Saturday on the sea

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Yesterday we went for a little sail on Lady Washington. She’s operated by Gray’s Harbor Historical Seaport Authority, and appeared as Interceptor in the first Pirates Of The Caribbean movie and as Enterprise in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. This was the second time I’ve sailed on her. It was a two-hour ride, and the first time was a three hour tour. A three hour tour. One of these days I’ll have to come aboard for a passage (moving from one port to another) or a multi-day trip.

It was a bit crowded on board. Lady Washington is not a large ship, and she was filled to capacity. So many people wanted to sail on a tall ship that Hawaiian Chieftain was opened for another tour. She was packed as well. We motored out of the marina on the ship’s auxiliary Diesel engine, and then the sails were set. We were sailing west, which was the direction the wind was coming from. We were making 1.8 knots. I couldn’t help but think about the sailors on the original Lady Washington over 200 years ago who set off on voyages thousands of miles long, and who often would be making such speeds.

This sailing was in the afternoon and the sun was not at a great angle, and I only have a Nikon CoolPix L1 for a digital camera. But I snapped some photos (28) anyway. I think the low sun near the end of the trip worked well for this photo of the captain. I didn’t want a shot of him looking directly at the camera. He was at the railing about 15 feet away looking forward, and just as I was about to push the button a passenger stood in the way. I snapped that photo with the lens zoomed all the way out as he was coming back. He looks a bit sour, but he was a nice guy who obviously loves his job. It’s just how candid shots can be sometimes. Some of the other photos are OK, but I wish I had a better camera and more room to shoot. Speaking of shooting, I caught a couple clips of ‘Idaho’ firing the cannon.

Roomie used to live in Aberdeen and Hoquiam, and could see Lady Washington docked at her home port across from the Wal-Mart parking lot. But this was the first time she’d ever been aboard. She said it was much more fun than the harbour tour and Aquarium trip we took in Seattle.

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I am quite envious. I love, love love the tallships; had I stayed in the Chesapeake area of Virginia longer, I’d have joined one of the volunteer organizations that runs a lot of historical tours and trips. SO very envious!

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I believe I worked with the brother of the sailor you pictured about a decade ago

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Did they do their mock sailing battle?

A couple years ago my birthday gift was a ticket aboard the Lady Washington as she and the Hawaiian Chieftain fought a mock battle throughout the bay. It was really a lot of fun. Spent some time talking to the captain, who really seems to know his stuff.

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They did do a battle cruise earlier, but roomie wanted to do the later sailing.

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Very cool and interesting way to spend a couple hours. Johnny, looked at the site, am curious what ship’s capacity is - not sheer weight, but number of people.

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It’s hard to say. There were 8 or so crew, and about 40 passengers. With that many people on deck, the crew did have to move people out of the way to do their jobs. There were areas that were off limits: forward of the windlass, and aft of the life raft containers. Below deck we could visit the ‘common area’ of the ship where they had souvenirs for sale. I noted 12 bunks. Aft of that was the galley, which seemed about the size of my kitchen in my apartment in L.A. I assume there were crew quarters under the poop deck and in the forecastle. Those areas were off limits and the doors were shut.