Day 17: San Francisco
Again I don't have any pictures, but after returning from Paris, for our final day we took BART up to the city (my first time ever on BART), and rode the cable cars around (click for web site), which was fun. We were so jet-lagged, we actually had breakfast at Embarcadero Center. Imagine that for two nocturnal beings! Wandering around the pier 39 area, we made a really cool discovery: a World War II submarine that has been docked here and open for tours for the last 6 years. On the tour you walk through the submarine from one end to the other, with one of those digitized audio machines. The recorded audio was really excellent, with a lot of interviews with people who served on the sub, and did a terrific job of giving some interesting technical information about the sub. There were also a couple of volunteer docents there who had actually served on the sub in WW II, and one guy was very friendly and talked to us quite a bit, answering a lot of questions.
One thing he said that was impressive is that the sub had 200 tons (yes, tons) of batteries. Also, I never realized this but I guess it is how all attack submarines work even now: whenever submerged, all systems on the sub, including the propulsion, run off of the batteries. On the surface, with access to intake air, they would run the two large diesel engines to recharge the batteries. So the sub could only stay submerged for a couple of days at a time. Also interesting is that each cylinder in the diesel engines actually contains two opposing pistons which compress the fuel/air mixture between them.
Even though they had taken some equipment and structures out of the sub for easier passage for the tourists, Isako was the only one who didn't have much problem getting around. We were amazed at how small the bedrooms were for 100 crew members. Some had to sleep in-between torpedoes, and most had to share bunks with 2 other people (three shifts... one sleeping while the other two were up and around).
The group that runs the tours on the sub has a really extensive web site, I recommend you check it out: