Eagle was passing Seattle’s Shilshole Marina around 4 p.m. Tuesday. Small boats were gathering around her, and three retired and restored Coast Guard vessels were motoring in front of her.

Cadet Annette Boston darted over to her father, Larry Boston, of Oceanside, Calif.

“I’m going up to man the shrouds,” she said, and made for the mizzenmast.

Eagle motored into Seattle, just as she will into Commencement Bay. Her sails are massive, to give her speed and power. But because she is square-rigged, and so big, she does not have the maneuverability under sail to enter a confined passage with other vessels in the area.

So, when it makes a festive entrance, instead of setting sail, Eagle sets cadets.

Annette Boston joined the cadets who climbed the ratlines on all three masts, made their way out the yardarms and stood there as Eagle crossed Elliott Bay. Dozens more cadets climbed the ratlines and stationed themselves there.

Two helicopters, a big HH60J out of Astoria and a smaller HH65 from Port Angeles, flew by the ship in tandem.

Below them, U.S. Navy Admiral Jim Symonds of Navy Region Northwest, applied sunscreen, a wise precaution on a lovely day.

“Isn’t this absolutely amazing?” he said. “I had no concept of how big this ship would be. To see those young people going up those masts. It would not be me going up there.”

The Navy, he said, has no sailing ship as large big as Eagle.

“We do have Old Ironsides,” he said. “It is still in commission.”

Chief Electrician’s Mate Michael Barnthouse stood nearby, looking up. He’s been part of the way up a mast twice, and that was enough for him.

The cadets are different.

“They say you haven’t been on Eagle unless you’ve gone all the way to the top. They like it,” he said. “They’re fearless.”

And then they were down on Bos’n Keith Raischh’s shouted command: “On the fore! On the main! On the mizzen! Lay in and down!”

“That was a grand old time!” said one cadet, jumping back onto solid deck.

The helicopters circled. A Seattle fireboat passed by with a salute of spray. The crew dropped anchor.

“Thank you, Eagle!” shouted Jack Sullivan, commodore of the Seattle Yacht Club.

“Hip, hip, hurrah,” the crowd responded. “Hip, hip, hurrah! Hip, hip, hurrah! Eagle!”

Chasing down a moving Tall Ship is apparently a tough thing to do.

Photographer Joe Barrentine and I learned that the hard way today.

Our assignment seemed relatively simple: Go to Port Angeles, catch the crews shortly after they cleared customs, talk to some of the kids about the Youth on Board program and put together something for tomorrow’s paper. My job was to write the words; Joe was shooting stills and a video.

The problems started about as soon as we left Tacoma. The contacts I had on the three ships we were chasing didn’t pick up. No problem, I figured. We’d get to Port Angeles and meet up then.

Joe and I make a Starbucks our home base in Port Angeles. I got in contact with the captain of one of the boats. If we can meet them in an hour, he said, we could hop aboard and talk to the Youth on Board kids. The ship’s docked in Union Wharf, he said.

That’s in Port Townsend.

Joe and I pack up in a hurry and head back east. We were rushing against a tight deadline, and it seemed all of Jefferson County decided driving 10 mph under the speed limit on a highway was a good idea.

As we pull into Port Townsend, I receive a voicemail. (Not a call, mind you, but just a voicemail.) The captain of one of the boats said that the three ships have just left Port Townsend and were heading toward Dockton.

That’s on Maury Island.

The fastest way to Dockton? Back to Tacoma to catch the ferry to Vashon Island at Point Defiance Park. My bosses will love seeing a 240-mile commute to the park on my expense report.

But we made the trip, caught the ferry to Vashon Island and headed toward Dockton. We got out at the park, and there was nary a Tall Ship to be seen. I called another one of the captains. He said the wind hasn’t been great, and they want to make it as far as Port Madison tonight.

That’s on Bainbridge Island.

And even if we had met up with them, the ships were going to anchor down at sea. The best we could do is stand at the dock and wave.

So Joe and I are sitting in my car awaiting the ferry off Vashon Island. By the time I drop him off, I’ll log almost 300 miles. Joe shot one photo. I’ve written nothing of substance.

Not a bad day at the office.

Janet Jensen/The News Tribune

Eagle is off Edmonds, boarding a group of about 100 retired Coasties and Navy League members.

They’ve motored out to Eagle so they can be aboard for Eagle’s transit to Seattle, where she will anchor off the Coast Guard Station.

It will be a grand procession.

Cadets have hoisted the big American flag off the mizzen mast. Smaller Coast Guard vessels are joining the service’s signature ship. Rescue helicopters are buzzing.

And the show has not yet begun.

If you are in Seattle, or in a position to get there by 4 p.m , you will see Eagle joined by the Coast Guard Heritage Fleet.

Organized by Combatant Craft of America’s Chuck Fowler and Dan Withers, the parade will feature a restored buoy tender and two patrol boats.

