We’ve had some distinguished guests in Montreal this weekend, the Roald Amundsen, the Bounty, the Pride of Baltimore II, the Lynx, and the Unicorn. Five tall ships from the yesteryear called at the Old Port, on the Saint-Lawrence river, from September 16th to the 19th.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous on Saturday so we decided to go downtown and enjoy the day.
Unfortunately, there was no way of visiting the ships without waiting the better part of the day in slow-moving lines. Besides, the real attraction was not in rubbing elbows with visitors with digital cameras in their hands.
Unless you get to really sail on them (which can be done, as I found out on the Internet), their polished woods, their lovely worn decks are much more likely to reveal their beauty and their secrets to the imagination.
I love ships because I love the sea. Tall ships, in particular, make me think of unbound adventures, of the mysteries of the high seas, of Captain Blood and Captain Jack Sparrow (The Bounty was used in “The Pirates of the Caribbean”), of the Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, of everything that allows the spirit and the mind to soar unhindered.
