Visit the newly established Morro Bay Maritime Museum and Museum Store. Free admission. Private tour
03/17/2026
Happy St. Patrick’s Day from all of us at the Morro Bay Maritime Museum! We feel especially lucky to call this beautiful waterfront home, where history, community, and the sea come together every day.
Whether you’re enjoying the view of Morro Rock, strolling along the Embarcadero, or stopping in to explore our historic vessels, we’re grateful to share this special place with you.
Wishing you a day filled with a little luck and a lot of sea breeze. 🍀💚
Volunteers are at the heart of the Morro Bay Maritime Museum, and as we head into a busy spring and summer season, we’re inviting more people to get involved!
Types of volunteers needed:
Docents: We’re currently seeking docents to welcome visitors and share maritime stories. No prior experience is needed, training is provided. Most volunteer about three hours a week, helping in the gift shop or with small tours, and enjoy meeting people from around the world in a welcoming community!
Summer Maritime Explorers Volunteers: We’re also seeking volunteers for our hands-on summer kids program. If you enjoy working with children and inspiring curiosity, this is a great opportunity, especially for educators available during summer break. Two Monday sessions will be offered.
Volunteering at a small museum means your time truly makes a difference. Come be part of preserving and sharing Morro Bay’s maritime story.
Visit the link in our bio to learn more and to sign-up!
03/05/2026
We’re excited to share that we received a generous $3,500 donation from a private supporter to fund repairs to the hull of the tugboat ALMA.
Thanks to this contribution, critical repair work is already underway. The new stucco applied to the hull will need to cure for 90 days before it can be painted, and we’ll continue sharing progress along the way.
This is a powerful reminder of what donations can do. Contributions like this directly fund preservation work, protect our historic vessels, and ensure that ALMA’s story continues for future generations.
We are deeply grateful to this donor for helping keep history afloat. 💙 Every donation truly makes a difference.
At the Morro Bay Maritime Museum, many of our vessels are displayed out of the water, allowing visitors to see what is usually hidden below the surface. 👀 This inspired our “under the waterline” theme, highlighting the unseen elements that shape how vessels perform.
From working boats to submersibles like the AVALON 🚤, where the crew enters from below, to anchorage buoys shown from an underwater perspective, this theme invites visitors to look closer and think differently about maritime design.
Sometimes the most important stories are the ones beneath the surface. 🌊
From our partner at the Central Coast Aquarium. Looks like fun!!!!
02/20/2026
Take me home to swim in your pool! I’ve been caught by the MB Maritime Museum and need a quick release - $100!!!
02/19/2026
Your membership keeps Morro Bay’s maritime history alive!
When you become a member of the Morro Bay Maritime Museum, you are directly supporting the preservation of historic vessels, hands-on education, and a space where stories of the sea continue to be shared. Membership is more than a benefit, it is a commitment to keeping local history accessible for future generations.
Membership Levels:
💙 Crew – $50: Full museum access, member pricing, monthly updates
💙 First Mate – $100: Access to over 160 California Maritime Museums
💙 Captain – $500: First Mate benefits plus MBMM polo
💙 Commodore – $1000: Captain benefits plus engraved commemorative brick
💙 Admiral – $2500: Commodore benefits plus private tour and lunch for 8
Every member plays a role in keeping this museum afloat. We invite you to join us.
Happy Valentine’s Day from all of us at the Morro Bay Maritime Museum. ❤️⚓
Today, we want to send a heartfelt thank-you to our supporters, visitors, volunteers, and community who help keep this special place alive.
With Valentine’s Day here and the Holiday weekend ahead, it’s a perfect time to slow down, spend time together, and enjoy the beauty of Morro Bay. Whether you’re celebrating with a partner, family, friends, or simply treating yourself, we invite you to stop by the museum and share a meaningful moment by the water. From historic vessels and hands-on exhibits to the peaceful views along the Embarcadero, it’s a simple way to make lasting memories.
Love stories come in many forms. Some are written on the sea, some are shared on the shore, and some are built through community support and shared history. Thank you for being part of ours this Valentine’s Day. 💕
With Valentine’s Day approaching, consider a gift that goes beyond flowers and cards.🌹 A personalized engraved brick along the Morro Bay Embarcadero is a meaningful way to honor a loved one, celebrate a special date, or capture a memory that deserves to last. 🧱
Each brick becomes part of the Morro Bay Maritime Museum grounds, connecting your story to a place shaped by history, community, and the sea. Your gift helps preserve maritime history while creating a tribute that will be seen and remembered for generations.
