Arrival of the Tall Ship Götheborg

Today made up for the fact, in a small way, that we missed the departure of the Pacific Grace on their 2007 Offshore trip - the 60m Tall Ship Götheborg returned here today after a trip to Shanghai and Back reenacting a historic voyage where the first tall Ship to bear it´s name was sunk at the entrance to this harbour mere miles from it´s home Port.

It was quite a spectacle and tens of thousands of people and probably a thousand or more boats gathered to witness their homecoming. This vessel is a replica of the original Ship that grounded and sunk About 1 mile outside Götheborg many years ago - it must have been heartbreaking for the crew of that original Ship to have such a misfortune so close to home after completing a near-circumnavigation. Thankfully this time around there were no such mishaps and the Ship sailed majestically up the river to the delight of the gathered throng.

One of the piers was still locked off after the SAR vessels had it reserved last week, so we had an entire viewing platform reserved for ourselves (being Gerry, us, and the wonderful ladies from the auxiliary driving club who has been chauffeuring everyone around during the conference) Absolutely every single other Pier was chocker Block full of people! We got some great photos and enjoyed a relaxed lunch after as a group.

After lunch, on our way Back down the Pier (the restaurant is right at the end of the Pier) we helped slip the Lines for the EFFSEABEE TOO - the RNLI´s experimental Lifeboat and the very last vessel to depart from the conference - it felt kind of fitting that we could do this. I´m sure it was extra special for Gerry as he had been there when they arrived and now helped cast them off - He has been working on organizing this for the last 4 years and I´m sure he´s got a swarm of emotions going on at the moment with mixed relief and sadness to see it all done.

The rest of this first full day to relax was spent doing pretty much exactly that: very little! we re-connected up in the KöK/Bar on the 6th floor of the hotel and met with the new IMRF chairman and some of the conference company staff. Several of us meandered out for an evening stroll afterwards and even caught some of the fireworks display after the fact (we didn´t know that was coming) to further celebrate the arrival of Götheborg.

The whole day my thoughts were with the Pacific Grace - and as her track starts to take shape in the tracking system I continue to look Forward to hearing all of her adventures!

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