The annual sailing season in Baltimore City kicked off Wednesday morning with the arrival of the ARA Libertad, the Argentinean navy?s tall ship. Sail Baltimore, a nonprofit that hosts visiting foreign ships, welcomed the Libertad and its 283-member crew at the Inner Harbor, where the vessel will remain until it leaves Sunday bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The Libertad will be joined Friday by the Gloria, another tall ship, and its Colombian crew.
Both vessels will be open for public tour throughout each day in port. Click here for a schedule.
The Libertad, a sailing frigate that was pressed into service in 1963, is a training ship of the Argentinean navy. And for the first time in its history, female cadets from that country?s naval academy are aboard.
“I feel honored,” Lt. Cecile Mourno said, the ship?s lawyer, through an interpreter. “I have had no problem with the accommodations.”
Executive Officer Xavier Oyarzabal said since leaving Buenos Aries on April 7, the crew has welcomed the female sailors. They will log eight months at sea, returning to their home port Dec. 8.
“This is the first [graduation] of the first class from the Argentine naval academy,” Oyarzabal said. “It has gone better than expected.”
Capt. Pablo Vignolles, who first visited Baltimore in 1987 as a navigator aboard the Libertad, said he was not concerned about having women on his ship.
“Women have more ability to do some things,” Vignolles said. “Common sense will show you what they will do, and I have to understand that. It?s the same with men.”
While sailing into the Inner Harbor on Wednesday morning, Vignolles said he “fell in love” with Baltimore when he came here two decades ago.
“The Inner Harbor is amazing,” he said. “It?s like taking a ship into a shopping center.”
The ARA Libertad comes into to the Inner Harbor.
