Fulfillment! At Last!

Today was a day I have longed for, waited for, and worked towards for at least a year and a half. Today was the day that should have happened last year, last October/November. Today was the day, at last, when 50 people hurried on board the HMS Surprise and following the directions of our Captain, worked the lines off the docks and watched the Museum drift away.

We have worked very hard and very long to see this finally happen. We left the dockside to a 3 cheers from the Star Crew. Normally stoic fellows on board were all smiles. My mast captain was more visibly excited than I have ever seen him. My top captain was practically dancing (although I think he was more excited about having a preventer--a line that keeps the Spanker or huge sail on the bow from flapping around when its set--on the Spanker than anything else).

Getting off the dock was a little tense, because of the Surprise's squeezed in parking space between the submarine and the Star, but we managed it without a hitch. When we were far enough away from the Museum, the Captain put the engines in neutral and gave us the plan. We were going to motor up past Shelter Island, to the submarine drydocks and then set sail and come down the harbor to the bridge. This we did with little difficulty, although the wind was virtually non-existent. We just glided gently and slowly down the harbor. We went under the bridge and turned around and motored back to our starting point.

At that point the Captain decided to take us out to sea. We still had very little wind, but there was enough to make our sails fill modestly and our pennant snap at the main masthead. By this time we'd been drawing quite a crowd. I'm pretty sure that the folks who could afford the snazzy condos along the waterfront of downtown SD were feeling that they had their money's worth finally when they saw us coming. We crossed paths with the Lord Hornblower, one of its namesake's lines of touring ferries and boats. The tourists on board flocked to the side where they could best see us. Once we were out to sea, we even had a US Customs boat come speeding up beside us, snapping photos the whole time. We yelled at them in Spanish.

Once out to sea we picked up some more wind. Unfortunately we were not able to master the trick of tacking and swinging the bow of the ship around in the wind. I don't know, maybe there wasn't enough weight forward, or the 7 knots we were doing just weren't enough to move our whale. The tacking had to be assisted by the twin diesels. Hopefully next Sunday we will be able to figure it out. Hopefully we will have more wind.

We started to head back in to the harbor about an hour and a half later than planned, much to the discomfort of our Captain. I think he was worried about upsetting the higher-ups, but we didn't care. We were having way too much fun. As we headed in, we encountered the Californian, which came up and fired a broadside at us. The entire crew, which had been lining the rail, proceeded to fall over dead on the deck. Then we jumped up and gave them the Monty Python salute. There were cheers passed back and forth between the crews, and they proceeded to escort us back to the Museum.

We threaded the needle and parked the ship back in its slot, put everything way and were on our way by 5ish in the evening, instead of the 3pm we'd been shooting for. Every one of us were exhausted, but extremely happy. We are doing it again next weekend, hopefully to the tune of more wind, and getting everything down. The following weekend is the two day sail with the Star of India.

What a day, what a day. Hopefully this is the start of a long and beautiful relationship.

For pictures of this wonderful day, go here, and enjoy!

Cheers, mate!