A Switch to Inner Space for Schirra

LA JOLLA —  Apollo 7 astronaut Wally Schirra urged about 200 of his Very Good Friends to dive right into the swim of things at last Thursday’s “The Big Splash,” a briny reception given at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Aquarium in anticipation of the new Scripps Aquarium-Museum to be built on a neighboring hillside.

Schirra, honorary fund-raising campaign chairman for the new aquarium, juggled several roles quite handily. He was present partly as a living inspiration to the Very Good Friends, a recently formed benefactors group, and partly as the evening’s guest of honor. In his brief remarks, the former astronaut made it clear that, having gained a certain familiarity with outer space, he is now turning his attention to inner space, the quiet realm that lies hidden beneath the frisking waves.

“Seventy percent of the earth’s surface is covered by water, and it’s time we took a closer look at it,” Schirra said .

Most of the guests seemed more than willing to take a closer look at all this moisture, or at least at that small portion of it circulating through the aquarium’s massive, marine life-filled tanks. This was made easy for them by Katherine L’Hommedieu, the event’s chairman, who nearly went overboard in her arrangements for the evening, which included rare behind-the-scenes tours of the exhibit. The party also was awash in such nautical details as a dance floor poised at the very brink of the tide pool, and mermaids posing between mounds of shrimp and other cocktail hour bait.

“This is guppy love for me,” said L’Hommedieu of her role in The Big Splash. “It’s a great way to bring your friends together to see all these wonderful creatures from underneath the waves.”

Some of those wonderful creatures did become the stars of the show when the guests bounced upstairs to tour the narrow spaces that run above and behind the aquariums. Those who hadn’t already filled up on cocktail food may have felt a touch tempted by the tank filled with large spiny lobsters, but since the same tank also housed a poisonous stonefish--these make truly superior aquatic watchdogs--the lobsters were not in any real danger of becoming someone’s dinner.

An invitation to pet the tail--by far the safer end--of a large moray eel at first seemed like an invitation to view the Royal Nonesuch, but several guests did indeed roll up their sleeves and plunge in up to the elbow to touch the slippery critter.

There was a certain salt water daffiness to this little adventure, though, as pointed out by aquarist Fernando Nosratpour, who warned guests to keep their eye on the hungry looking sheepshead that shared the same tank. “That fish is pretty aggressive, and we don’t stick our hands in there,” said Nosratpour--but others splashed where aquarists fear to tread water.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography director Edward Frieman, who gets to spend all the time he likes with his fishy friends, stayed downstairs to entertain the aquarium’s benefactors. He called the evening a milestone that brought the institution very close to its goal.

“We’re almost there,” said Frieman. “Another $600,000 and we’ve got our new aquarium.” He added that if events go according to schedule, ground breaking for the new facility will be in the spring of 1989.

The guest list also included Joy Frieman, Theresa Castagneto, Dulie and John Ahlering, David Dick, Christy and Jim Jones, Gini and Durrant Kellogg, Laureen and Steve Miller, Kate Adams, Jane and Willis Fletcher, Rosemary and Jeffrey Graham, Viola and Fred Thompson, Carol and Mark Yorston, and Diane and Tom Schmidt.

SAN DIEGO--Young yachtswoman J.J. Isler told the 200 family friends and sailing enthusiasts gathered at the San Diego Yacht Club the other day that, even though “Grandma’s afraid we’ll get caught in a typhoon,” she and sailing mate Amy Wardell intend to try their hardest to win a berth for the 1988 Summer Olympics in South Korea.

Both of Isler’s grandmothers--Evelyn Fetter, and the typhoon-fearing Marian Trevor--were on hand at an informal fund-raiser aimed at giving a practical boost to Isler and Wardell’s Olympic hopes. La Jollan Isler and Wardell, of Bay Head, N.J., were teammates on the women’s sailing squad at Yale and have won numerous championships in 470 class boats (the type they intend to sail off Pusan, Korea), including first place in the 1986 European Championships and, most recently, a first in the 1988 United States Yacht Racing Union Women’s Sailing Championships.

