//------------------------------// // July 9 [Tall Ships] // Story: Silver Glow's Journal // by Admiral Biscuit //------------------------------// July 9 I woke up first, 'cause I'd been napping before bed yesterday. And Aquamarine woke up right after me, before I'd even finished stretching. She covered a yawn with her hoof and then the two of us got out of bed as quietly as we could, so that we didn't wake up Jenny. Then after we'd used the bathroom we both decided we wanted some exercise. If I'd been by myself, I would have just flown, but that would be rude to Aquamarine. So we decided to trot around the neighborhood. Aquamarine started writing a note for Jenny so if she woke up and saw that we were gone, she wouldn't be worried. And I went to get my camelback out of my saddlebags in case either of us wanted water, and that's when I saw that I still had Meghan's bra in them. She has a lot of bras, so she hopefully wouldn't miss this one for the weekend. I showed Aquamarine how the camelback worked, and it was nice 'cause it had little pockets in it, too, and that was a really easy way to carry our things. When she saw how it fit on my back she wanted one, too. Outside, there weren't any sidewalks on our side of the road but there was a dirt path that ran alongside the road. Neither of us was really sure which way was the best way to go, so I flew up and looked around to see if I could spot anything interesting nearby. I saw that our motel had a pool and I saw that the street we were on was all shops in both directions, and there was a Taco Bell to the north of us. And there was a big open field that looked like a pasture almost right behind the motel which we could get to if we went up the driveway by an Arby's. So we walked that way and then we went into the big grass pasture. There was an apartment house to the south of it, and Aquamarine said that she thought whoever owned the apartment house had bought all this land so that they could build more when all the apartments they had got full. It was plenty big enough to trot around in and we raced each other across it a couple of times. Not too seriously; she would have won if we did. And when we got thirsty, we shared the water out of my camelback. We exercised until the sun was above the trees ('cause Aquamarine said that was when Jenny usually woke up on the weekends) and then she said that we ought to head back to the motel. I thought it would be nice to get breakfast for her before we went back, so we went to McDonald's together and got two breakfast platters and a cup of coffee for Jenny, too. The girl at the counter thought it was odd that Aquamarine wanted the coffee cup in a bag, but how else was she going to carry it? Since Aquamarine couldn't fly, we had to go all the way to the end of the block where we were allowed to cross the road and then back to the motel. And then Aquamarine set down the coffee and got the little plastic key out of my camelback and let us in. Jenny got out of bed when we came in—she said that she'd been up already and then seen our note so she decided to lay back down until we returned. And she was really happy that we'd brought her breakfast, and we gave her the meat patty that was in ours and her coffee as well. There were only two chairs, so Aquamarine and I shared one and Jenny sat in the other. When we were done with breakfast she said that we could have the first shower and I tried to convince her to join us but she didn't want to. She said that she was going to sit in the chair and finish her coffee. When all of us were showered, brushed, and in her case dressed, I refilled my camelback and she put some bottles of water in her pants—she had really clever pants she called cargo pants that had extra pockets on the legs. Then we all got in her car and drove back to see the ships. We started on the far side of the river, 'cause there were ships over there, too. You were allowed to go on any of them, and since it was early there weren't very long lines, although Jenny said that there would be later in the day. We decided to go on the Galeón Andalucía first. It was what was called a galleon, and it was something that the Spanish had made for sailing across the ocean to discover new lands and set up trade routes, and it was the only one that still sailed although Jenny said it was a replica. She said that she didn't think that any of the ships that would be here were original. It wasn't the most graceful of the ships there, but it looked really sturdy, and I could see why they had designed them like they had. It looked like it was really seaworthy and could carry a good cargo for long distances. We went aboard with a small group of people and the man who showed us around was curious about me and Aquamarine, so we told him that we were students at Michigan colleges. He had an accent which Jenny said was Spanish. The ship had six decks and we got to tour them all. I saw some people had to duck going through doorways, and I heard a woman say how crowded it was but it didn't feel that way to me. Someone asked if this was the kind of ship which had discovered America, and our guide said that those were smaller, and called a caravel. Those had different types of sails, which let them go closer to the wind. When we were done with our tour, a couple of the crew asked if me and Aquamarine would pose for pictures with them, and we said that we would, so we got led up to the bow and Jenny became the photographer for everyone. She had her own camera, and everyone else gave her their cameras and pocket telephones and we posed for a dozen pictures or so before everyone was happy. The next ship we visited was called the Draken Harald Hårfagre, and it was long and low and only had one