The Adventures of Sunsette -- Texas Travels, Part II— Apr. 12

[Alliecat]

Thanks, everyone  It was really very cool, and by picking the colder crummier day, we avoided crowds.  Sunsette & Scarlett were seriously excited

Do you agree that this is probably a fairly close replica of the original Santa Maria?

I really have no idea.  This is 300 years before my period of interest.  I mean, the differences are fascinating.  My brain went off down the rabbit hole of "you have no buntlines / who invented buntlines and when, and how did that go over..." and away it went
I haven't read the little book I bought yet, but it says there are "no drawings, representations or detailed descriptions" of Columbus's ships.  Apparently not even dimensions or tonnage are specified -- unlike Rose & Bounty where original blueprints were available.  They used other period sources, and several replicas have been built.

I wonder if the cannons are functional...

Nope.  Too bad.  Rose's guns were pretty awesome.  They shook the whole ship.  And wusses that modern-day sailors are, they cleared the whole tween deck when they fired them.  Imagine being right beside a whole battery of them in the middle of a battle...

So the whipstaff descends through the decks to where the tiller comes through from the stern? .... In other words, physically difficult and not exactly a refined method of steering with the rudder?

Yep, pretty much.  They do have engines.

If you are "so over it" with the ferry, what are you going to do? Fly? That would get eensive, and you can't take your car. ...

Yeah... I had 16 1/2 hours in a Cessna 172 & was just short of soloing when the instructor got a better job out west & bailed.  It would be nice to have a plane....  I'd have to start all over.
So maybe move to Hawaii and get a helo license...  

Naaah... you could never give up living next to the sea.
Maybe it's time you moved on to a boat of your own.

a) True.
b) Shhh... don't give Sunsette ideas.

Glad you found it interesting!  

Was Sunsette actually declared "dangerous goods"? Oh boy, somebody's gonna have a serious attitude issue after that!