The Tall Ship Tour is back in our region this weekend, at ports in Penetanguishene, Discovery Harbour, and Midland.
The ships are drawing quite a crowd and so are some of the crew members.
One tall ship, the Unicorn, is unique for a number of reasons. It was built in Holland in 1947 using old German submarine metals.
“It was impressive,” says tall ship fan Julie Walsma. “I've never seen a boat like this before.”
And the Unicorn is the only tall ship with an all-female crew.
“I love it so much,” says crew member Victoria Rust. “I've only been on for a week. It's extremely hard work but you fall in love with it right away.”
Victoria and about 15 others are all part of another unique factor to do with the Unicorn. It partners with the Sisters Under Sail program, a non-profit corporation dedicated to helping young girls and women from across North America build confidence and leadership skills through a common goal –learning to sail.
Dawn Santamaria owns the ship and started the program in 2005 after seeing the positive impact running the ship had with her daughters.
“We were just in awe of the young women that they had become,” she says. “So we knew we had something special to offer teenage girls.”
Almost 1,000 young women have benefited from the program since it was established in 2005.
Caitlin Simpson is the ship’s engineer and is from Tiny Township. She says it's nice to be home for a few days because the Unicorn has had a busy summer.
“We've been to Bridgeport, Connecticut, Boston, Lunenburg, Summerside, PEI,” she says.
Caitlin says the only thing better than coming home to see family is teaching and empowering the young women onboard to be the best they can be.
“Some of them said they'd like to try engineering, and that makes me happy,” she says.
