She was diminutive but adventuresome. Rugged but beautiful. And her unbridled spirit captured his heart for life. The unpolished canoe was the first in a series of many boats that gained the affection of Harold Wheeler. Growing up in Ontario, Canada, Wheeler said he and his brother would steal wooden railroad tracks and build boats out of them. "My brother was a feisty young kid," he said. A trait that rubbed off on the Costa Mesa resident.

“The little foolery that wise men have makes a great show.” “As You Like It” Despite the slings and arrows of an outrageous economy, Shakespeare by the Sea is returning for its 10th season of performances in Newport Beach this weekend, presenting two different comedies two nights in a row. “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” to be performed Saturday, is thought of as one of Shakespeare’s...

Ahoy! Saturday sees an inspiring happening at the American Legion Newport Harbor Post 291, when eager sailors will take part in the Sail for the Blind and Visually Impaired event. Participants will be able to help steer the boats and adjust sheet and halyard lines while feeling the sensations of wind and motion. The event is sponsored by the Women's Ocean Racing Sailing Assn. (WORSA) and hosted by the American Legion Post and Yacht Club. The Women's Ocean Racing Sailing Assn.

It has been described as a place where "art, fashion and architecture combine. " A'Maree's exclusive boutique on Coast Highway in Newport Beach opened the pre-holiday season with a special sneak peek sponsored by The Visionaries, a ladies auxiliary of the Orange County Museum of Art. The destination for fashion has received national press, including a spread in The New York Times, for its rare and unique occupation of the landmark 1960s-era waterfront...

The article "The Fading of the Grand Canal " (April 27) contains a lot of truth. Newport Beach used to dredge it every decade or two. I was a child living on the canal, and I remember watching the work. Workers did it correctly, at high tide only, taking sand from the center and piling it up under water so it could compact properly and stay put. The last time workers dredged the canal, in about the 1980s, they did it fast and incorrectly. They dredged at any time, and the sand wasn't piled up under water.

In a Pacific Coast League game featuring first-place Beckman against fourth-place Corona del Mar it appeared it would be a tight one … through the first three innings. But then came chaos in the fourth inning. Well, it was chaos for CdM. Yet it was a bonafide, two-out rally for the Patriots, who scored seven runs and went on to beat the Sea Kings, 11-2, Friday at CdM. It left the Sea Kings (6-16, 4-7 in league) needing to win their final four regular-season games for a playoff berth and it left the Patriots (20-2, 10-1)

Boaters in Newport Beach don't drag their vessels out of the water for the winter. After all, chunks of ice would be hard to find floating in the harbor. No matter. Like their counterparts in less-hospitable climates, where yacht clubs shut down as snowy days loom, Southern Californians want to celebrate the tradition of opening day too. One by one, local yacht clubs are kicking off the season with traditional pomp. "It becomes more or less their hour of shine to start the season," said Morrie Willkie, commodore of the Southern California Yachting Assn.

Corona del Mar High Coach Steve Conti says he was a little bit smarter with his scheduling. Rather than start the season with Los Angeles Loyola again, he decided to push it back toward the end of it. Almost half of his boys' volleyball team plays a sport in the winter, and against Loyola, Conti preferred CdM to be at full strength. After last season's opener at Loyola, where Conti said it looked like his young Sea Kings had never played volleyball before, losing in three sets, the move made sense.

IRVINE — Corona del Mar High tennis senior Carson Williams does not know the name of the mystery man who he hit with last weekend in Ojai. Williams said the man was in the men's open division of the 114th annual Ojai Tennis Tournament, and he needed a warmup partner. He hit with the man for about 90 minutes. "I couldn't find him on the draw," Williams said. "He said his first name is Dane, but that must have been short for something. He was really good. He needed a warmup [partner]

IRVINE - Do not underestimate the girls' water polo contingent on the Corona del Mar High girls' swim team. Two weeks ago it was junior Grace Morgan stepping in on the "A" relays, helping CdM win the Battle of the Bay for another year. On Tuesday afternoon at University High, sophomore Bridgett Storm took center stage. Storm sure picked a great time to win her first 200-yard freestyle race of the season. She gave her team some early-meet momentum, helping CdM accomplish something it hadn't done in eight years.

IRVINE - The day after many of the players on the Corona del Mar High girls' lacrosse team returned from the three-day Stagecoach Country Music Festival, they had a huge Pacific Coast League game against Beckman. The festival was much more fun for the Sea Kings than the game at the Patriots' field Monday. CdM stayed competitive for most of the contest, but at the end the goals dried up, just like the festival grounds in the desert in Indio. The resulting 13-9 Beckman victory means that CdM is most likely denied its first outright league title in program history.

Go to a Corona del Mar High girls' lacrosse game, and you probably won't hear the name "Sabrina" uttered once by any of the Sea Kings. Senior Sabrina Smith? She goes by "Bean," a funny nickname for the tall and slender Smith, who stands 5-foot-10. When she was a baby Smith's parents, Todd and Sherry, called her "Sabrina Bo-Bina," which was soon shortened to "Bean. " Then, in first grade, there was another Sabrina in her class at Harbor View Elementary. The teacher asked if either of the girls had a nickname.

Since the Corona del Mar High boys' lacrosse team suffered its first setback three weeks ago, the Sea Kings have been rolling. They continued their strong play and exacted some revenge at home on Thursday. The Sea Kings walloped St. Margaret's, 12-3, collecting their sixth straight victory in front a big a crowd. The result turned out much differently than last season's two meetings between the Orange County powerhouse programs. Back then, the Tartans handed CdM its second and third losses, the third one ended the Sea Kings' season.

IRVINE - A festive atmosphere prevailed at the start of Tuesday's Pacific Coast League softball game at University High. The game against visiting Corona del Mar was the school's "game of the week," and a large student population checked out the action. University wore pink uniforms, in honor of breast cancer awareness. The Trojans had to be just tickled pink with the game's result, too. Senior Joselynn Solis threw a two-hitter and struck out 10 as University blanked Corona del Mar, 7-0. University (6-11, 1-2)