Pirates & First Mates on Historical Tall Ships

What a fabulous adventure we swashbuckling families had at the Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard.  And we didn’t even have to leave port.  Our time spent on and around the Hawaiian Chieftain, a teaching ship created as a replica of historical tall ships as featured in Pirates of the Caribbean and Master and Commander, was  incredibly fun and educational!

.…………………The Chieftain and it’s alluring crew are in port at the Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard through January 23rd and will spend another week  anchored in the Ventura Harbor through January 28th.  After that she’s off to San Francisco (which you can board passage for a nominal fee).  And then at other ports further up the coast to their homebase in Washington state. (yes Marie, Mike & Heidi she’ll port in Eureka!).

After a questionable drive from LA county in the torrential rain (that sent some of our fellow homeschooling families back around), we made it in time for the clouds to part and the puddles to gleam wistfully at us.  Or was it our children gleaming at the puddles?

Once we had listened to the brief rules and gained entry aboard the Hawaiian Chieftain, everything became a fun lesson.  How many ropes white, gray and brown in color were there?  How do we fix an over-weathered rope?  How many knots do sailors need to know?

We learned that there is always something to repair on a boat like the Hawaiian Chieftain and that hasn’t changed for hundreds of years.  Instead of a thimble to protect your finger, the sailors use a hand guard to use extra force to stick the needle through sails when making repairs.

Then it was time to get to work.  At the instructions of the First Mate Officer, the kids put their backs into pulling one of the hundreds of ropes on the boat.  This one in particular pulled up the front sail.  Work at home never makes them smile this big!

….Now it was time to learn how to navigate the ship – or in other words “How Not to Get LOST!”  They understood many things really well from Aaron whose teaching style won thumbs up from all of us homeschool parents! (this included mild chiding to prevent the parents from answering for the kids!)

We learned a bit about how a compass shows direction and how the peg board is used to record directions every half an hour.  One fun experiment that had Aaron running the length of the deck show us all how long a knot is in time and length.  The flowing knowledge came in the form of curiosity and fun!

……………………………In order to understand how a sailor prevented a Tall Ship from running aground, we dropped a weighted and demarcated rope over the side to see how far we were floating above the sea floor.

So much for atop ship, now we got to go below to check out the Captain’s quarters.  Okay, we were not so lucky to get a gander of the Capt’n’s digs who got a room all to himself, while the other 16 hands on deck shared two rooms,  but we did get to hang in the group quarters where everyone takes their meals , gets computer time and charts the maps.  Here the kids learned about the Historical trade routes of the Chieftan from the  mouth of the Chesapeake River in Washington DC around the Americas via the Cape of South America to the Pacific Northwest before heading off to the exotic ports in China. The end goal was to get spices and silk from China.  But the only thing the Chinese wanted from America was sea otter pelts, as they had eradicated all of theirs already.  (No endangered Species lists back then.)  So to barter the pelts from the Native American tribes in the Northwest, the boat was loaded up on glass beads and iron forged into ax blades and other tools.  The kids did a great job recreating the trade routes on the ancient map.

After a little bit more exploring above deck it was time to say goodbye to our New Friends and the Hawaiian Chieftain.

………………………..Before heading all the way back to our homes in LA county, we stopped at the Fisherman’s Wharf Village home to both the Maritime Museum and the Oxnard Teaching College of Marine Studies & Aquarium.  The  Aquarium is free & kid-friendly as it is more like a group of touch tanks than a pristine establishment. 

Our day of adventure was only further topped by a pit-stop at Spudnuts where the kids recharged on Hot Cocoa’s, baked goodies and fruit.  Thanks Renee & Kyle for a grand day out!