Tall Ships Visiting Crescent City

As I may have mentioned, I grew up far from the sea, near Yellowstone Park, in the lakes and Rocky Mountains and High Desert of Wyoming. I loved that area, but even as a young child, the pull of the ocean and her beaches was always on me.  I would stroll the rocky beaches at Yellowstone Lake, following the waves and watching the gulls and dream that I was Gidget, with a surfboard to ride.

NowI have lived on the Redwood Coast for 23 years, and firmly believe that old adage that says, "If you are lucky enough to live by the sea, you are lucky enough."

Last year I wrote about the section in my second book, where a ghost ship is discovered adrift in Uhrlin,
at http://duffybarkley.blogspot.com/2011/09/ghost-ship.html

That mystery in Duffy Barkley: Seek Well was inspired by a couple Tall Ships which I have been lucky enough to see almost annually since 1998.

The Hawaiian Chieftain and The Lady Washington are beautiful, and dock here and do tours and stage mock battles and welcome school groups.  And I love them.  You may recognize the Lady from playing the Interceptor on the Pirates of the Caribbean or from a holodeck scene in Star Trek.

This year it was especially joyful to welcome them back, as they had to skip our harbor last spring after the Japanese tsunami destroyed all of our docks in March 2011.

I know this is my writing blog, but enough words.  Let me show some pictures of the Ships

Watching the mock battle cruise

My son works in the building on the dock

Hawaiian Chieftain passes Battery Poing Lighthouse

Lady Washington

Crab boat in the foreground, Hawaiian Chieftain in the middle

The Chiefain

The Lady is Movie Star Lovely

The Chieftain's helm is a wheel

My pirate loving son in 1998

Me and son in 1998 see ships in Old Town Eureka, CA

The Lady's Helm is not a wheel, both my boys steering