Imagine my surprise when Lynne calls while on her way to work this morning to tell me that there are three tall ships anchored outside of Kenosha Harbor! I was still asleep, that woke me up real fast!! I put on some clothes, grabbed the camera gear and headed down there as quickly as I could. As I rounded the corner at Carthage College ,and saw the three ships, I realized that one of them was big. Could it be ? As I got closer I knew it was. Yes, the Bounty was anchored off of Kenosha Harbor! The other two ships were the Appledore IV and the Roseway.

While I was shooting my first pictures of these three I noticed another ship was leaving the harbor. I took a look through my binoculars and saw it was the Denis Sullivan. That got me to wondering if there were more ships in the harbor, so I headed down there and sure enough, there were two more, the Appledore V and the Inland Sea, both new ships to me.

I knew I had to get photos of the Bounty with the lighthouse, so that was my next move. I then began wondering if a couple ships may have stayed in Racine for the night, so I drove up there and found nothing. I headed back to Kenosha and got back in time to see that the Bounty had set three sails and was beginning to head out. She was the only one of the six left. I was able to get some more pictures of her with the lighthouse and then watched as she started to sail away. I followed along the shoreline and stopped for a few more pictures before I told her goodbye.

It was 3 weeks ago tomorrow that I first saw the Bounty in Sturgeon Bay and fell in love with her. Then to see her up close and walk her decks in Port Washington was very special. Now to have seen her anchored in Kenosha and then to watch her sail away is truly amazing. What a great way to end my summer of tall ships!

I’ll post more pictures later.

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