Aug 21 (Thursday) – Cruising around the Sail Festival

More cruising today.  We were picked up about 10:30 for our transfer to the Sail Village for the day sail in.  We boarded a party boat that had a lot of inside seating.  Since it was a bit cool today, we spent most of the cruise inside.  They served a nice lunch buffet not long after we cast off. 

Some photos from the Sail In.

Our Party Boat

The scene at the harbor was amazing boats of every size and type.  

There were tall masted sailing ships,

small pleasure boats,

bigger pleasure boats,

novelty floating craft.  

military ships,

and boats that were actually working...like this coal barge making its way through the harbor.

There were masses of boats everywhere.  Generally, they all seemed to be going slowly counterclockwise around the harbor.  It took us a good couple of hours to circle the harbor. 

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Time-lapse Video 1 of the day sail in
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Time-lapse Video 2 of the day sail in
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Time-lapse Video 3 of the day sail in
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Time-lapse Video of our ship turnaround
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The crowds along the shores were huge.

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Video of crowds
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The town was decked out for the festival.

Every so often a steamboat would blow it’s whistle and then a few other boats would answer.  There were crowds of people everywhere watching the pageantry. 

The submarine outside our hotel.

We eventually headed back and were at the Sail Village around 5:30.  We called a taxi and made it back to the hotel.  The taxi driver had a hard time convincing the road police to let us onto the island and to our hotel.  How annoying.  But the crowds in the area are very big. 

Photos from our balcony.

As soon as we got back to the hotel, Mary booked a massage.  Her calves have totally cramped up, making it painful to walk.  She had a good massage and while there are still some issues with the calves they are a least a bit better. 

For dinner we were able to grab small sandwiches at the bakery in our hotel.  Then it was a quiet evening watching the boats float by before heading to bed.   

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time-lapse Video of sail festival

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Video of night sail festival 
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