We got to go sailing a couple of weekends ago, and we had a blast (so to speak). Saturday and Sunday saw the Surprise, the Californian, the Lynx, and a newcomer, the Amazing Grace, sailing around the bay for a few hours.
Saturday was fun, watching the Amazing Grace racing around out there. She's about half the size of the Californian (tiny! tiny!) but very beautiful and graceful. I likened the day to watching a Mazda Miata running circles around three 18-wheelers. Her captain buzzed the Surprise a few times, coming so close to the stern at one point that we could have reached out and touched the rigging. You could have spit onto the deck from the taffrail. Her captain had a stern talking to that evening, and barely came near us on Sunday.
We had our usual compliment of gunners on board, and had a great time trying to wear the ship over and over again, and yet stay out of the way of the guns' recoil. Sunday was the best because I got to help out on one of the guns a few times. The big gun, called "Pearl" needed to be swabbed, loaded, run out and fired. I only got to fire Pearl the last time, and it was pointed at the Midway, which was fun. Still, my sailing gloves were soaked with water and black powder residue, and even now they still smell like gunsmoke. The gunners were so awesome to let me help out. Someday the Surprise will have her own compliment of guns, and some of us will have to help out manning the guns! Wheee!
3 comments:
What lovely photos! I especially love the second one.
Beautiful shots Lori, just beautiful. What kind of camera do you have?
T'aint but me humble little iPhone's lens. Tis' not the camera, so much as tis' the place the photo is taken from...the quarterdeck of a 6th Rate Ship of the Line, with the guns going off around me. The spectacular beauty of the San Diego Bay and the obliging SoCal weather doesn't hurt much either. ;)
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