I got a call this evening from an irate woman from Puyallup who'd just returned from a frustrating day at the festival. She said she got to the event early, as advised, and paid $10 for a general boarding pass but was unable to get on eight of the ships that she had paid for and wanted to see. She kept getting turned back because the ships were out on sailing excursions. She suspects that there are many other unhappy customers out there. (She didn't want her name used in the newspaper but wanted us to be aware of the problem.)

I asked festival spokesman Matthew Erlich if they'd heard from others with similar grievances. "Complaints have been relatively isolated from where I've been sitting," he said. Organizers caution that buying a boarding pass doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be able to board all the ships. About two-thirds of the fleet is running sailing excursions during the event (that's how they pay the bills), so any particular ship may be out in the bay when you want to see it, Erlich said. If you’re determined to board a certain ship, you might want to check the sailing schedule.

I'll put this question out to readers: Did you get your money's worth at the festival? Reply in the comments below, or send an e-mail to newstips@thenewstribune.com.

I just talked to festival spokesman Matthew Erlich to see if organizers had a crowd estimate that we could publish. The short answer is not yet.

They are still in the process of calculating attendance. For a mostly free festival like this, it's an inexact science. They will use hard indicators like sales of boarding passes and sailing excursions. Because many people enjoyed the onshore activities and Parade of Sail without buying a ticket – organizers also will use sampling from aerial photos and consult with police.

For this round, organizers think they're on track to match the consensus number from the 2005 event: 700,000.

While checking out the schooners at the Northwest Passage Village, this afternoon 15-year-old Matthew Sutherland of Puyallup said what just about everyone was thinking:

“These are really nice boats. I’d like to own one.”

As of about 3:30 this afternoon, we’re told, the Foss Waterway Seaport museum has already received more visitors – about 12,000 – than it received during all of Tall Ships Tacoma 2005.

It’s constantly packed inside. Families are posing for photos in front of the vintage canoes and boats. Some are taking a break and watching videos in a darkened corner of the mammoth building. Others are admiring the antique phones or old engines on display.

"It's all part of an educational experience," Seattle's Sue Wing said. "Seeing the tall ships outside and reading about everything in here really puts it all in perspective."

Tall Ships spokesman Matt Erlich passes along these few notes:

● About 1,200 volunteers helped the festival run smoothly today.
● AMVETS hosted a barbecue for the crews of all the ships.
● There were no significant operational problems.
● The lines are moving but long, so it’s best to arrive early.

There's nothing quite like the smell of cedar.

At opposite ends of Treasure Cove, crews are chipping away at giant logs-turned-canoes. Little hills of wood chips have gathered near the feet of the crews. The pleasant smell can be sensed from 10 feet away.

Philip Red Eagle said about 100 people have been working on a Salish-style hunting canoe on Saturdays for the past 2½ years. When completed, it will measure 28 feet, 9 inches.

“It’ll hold about six pullers and one skipper when it’s done,” said Red Eagle, a participant in the Canoe Movement, an effort to help American Indian youths experience their heritage through canoe travel.

Little flakes of wood are tangled with Takirirangi Smith’s hair. He’s a Maori from New Zealand and is building a traditional fishing canoe. It’ll be just under 20 feet when it’s completed.

“I looked at the log,” he said, “and I saw a canoe.”

I'm always a bit amazed by the allure of free entertainment.

Some of the booths with the most people are companies offering games -- but usually only after you fill out a survey or hand over your e-mail, which will soon be flooded with cheap prescription drug offers and Nigerians needing a place to harbor their lottery winnings.

Here are some of the highlights I've seen:

● The Emerald Queen Casino is offering a blackjack game. You get a T-shirt for 21. Even if you lose, you still get a coupon book. And if you win the shirt, you'll eventually gamble it away.

● State Farm has one of those arcade-style basketball hoops. But after you win, they deny your claim.

● The City of Tacoma offers a beanbag toss. After that, they beg you to join the Human Rights Commission.

● The longshoreman union was handing out free Rainiers tickets. I'd write something snarky here, except I'm worried I'll be walking to my car one day and have a hook jabbed into my right temple.

Looking for hair-raising tales of nautical adventure? You can’t beat the Red Jacket, a modest schooner based in our own modest city of Tacoma.

