Word: britannias
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...tornado that were catastrophic for some residents but merely inconvenient for the Queen. There was an umbrella almost perpetually over Her Majesty's head. Split-second schedules, worked out over the past nine months, had to be adjusted and at the last minute readjusted, the royal yacht Britannia 's midweek sailing plans scrubbed in deference to 16-ft. seas, four floors of a hotel suddenly commandeered. At a dinner in her honor in San Francisco, the Queen made light of the drenching conditions. "I knew before we came that we have exported many of our traditions...
...Queen, according to one biographer, "is a poor sailor," easily made queasy. Even so, the royals had intended to spend most of their time on board her yacht Britannia, the world's largest (412 ft. long), best staffed (a crew of 254) and most expensive (more than $5 million a year to maintain). But even in the balmy Mexican Pacific, the Queen fretted about the rough California seas ahead. The gray, foreboding skies settled in just before Britannia slid up to San Diego's Broadway Pier a week ago last Saturday...
...know which is which. More than 6,000 San Diego citizens (and transplanted subjects) cheered and sang onshore at her arrival, but the visitor got on with business straightaway. She walked among 200 reporters (a fraction of those covering her) who had been invited aboard the comfortably staid Britannia to drink brandy and warm whisky. Mid-mingle, she had one American describe for her Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper, in which a servant is cursed for manhandling the disguised English monarch...
Inside, the Queen reminded the 400 Americans that Britannia was essentially retracing a stretch of Sir Francis Drake's 1579 route up the Pacific Coast. He "claimed this territory as 'Nova Albion' for the first Queen Elizabeth," she said, "and 'for the Queen's successors forever.' " Smile. Pause. "I am happy, though, to give you an immediate assurance that I have not come here today to press that claim." (She failed to deliver the kicker that the Nova Albion/California natives at the time, utterly wowed by their godlike English visitor, lavished Drake with gifts...
...Wednesday Britannia finally left Long Beach without its passengers. The royals and their household, 30 servants and aides in all, went ahead to San Francisco by jet and checked into the Westin St. Francis Hotel's $1,200-a-night Presidential Suite. (The U.S. Government picked up the tab.) Nancy Reagan, in turn, got the London Suite (the irony was accidental). The trio and their courtiers later hooked up at the Trafalgar Room (also happenstance) in Trader Vic's restaurant...