I saw some ships a sailin'

So I finally am getting around to putting up pictures from last week of the tall ships. I love this festival! I could have gone both days on the weekend but I don't think the kids would have been up for it. There was a pirate activity centre with lots of neat stuff but you can only do that so many times...

The ship in the back with the slanted masts is a replica of the Amistad (you may remember the film) which has a very sad history. The story is better told in this link, if you are interested http://my-waterfront.ca/tallships/the-fleet?ship=19

What I found interesting is that all the ships look so much larger in the photos but when you get on them they are much smaller (most of them) I cannot imagine living on some of them and the conditions that people must have endured (especially slaves who were packed in level on top of level)

A look at the front end of the Amistad. The man in red is part of the crew that tells the story and answers questions.

The next ship was actually bigger than it looked in the photo, this one is American (of course) that was taken from the Germans as part of war reparations. It's now part of the US coast guard fleet.

Click here for more info

Ember refused to be in the photo :(

I love how all the rigging looks, and especially with the sails up

We only got to tour about four boats since it takes a while and Ember petered out quickly. Ron was nice enough to take Ember home for nap time and let Amelia and I stay to look. The last boat we saw was the Bounty (you may also remember the film "Mutiny on the Bounty")

This ship was also used in two of the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

Amelia unhappily posing so you can see the scale of the "baby canons" on the Bounty. We left shortly after.

In all it was an awesome day, warm but not hot with a cool breeze. Tonnes to see and do. It was soooo busy. There was also a lot going on with the 200th anniversary of the war of 1812, so lots of people in costume with muskets.

Ok last photo:

this is probably where the girls would have chosen to spend the whole day, if we let them. That be treasure they be finding! Yaaaarrrrgh!