The visitor center is a work of art. It is a cute little cottage, bright yellow and red; a purple, peace and love park bench placed just so behind a giant picture frame to achieve fun affect for a photo. There are sculptures in the trees and scattered in lawns. Every other shop is some sort of gallery with clothing, pottery, jewelry, paintings and more. Several shops are filled with commemorative Woodstock shirts…filled with sayings of the times and images of bands that have performed here over the years. It is a fun little town. We probably overtaxed Kent’s shopping tolerance though. Street signs decry the inequity of pay for women and the personal responsibility to “buy local” to keep small businesses alive. There seemed to be no reluctance to state a position in print but people on the street seemed oddly un-engaging…..no smile or response when greeted. Maybe we looked too out of place?

Up at 5AM, heading into town by 6. The ships are leaving port starting at 7AM and we plan to see them all.

Military ships went first. A huge recon or communications type ship snuck off just as we arrived to watch. The first really official parade vessel was the Ft. McHenry followed by a number of small to medium ships from US, Canada and Scandinavia. The crews lined the rails in dress uniform.
Then came the sailing ships. The Pride of Baltimore came into view in full sail as did the smaller Lady Maryland. There is just something magic about them. The larger ships disappointed a little as they didn’t deploy any of the big square sails. They were still great to watch though. Some even had the crew standing on the yardarms waving or arms swinging to live music on board. The band on the Guayas from Ecuador was clearly more accomplished than the guys from Indonesia. Certainly, there was no lack of enthusiasm on either ship!
There were cannon volleys from shipboard and return fire from the fort. There were horn blasts. Smaller ships tacked across the bay between private craft anchored to watch as the largest ships from Mexico, Chile, and Indonesia disappeared under the Key bridge.
It was worth getting up early.

We toured the Monsoon, a Navy shoreline defense vehicle. They patrol and defend the shores, harbors and waterways of other nations…most recently along the Arabian Sea and next deployment the Straight of Hormuz. Duty is sort of like the Coast Guard but with more and bigger guns. Oh yeah, and a lot further from home. The crew was wonderfully friendly. So were all the armed guards milling around dockside….we had to pass through security even to board for a guided tour.

The very coolest thing, our tour guide was the cook.

Lots of guns and lots of ammo. Everyone knows how to shoot them and if they are not on home soil, they are armed, manned and at the ready. Pretty intense.
They still navigate with paper charts (lots of electronic stuff too but they manually plot each course).
Duck under and step over a lot of places like bulkhead doorways and stuff.
These guys really know the meaning of multi-tasking. The cook is also the fitness officer and the arms guy (in charge of distributing and keeping track of all the guns and ammo).

Each guy has about $342/month taken out of his pay for food while onboard a big ship. That gets them three meals a day. On this smaller one it is more like 75 to 150 for breakfast and lunch. They are on their own for dinner, usually in port. When they are deployed far from home, the cook shops in the PX, local grocery store or market (like in Bagdad or Beirut). Can labels are not in English.
Ships/crews have unique personalities despite the identical rigorous training they all receive.
The Navy guys think that the Coast Guard guys are undisciplined goof offs with fat budgets and money to waste…they replace they don’t maintain. The coast guard guys get cushy mattresses too (his ship had previously been used by the Coast Guard). The current crew didn’t refuse to sleep on them though!

Tallships and military ships. Soldiers in uniform everywhere. There is something magical about life at sea. I suspect it isn’t as glamorous as it is in my minds eye. Perhaps we will figure out a way to know for sure one day. A month long sail seems like about the right amount of time to get the real feel for it. Maybe someday.