AHOY, MATEY!
Lisa and I are scheduled for a two-hour “evening sail” on the Tall Ship Lady Washington out of Olympia soon. I bought the tickets today so we’re confirmed. They were only $39 for Lisa and $36 for me, so it was a deal we simply couldn’t pass up!
We looked at evening tours out of Tacoma this week because we both live nearest it, but the weather both days Lisa is available will be chilly and overcast (at night falling to 46 degrees — BRRRR!) , so we opted for another week in Olympia when the temperature during the day is supposed to be 72 degrees and the evening sail should be clear as a bell. We’re really looking forward to it.
The Lady Washington was built while Lisa was working at Evergreen Counseling Center in Aberdeen, and she followed its progress with rapt attention. So she has a real passion for it.
We boarded Lady Washington a few years ago when she was in Tacoma at dockside. That’s where we took the following images. I will get more when we sail, so stay tuned! I want pictures of her under sail! Maybe even videos of the unfurling of the sails. We’ll see!
photo by Lisa Twining
following photos by me
Calypso, Blue and Gold Macaw
(not part of the Lady Washington crew!)
Wikipedia reports this (an excerpt; there is much more at the site): “Lady Washington has appeared and served as a set in various films and television series, most famously portraying HMS Interceptor in the film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl[9][10] and the brig Enterprise, a namesake of the Starship Enterprise, on the holodeck in Star Trek Generations.[11][12][13] She also transported Chinese immigrants to America in the IMAX film The Great American West. The ship played a prominent role in the miniseries Blackbeard, as Captain Hook‘s ship Jolly Roger on Once Upon a Time,[14] and as a recurring background piece in Revolution.[15]
Sailing on a tall ship comes with a lot of advance instructions, among them get there in plenty of time because boarding starts 30 minutes before time of departure, go to the bathroom before you board (there are rudimentary bathrooms on board but they’re more like recreational vehicle toilets and no TP is allowed in them), dress in layers, wear a COVID mask, take seasickness meds in advance if you tend toward seasickness, hydrate well, bring snacks and water, and keep a keen eye for the wonders of nature, including possible sightings of seabirds, seals, sea lions, dolphins and whales (in season). April is whale season here in the Pacific NW. Alas, Lady Washington is not wheelchair accessible and the sea/ocean can get rough, so people with balance/stability concerns and other challenges during rocking and rolling are prudent to stay in port and simply enjoy a dockside visit with the ship. Our “mission” this first time out is to see if Ben would be safe sailing on her. No way do we want to risk him falling, so we’re going first to see if it’s even feasible for him.
It’s just my luck to have just finished a good book about the ship that rushed to the rescue of the Titanic and managed to save over 500 of the 1500 lives that were aboard the “Ship That Not Even God Could Sink (Hold My Beer).” I’m still going, and we won’t be out far enough from Olympia to require a rescue ship that is four hours away (more like just minutes away), but it’s an eerie feeling to be about to step aboard a ship with less likelihood of returning safely to port than the White Lines cruises did back in the day! But the captain decides whether it’s safe to venture out on the day we sail, and he won’t risk it if it’s too choppy out there to safely return us to shore… so I’m game! I have been aboard The Bounty (dockside) and aboard the Lady Washington and, by golly, I want to EXPERIENCE what it’s like to sail on a tall ship. So, away we go!
I’ll keep you posted!
UPDATE: The weather forecast has turned cold and rainy for the day we were going sailing, so have cancelled for now until the weather gets better.
