More Tall Ships 2010!

Over my lunch hour on Friday, a co-worker and I went down to the Canal to check out the Tall Ships in port.  To give you an idea of how popular these ships were, Monday mornings news reported that upwards of 200,000 people were in town at some point over the four day event.  That's more people than Grandma's Marathon, which used to be the people drawing event, and I think it easily surpassed Blues Fest. 

But I digress.  If a person wanted to get up close and personal with the ships, one had to pay.  If one just wanted to admire, there was plenty of room to do that too.  Which is what we did. 

For your viewing pleasure:

HMS Bounty, Roald Amundson, Amistad, Barque Europa

HMS Bounty (aka The Black Pearl, Mutiny on the Bounty)

Roald Amendson, US Brig Niagra, Barque Europa

Roseway (has rose colored sails)

Smallest ship in for the tour (sorry, couldn't find it's name)

I think next time the ships are in town, I am going to sign up for a sail boat ride.  I've only ever done one, on Lake Champlain in 2004, where it stormed and rained so we had to head back early.   Still, to sail on a wooden ship on Lake Superior, that would be so cool. 

Tall Ships 2010!

The ships are here!  The ships are here!  

HMS Bounty (R)

Okay, so I wasn't going to go down and watch them come in...but who was I kidding?!  As the time grew closer to the grand procession, I found myself bidding ado to the office and heading down to The Lake with camera and lunch in hand.

The last Tall Ship festival was 2008 with 4 ships.  It was pretty cool and a bit of a fiasco as the event planners didn't realize when they sold 25,000 tickets that all those people would be descending upon a very small area with almost no parking.  They wised up this go around and are now charging an arm and a leg for everything from parking to viewing to events. 

But I digress.   The ships participated in a grand procession that stretched away onto the lake - there were the Tall Ships, a salty at anchor, and more sail boats, motor boats, refurbished tug boats, the retired Coast Guard ship The Sundew (now privately owned), jet ski's and kayaks.  It was a veritable flotsam of white boats bobbing around on the calm waters of Lake Superior. 

Nine boats are in harbor for the next several days:

S/V Sullivan

HMS Bounty

Roald Amundsen

Barque Europa

Pride of Baltimore

Zeeto

Coaster II

Roseway

For details on the specifics of each, check out his link:  Tall Ships Duluth 2010

Meanwhile, I leave you with thoughts of days gone by (or Johnny Depp...)

Roseway

Barque Europa

Brig Niagra

Tall Ships!

(Photo by Amanda Hansmeyer/News Tribune)

Duluth, MN, has a very rich maritime history, and yesterday through this weekend we had a bit of that history come to us in the way three tall sailing ships. These ships are actually a bit smaller than some tall ships I've toured elsewhere in the states, but they are still impressive. I forgot my camera at home this morning so I uploaded some pictures from the Duluth News Tribune website on the event - their photographers had a better view anyway.

(Photo by Clint Austin/News Tribune)

It was so impressive to have these beautiful sailboats under full sail sitting out on the lake and then all come in in convoy. The Pride of Baltimore and the US Brig Niagara fired their cannons as they came under the lift bridge. The Madeline was a cargo vessel and did not have any cannons. The Kaboom! reverberated through the lakefront as plumes of smoke wafted upwards. As you can see, it was an absolutely splendid afternoon for this event.


(Photo by Clint Austin/News Tribune)

(Photo by Derek Montgomery/News Tribune)

It's my understanding the US Brig Niagara is a educational sailing vessel, and for a fee, you can go on board and learn how to sail. Once you've completed your training, you are then welcome to sail with the ship as long as you like. That would be so neat!

After the crowds thinned out and the ships were docked, the Husband and I wandered down to check them out. There are all sorts of activities going on with this festival as the vessels are here through the weekend. Unfortunately, my schedule won't permit me to get back down, so I'm glad I got to see them last night.