Tall Ships? NOT on Wednesday July 28th!

Excitement at the opportunity to see and photograph the arriving Tall Ships at the Port of Duluth-Superior permeated the Boardman household as Teresa and I departed Saint Paul at 6:00am on Wednesday.

Based upon somewhat conflicting information from the media and the official Tall Ships website, we determined that the Tall Ships would be arriving over the course of the day. The first ship expected to arrive was the Pride of Baltimore II, a beautiful topsail schooner of the “Baltimore Clipper” type of Privateer ships of the War of 1812.

After a day in Canal Park of “no information” or “The ships will begin to arrive at (insert time here)” on this Wednesday July 28^th, we learned the truth: The “Pride of Baltimore” had arrived overnight and was hidden from view somewhere in the harbor, and the others would not begin arriving until at least 8pm. There was another little rumor floating about among the thousands of people who were waiting with varying degrees of patience: The organizers of this event had decided to maximize the profit of the event by delaying any ship viewing until Thursday and tightly controlling access to any such viewing.

The website was misleading in that it implied the ships would be at least visible beginning on July 28^th.

From the Official Tall Ships^®Duluth 2010 web page:

“Wednesday, July 28: Tall Ships in port.” (emphasis mine)

Let me just say to the organizers of this event…you REALLY pissed off many, if not most of the people who waited all day for the ships to arrive…especially when you so cunningly had them enter though the Superior Port access out of view of the gathered throngs.

Oh…okay…you did let us “see” the Grand Banks Fishing Schooner, Roseway. As she anchored off the Lakewalk!

To our friends awaiting photos (best I could do with my mad camera skilz and my little camera):

And to our friends at Visit Duluth, a little transparency would be helpful. Had we known for certain that Tall Ships Duluth® 2010 July 28 – August 3 would not actually include July 28^th, we would have adjusted our plans accordingly and not spent an entire day…waiting!