sail. While we waited in line, Jenny told us that Vikings had lived in the north and sailed all over the northern Atlantic Ocean, setting up colonies in places like Greenland and Iceland and even America. She said that they had actually discovered it long before Columbus, and they'd even had a colony there but the native Americans had fought them and kicked them out. Then she had to explain how America had been there all along but the Europeans hadn't known about it, even though the Vikings had and they came from Europe, too, so it was all kind of confusing. This ship’s mast was right in the center, and it had a shallow draft so it could make beach landings. It also had twenty-five sets of oars so that it could be rowed when there wasn't any wind to push it along. When we got aboard, the guide told us how it had been built using Scandinavian boatbuilding traditions—which he said had been passed down from the Vikings—as well as some historical details that had been discovered on ancient shipwrecks. And he said that after they had built it, they had had to spend some time practicing sailing it, because nobody knew any more how a ship like it was supposed to be sailed. He also said that the Vikings may have navigated using a crystal called a 'sun stone,' which he said polarized the light so that it could be used even when it was cloudy. He told us that since they sailed in northern latitudes in the summer, they probably didn't use stars for navigation, since the days would be long and the nights short. And he also said that the ships often had crows aboard, and if they got lost they would let the crows go, because the crows would instinctively head for land. I liked how open it was, but Aquamarine said if she had to be on it for a long time she wasn't sure she'd like the open decks as much, especially if it was raining. Which I suppose was a good point. But the low sides and open deck made it useful for all kinds of different work; and the high bows and stern looked like they'd make it really seaworthy, and the long narrow design meant it could go through water really efficiently. The crew wanted to pose with us, as well, and Jenny got to be the photographer again. The last ship we visited on this side of the river was the Pride of Baltimore II, and before we even got on board, the guide explained the raked masts, 'cause he said that was what everyone wanted to know about. He said that the way they were designed made the rigging lighter, and that the Baltimore Clippers were built light, because they were meant to carry light cargo very fast. He said that the design also made it easier to cut the sails, but in gentle winds they had a tendency to fall inboard and jibe, which was when the boom snapped across from one side to the other. Sailors don't usually like jibing their boats, because it puts a lot of stress on the rigging, and if they're not careful, they can capsize. It's faster than tacking, though. When we were done with our tour and pictures with the crew, we got in Jenny’s car and went across the river to the park.  I wouldn’t have minded walking, but she didn’t want to leave her car on the other side of the drawbridge, just in case the bridge stopped working and stranded us. After we got our fetlock-bands, we went to the food stalls. There was a little booth that sold elephant ears, which was a kind of sugared bread and not actually elephant ears, and we had those and Jenny had a coney dog (which was a meat-tube that wasn't from a dog) and then we also had nachos with a spicy yellow cheese sauce (which wasn't actually cheese). And then we went by a tent that was selling kettle corn, and so she bought a big bag of that, too, and we shared it between us. Then we sat down for a while and watched a play on the stage we'd seen last night. It was called King Gorbeduck, and for actors they had people from the audience join, and I got to be a Princess in it. It was kind of stressful because there were two men called Thing 1 and Thing 2 who told me what to do, but they kept changing their instructions after people did what they said. The audience thought it was really funny, though. We went to the Niagara next. While we were waiting to go on board, the guide told us that it had originally been built for the War of 1812 and had been Commodore Perry's relief flagship, then after the war it had been sunk so that it would be preserved. Everyone thought that was really odd, but the guide swore that it was true, and that most of the fleet had been purposely sunk. Then in the 1930s they had started to restore it again but ran out of money and didn't finish until 1963, and then in 1988 they rebuilt it again. So I guess that made this the oldest ship, even if you didn't count the almost hundred years it had been underwater, and that made it original unlike what Jenny had said. And there was a story in its launching, too: the guide told us that Presque Isle was protected by a sandbar which meant the British ships couldn't get in, but the Niagara couldn't get out, either. So they took out the guns and ballast, and dragged it onto the sandbar, then they brought two other barges called 'camels' next to it, sunk them, tied them to the Niagara, then pumped the water out so that they would lift it up and over the sandbar, and then they put the guns and ballast back on it. Nobody believed that, either, and he told people to look it up on Wikipedia. So a bunch of people got out their portable telephones and did, and I heard a couple of people mutter 'no shit.' This ship had some of the rooms with historical fixtures inside, so that we could see how sailors would have lived back then, and they also had replica cannons on board and also some real ones that they could fire off. We could