Dangerous storms, wartime intrigue, disastrous fire, international acclaim – the Red Jacket has seen it all. Here are some highlights:

• Built in 1920, the ship changed owners often in its early years. It spent five years sailing the South Seas and was demasted in a storm in 1930 en route from Hawaii to Los Angeles.

• Bought by a Seattle businessman in 1933, the Red Jacket traveled to the Northwest on a freighter. That same year, it caught fire and was shot from shore with large-bore elephant hunting rifles to sink and save it.

• It spent 1941-43 in Friday Harbor, where it snooped for enemy submarines.

• In 1990 it struck the Murray Morgan Bridge in a December ice storm, suffering $50,000 in damage.

• It survived to be chosen one of the 100 greatest sailing yachts in North America by Sailing magazine in 1993.

Terry and Renee Paine have owned the ship for 21 years. Renee says it’s the last big schooner built in Puget Sound that’s still around here.

“They mostly burn and rot away, and she’s done both of those,” Renee says of the Red Jacket. “It’s a great story. I always say she’s got a checkered past.”

So you’re stuck with the ankle-biter for a day (and, really, a lifetime – but we won’t get into that). The munchkin doesn’t care so much to see the Eagle or the Kaisei or any of the other tall ships. And he’s about 19 years too young to hit the beer garden.

Luckily, there’s a place where he can play games while you pour that rum from a flask into the Island Oasis drink.

It’s called Captain Kidd’s Cove (clever, eh?), and it’s got all sorts of games that, if your kid wasn’t playing, would make you consider taking a nap on some gravel.

But the kids sure seemed to be having a good time.

Dozens of adults dressed in pirate garb entertained kids with raise-the-flag contests and some sort of hockey played with Wiffle bats and rubber rodents. They also offered a “load the cannon” game, in which kids tossed Wiffle balls into the mouth of a replica cannon.

“This is a cool downshift for the kids,” Parkland’s Maureen Clarke said. “They were getting bored waiting in line. And when we got on some of the ships, my daughter wasn’t exactly interested. So this is something for them.”

You don’t have to have a big ship to participate in the Tall Ships Festival, just a tall one. A case in point: the Lavengro.

At 63 feet, the Levengro is third of the length of some of the festival’s ships. But its 48-foot main mast stands proud.

Built in 1927 in Mississippi, it’s one of two original Biloxi Bay shrimp schooners still in existence. It was commissioned as a family yacht.

It’s currently owned by the Northwest Schooner Society and is based in Lake Union. The society is looking for volunteers. For more information about the ship and the society, visit its web site.

The Nina is docked in Treasure Cove Village. And where there’s a replica of a Spanish ship, there must be conquistadors.

About 10 of the Spanish soldiers – faithfully played by participants in local reenactment troupe Goode’s Company – are performing for the crowds at Northwest Passage.

They’re donned in the garb of the era, down to metal helmets and breastplates. They regularly march in formation and swordfight for the crowds. And they’re ready for battle with pikes and muskets.

“We’re a ‘company of foote,’ or infantry, fighting in the low countries – today’s Netherlands,” said Gordon Frye of the Renaissance Military Society. “Because the English and the Spanish saw each other so often on the battlefield, their look and manner really began to resemble each other.

“That’s why, even though we primarily focus on Elizabethan reenactments, we can play the part of the Spanish.”

The group, which consists of men from around the Puget Sound area, is portraying the Spanish as an homage to the country’s history of North American exploration.

Reenactments of times past from the 1580s to the late Victorian era will be an ongoing staple of Tall Ships Tacoma, said John Salicco, the living history coordinator with the festival.

“People can often get more interested in history if they see it before their own eyes,” he said. “And we aim to entertain at the same time.”

Northwest Passage has a music stage offering live bands all day. Here's a performance from Shamrocks in the Wind:

An F-16 from the Freedom Fair airshow is flying past the Thea Foss Waterway

One of the more popular stops in Northwest Passage is Arrow Leather, which sells all things a good pirate wannabe needs, like hats, feathers, wooden swords, telescopes and leather clothing.

“Everybody wants to be a pirate ever since they were young,” co-owner Jim Wood said. “We’re letting them fulfill that.”

