Over the years we have had the opportunity to see a few ‘Tall Ships’ festivals, which is an event we always look forward to. This year they had a stop in Sandusky.
Sandusky is the home of Cedar Point amusement park, as well as a departure point to the Lake Erie Islands.
One of this years event was the ‘World’s Largest Duck’, which dwarfed the island ferry boat.
This festival had 5 ships: U.S Brig Niagara, Schooner Madeline, Appledore IV, S/V Denis Sullivan and the Nettie G. Howard.
The Niagara is the largest, with an impressive main mast and crows nest.
While all of the ships had professional pilots, much of the staff were high school students on a 4-5 week learning adventure.
These ships always have an amazing number of ropes.
The device below is not a table, it is basically used for leverage pulling heavy sails up and down.
We had purchased a 90 minute ‘sailing’ on the Nettie Howard.
As we waited to board we were amused as one of the trainee crew members struggled to grab one of the ropes.
Just before we left we were serenaded by an acapella group.
Once on board the crew pulled up a couple of the sails.
While others neatly stacked the ropes.
Our exit from the dock gave a great view of the Niagara.
The sails were impressive from the bottom.
One of the professional crew had started out a few years ago as a volunteer, and liked it so much he has made it a career.
Constant training occurred during our sail.
Our 90 minute sailing was slow, we never even made it out of Sandusky Bay, but did have a nice view of Cedar Point.
Before you knew it we were nearing the dock and the sails came down.
And they threw the ropes to the dock hands to tie us up.
RDZ Photography 