Tall Ships

I should NOT have gone out on Friday, recuperating me, into 100-degree, humid weather, to stand in the sun for three hours. But, oh, it was worth it, to see the parade of tall ships coming in for Sail Virginia in for Harborfest. The heat wiped me out, and as a result, I never got back to board the ships later in the weekend, and I regret that, but I am so glad I got to see them come in, because it was... magnificent.

My pictures cannot even begin to do them justice - my spot on the harbor was just at the point where they were furling their sails and getting a little help from the tugs -- but oh, it was magic.

The GORCH FOCK II ** 294' 3 Masted Barque ** Germany




The PRINCE WILLIAM ** 195' Square Rigger Brig ** England




The ALLIANCE ** 3 masted gaff rigged Schooner ** Yorktown Virginia




Can't identify this one. I've looked through the pictures on the web site, and I can't find it.
But it was beautiful.




I can't identify this ship either, with the red sails, but I thought this looked cool -- old and new.

Ghost Ship

(I actually tried sharpening this in Adobe Photoshop Elements, but it lost the mysterious quality, and became a picture of just a ship under a spray of water.)

I think the best part, though, about the whole thing was coming home and reading a week-old newspaper article I had set aside, to discover that Captain Horatio Sinbad, the owner of my favorite ship, the small, sweet Meka II, built it in his backyard.

One of my dreams is to build a wooden sailboat by hand and sail it around the world. Never mind that I don't know how to sail. I'll learn. And now, I know it's possible to build not just a sailboat, but a brigantine. We'll need a little bit bigger backyard, though. I don't think Al will let me knock down the garage in order to build a ship.