Surprise Sail Day 2 11.04.07

Today started off way too early for my comfort. Daylight savings threw me all off, especially as I didn't want to take a chance being late for crew. I woke up around 4:30am, thinking it was 5:30am....one hour too early. Once I realized it, there was no point to going back to sleep.

The Harbor was very quiet, very still and very grey. Fog hid most of the view of the harbor, and at first we were a little nervous about what awaited us as we went out. We've seen as many as three giant cruise ships come in on a morning like this one. The fog cleared enough, however, for us to motor out through the harbor. We continued out to sea, leaving the land behind us in the gloom.

Once the wind picked up we set sails, and attempted time and again to tack the ship, but lacking the speed, weight forward and the right wind speeds, we simply couldn't do it. The fog burned off, the sun came out, and we continued to relax and enjoy ourselves. The director of the Museum, Dr. Ashley, hailed us over the radio, and eventually showed up on his sailboat, the Cassiopeia, with his family. They kept us company for a while, along with a number of other sailboats in the area. At some point during the day we spotted a full regatta going on closer to the coast, and there were comments about going in to break up their party.

Orders were given to start another tacking evolution, and after some tense minutes, with the bow of the ship slowly swinging around, the sails finally caught the right wind and the bow came all the way about. We did it!! Cheers went up all over the ship, for the one time we were able to tack our ship.

The afternoon crept up on us, after all the fun we'd be having, and the captain ordered us to douse sails, and furl the main and the fore courses. We started in to the harbor, and as we motored in, we saw in the distance two ships, almost twins, coming out to meet us. The Californian, and our guest of the week, the Lynx. I was excited because I hadn't seen the Lynx in months and months, not since the last time she left the Newport Harbor. The two revenue cutters came charging down the channel towards us, and as they passed us we could see their gunports open and ready.



Unfortunately for them, some ambitious little catamaran got between us and them and they were unable to fire. We delt out insults and catcalls to accompany their failed manueuvers, as they came about. They regrouped and came at us again, but by this time we were far ahead. The captain shut off the motors and we set tops'ls and t'gallants and continued to sail into the harbor. The Lynx eventually caught up to us, flanking us on the starboard side and commenced in round after round of shots. We jeered and called, and gave them the Monty Python salute, but unfortunately that was all we could do, having no working guns on board. They fell off and came about, coming across our stern and very neatly shot out our rudder (or would have if they'd been using real shot) and proceeded to join back up with the Californian.

This continued all the way to the Museum, by which time we'd doused and furled most of our sails and made up the decks in preparation of threading the needle and parking the ship. Once docked and everything stowed, we took our leave of our wonderful ship. All of us were exhausted and sore, but happy with the day's events, and looking foward to next weekend. We are now ready to accompany the Star of India out on her anniversary next weekend, along with the Californian and the Pilot, and a host of Hornblower ships. Our crew will be honored to host a group of US Navy sailors from the USS Constitution on Saturday, and a delegation of Coasties for both days of the sail.

This is it. Next weekend is what we've been training for for so long.

Pictures of today's events are to be viewed here.

Cheers, mate!