This year will mark the return of a special Memorial Day ceremony and tribute to everyone who’s been lost at sea, organizers announced.
The Annual Lost at Sea Memorial will be held at 3 p.m. Monday, May 30 in Cayucos and the public is invited to attend the solemn ceremony.
Former military servicemen and women of all branches of the armed forces, turn out in dress uniform for the ceremony, dedicated to anyone who was lost at sea — military, merchant marines, pleasure boaters, commercial fishers and surfers and wave riders of all kinds.
The ceremony is also a tribute and remembrance of prisoners of war and the missing in action whom never returned home.
The idea is that these people, for the most part, have no gravesites where family and loved ones can go to pay their respects, or mourn their deaths.
The ceremony is sponsored by the Cayucos Rotary Club and organized by the Lost at Sea Committee.
According to the event’s website, “Each year, there are devotional and ceremonial tributes following the national anthem and welcome remarks. Military veterans come dressed in their uniforms and are honored. Music follows the tolling of the bell, and the meaning of the “Missing Man” and the symbolism of the wreath are explained to the audience.
“Benediction continues and everyone marches out to the pier for blessings of the wreath. The wreath is then tossed into the ocean, and the rifle salute follows.”
Normally, the Estrella Warbirds Museum’s military aircraft do a missing man formation flyover of the pier, weather permitting. The ceremony this year is expected to be brief, with the warplane flyover scheduled for 4 p.m.
The ceremony has been cancelled each of the past 2 years due to the coronavirus pandemic response.
The event is held outdoors at the Cayucos Pier Plaza. Admission is free, and seating is limited.