CCA’s press release points out that CG-83527, an 83-foot patrol boat, was built in 1944 and served in Tacoma from 1945 to 1962. It spent 20 years a a live-aboard in California before CCA bought and restored it for a new career as living history in Puget Sound.

The 65-foot Blueberry was a buoy tender bult in Tacoima by the Birchfield Boiler & Shipbuilding Co. during World War II. She maintained navigational aids on inland waterways. Peter Whittier of Orcas Island bought and restored her., CCA said. She’s now owned by Mark Freeman of Fremont Boat Co. in Seattle.

The former Point Divide, built by the Coast Guard in 1962, will sail by in its current incarnation, Maritime Instructor. Serattle Community College owns the 82-foot former patrol boat and uses it in its maritime training program.

If you can get here, wave. We’ll all return the honor.

U.S. C.G Barque Eagle Bos’n (that’s boatswain to you, you sandpeeps) Keith Raisch is here to help you with your nautical verbiage needs.

He’s here to offer up, and translate, some of the favorite phrases you’re likely to hear aboard Eagle at port, under sail and under power.

We are typing in capitals, as all commands are delivered in a BOOMING SEA VOICE.

“RISE TACKS AND SHEETS!:

“It’s not one I like to give, but is the command to take in the foresail or the mainsail, collectively known as the courses. They are the lowest sail on each mast. We take the sail in when we have lost the wind and are going to motor, or as part of a tack.”

“EASE THE BRAILS AND INHAULS! HAUL AROUND ON THE OUTHAULS!”

“That is the command given to set the mizzen sails, upper or lower.”

“AVAST!”

“It’s the nautical way of saying ‘FREEZE!’ It stops everything.”

“UP BEHIND!”

“When there is a bunch of people on the line, or it gets to where they are working against you, calling “UP BEHIND!” gets them off the line so you can work it without that resistance.”

“ON THE T’GALLANT GEAR! SHEET HOME!”

“When the sail is ungasketed and just hanging in the lines, ‘SHEET HOME!” draws the leeches, or the sides of the sail, taut and begins setting the set.”

“WALK AWAY WITH THE HALYARD!”

“It’s the command given to do just what it says. Sailors are simple people. This command has all the folks line up, take hold and walk away with the halyard. The upper top yard weighs about two and a half tons, so by walking away, they are able to move it in a smooth fashion.”

“LIBERTY! LIBERTY! LIBERTY!”

“Your workday is done. You can get out and see the town and do whatever it is you want to do to play. Within limits.”

Janet Jensen/The News Tribune

Monday night, as darkness brought out the lights in Port Angeles and on the coast of Vancouver Island, Eagle motored in U.S. waters. I stood on the deck as long as I could, watching the cadets on the fo’csle keep watch.

On the waist, cadets were studying, reading, pressing cell phones to their ears, doing chin-ups and push-ups and jumping rope.

At the helm, four cadets and a seaman bundled into water- and wind-proof gear stood at three wheels and steered the ship.

In my stateroom, Food Service Chief Leta Gibbons was gracious when I woke her up. Who but a Coastie would be nice to a stranger bumbling around an unaccustomed space?

If an alarm sounds in the middle of the night, she advised me, I should wait in my rack until she is dressed, on deck in a position to save my life. How often do you find that attitude in a roomie?

Clambering up the ladder to my rack, I was reminded that I have all the agility and skill of a garden slug. Lt. Chris Nolan has offered me the opportunity to climb the rigging. We’ll see.

At night, we leave a red light glowing on the overhead. There is no outside light. The ship rolls a bit with the seas, and the engine, trite as it sounds, is a lullaby.

I slept right through reveille Leta had to remind me that if I wanted breakfast, it would not come to me, and it would be gone by 7:30 a.m.

“Good morning, shipmates,” Capt. Sinnett greeted us over the ship’s address system.

“Shipmates.”

What a fine concept.

After a breakfast of fresh fruit, strong coffee, perfect eggs and pancakes, we mustered on the waist of the ship at 8 a.m.

“Bring the chocolate,” Leta had told me.

Muster would be an ideal time give cadets and crew an advance taste of Tacoma hospitality. I’d bought 60 pounds of Brown & Haley rocas, barks and Mountain Bar boo boos as a token of the warmth with which we will welcome them. It’s what any of us would do, given the chance.

The cadets, especially, like you already.

The morning started in fog, and the cadets were alerted to the approach of another Coast Guard cutter, the BOUTWELL.
As it drew near, they manned the starboard rail and stood at attention. On a whistle signal, they saluted as the two ships passed. Crew aboard BOUTWELL returned the courtesy. The long-standing naval tradition is called “rendering honors.”

Minutes later, on the port side, two hummingbirds flirted alongside Eagle for perhaps five minutes.

Cadets dispersed to duties across the ship.

“We’re scrubbing the waterways for the guests who will be on board,” said Laura Delgado, 18, of Mission, Tex.

“We do board preps for every port,” added Jenna Carpenter of Cullowhee, N.C. “Cleaning, Brasso-ing, Making the ship pretty.”

Pretty, Jenna, is an understatement.