Tag archives: Greg Gorga

Deepwater Diving Pioneers Honored in the Harbor
By Sigrid Toye   |   April 22, 2025

On a sunny Spring Friday afternoon, the Santa Barbara community gathered to celebrate a powerful moment in maritime history – the unveiling of the Deepwater Diving Monument located at the entrance of the harbor. The 10-foot bronze statue of a diver is a tribute to the pioneering commercial divers whose innovations helped shape the modern […]

All Aboard the Love Boat
By Richard Mineards   |   March 18, 2025

The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum throbbed to the Caribbean beat as 140 guests celebrated a Love Boat cruise gala with head honcho Greg Gorga in all white officer’s uniform. Condor Express owner Hiroko Benko, who created a Santa Barbara Whale Heritage Area, and Sigrid Toye, a past board president and current board member, were presented […]

Shining a Light on Photography
By Richard Mineards   |   February 7, 2023

Santa Barbara Maritime Museum has just opened its latest illuminating exhibit, The Lure of Lighthouses & Dancing Waves, an impressive collection of more than 35 large-scale images and panoramic photographs of waves and lighthouses around the world taken by renowned Emmy Award-winning surfing photographer and videographer Dan Merkel. “I first met Dan when he joined […]

Artistic Sips
By Richard Mineards   |   September 20, 2022

Social gridlock reigned at artist Colette Cosentino’s Atelier and Gallery on West Anapamu when she opened her latest exhibition in collaboration with former Sunstone Winey vintner Anna Rice, who is using Colette’s artwork for her labels on her wine, including the Brut Rosé and Chardonnay. “It’s the perfect melding,” says Anna, now owner of the […]

Paddling with a Purpose
By Lynda Millner   |   July 8, 2021

The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) staff likes to tell you, “You can’t control the wind, but you can adjust your sails.” And so, they did. When they couldn’t have their fundraiser for two years in a row, they pivoted and came up with a different event. This was due to the legendary world-famous surfer […]

Pointers on Point Conception
By Steven Libowitz   |   January 28, 2021

Barely 50 miles from downtown Santa Barbara is one of the most fascinating and important parts of the California coastline. Point Conception is the headland where the coast transitions between north-south and east-west orientation, a very rare delineation that works as a natural division between Southern and Northern California. It also marks the location of […]

Art of the Sea
By Lynda Millner   |   January 7, 2021

There is a wonderful art exhibit of 55 naval paintings at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum awaiting your visit as soon as lockdown is over and executive director Greg Gorga can unlock the doors. The exhibit was scheduled to open December 3, 2020 until May 30, 2021. It’s sponsored by George H. & Olive J. Griffiths […]

Keepers of the Light
By Lynda Millner   |   February 6, 2020

The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) just celebrated the 164th birthday of the lighting of the Point Conception Lighthouse. From 1856 to 1973 when it was decommissioned and updated with a new light, the Point Conception Lighthouse lens guarded the rocky and treacherous Pacific coast where the Santa Barbara Channel and the Pacific Ocean meet […]

Kardboard Kayak Races
By Lynda Millner   |   July 25, 2019

If you want to have some fun and laughs, go to West Beach when the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) hold its annual Kardboard Kayak Races. This 17th year 32 teams entered the competition (three divisions of family fun and one division of the paddling pros (adult). Each team could have up to four people […]

Rum Running, Sailors & Prohibition
By Lynda Millner   |   May 16, 2019

The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum also just opened its newest exhibit “Rum Running, Sailors & Prohibition” which covers more than 400 years of history and connects Santa Barbara to those times. Why Santa Barbara? Because we have more coastline than any other county in the United States including the Channel Islands. A perfect place to […]

The Refugio Incident
By Lynda Millner   |   March 28, 2019

The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) held another of its lecture evenings, this one about “The Refugio Incident: A Wildlife Responder’s Perspective” as told by Elaine Ibarra. Elaine graduated from California State University at Channel Islands with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and is a trained and experienced oil spill responder. She had extensive volunteer […]

The 1969 Blowout
By Lynda Millner   |   January 24, 2019

The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) presented another of its nautical lectures, this time about the 1969 oil blowout and the birth of the environmental movement. Fifty years ago I was living in Europe, but even without cell phones we knew about the disaster in Santa Barbara, California. A blowout on Union Oil’s platform A […]

32nd Annual Parade of Lights 2018
By Joanne A Calitri   |   December 20, 2018

On Sunday, December 9th, the 32nd Annual Parade of Lights Boat Show was held at Stearns Wharf and seen along the city beachfront from west to east beaches. This year marked the return of the event from 2016, as SB Waterfront decided for the safety of our citizens to cancel it last year due to […]

Oil in Santa Barbara Channel
By Lynda Millner   |   October 11, 2018

The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) opened its doors to a new exhibit. As executive director Greg Gorga told the visitors, “This is the largest exhibit the museum has ever had. The History of Oil in Santa Barbara Channel has been planned for many years.” As we all know when we come home from a […]

Into the Shark Zone
By Lynda Millner   |   August 30, 2018

Jaws came alive at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) recently with the screening of shark movies by filmmakers Harry Rabin and Tom Piozet, along with Dr. Chris Lowe of the Cal State University Long Beach Shark Lab. It was a look behind the scenes of the Weather Channel’s show Into the Shark Zone and […]

Museum Becomes Titanic
By Lynda Millner   |   April 5, 2018

What a perfect theme for the perfect place! That was the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) transformed into the White Star Line R.M.S. Titanic, the ship of dreams. As co-chairs David Bolton and Cindy Makela said, “Love Boat was too corny.” Titanic had drama. It took us back to April 15, 1912. The Titanic was […]