Schooner or Later

I had a full, productive day yesterday. I spent most of 1/2 day Friday at the DC office, getting some information for a project. After stopping by King Street, I went to the DMV to get tags for Pegasus's trailer. Unfortunately, I can't re-title and re-register her under my name unless I can track down more documentation. Tyson's folks gave me everything they could find, so I'm not sure what my next move will be. I may have to go to the original seller of the trailer, and get new copies of the Certificate of Sale, or something.

After that, I got my phone upgraded - I needed more memory, since some of my new duties at work mean having many more phone numbers on hand. The new phone also has a camera, which is a lucky thing. I don't normally take my digital camera along on my bike rides, but I do take my phone. And it paid off yesterday, since moored at the dock just north of the Torpedo Factory was a tall ship. And I always stop to look at tall ships.


The schooner Sultana

She's a school ship, mostly sailing the Chesapeake with students to do history and science education. Since she's only rated for coastal cruising, there are no internal bulkheads as there would be on most modern ships. And they've clearly made a lot of effort to conceal the modern equipment they are required to carry, so she's one of the most accurate reproductions I've ever seen.


A good shot of the square topsails she carries on her fore and mainmast

Her rig is a little unusual, of a type I've never seen before. Like a normal schooner, she carries fore-and-aft sails on both masts. Like a topsail schooner, she has a square topsail on her foremast. But she also has a square topsail on her mainmast. So she's almost a schooner, a brig, or a brigantine. A very odd sail plan - I wish I had a chance to talk to her skipper about it, but he and the crew were just heading out for dinner.


Here you can see her fore and mainsails, both gaff-rigged

Her figurehead, named "Eileen"

The mix of square and gaff-rigged sails results in a lot of lines and spars

Shot along the bowsprit of a plane landing at National, and the oncoming storm

I would have tarried longer and taken more pictures with my handy new toy. But as you can see in the last shot, there were some very dark clouds approaching from the north. It had rained just before I left on my ride down to Mount Vernon, but had been sunny and pleasant for about 2 hours. Just a few minutes after I got home, though, the sky opened up. And not only rain. I noticed it seemed noisier than most rain showers, and investigated. The noise was from the metal shades over most of my windows, ringing from the fairly sizable hail coming down. So my timing was exceptionally good yesterday.

Filed in: Sailing Work Life