Two U.S.C.G. Barque Eagle cadets manned the gangway on America’s Tall Ship’s last day in Tacoma. Travis Christy, 20, of Valdosta, Ga., and Blake Morris, 19, of Durango., Colo., thanked people for coming to see the ship, but regretted they could no longer let anyone aboard.
Eagle was bound for the open sea.
Cadets had formed a hand-me-down line earlier in the day to load enough stores to last 200 people for 15 days. There had been talk for days that, instead of heading south for San Francisco, she would sail north and play in the waters off the Alaskan coast.
Eagle has the time to do it. The sail to San Francisco takes less than a week. The decision lay with Capt. Christopher Sinnett.
At 12:45 p.m., Sinnett mustered the ship’s company to the waist of the ship. He introduced and welcomed new shipmates. He noted that a week and 15 minutes earlier, Eagle had sprinted out of Victoria toward Port Angeles. He encouraged cadets to consider all they had done in that week. They had raced under sail across open water. They had spent a day of intensive cross training at the Seattle Coast Guard Station. They had spent time ashore in Tacoma’s big festival. Some of them had visited Mount Rainier.
Now, he said, it was time again to focus on their mission aboard Eagle.
And then the wind changed.
Those of us straining to hear him from the shore lost the connection. I heard him say “Alaska,” “circulating” and “rumors.” That’s all. Cadets Christy and Morris had duties elsewhere while Sinnett was speaking, but they had heard indirectly that Alaska was not in the plan for Eagle.
Behind Eagle, the Tall Ships fun kept sailing on. Lynx, Lady Washington and Amazing Grace powered into Commencement Bay for a battle sail.
Beside Eagle, the tug Henry Foss and the U.S. Army reserve tug Scholaire got into position to help turn her around.
In the gathering crowd stood Tall ships volunteer Heinz Stettinius. He was a child in Germany during World War II. He was about eight when his uncle, a ship’s captain in the navy, invited him aboard the Gorch Fock, a sister ship to the Horst Wessel. After the war, the Soviet Union claimed Gorch Fock as a war prize and named her Tovarishch. The United States took Horst Wessel and named her Eagle.
As was so often the case with festival volunteers, Stettinius was working so much he could not make time to board Eagle. So he came to bid her farewell.
On deck, cadets wriggled into the harnesses they wear when they scamper up the rigging and out on the yardarms.
One of them walked out onto the bowsprit and sat by the union jack, a blue ensign with white stars.
Belowdecks, Chief Engineering Officer Karyn Terry brought the 1000-horsepower Caterpillar D399 diesel engine to life. Cadets hauled in the mooring lines. The ship’s whistle blew one long blast and three short ones. A baby on shore wailed in reply.
Eagle moved.
The cadet lowered the union jack.
The shore crowd cheered and waved hats.
Cadets climbed the ratlines and stood at attention in mid-air to salute the crowd.
In Thea’s Park, one voice led a cheer echoed three times by the crowd: “Hip hip hurrah!”
On the stage, Tom Lewis sang “Haul away your foresheets. ‘Tis our sailing time. Haul away down channel. ‘Tis our sailing time... Fair winds, Eagle! Fair winds!”
And then she was away.

Tall Ships organizers did not meet their attendance goal, but are declaring the event a success.

With another 50,000 people showing up today, the preliminary total for the five day event was put at 400,000. They will have more numbers as they count up boarding pass and ticket sales. But the number will likely be short of the goal of 700,000 - the number said to have shown up in 2005.

As we've pointed out, an exact head count is impossible for a free, far flung event like this. Kathleen Merryman also suspects they are being more careful with their numbers than three years ago.

Regardless, it's likely that the spotty weather did play a role. “The rain had a big impact on attendance but those who came despite the weather had a great time and enjoyed themselves,” David Doxtater, festival executive director, said in a press release.

Several readers have called or e-mailed to winder if there was a “reverse Parade of Sail,” when all the ships would be leaving Tacoma.

The answer is a definite maybe.

Most are scheduled to leave between 6-8 a.m. Some are leaving later. Others have already left or are staying around a while.

Here’s a breakdown of what ship is leaving and when:

About 4:45 a.m.:
● Oriole

Between 6-8 a.m.:
● Kaisei
● Bounty
● Merrie Ellen
● Nina
● Adventuress
● Mycia
● Lavengro
● Red Jacket
● Rejoice
● Lady Washington
● Mallory Todd
● Kia Ora
● Cutty Sark

Between 4-8 a.m.:
● Resolute

About 10 a.m.:
● Virginia V

Leaving tonight/already gone:
● U.S. Coast Guard Eagle
● Hawaiian Chieftain
● Zodiac
● Lynx
● Yankee Clipper
● Amazing Grace

Staying in the area:
● Charles Curtis (local boat)
● Tug Joe (local boat)
● Odyssey (for 10 days)
● Sydney Waite (for 10 days)
● USAR Tug (local boat)

True, the cannons are firing blanks, but the danger can be real when you have 50 or 100 ton vessels out playing around in the bay.

Reporter Kris Sherman (on her day off) just phoned in from the deck of the Lynx. Apparently, the schooner almost collided with the Amazing Grace during a cannon battle. The quick thinking Lynx skipper avoided an accident by quickly reversing the engines. A similar near-miss happened between the Hawaiian Chieftain and Lynx on my sailing adventure Saturday. Yes, a collision would have been tragic - but at least in these cases, a trained journalist would have aboard to phone in the story.

Tacoma is just the second major port of the season for most of these ships. Next stop for much of the fleet is Port Alberni, B.C. for its Festival of Sails, Friday and Saturday. Featured ships include the HMS Bounty, Nina, Lynx, Oriole, Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain.

The ASTA Pacific Coast Tall Ships Challenge race continues this summer with stops at the Festival of Sail San Francisco on July 23-27, the Tall Ships Festival in Oxnard on Aug. 7-10, the Festival of Sail Los Angeles on Aug. 13-17 and finally to San Diego for its Tall Ships festival Aug. 20-24.

The Eagle is not attending the Port Alberni event, but will be at the California stops.

The American Sail Training Association alternates its annual race between the two coasts and the Great Lakes region. It won't be back in the Pacific until 2011.

The rocky shore of the Thea Foss Waterway isn’t exactly Omaha Beach, but that didn’t stop 47-year-old Lon Hudson from dreaming a little bit.

“I’ll admit it: I was kind of thinking it was like Normandy when we were getting off,” the DuPont resident said after departing from an LCM-8 landing craft.

But the boat, usually called a Mike Boat, has its roots in the Vietnam War, not World War II. The 175th Transportation Company was offering rides on the 74-foot landing crafts as part of a goodwill gesture, said Sgt. Randy Ichiyama.

The rides, which usually last about 30 minutes, ferry passengers past most of the tall ships on display. And to offload, it backs up to the shore in Thea’s Park, plops down its ramp and allows the passengers to just walk off.

“It’s something that’s fun and free,” Tacoma’s Linda Cooper said. “And it just looks so cool.”