Tall ships.......

We went to Cadiz yesterday morning with Rob and Lynn (see them with Mike in the photograph on the left) to see the Tall Ships leave for the next stage of the 50th Anniversary Tall Ships Race. Apparently (I discovered later, by consulting the website) this marks the anniversary of the first and much smaller race in 1956, which was meant to mark the end of sailing ships but, in fact, led to a renewed interest in them and their use as a means of encouraging personal development and team building, especially for young people.




Cadiz is a spectacular setting for all of this, given that most of the old town was built at the time of sailing ships, though, as you can see here they look pretty impressive against the buildings of the new town too. This is the prow (?) of the Italian ship, Amerigo Vespucci, which seems to have won lots of prizes and whose crew certainly provided for me the most spectacular demonstration of the morning when they all climbed onto the rigging to release the sails ready for the journey. You can just about see them here on the left.

We watched some of the ships being tugged out of their moorings and heading off to sea.....