Tall Ships Festival - 8.28.10 - Post 2 (Tall Ship Windy, Post Alpha)

Okay, it's going to take two posts for me to cover just the hour I spent on the Windy.

The Tall Ship Windy is a local ship.  If you read these posts and see these pictures and you want to try this, you can!  Windy is at Navy Pier through, I think, September or October.  Check their Facebook (linked above, because it's harder to find than it should be) or their website.

Anyway, the crew was great and we got great weather so we really moved.  It was very cool to learn the basics of how the ship works.  I'd highly recommend this trip to anyone interested in sailing or Great Lakes history.  They normally do a whole pirate thing, but for the Tall Ships event, they were just doing quick cruises so they could accommodate as many people as possible.  There was a cute little moment where a kid on board got to 'fire the canon' at some 'pirates' we found 'at sea'.  This was very, very loud.  If you go specifically to shoot (and I'll talk about the interesting issues associated with that in the next post) I strongly suggest you try and get the cruise going out at sunset.  It really is gorgeous out there as the sun goes down.

These are the pictures I took of the ship.  You'll notice an absence of shots of the hull... I was kind of hurried on and then it was dark when we docked.  So these are taken from on the boat.  Ship?  Is this one of those things where people get uppity on whether or not the thing is called a 'boat' or a 'ship'?  And on that note, I tried to pay attention to what things were called and such, but I couldn't exactly take notes, so if I get any of the nautical terminology wrong, PLEASE feel free to correct me. :)

Anyway..  I started off on the main deck, but eventually realized I could sit on the top deck, in the middle, all but under the boom.  Actually, as much as I was scooting around up there, I'm sure I was under the boom several times.  Which was fine with the crew, until I stood up.  Then they were afraid I'd get hit with the boom and go... yeah, you get it. :)

It's also interesting to watch the sky change from light blue to dark blue as the sun went down.

Mast and Mizzen

 The mast and the mizzen sail.  I got to help hoist the mizzen.  Which is very cool.

Windy's Rigging

Throughout the Chicago Tall Ships event I found myself fascinated by the rigging.  I'm sure people who do this understand it completely, but I look at all the ropes and go, "I'd have knots where they don't belong in about two minutes flat."  Not to mention, "You want me to climb up where?"

The View Through the Ropes

 I did a lot of shooting through the ropes, I thought it gave the shots an interesting context.  I love that this one has ropes in the foreground in sharp focus, ropes in the middle ground in weak focus and the ship behind (which most people would have made the focus) is blurred.  It being sunset certainly didn't hurt the shot either.

Sheets Unfurled

  The mizzen sail with the next one over being raised.

Unclimbable Ladder

Time of day is everything.  I love the light and shadows in this.  You can see the shadow of the ladder and the shadows of the lines.  And the sail seems to glow.

Basic Geometry

Sails and lines.  A rope going vertically, a rope going on an angle and seems in the sail going horizontally. Reminds me of the math problems we'd get in 10th grade geometry.

Topsail Between Masts

Topsail and masts.  This all looks so complicated to me.  And yet, this technology (the basics of it anyway) are at least a thousand years old.

Come Sail Away

Sails near and far and a rope ladder to go with it.









Okay, I have to say, my favorite shots will go in the next post.  These will be the ones I took from the ship.  Chicago at sunset is really, really gorgeous.