On Monday 28th May, the tall ships left Liverpool, to sail to Dublin, on the start of the "Three festivals tall ships regatta".
Beverley and I welcomed aboard Chris, who wanted a day sail, that allowed him to photograph these majestic ships, in their natural environment out on the water.
We crammed into the first lock with twelve other vessels, who all had the same idea in mind. This was the first time that Beverley and I have ventured the lock when it is full, as so far we had navigated the lock when it was quite. It was quite scary, to be packed like sardines in the lock, but it is also quite social, as you can grab a quick chat with your fellow skippers. One thing I noticed was a marked difference between the yachts that leave the marina on an occasional basis and those that race, as everyone that races were wearing life jackets even though the weather was calm and sunny.
Once out on the Mersey, we headed away from where the action was, as the festivities out on the water were going to start later and it seamed a perfect day, to get the sails up for an hour. Once we saw the tall ships starting to come out of Albert Dock we managed to sail down, with a few tacks and gybes on the way. At one point, we tacked very close to the wall, just because we could and we thought that we would put a bit of a show on for the waiting crowd. Although our intentions were good, the tack didn't run smoothly as I had loaded the winch in an anti-clockwise motion rather than the correct way which is clockwise. Needless to say, we did not get a cheer from the crowd. We were not what they wanted to see.
One of the smaller yachts that I particularly looked out for was Adventure Wales, as I had been requested by the Crew to take a picture of them with their crew on board. It was great to shot out to the skipper Sam Jones and get a wave back. The crew even came out on deck to wave at us.
As we sailed in and out of the ships there was so much to see, beautiful tall ships like the Lord Nelson, that I had taken two of the trainees from Adventure Wales on to. The Somerset which scared me when they fired their guns in salute, to start the parade of sail. The Brian Boru who was berthed right next to Adventure Wales who was always good for a craic.
Wherever I looked there was something beautiful to see, unfortunately the parade of sail was soon over, so we followed them down the river before mooring just near tower cardinal.
During the lazy afternoon, I talked to Chris and offered to invite his wife who does not want to do sailing aboard as a way of introducing her to this beautiful sport.
Soon the afternoon was over, so we sailed back to Liverpool on the rising tide.
