I’m giving you a lot of lead-time on this event - tickets don’t even go on sale to general public until May 19 - but Tall Ships® Tacoma, July 3-7 on Thea Foss Waterway, is the sort of thing that is bound to attract a lot of people.
The Tall Ships® Tacoma 2008 Festival is a free international sailing event and festival that is part of the American Sail Training Association’s Tall Ships CHALLENGE®. More than 32 sailing vessels will visit Tacoma during the festival and will be available for tours and sailing adventures. On land, three themed villages will be available for guests to enjoy entertainment, food, beer gardens, arts-and-crafts, hands-on activities, children’s activities, and the sights and sounds of being on board a sailing vessel.
Among the many tall ships that will be present at the festival are a replica of the HMS Bounty, which was built for the 1962 production of “Mutiny on the Bounty;” Washington State’s very own Lady Washington; The Nina, a replica of one of Chris Columbus’ ships, and many others.
The best thing about this? Not only can you tour these ships, but you can actually sail on them, with sailing packages ranging from $40-$200. Some of the ships will even stage mock cannon battles with other ships.
Now, that’s cool.
The Lady Washington
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Follow-up comment rss or Leave a Trackback[...] the Tall Ships Tacoma festival (July 3-7) doesn’t fit into your schedule, then maybe Tall Ships Victoria, held in [...]
[...] Nina will also be present at Tall Ships Tacoma & Tall Ships Victoria, but this will be an opportunity to see her in a much less-crowded venue. [...]
[...] Nina will also be present at Tall Ships Tacoma & Tall Ships Victoria, but this will be an opportunity to see her in a much less-crowded [...]
Where will the tall ships be on July 9 and 10th?
I will be in Oregon and Washington at that time.
After Tall Ships Tacoma ends, some of the ships will be heading north to Vancouver Island for the Port Alberni Tall Ships Festival which runs on the 11th and the 12th of July.
Google Map showing the location of Port Alberni
Port Alberni Tall ships website:
http://portalbernitallships.ca
There are two main ways to get to Vancouver Island. Cross the border and take the B.C. ferry from Tsawwassen:
http://www.bcferries.com/schedules/mainland/tssw-current.html
Or take a Washington State Ferry from Anacortes:
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/info_desk/faq/index.cfm?faq_id=1
The second option is a longer sail, at over three hours, but the upside is that you get to see a lot of the San Juan archipelago, since you’re sailing right through it.
Then, of course, you would need to drive to Port Alberni or take a bus once in Sydney.
Different ships have different sailing schedules and ports of call. Many tall ships have their own websites. Here is a link to a website with lots of links to tall ship sites:
http://www.apparent-wind.com/sailing-page.html#tallships
And here’s a page which tracks tall ships in real time. A lot of ships don’t seem to report in, but it can be useful.
http://sailwx.info/shiptrack/tallships.phtml
For example, the Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftan are both at Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes, WA, right now, this minute - which I never would have known if I hadn’t checked the site.
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