THEY'RE HERE!!!

The Tall Ships are pouring into Stockholm!!!

There are 116 of these grand vessels still in the race around the Baltic. For two days now, they have been gliding into downtown Stockholm, their yards dotted with the attentive figures of their crews bawling out shanties.

At this hour we await the biggest of them all, the Sedov from Russia. It is pouring rain in Stockholm, but the entire harborfront, the roof tops, and balconies are all jammed with people watching the fleet. Of course, Vasa just has to join these other tall ships and has attracted equally large summer crowds, filling the museum to its max.

This morning the full-rigger Europa came in under sail. Those of you in Seattle may remember her as the queen of the fleet, the grandest tall ship of them all, when she sailed into Elliott Bay for the Seattle Tall Ships Festival in 2002. Well, here in European waters she's like a dinghy beside the enormous vessels coming in such as the huge bark Cuauhtemoc from Mexico (the food in the galley smells so good I want to go back to the Americas) or the garganutan Kruzenshtern form Russia.

It is indeed Tall Ships Time!