Jim and his wife, Kil, work out of their Chehalis home and make all the leather products. This is the 18th year they’ve been selling the stuff on the fair and festival circuit.

“This is so cool,” said 33-year-old Will Bungert of Lacey. “It lets me be a kid again.”

You already knew Marlon Brando was larger than life. But who would have guessed he required a replica of the HMS Bounty to be one-third bigger than the original?

Okay, it wasn’t Brando’s doing. When MGM Film Studio filmed the 1962 version of “Mutiny on the Bounty,” a life-size replica of the ship proved impractical. It wouldn’t have been able to accommodate cameras and other equipment. So filmmakers built their version of the Bounty one-third larger than the original.

This Bounty is 180 feet and pretty darn impressive. Above, its rigging looks like the world’s most complex cat’s cradle. Below deck, dimly lit crew quarters give visitors a sense of life at sea – both today and in the 18th century.

One guide called it “a Hollywood version of what (the Bounty) should have looked like.” So it’s no surprise the ship has been used in other productions. Some of the movies include: “Treasure Island,” “Yellow Beard,” “”Sponge Bob Square Pants” and “Pirate’s of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest.”

When you’re below deck, look close for a photograph of Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow. And, of course, you can’t miss the prominent portrait of Brando.

Learn more about the Bounty at its web site.

The Port of Tacoma is apparently on a charm offensive. It has streetlight banners hanging up and down Dock Street:

The longest line I’ve seen today has been at the entrance to the gangplank to view the Class A ships in Treasure Cove Village.

Each time I’ve walked by, the line is longer and longer.

Some advice: Just treat it like the line at an amusement park. It’ll be a wait, but something cool lies at the end.

I’m back from Northwest Passage. Most of the non Class-A ships are docked here, but the companies and organizations that have set up shop offer a rich mix of products and services.

Seriously, almost everything you need to survive is here. Real estate? Check. Windows to go with that new house? Want to join a union, or join an environmental interest group or enlist in the Marines? You can do all of that.

Stands also offer food – mostly usual fair fare like corn dogs and elephant ears – and souvenirs like T-shirts and paintings.

Times are tough all over, judging from the tips jar aboard the Kaisei, a 151-foot brigantine built in 1990. Affixed to the jar is this note: “Tips for destitute sailors! Thanks. Kaisei Crew.”

As of 11:30 a.m., the jar contained just three $1 bills.

Of course, if you’re feeling really generous (and adventurous), you can join the crew for a trip from Tacoma to Port Alberni, B.C., July 7-11. The cost: $895.

For more information, check out the Kaisei’s web site here.

Doc Kaiser was a landscaper and bartender with no sailing experience when he visited the Nina 10 years ago. Today, he’s the ship’s first mate.

Kaiser, then a Wisconsin resident, heard the ship was looking for a cook. He signed on for the adventure, and there’s been plenty of it. He’s sailed from the Great Lakes to the Caiman Islands, and many a spot in between.

The ship, owned by the Columbus Foundation, is a replica of one of the three ships Christopher Columbus sailed to American in 1492. It’s 115 feet long and has a crew of six. But in Columbus’ day, 27 men would have called it home, making for some tight quarters.

Even Columbus’ crib wasn’t much to speak of: a small cabin with two bunks, a desk and just 4 feet of head room. Can’t imagine what it was like to sail the ocean on a ship like this without knowing exactly where you were going, how long you’d be gone or whether you’d come back.

“This vessel is what we call the space shuttle of the 15th century,” says Captain Morgan Sanger.

For his part, Kaiser plans to jump ship and return to Wisconsin next year.
“I’ve got all my traveling in,” he says.

- David Wickert

The Thea Foss Waterway isn’t totally jammed with people right now, but the crowds are growing. A steady stream of cars was heading toward the parking areas, and on the bus from the media lot, I heard the traffic dispatcher telling drivers it was OK to let people stand in the aisles.

If your hunger for news on tall ships can't wait, the Peninsula Daily News has an article about the groundbreaking of the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend.

We'll have reporters at Tall Ships Tacoma again today. I'll be bringing you consumer tips. Dave Wickert will be touring a few ships.

Check back throughout the day for updates.