If you head down to Lunenburg Harbour today (Monday), you’ll still be able to catch a glimpse of the SSV Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island, the largest Sailing School Tall Ship in the United States.
She is currently on a voyage through the US and Canadian Maritimes with 17 fully trained crew and 15 high school aged students on board and she pulled into Lunenburg Harbour yesterday (Sunday, July 8th).
Acadia News had a chance to board the massive tall ship and speak one on one with her Shipmaster, Captain Andy Reay-Ellers, and the ship is impressive to say the least.
We asked Captain Reay-Ellers his thoughts on Lunenburg, and he was all smiles.
“I just kept raving to the whole crew, telling them this is so great; I love it when I bring ships here because it is the town, like we are the ships,” says Reay-Ellers. “Lunenburg is that town that still has chandleries, still has people steaming oak staves into wooden mast tubes, I mean it still exists here, I love coming to Lunenburg and I love the museum.”
The SSV Oliver Hazard Perry set sail from her home port in Newport, Rhode Island Saturday with excellent weather conditions and the views described by Reay-Ellers as she pulled into Lunenburg Harbour from the cool waters of the open Atlantic Ocean were somewhat dreamy in description.
“We were under sail only since leaving Maine for about a 32 hour sail, no engines at all, (Saturday night) we anchored up in Rose Bay and then (Sunday) morning furrowed up the sails and just motored into the museum,” says Reay-Ellers. “The opening (to Lunenburg Harbour) just appears and you can peak all the way into the inner harbour with all of these red and colourful barn like structures along the wharves, it’s beautiful.”
At approximately 200 feet long, she’s got 3 masts measuring 13 and a half stories tall and more than 7 miles of rigging and she gives youth a hands on learning experience out on the open sea.
The SSV Oliver Hazard Perry will remain in port in front the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic in Lunenburg Harbour until Tuesday morning, when she will again set sail for the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean bound for her next port of call, Boston, Massachusetts.
Story by Craig Power
@CraigTPower
power.craig@radioabl.ca
Above Photo: Captain Andy Reay-Ellers at the help on the deck of SSV Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island. Photo by Craig Power, © July 2018.
