Tall Ship Ocean Voyage, with pix

I have just returned from my first ocean voyage with the Kalmar Nyckel. We took her to drydock in Portsmouth, Virginia. I have posted pictures at my Picasaweb site. New albums with all new pix include: 'Voyaging' and 'Drydock.' I have reorganized and added new material to 'Sea Cats,' 'Ship Features,' 'Under Way,' and 'Other Vessels.'

See at: Picasaweb.com/kujakupoet

Enjoy.

~K~

Really interesting dry dock pictures. It's great to see the underwater lines like that and amazing how clean the underwater hull was.

The Kalmar Nyckel is a tight ship. She was well designed, well built, well maintained, and well operated. She is reputed to have been architect Thomas Gillmer's favorite; he had a model of her made, which his family donated after his death.

Her plans are in the sail loft, so it's interesting to see how well her hull holds the shape that was put on paper. Aside from the green slime, one barnacle, and a few other shelled critters, her hull was very nice. The few blemishes from her twelve years of service are all cosmetic, and the forefoot shoe is not much chewed up, but will be replaced anyhow.

I found the pix I was afraid were lost and have now updated the 'Voyages' album with more images. Sadly, captions are malfunctioning and some are missing captions as a result, but aside from the ever photogenic ship's cat, there's a pictures of the foremast with the topsail, course, and bonnet set, sailing full and by. There's a few other details, such as the whipstaff in operation and an ensign drying after two days of fog.