NEED-TO-KNOW 

 AIDS TO 

 NAVIGATION 



Q 



^Jee the Pepsi Americas' Sail online 

 site — www.nctallships.com — for details. 

 Some basics: 



WHEN:June30-July5. 



WHERE: Largest vessels at the N.C. 

 State Port, Morehead City. Smaller 

 vessels in Beaufort at Olde Beaufort 

 Seaport site on West Beaufort Road 

 and on the Beaufort Town Docks. 



TICKETS: One-day "passports" $30 for 

 adults; $1 5 for children. Available online 

 starting March 2. Many other activities 

 open to the public at no charge or for a 

 minimal fee. 



PARKING: Remote park-and-ride lots. 

 Shuttle service between sites. Parking 

 and traffic restricted in Morehead City 

 and Beaufort. 



COMFORTS: Food and beverage 

 vendors, emergency medical services and 

 portable toilets at each site. 



HIGHLIGHTS: 



o July 1: Parade of Sail. Visiting vessels 

 sail through Beaufort Inlet to their 

 berths in Morehead and Beaufort. 



o July 2: Class B Regatta. Ships compete 

 on a 1 5-mile course offshore Atlantic 

 Beach. 



o July 2: Parade of Pride. Carteret 

 County's commercial fishing vessels 

 steam past the Morehead and 

 Beaufort waterfronts. 



o July 4: Fireworks. Viewable in 

 Morehead City, Beaufort and 

 Atlantic Beach. — J.P. 



with all tall ships — accounts for most of the 

 interest. That is, after all, why he's aboard. He 

 bought a hard-luck schooner in Florida when 

 he was 14. As an adult, he ran oil freighters 

 — but he missed the wind in the rigging. 

 After working on 

 a sister tall ship, 

 he took the helm 

 of the Bounty 10 

 years ago. 



NO MUTINY 

 WITH 

 THESE 

 MARINERS 



The Bounty 

 is a sail-training 

 vessel — as are 

 many other tall 

 ships — offering 

 educational 

 voyages to youth 

 and adults. 

 When the U.S. 

 Navy prepared 

 to relaunch the 



sailing barque, the USS Constitution, its sailors 

 practiced on the Bounty. It is a full-rigged ship, 

 meaning it carries yardarms and square sails on 

 all three masts. 



Square-rigged ships are a commanding 

 sight under sail, but require some derring- 

 do. The Bounty carries 10,000 square feet of 

 canvas, and its main mast rises 103 feet above 

 the deck. Trainees climb to the yardarms to furl 

 and unfurl the sails in all kinds of conditions. 

 Walbridge doesn't have to watch his back, 

 however. His eager young shipmates seem 

 anything but mutinous. 



Most are under the age of 25. Some are 

 volunteers, some students, some paid staff. 

 They cheerfully describe discomfort and a 

 daunting schedule. Four people share the 

 6-foot-by-6-foot crew cabins. Their days are 

 broken into four-hour increments; standing 

 watch and tending the sails day and night, or 

 satisfying the endless cleaning, maintenance 

 and repair demands of the aging wooden hull. 



"When you're not on watch or working, 

 you're sleeping or trying to sleep," says Andrew 

 Schmitt of Maryland, a student at a maritime 

 college. He hopes to some day captain a similar 

 vessel. 



Shipboard life is by necessity disciplined 

 and regimented, Walbridge says, as survival 

 can depend on it. Landlubbers often want to 

 hear "sea stories" about hurricanes and white 

 squalls. Walbridge says sail training is much 

 more than knowing what to do in gales and 

 rogue waves; more than learning which of the 

 dozens of coiled lines control what sail. 



"The boat is 1 1 8 feet," Walbridge says. 

 "There's no place to go. You really have to learn 

 to get along with other people. I personally feel 

 that means you learn to get along with yourself. 

 That's where the real stories are." 



The Bounty enjoyed a warm welcome 

 and big crowds in 2005, as it did on a previous 

 visit to Morehead City. Some suggest this 

 year's show of hospitality will put Beaufort 

 and Morehead on the tall ship circuit as regular 

 ports of call. 



Though centuries have passed since the 

 age of sail, many dozens of these erstwhile 

 vessels wander the world to share their cargo of 



18 Coastwatch I Winter 2006 I www.ncsea 



rant.org 



