Official Sail Boston Web site, brought to you by Boston.com
Tour the ships
 Where, when to
visit
Photo galleries
Parade of Sail
Globe photos
Spectators
Sailors
Download
Desktop
wallpaper
Stories
Coverage
Schedule
All events
The Ships
Ship info
Tall ships
tutorial
For spectators
Viewing spots
Where to park
Traffic report
Weather report
Contest
Win tickets
|
 | | | |
|
|
Tall Ship Kaiwo Maru parades through Boston Harbor. (Globe Staff Photo/Ted Gartland)
|
With the Parade over, now begins the party
By Christopher A. Szechenyi, Boston.com Staff, 07/11/00
BOSTON -- Bill Smith hung over the edge of South Boston's Fish Pier this afternoon, counting the Tall Ships as they went by and testing his ability to name each one of them.
"We're trying to guess which ones they are first, then we look them up to see if we're right," said Smith of Sudbury, as he stood at the end of the Pier.
"I wouldn't miss this for the world."
Neither, apparently would a lot of people. As the Parade of Sail wound down with only a couple of hitches, attention turned to the various piers and docks where the Tall Ships will remain through the weekend.
Organizers hailed today's parade as a success, which, given the pristine weather would be hard to argue against.
"Any way you measure it it's been great," said Pat Moscaritolo, executive director of the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau. "A perfect 10 for the weather."
He estimated that 1.2 million people turned out for the Parade of Sail, which is in keeping with the 4 million visitors expected to flood the city over the next 11 days.
"The next couple of days are going to be very busy with public viewings of the ships," he said.
Dick Drey, director of operations for Sail Boston 2000, agreed: "It was a roaring success. It was a perfect day. The ships were great."
The piers along which the vessels are now snuggly tied opened at 4 p.m., and will remain open to the public tonight until 9. Capping off the day: the Captains Ball at 8 p.m., and a fireworks display at 10 p.m.
For now, the stars of the show are the ships themselves, and visitors to the city were already crowding the docks before the Parade of Sail had ended to get a closer look at those they'd seen earlier from afar.
Among those who were captivated was Smith, who came down to the water at 8:30 this morning to rekindle personal memories of his time at sea.
Smith said he spent four years in the Coast Guard and two more in the old merchant marine. And he used to live on his boat in Boston Harbor when he ran a tourist boat charter business.
He's already making plans to come back to the waterfront early tomorrow morning to board a few of the ships.
"I'd like to come in the morning before the crowds get here," he said. "I'm just gonna poke around."
He said he wants to look specifically at the Pogoria, which attracted his eye because it offers queen-size beds and hot and cold water.
"That's the one I want," he said.
A steady stream of people wandered the waterfront as the sun dipped to the west.
"I started with a bike in the Navy yard this morning and worked my way around to Fish Pier," said Jim Williams of Somerville. "I've seen the Russian boat and the Polish boat and the Constitution."
"We've been welcoming the sailors and taking pictures," said Mike Beath, a Brighton resident who has his own business hanging wallpaper.
"I'm taking tomorrow off," he said. "It's about the connectedness to the sea. That thing John Kennedy said.
"I'd like to get on one of these ships and sail across the Atlantic," Beath said.
|
|
|
|
