The Tall Ship Festival

On Sunday, we went to the Tall Ship Festival at the Dana Point Harbor in Dana Point, CA. The festival is an annual event at the Harbor. This year eight tall ships were involved in the festival. The Pilgrim is a replica of the boat Richard Henry Dana Jr sailed on when and wrote the book "Two Years Before The Mast". It is used in as a school/training camp for teens to live on for two to five days. While on the ship they are treated like sailors. The Spirit of Dana Point which is a 1770's Privateer and also serves as a museum and school. The other ships involved in the festival are Amazing Grace a Topsail schooner, Bill of Rights a classic gaff topsail schooner, the Californian a regal schooner, The Curfew a classic wooden boat, the American Pride a 130' three masted schooner, and twin ships the Irving Johnson and Exy Johnson two topsail schooners. Seeing these ships were amazing. They are big ships but not by today's standards. I cannot imagine what life must of been like sailing these ships and the long journeys they made. After seeing the ships in the harbor they all headed out to play some war games in the Pacific. The ships were incredible how they could manuever around eachother and all of the spectator boats. They would sail side by side to eachother and then shoot their cannons at eachother. The cannons were loud but it was so cool to see, hear and feel the roar of the cannons. The Battle went on for a coupld of hours and it got a little choppy out their. My brother, Craig, did a great job manuevering his boat around so we could see the battles yet not get in the way. At one point it felt like we were watching a scene from the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie when the sea battle had three ships fighting and one sailed through the middle. The ship cannons from each boat firing at eachother made a grand battle. If you ever get the chance to visit a Tall Ships Festival go and enjoy it. It is like watching the past come to life. It was a great experience and I want to thank Craig for taking us to it to enjoy!