Tall Ships 2019

St. Lawrence River Brockville

Brockville waterfront

Our track

This Labour-day weekend the Tall Ships are once again visiting Brockville to the delight of hundreds of spectators lining the waterfront and Blockhouse  island.  A friend and I will be paddling out to meet the parade and get up close to these magnificent sailing ships.    Some areas downtown are closed to traffic and with so many visitors parking it's difficult to obtain close to the water so I am getting my wife to drop me at our put-in on Henry St.  We are early with time to kill before the parade so opt to paddle east towards the 3 sisters islands where we hear that on a previous occasion the tall ships mustered.

Blockhouse spectators

Henry St. put-in

It is a great day for this event but with the WSW 17km gusting to 26km winds it will be a struggle paddling back upstream.  As we pass the mooring for both the Pride of Baltimore and Bluenose II, Bluenose heads out towards mid-stream then turns upriver as does another tallship from the U.S. shoreline which suggests the start is going to be west of Brockville.

Baltimore mooring

Bluenose II

Turning around we paddle back upstream towards Brockville at a snail pace against the wind and current.   At Blockhouse island I stop and try to hold position as the first ship of the parade heads in our direction so here I will stay and try to get some decent images of them as they sail by.

Hopefully I have these in the right order, first up is Fair Jeanne a brigantine from Ottawa launched in 1980.

Fair Jeanne

Next up another vessel from Ottawa, STV Black Jack, brigantine built 1904 in Scotland (Yeah!).

Black Jack

And now one of the best known tallships Nova Scotia's schooner Bluenose II built in 1963.

Bluenose II

Then I believe HMCS Oriole was along next a ketch launched in 1921 but I failed to get an image as some sailboat butted in front spoiling my view so this image was captured by my wife from shore using my 18x zoom camera and catching me in the frame.

HMCS Oriole

An American ship the Pride of Baltimore II built 1988 as a reproduction of a Baltimore Clipper schooner circa 1812, home port Baltimore MD.

Pride of Baltimore II

Another replica from our early beginnings, but for the voyages of this ship we might not have been here today.   Christopher Columbus ship the NAO Santa Maria built 2018 by Spain.

NAO Santa Maria

From Kingston Ontario we have our very own STV St. Lawrence II built in 1953 in brigantine style.

STV St. Lawrence II

Last up we have what to me represents the epitome of the classic Tall Ship the Empire Sandy and I was amazed to learn she began life in 1943 as a deep sea tug and performed considerable war service during WW2 only being converted to a Tern schooner in the 1970's.

Empire Sandy

After the stars of the show passed came the locals, Coast Guard, fire tender, a variety of police vessels and of course my friend and I in our Small Ships😀

Happy Paddling
KayakJock