Friday, July 30, 2010

Tall Ship Festival in Duluth, Minnesota

Our spot on the break way is the first thin patch of green grass about 3 blocks to the left of the lift bridge in Duluth, Minnesota. The tall ships waited out in Lake Superior and made their entrance into the harbor through the canal and under the lift bridge.

Sitting outside Ray and Nancy's RV. What special people they are!

Ray is a retired Navy Captain - a Chaplain.

One of the many schooners in the area. I loved the flags!

Coast Guard ship which spouted water throughout the entire celebration.

The first tall ship in the Tall Ship Festival to enter the Duluth harbor was the HMS Bounty. This ship has 10,000 square feet of sails, 10 miles of rigging and four functioning canons. It shot off canons a couple of times! It was used in the 1962 film "Mutiny on the Bounty" and later used in "Pirates of the Caribbean II."

Pat, sitting at the end of the break way.

L to R: Yours truly, Janet, Nancy, Ray, and Jerry. These turned out to be excellent seats!

The US Brig Niagara is the official flagship of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Its tug boat was tied up close to our break way.

"Roseway"Barque EUROPA - from The Netherlands

"Pride of Baltimore II" of the state of Maryland and the port of Baltimore. It arrived with part of its sails folded.


Traffic jam leaving Duluth. It took us 2 hours and 15 minutes from the time we left the RV park before we reached the outside edge of Duluth - party due to road construction. Ugh!


Yesterday was a fabulous day! My brother, sister, cousin and I drove to Duluth for the Tall Ships Festival. This year was built up to be the best ever - with eight tall ships expected to arrive in the harbor. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned we were going up to this event to my dear friends, Nancy and Ray. They both sing in our church choir and Ray is a retired Navy Captain. They told me they were going to be there also and invited us to join them for lunch at their RV, which would be in an RV park at a marina only three blocks from the lift bridge in Duluth. How nice is that?! Of course, I accepted their invitation. We arrived at the marina around 10:30. Ray was on his bike at the entrance to the marina and we followed him to their site. Little did we know there would be a narrow break way on which we could sit to watch the parade of the Tall Ships!

After a lovely lunch, we carried our chairs, umbrellas, and binoculars to the break way and had a wonderful time. The first ship to enter the canal was the HMS Bounty. It's sails were puffed out by the wind and it glided into the harbor with ease. It shot off a couple of canons which echoed around the city. Wow! Was she impressive! I thought her sails looked "tea stained." She turned to make her way to the pier next to downtown Duluth, and we could then read her name. Over the course of the next hour and 15 minutes the other ships and smaller vessels made their way under the lift bridge and through the canal. It was fun for me to listen to Jerry and Ray discuss the flags each ship was flying. It made me wish Hans would have been there to join in the conversation.

Except for the heavy, heavy traffic exiting (or trying to exit) the city, it was a great day! We couldn't have asked for nicer weather or more gracious hosts. Here is a U Tube I found with some great shots of the event.

1 comment:

MamaD4 said...

As usual, you had an interesting and lovely weekend. I remember when the Tall Ships were in Newport. It was quite a spectacle and the traffic was twice as bad as usual!