Earlier my 11 year old and I lowered the Skater into the water, and took the 10 mile trip from the house to Fishermans Village, Punta Gorda to see the Nina.

This Niña appeared in one of director Ridley Scott's first films in the early 1990s, "1492." "Archaeology Magazine" called it the "most historically correct Columbus replica ever built." It was built entirely by hand without, of course, power tools of any kind; the craftsmanship of construction and the details in the rigging make it a truly fascinating look back. The "Niña" has been touring since 1992 as a sailing museum to educate and fascinate the public.

Below are 2 pictures.

nice, doesn't look real big for ocean voyage into the unknown.

Not to mention navigating by the stars at night and the sun during the day. Those guys were either really brave or really stupid.

My goodness!! can you imagine when the seas got churned up in that thing?

Saw it a couple years ago when they had a "Tall Ships" festival at Navy Pier in Chicago. I couldn't imagine crossing an ocean in that thing...not to mention the fact that they had no clue what they were going to find! Crazy mfs, fo'sho'.

When my son and I were sitting next to it in our 308, he just could not comprehend how small it actually, was. Some how, he was expecting an ocean liner size boat.

Makes you realize what kind of men sailed those ships. WOW

Amazing to say the least. Can you imagine shoving off in a boat that size into the open ocean.

CAPO i'm sure your familiar with this story as well. Quite possibly one of the greatest boating survival stories ever. These were some seriously bad azz individuals. I have the book of all the photos that were taken and it to is amazing.

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/shac...xpedintro.html

Way too cool, love that kind of tuff.