An Amazing parade on the water, tall ships from different parts of the world, of many sizes shapes and time periods, a beautiful day, and public boarding of the
ships for free!!  I call that one awesome and spectacular day that I wasn't going to miss!

This year, Norfolk's harbor fest hosted Opsail 2012 in
commemoration of the bicentennial of the War of 1812 and the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. 

Stefan and I went down on Friday June 8th to beat the crowd and watch the ships parade into the Norfolk/Portsmouth waterfront.  In the lead, surrounded by the spectacle of fire tugs, and makings its turn around the anchored "Schooner "Virginia," was the USCG Eagle.

One ship after another followed suit, turning around the schooner "Virginia" to dock within the Norfolk harbors or continuing on towards their place on the Portsmouth waterfront.  Every size ship could be seen from the 370' Jauan
Sebastien De Elcano, down to the 51.6' "Norfolk Rebel" Tugantine. 

Jamestown's "GodSpeed" was there, dwarfed by the immense size of the "Eagle."

It seemed like a never ending fleet of tall ships followed behind including the "Guayas" from Ecuador, "Picton Castle" of Cook's Island, Columbia's "Gloria," and Brazil's "Cisne Branco." (pictured in order below) 

Also parading was the US's Protugese fishing boat, the "Gazela,"  Mexico's Cuauhtemoc,"  and the final tall ship from Indonesia, "Deswaruci." 

Even with the immensity of some of those tall ships, the replica ships and long lived local vessels will always be some of my favorites, of which I have already put 4 in a bottle and am currently working on a fifth.  These iclude the "A. J. Meerwald,"  Schooner "Virginia,"  "Bounty," and the "Pride of Baltimore."  The "Pride" showed an excellent performance of seamanship, coming in under sail and holding her position with sails up while she slowly drifted (with motor assistance) to her docking place.  She also fired off her canons!

Another beautiful boat, that I can't forget to mention was the "Spirit of Bermuda," a three masted Bermuda Sloop (pictured below).

Sadly, I can't post every picture I've taken or I'd be here all day, but if you'd like to see more you can go to my S & G Ships in Bottles Page on Facebook at this link: https://www.facebook.com/shipinbottles  and look under the Opsail Album.  Don't forget to have a glance through the gallery to see how I portrayed four of the ships from the parade in a bottle. 
If you didn't catch Opsail in Norfolk or Baltimore, you still have time to see it in Boston or New London, and I highly suggest it.  Hope you have enjoyed the photos and look forward to a few new articles here on my blog very soon, including the "Jaws" scene in a bottle.