Johnson Family

In my small town of Beaufort, N.C., Pepsi America's Sail docked from June 30th-July5th, 2006. This is a sail race for tall-masted sail boats. Beaufort's own Meka II won the race 4 years ago and brought it to port here. The ships were boasted to be the tallest in the world...but the majority that made the trip were a little dissapointing in size (B-class); however, there was one beautiful ship "Cisne Branco" from the Brazilian Navy that was awesome to see! Gerry and I got to tour this ship with VIP treatment! Both pictures to the left and above are of the ship the "Cisne Branco." I took the picture of the ship docked and "borrowed" the other picture of the ship sailing because it's so pretty when in motion!


While touring the large ship, a crew member of the "Cisne Branco" told me "no camera" in his broken English. I quickly started to appologize (because I take pictures of EVERYTHING) and began to put away my camera. With seeing the heavily armed Coast Guard boat (see below) floating right next to the ship, I was not going to try and bend any laws (...see Mom, I can follow the rules!) The brazilian man came towards me very quickly and kept repeating "no camera, no camera" I thought I was really in trouble...these people mean business! He came to me and got my camera, motioned and said "picture?" I was relived to know that he wanted to take a picture of Gerry and I with the ship's masts in the background. Needless to say, he got more of my legs than he did the ships tall masts! Oh well! We continued on touring and taking more pictures!


The week was wonderful, we were able to see the race on the large Coast Guard vessel. We followed the ships out, signaled for the start. The Coast Guard vessel followed the race throughout and then signaled for the end! It was great! This picture shows how close two of the ships were at the finish, right next to us! The one on the right is Beaufort's Meka II who wons 4 years ago. Sadly they did not win this year, but it was a great show, because they shot off cannons back and forth from the Caost Guard Ship and the Meka II. (At the end I hoped one boat shot and sank the other to put an end to the horrible LOUD booms! hehehe)