My husband and I took ourselves down to the Port of Montevideo one morning this week to take advantage of the fabulous opportunity to go with other members of the public to board and wander wound some of the Tall Ships currently in port.  It was a sunny morning of a working day and so not too crowded at that time, and a steady breeze blew preventing us getting hotter than we might have – despite hats.  We both took loaded cameras – as we see things from different perspectives – and this shows in the amalgamated collection of photos we downloaded and put together on a web album for all to enjoy – Tall Ships Montevideo 2010

These boats are training ships in the various navies of the countries from which they come.  There wasn’t one from Australia, and a couple that were scheduled did not come after all – but there were plenty of these stately vessels to clamber about on and marvel over.  The outstanding one imho was the Chilean, “Esmeralda” just so beautiful, with all its brass gleaming, paint clean and fresh, things put away – ‘stowed’ I guess, just so, woodwork clean and well sealed etc.   Marvellous.  But on the Spanish one, although there were plenty of sailors around to  control our wanderings and answer questions or bombard us with information, I, who am not a noted housekeeper, found the state of brass, woodwork and paint less impressive – sub in fact….but they had one of the largest flags. 

The best kept and most interesting ones were those that had people working while we wandered around, giving the impression this is a continual process, that it all doesn’t just stop because the ship is in port. Anyway, I found it thrilling to be in an environment where there was textile and fibre everywhere – from massively thick ropes to fine cord, knotted rope ladders, lots of knotted stuff forming safety nets, ladders, mats and protective bollards; and canvas by the massive yard, sewn to other huge pieces and furled, semi-furled or unfurled – in other words, fabric on a large scale is how I saw it!    And so I hope you enjoy these pics and pick up some of the excitement and interest of our visit to the Tall Ships.   As we marvelled and enjoyed it all, we thought of several good friends who are sailors … can I just say “Wish you were here”?