2009 Tall Ships: Parade of Sail
One of the most annoying problems with an outdoor event is rain and fog. It has drowned out concerts in Halifax in past years (The Rollings Stones was a ‘wet event’) and was set to mar the Tall Ships 2009 spectacular. However, the heavy rain held off and the visitors got an unexpected surprise – a mysterious fog.
If you’ve ever seen “Pirates of the Caribbean”, or other movie with sailing vessels, you’ll see how the directors use fog to create an eerie setting. Well, Halifax provided its own unique atmosphere as the huge square-riggers and other vessels slipped out of the heavy fog to their individual moorings creating a show out of the early 1800′s.
In all 43 ships from 14 countries slid into Halifax over the past week with one of the crowd favorites being the HMS “Bounty”. The story based in the South Pacific in 1789 “Bounty” is so enduring that two movies have been made about the ship and how the men mutinied under the beleaguered English officer, Fletcher Christian, and sent Captain Bligh off in a longboat. The present-day “Bounty”, the setting for the movies, was built in Lunenburg in 1960. In 2006 Johnny Depp captained her in the second Disney film “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”.
On Monday the 20th (40 years after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon) the Parade of Sail beginning at 12:00. This spectacle is expected to be in full sunlight, 43 vessels making a grand parade around Halifax Harbour before heading out to sea. It will as sho not seen since the last large Tall Ships event in 2000.
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