Victoria has been awesome. The big ships, Cuauhtemoc and Pallada, are truly stunning. Just feeling the enthusiasm for the boats and maritime culture from the public here has been truly rewarding. Thank you Victoria!
We spent our trip from PA with several Canadian media on board, shooting for news reports mostly. They were gracious and even helped us haul a few halyards. As expected our new sails arrived the day of our PA departure! Upon anchoring off Esquimalt, we took turns ferrying to shore for a welcome barbecue put on by ASTA and Victoria. When we weren't ashore, we were bending on sail... until midnight at least. The Lady Washington crew convinced the coastie guys with their high powered zodiacs to take them out on rides and they did doughnuts around Bill.
The next morning we weighed anchor after boarding several photographers and news reporters, then sailed around off Victoria with Zodiac, Lynx, Lady Washington, Duen, Pallada, Cuauhtemoc, and a giant modern sloop named Cassiopeia. Captain Christopher sent Shawn and I aloft to rig the main topsl before arriving into the inner harbor, so I got some great shots of the other boats (to be posted later). We spent a good 2 hours up there before realizing that our tacks were unfairly led and admitted defeat and just furled the thing. Oh well! We tried. While up there we noticed that Cassiopeia's mast had broken about 20 feet from the top, and they had bent it over and ductaped it to what was left! We heard the story later that a stay had given out during an earlier sail. Our arrival in Victoria was truly grand. Pacific Grace was next to us, also furling her topsails, and we found our dock amidst several other boats and the thousands of faces on shore. Awesome!
Eventually the Russian ship Pallada arrived, letting out its anchor and being pushed by a tug to perform a perfect docking right next to us. Pallada dwarfs the rest of us. In our part of the marina are the vessels R. Tucker Thompson from New Zealand, the Blarney Pilgrim, Talofa, Lady Washington, Lynx and Pallada.
To be continued...
Look at all the great press we're getting online!
A picture taken friday night in VIC
Someone else's blog
Peninsula Daily News
Hey Jesika - Where's da rock?
Silhouette
Port Townsend Leader
The Victoria Times Colonist
Victoria's Tri-City Herald
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