Aaaaargh me hearties!

(Guest post by resident nautical expert)

In honour of national "Talk Like a Pirate Day"

Late August, Dublin was invaded by a fleet of pirate ships - OK, maybe just "tall" ships. 2012 was the first year since 1998 that the tall ships race had visited Dublin - so it was a big deal for the city.  They arrived in Dublin from Lisbon.  The wind was so strong on this leg of the trip that most ships arrived several days ahead of schedule.  We saw one of them sail into the bay while out for our weekly Saturday afternoon race, and I had the pleasure of seeing another one sail up the River Liffy as I was stuck in an all day meeting in a conference room with views over the river. On the final day of the tall ships visit to Dublin, they sailed out of the city centre where they had been moored and across Dublin Bay.  We went down to Dun Laoghaire to view them on their final voyage out from port.  Believe it or not, the weather was stunning as shown by the photo of the two "shady ladies" below.

 

 

The ships were a bit behind schedule - apparently all those pirates had a late night the night before, so we only saw a few of them sail all the way over towards our side of the bay.  The Colombians got their act together first, followed closely by the Mexican ship.