22/08/12 - Lord Nelson

Wednesday 22nd - Friday 24th August LN823
We left Dun Laoghaire to come into Dublin during the evening.The port pilots came aboard the Nellie and guided us into the Liffey, we passsed terminals and ferries and waited for the bridges to pivot open so we could get to our dock. As we were motoring up the Liffey, we were passing several other tall ships and crowds in their thousands standing at the riverside shouting, waving flags and banners, whistling as everyone on the ship was waving back, the atmosphere was electric, so many had turned out to see all these fantastic vessels stationery as one big fleet. As we were pulling up alongside the dock the onlookers were watching the crew set up the ship for the upcoming festival. Everyone dressed up in fancy dress for the crew parade on Friday afternoon. We were very proud to be at the head of the parade and wove our colourful way through the rain to the award ceremony. Although we didn't win any awards we cheered on the crews that did and then returned to Nellie for warming coffee before changing to head back out for the crew party.