The Fair Jeanne

Down at the waterfront this week, the Fair Jeanne was docked. Owned by a local gentleman with waterfront development plans, I thought the kids might like to go and see exactly the boat that is causing so much uproar in our quiet little town. The proposed waterfront development is not to the liking of everyone. It will, however, feature permanent docking for this lovely tall ship. So this is where we were found Thursday evening past.

In the above pic's background, you can see my brother-in-law's marina as well as the Boardwalk condominiums. If the afore mentioned development comes to be, the marina will get a facelift and the condos will be dwarfed. Lovely anchor on the Fair Jeanne, though, don't you think? I was also in love with all the ropes. This boat (should I be saying ship?) comes with even more rope than you would normally expect. As a training ship, the young sailors-in-training don harness and rope when scaling the heights of the masts to attend to the sails. Which is good to know. Because I am all gung-ho to ship the kids off to sea (river, lake, whatever) as soon as they're 14.

Here we have kidlets in the rigging with my Not-The-Triathlete brother. Brother has just returned from a summer holiday in Hawaii. He returned with lovely souvenirs for all, including the proudly sported tees the kids are wearing.

Did I mention that I can send the kids sailing for a summer on this beast? 5 summers to go before Kori sets sail. In all seriousness, she's a beautiful boat. A nice blend of modern sailing technology as well as a good dose of the way sailing used to be done. An interesting tidbit: Fair Jeanne had an unfortunate fire this summer while sailing in Lake Ontario. A big evacuation had to be ordered, Coast Guard - complete with helicopter support - needed to be called. Apparently a galley fire. Only one injury and that not terribly serious. But she was laid up in the docks in Kingston, Ontario for repair. $150,000 later and she's off sailing again, pretty and clean and rigged as if she was never damaged. Last tidbit: Fair Jeanne has been captained by a woman for a good many years. Captain has been on the ship since she was a summer student 19 years ago. Most of her senior staff is also female. I guess you don't come across too many ladies in the professional tall-ship sailor field. Interesting.