Straight off the Victoria Clipper, we set off to see the Tall Ships, beginning with Adventuress, moored in front of the Empress Hotel.

It was surprisingly easy – no lines and no waiting for those mid-sized ships.

That’s a huge improvement over the 2005 festival, when people complained about long waits in hot weather.

The weather’s about the same, in the 80s, and feeling like the 90s, but even for the big boats, the lines are short and survivable. At noon, it took about 20 minutes to see Lynx, Lady Washington and Canada’s sleek racer HMCS Oriole.

It’s not that there are fewer people here. Festival spokesman Bill Eisenhauer says sales of $5 tickets to the festival grounds are at or above 2005 levels. Organizers have just developed a smarter, simpler system for getting as many people as possible onto as many boats as possible.
Late in the afternoon, it took us only 15 minutes to get onto U.S. Coast Guard Barque Eagle’s self-guided tour.

People here are still yearning to see Eagle under sail.

On Thursday, the winds picked up before the Parade of Sail from Fort Rodd Hill into Victoria Harbour. The gusts, said, Eisenhauer, were so strong, organizers had to tell some ticket holders they could not board their ships for the parade past the crowded shoreline. The wind was so strong it could have powered Eagle to speeds unsafe in the harbor crowded with Tall ships, sea planes, tourist craft and kayaks. Fans are now hoping Eagle will be able to depart under sail on Monday, so they can see her at her best.

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The Victoria Times Colonist has a cool slide show of the Parade of Sail.

While you’re watching, look for the pitch-black Nina, and consider the sailors who crossed the Atlantic aboard her three times with Christopher Columbus. The square-rigged caravel was difficult in the extreme to maneuver.

And there were cows in slings below decks.

The hold was packed tight with all the lumber, canvas, water, and food (including cows) that a crew sailing beyond the edge of the known world might need. There was no room below for living space.

That meant that the 27 crew lived entirely on deck. They worked in the open, slept in the open, even cooked in a stove at the prow. Showers or baths? Are you kidding?

Capt. Morgan Sanger wants all who step aboard the replica ship to get a sense of that hardship, and to look at their lives with a new perspective.

“You think you have it hard today?” he’ll tell visitors. “Look at what your ancestors did. This is where the age of sail started. That’s what it took.”

Even aboard Nina, things are infinitely easier today.

She was built to a design based on old plans and 500-year-old shipwrecks. The craftsmen who made her lived in the remote coastal town where shipwrights of Columbus’ day chose to remain, and current craftsmen use the old techniques and tools.
But now there are ice boxes, a gimbaled stove, a head, a cold-water shower and the DVD player on which Jamie Sanger, 16, and fellow crew members Doc Kaiser, 51, and Beth Frederick, 39, were watching “The Simpsons.”

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