Morro Bay is a shallow estuary with depths ranging from 0 to 18 feet, depending on the area. The harbor entrance needs regular dredging to remain safe and navigable for boats! 🚤⚓
Our unique harbor environment is part of what makes Morro Bay such a fascinating place for maritime history.
01/27/2026
Want to support the Morro Bay Maritime Museum? Here are some ways to help keep history alive:
💙 Volunteer
💙 Donate
💙 Become a Member
💙 Buy a Brick
💙 Share our posts
Every action, big or small, helps preserve maritime history for future generations.
Did you know tugboats are some of the strongest boats for their size? Even though they’re small, they have powerful engines that can pull massive ships many times their weight!
Come check out our very own tugboat Alma to learn more about working vessels on the Central Coast.
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Morro Bay Maritime Museum posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
We are striving to construct a Maritime Interpretive Center on the Central Coast. A cornerstone of civic pride and a contributor to the local sense of place, the Central Coast Maritime Museum Association (CCMMA) is increasing the understanding of and respect for the maritime heritage of of California.
About US
The Morro Bay Maritime Museum was the brainchild of the late Brent Roberts. In the early 1990’s Brent assembled a group of like-minded folks who shared an interest in preserving maritime history. After a few meetings this group decided to call themselves the Central Coast Maritime Museum Association (CCMMA) and in 1995 the group incorporated itself as a a public-benefit, non-profit entity. In the ensuing years the CCMMA board of trustees worked with City leaders and the business community to explore viable locations on the Morro Bay waterfront for a Maritime Museum. Meanwhile, while this planning was occurring, CCMMA sponsored and participated in other activities such as more than 20 Morro Bay Harbor Festivals as the host of the Maritime Heritage Pavilion.
CCMMA also initiated and sponsored the visits of various tall ships to Morro Bay including the Hawaiian Chieftain, Lady Washington, the replica of the caravel La Nina, and the Australian HMS Endeavour replica. More recently, in 2016, CCMMA partnered with the Maritime Museum of San Diego and sponsored a two week visit of the San Salvador as part of the vessel’s inaugural Pacific Heritage Tour.
📷The San Salvador galleon, a replica of Juan Cabrillo’s flagship of 1542, was the culmination of years of planning and millions of dollars and Morro Bay was honored by being among the first host ports for this tour. The San Salvadorvisit also precipitated a small group of local individuals to take a financial leap of faith by making a capital investment of $1542 for the Morro Bay Maritime Museum project. This group became known as the 1542 Navigator’s Circle. Their investment, combined with ticket and merchandise sales, made the October 2016 San Salvador visit so successful that the project was sufficiently funded to move forward into its current phase.
📷Over the years CCMMA has also partnered with various groups such as the NOAA and the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary in initiating the first manned dive on the SS Montebello, a 440’ long Union Oil tanker torpedoed and sunk near our shores in the opening days of WWII.
CCMMA also worked with California Sea Grant to fund and organize the Central Coast Maritime Oral History Program, capturing and memorializing an important primary source of history and personal stories of individuals connected with local maritime industries.
CCMMA worked with Caltrans, Chevron and the firm Associated Pacific to develop the anchor display at Tidelands Park on the Embarcadero.
CCMMA is also coordinating with the local Salinan Indian tribe to develop outdoor and indoor interpretive elements that will memorialize California’s first watermen.
📷CCMMA, now doing business as the Morro Bay Maritime Museum, has established itself as a positive force in contributing to Morro Bay’s economy and maritime village sense-of-place. We invite you to come see the Historic tug Alma and learn about an event that brought WWII to our shores. Or walk around the DSRV Avalon, one of only two cold-war era rescue submarines developed by the US Navy and featured in the 1990 film Hunt for Red Octoberand the 2018 film Hunter Killer. You can also see a USCG Surf Rescue Boat that was stationed at the small boat station and serviced the sometimes impassable Morro Bay harbor entrance. But wherever your interest lay, please come and visit Morro Bay and stay awhile. And while you’re here, visit the Morro Bay Maritime Museum at 1210 Embarcadero across from the south T-Pier, on the Morro Bay waterfront. Stop by and say hello and soak up history at the edge of the continent!