The team’s new 470 served as the centerpiece of the informal, outdoor reception; it is the fourth boat the two women have owned since they started their quest to conquer the waves. Isler’s father, Tom Fetter, said the small, two-person craft was built in Auckland, New Zealand, under the shadow of the 90-foot boat that yachtsman Michael Fay intends to enter in the America’s Cup competition tentatively scheduled to take place here this fall. Fay, not necessarily a popular fellow at the SDYC, evidently can be gracious at times, since he helped to expedite the shipment of the 470. It arrived on Christmas Day.

The 470 has yet to be named, but Wardell nonetheless gave it a christening of sorts by dousing it with champagne while Gordon Wright, a representative of the Bay Head Yacht Club, presented the team with a sailing pennant that read, “Seoul or Bust!”

Isler’s romance with the waters goes well below the surface; she is is married to Peter Isler, who served as Stars & Stripes navigator in Dennis Conner’s successful America’s Cup bid. Described as J.J.’s “live-in coach,” Peter Isler told the crowd that his wife and her teammate do indeed intend to sail off Korea.

“These guys really have trained hard in the last few years,” he said. “They’ve put in more miles on the water than Dennis Conner has in airplanes.”

Before they can take on a group of international competitors in Korea, Isler and Wardell will have to qualify in a grueling, 10-day regatta of Olympic hopefuls to be held this summer off Newport, R.I. “The competition for the U.S. berth proably will be harder than at the Olympics, so if we win off Newport, we have an excellent chance off Korea,” Wardell said.

Karon and Gordon Luce--J.J. Isler’s godparents--were part of a crowd of well-wishers that included Olympic sailing gold medalist Lowell North; Jane Fetter; John Marshall (chairman of the America’s Cup design team); Alex and Jere Laird; Art and Kathee Risser; Dempsey and Berneice Copeland; Steve and Gayle Stephenson; Fred and Joy Frye; Will and Karen Speidel; Bill DeLeeuw; Dr. Tom Kravis, and Barbara and Dr. Bill McColl.

SAN DIEGO--One could contemplate all the green ball gowns gathered in the Westgate’s Versailles Room the other day and suppose that one had taken a wrong turn and landed in the Emerald City.

The kiwi-and-caviar canapes, however, brought one solidly back to earth with the realization that it was indeed St. Patrick’s Day, and that a full menu of Irish revelry was on the program.

Dottie and Patrick Haggerty invited some 130 pals to join them in a formal salute to St. Pat that stayed formal for about the first 30 seconds, and then grew increasingly mirthful through the early hours of the next morning. Dottie, a standout in an emerald-toned Bob Mackie, waved at the cocktail buffets laden with Irish soused shrimp and pickled onions and said, “What we girls won’t do for our Irish husbands.”

She and her husband did plenty for their Irish guests (as everyone was, if only for the evening), as well. The champagne flowed for those who preferred it to the more traditional beer, and the multi-course dinner, of which almost every course was green, progressed from a cream of broccoli soup through cabbage-wrapped prawns to chocolate crocks filled with creme de menthe mousse. Guests dined at tables set with centerpieces of carrots, potatoes, onions and cabbage arranged around family-sized tins of Dinty Moore stew.

A band dressed like leprechauns played through the evening and occasionally took an international tone, as when it played “Spanish Eyes;” Dottie Haggerty proved quite the accomplished chanteuse when she took the stage to sing “I Can’t give You Anything But Love, Baby.”

Among the guests were Virginia and Jack Monday, Craig Noel, Marge and David Casey, Priscilla and John Moxley, Audrey Geisel, Danah Fayman with Terry Hughes, Martha and George Gafford, Dixie and Ken Unruh, Dolly and Jim Poet, Jeanne Jones with Dick Duffy, Ingrid and Joe Hibben, Marge and Art Hughes, Vicki and Haley Rogers, Holly Haggerty, and Colleen and Dr. Colin Haggerty.