Antwerp Tall Ship Races 2016

This weekend they are back in Antwerp, the Tall Ships, who sail across half the globe to give the public some insight in the life at sea.

And today, I went to the Scheld to have a look at these "cathedrals of the sea".  They are all historical, or historically based, sailing ships.  These are often used by navies to train their mariners, and what better then sailing from port to port to intensify the comraderie.

Now, before I have to repeat myself every time:
1. all the crews where extremely friendly
2. the ships are gorgeous and well taken care off.

For me, the best looking one was the Cuauthemoc (named after the emperor, not the soccer player), a Mexican four mast training vessel.  It`s colours where just fantastic.

On a similar note, the Venezualean ship, the Simon Bolivar, was smaller but also full of life.

Both these "latin" ships emenated a sort of `party feel` with music and laughter, while I must admit the other ships where more serious in efforts.  I almost considered signing up and go lie on a beach in south america the rest of my days...

Of course, this salsa and merengue feeling needed a splash of real mexican beer (brewn and bottled in Paderborn, Germany lol).

The Belgian Navy was also present, luckily we went a few steps forward these days from wooden sailing ships.

This little ship is the largest hand made wooden ship currently on the world`s seas and oceans.

There was a lot to do in animation et all as well, like storytellers, lounge bocadero and the likes.

Some nice views of the hard life of a sailor...

The smaller ships had some of them actually sailing on the Scheld.

And here are some more `atmosphere` pictures of the whole event...

It`s a fantastic event, and great eyecandy if you still have that childhood dream of setting out to sea and travel the world in a sailing ship... but you might want to let go of the "Pirate" part in those dreams ;-)