It is so nice to live near such a wonderful, interesting and busy city on the ocean. It was 15 years ago that the tall ships came to Portland, so it was a MUST GO TO event for me. I just happened to be able to drag my family along for the two days of events. We started with a cruise to Long Island and back. We happened to time it perfectly so that we were front and center for the Parade of Sail coming down the channel into Portland harbor. 
As you can tell, even my little one had a blast on the ferry boat and being out on the ocean even though it was not really a great summer day. It was cloudy, very windy, and chilly, but still wonderful to feel the ocean swells beneath my feet.
We were even able to see some racing going on between some boats out of Yarmouth. They were rounding the windward mark and with the wind of the day, they were moving along quite well!
LYNX
Portsmouth NH
EL GALEON
Seville, Spain
I am not sure the Coast Guard would have been too happy to know they were under the guns of a Spanish war ship, or the guns of any ship, for that matter!
OLIVER HAZARD PERRY
Newport, Rhode Island
My little one trying out his sea legs with Grandma. We will make a sailor of him yet!!!
After taking a few more boat tours, we walked back up the hill. It is not too often in our modern world that we see so many masts of tall ships, or masts at all, in one place. With Portland Harbor full of sailing ships old and new, I can only imagine this is similar to how the port looked 150 years ago. If only we could see more of sailing ships in the years to come......
