The Tall Ships Have Come To Tampa Bay

Hey! It looks like the tall sailing ships have come to Tampa Bay! I see masts behind that sign...

Remember, "Click-On-A-Pic" to see a larger version.

Yeah, that would be one of them. I'll tell you about this ship in a bit.

You see, when we first arrived, the closest ship was the ARC Gloria, so Luann and Katrina climbed some stairs to get a shot or two looking down. Look at the line of people waiting to tour the boat.

Obvioulsy, the Gloria is from Columbia.

Meanwhile Karen and her boys stayed with me on the docks. This was a good time to get a memorable picture of the boys by the rail. Kylor struck a nice pose, but unfortunately, Brendon decided that this would be a great time to 'face-palm'.

Here they are, contemplating what they see.

Luann made it back down from the stairs, Kylor took this picture while Brendon chose to continue his sulk. C'mon, smile dude!

While all of that was going on, I was working in the 'photographer's pool', trying to set up that perfect shot.

And this is what I got. When I snapped this image, I noticed there was something else with masts in the background.

Could it be???

Yes, it is! Our own version of a 'tall ship', the Jose Gasparilla.

Ok, back to the Gloria. This is the masthead on the front of the ship.

The Capitan Miranda from Uruguay was supposed to be at the docks too, but seemed to be having some trouble, as evidenced by the tug boats, Florida and Endeavor (not seen, but on the other side).

Yeah, the crew doesn't seem to be too happy.

After viewing the first 2 ships, we strolled down River Walk and came across this one, (pictured above). This is the USCGC Eagle (Click Here), a 3-masted, square-rigged barque which is with the US Coast Guard.

Here is the masthead, representing the Eagle's namesake.

There was a ton of people waiting in line to tour the boat, but we decided that waiting for 2 hours in the sun just wasn't worth it.

I mean, look at the line...This is at about the halfway point.

Yeah, a nice sailing ship, but the wait was just too much.

So, we headed back to the parking garage to get into the nice, cool air conditioning of the van. See, the gang's all here.

We came acrooss the sign during our trek, so I took a picture and I'll read up about later... Everything must fall, in the name of 'Progress'. Or, in the words of a song; "They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot"...