The Aurora, the vintage cruise ship that earned newfound fame after sinking near Stockton, has finally left the Delta.
Its mooring spot near Eight Mile Road sat empty Friday, and a Coast Guard official confirmed the ship was being towed to Vallejo, a port city on San Pablo Bay some 60 miles west.
“It’s been a long process, from the time it sunk to the rising and then the complexity of the inspections,” Chief Petty Officer Levi Read told Stocktonia.
Coast Guard officials approved a transportation plan for the derelict and leaky ship early Friday morning, and crews began work almost immediately, Read said.
Three tugboats were involved in moving the Aurora in a process called a “deadship tow,” necessary for a vessel that can neither power nor steer itself.
Read said he could not confirm whether Vallejo is the Aurora’s final destination or what future awaits the ship there.
See the Aurora in virtual reality.
The city of Stockton had taken responsibility for arranging the move. Officials did not respond to requests for comment Friday afternoon.
The 300-foot cruise liner captured the internet’s imagination when it sank into the mud in May. Its vintage lines evoked a kind of faded glory for a craft that once starred in a James Bond movie and was reputedly the inspiration for TV’s “The Love Boat.”
But the ship was leaking oil into the water just upstream from Stockton’s water-supply intake. As it sank and began fouling the nearby waters, local, state and federal officials had to respond to the emergency — then figure out how to dispose of a vessel that defied its past owners’ plans to refurbish it.
The levee road that led to the site, just south of the defunct Herman and Helen’s Marina, had been closed to most public traffic for months, with private security guards monitoring it around the clock. That roadblock remained in place Friday evening.
A smaller sunken vessel that had sat alongside the Aurora remained in the slough.
The Coast Guard said the Aurora departed Little Potato Slough at 10:19 a.m. Friday and was expected in Vallejo about 8 p.m.
“The Coast Guard conducted multiple inspections over the last two weeks to make sure everything was good to go,” Read said. “We felt that it would be safe to do the tow.”
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