06/20/17 - Day 78 - Boston, MA - St Georges Island and Visiting Tall Ships
There are a number of islands right off the coast of Boston. Almost all of them are now parks, including Georges Island, site of Fort Warren. Most of these islands can be reached using the Boston Harbor ferries.
The trip out to the island provides for a number of good downtown views.
FYI, the huge yacht on the right hand side in the first shot is called The Huntress. If you like what you see you can lease her for between $400,000 and $450,000 per week. See the following link for more details. The Huntress
The ferry passed by a lot of the tall ships that paraded in the previous Saturday. It came a lot closer than from where we viewed them from downtown.
Arriving at Fort Warren I joined the first guided tour of the day.
We learned that the fort was constructed to protect the port of Boston following the war of 1812. The island watches over the only deep water channel into the harbor forming a natural choke point for large ships and therefore the ideal place to build the fort. Construction began in 1833. It was completed just after the beginning of the Civil War and was used as a prison during the conflict. The fort continued to serve in both WW1 and WW2 until finally being decommissioned in 1958 before being reopened to the public in 1961. According to the ranger, the fort was never challenged i.e. it never fired a shot in anger.
The city is just visible on the horizon from the fort. It's also near a couple of neighboring islands and a lighthouse.
After a couple of hours I headed back to the city and decided to get an even closer look at the tall ships moored throughout the downtown harbor.
Some of the boats are recently built replicas, but others are restored ships built nearly 100 years ago.
Most of the smaller boats were available for daily charter cruises. The larger boats are mostly selling adventure cruises where you sign up (and pay money) to serve as crew on the ship as it travel from spot to spot. Most allowed the public to board and tour the boats. I took a look at a few, most notably the Spanish galleon replica ship, El Galeón Andalucía.
The ship was built in 2010 after five years of design work in order to ensure an accurate reproduction of the 16th century vessel. Since then it has sailed around the world, hosting more than a million visitors in 50 different ports, apparently including Pensacola.
The trip out to the island provides for a number of good downtown views.
FYI, the huge yacht on the right hand side in the first shot is called The Huntress. If you like what you see you can lease her for between $400,000 and $450,000 per week. See the following link for more details. The Huntress
The ferry passed by a lot of the tall ships that paraded in the previous Saturday. It came a lot closer than from where we viewed them from downtown.
Arriving at Fort Warren I joined the first guided tour of the day.
We learned that the fort was constructed to protect the port of Boston following the war of 1812. The island watches over the only deep water channel into the harbor forming a natural choke point for large ships and therefore the ideal place to build the fort. Construction began in 1833. It was completed just after the beginning of the Civil War and was used as a prison during the conflict. The fort continued to serve in both WW1 and WW2 until finally being decommissioned in 1958 before being reopened to the public in 1961. According to the ranger, the fort was never challenged i.e. it never fired a shot in anger.
The city is just visible on the horizon from the fort. It's also near a couple of neighboring islands and a lighthouse.
After a couple of hours I headed back to the city and decided to get an even closer look at the tall ships moored throughout the downtown harbor.
Some of the boats are recently built replicas, but others are restored ships built nearly 100 years ago.
Most of the smaller boats were available for daily charter cruises. The larger boats are mostly selling adventure cruises where you sign up (and pay money) to serve as crew on the ship as it travel from spot to spot. Most allowed the public to board and tour the boats. I took a look at a few, most notably the Spanish galleon replica ship, El Galeón Andalucía.
The ship was built in 2010 after five years of design work in order to ensure an accurate reproduction of the 16th century vessel. Since then it has sailed around the world, hosting more than a million visitors in 50 different ports, apparently including Pensacola.
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