buy tickets to ride on the ship out into the bay, and our guide promised us that if we did, they'd fire the cannons. That sounded like it would be fun, so once we were done with our tour, we bought tickets and the woman who was selling them decided that she would be nice and let me and Aquamarine have children's tickets (which were cheaper) 'cause we were smaller than humans. When we were out of her earshot, Jenny said that wasn't fair 'cause Aquamarine weighed more than she did. The last ship that we looked at was the Mist of Avalon, which had started out as a fishing ship, and it hadn't had sails back then. When its fishing days had ended, it was left abandoned in a harbor, and a man bought it, restored it, and then added the sails. I liked that one the best because it was a real working ship. Aside from the Niagara, all of the other boats had been built to replicate something that wasn't used any more, but the Mist of Avalon had been built from the beginning to make its living on the sea, and had taken its crew out and back again for decades. And I could see the strength in its lines even though it had been completely converted, and I could almost still smell the fish that its holds had once been full of. If we hadn't already gotten tickets to ride the Niagara, I would have wanted to go sailing on it. There were more ships to see, but Jenny said that we could do that tomorrow; she wanted to look around at what all the other people had for sale at the market, and maybe go eat a proper dinner before we went out on the Niagara. We started right by the water, where the people who had done King Gorbeduck had a booth showing weapons, and that was neat to see. There were long tables with different kinds of swords and old-fashioned guns and pieces of human armor. I was disappointed that they didn't have any glaives, because I knew from Stellan that humans had used glaives before they invented guns. Jenny really liked seeing all the weapons, and she said that she was practicing to become a blacksmith although right now she didn't know how to make anything. Aquamarine and I really liked all the little stands that they had around the park, because most people in them had made what they were selling, and that was something that all the other human stores I'd been in so far lacked. There was a lot of stuff at Meijer, but the people working there didn't know anything about what was on the shelves except where to find it. We met a photographer who took pictures of lighthouses and a painter that made paintings of ships that were very beautiful, and we also met a wood-carver that made signs and a man who was selling books about ships. He hadn't written any of them, but he'd read them all and when I told him about where I lived, he said that he thought I'd really like a book called The Finest Hours, which was about the Coast Guard rescuing sailors from sinking ships. So I bought that. Then we walked to Eucidi's Pizza, which was right on the main street and had a place outside where you could sit and eat. Most restaurants I'd been to hadn't had that. We got a pizza to share, and it turned out to be so big that we had some left over when we were done. Since we still had our fetlock-bands, we got back into the park just by showing them, and got on board the Niagara for our trip. They used their motor until they were out of the river, and then the crew put up the sails and once we were clear of all the river traffic they warned us to cover our ears and they fired the guns like they'd promised. Even with my ears covered,  I could feel the blast of pressure in my chest, and I had to shake my head to clear it before I got my balance back. They let us try and work the lines, pairing us with experienced crew members who told us what to do, and it was a lot of work. I was too light for it, and when the wind shifted I got dragged off my hooves. I wasn't the only one, at least; when the crew got the sails set right again, there was plenty of laughing at our expense. The crew praised Aquamarine, though. Even though she'd never been to sea on a sailing ship before, she knew how to hold the lines and not skid and tumble across the deck. We had to move out of the way once it was time to turn around, because the captain had to tack, and they didn't want anybody getting in they way of the crew. So we all clustered around and watched as the helmsman brought the head of the ship into the wind and the sails went slack, and he used its momentum to continue the turn until they started to pick up the wind again, and the booms shifted the other way as the sails filled. They fired off the guns one more time as we got into the mouth of the river, and we were lucky that the winds were with us because they were able to keep the sailing until we got near the drawbridge. And even after that, they kept them up, but I could tell that they weren't doing any work; the crew had let them luff, and were just leaving them up for show. We stayed a little bit longer after we got off the ship, but the park had mostly closed down except for the beer tent. Jenny didn't want anything to drink again, but Aquamarine and I each had a dark beer called Guinness, and all of us sang along with a couple of sea shanties. I was glad we stayed, because I overheard someone talking about pancakes with pirates in the morning, and that sounded like it would be fun, since they were only play-pirates. And Jenny thought so, too, and said that we'd get up a little bit earlier tomorrow. We were all kind of tired from the day when we finally got back to the hotel, and even though Aquamarine thought it might be fun to go swimming in the pool, nobody really had the energy to do it, so we relaxed and talked for a little bit, then we went to bed.