Niña, Pinta sail to town
- On 18/03/2010
- In Maritime News
- 0 comments
By Chris Segal - News Herald
Amidst the morning rain, replicas of Christopher Columbus’ Niña and Pinta vessels sailed into the Panama City Marina on Wednesday to set up a temporary floating museum.
With the help of a dinghy, the two vessels floated into the marina and will stay until Monday.
The ships are touring as a sailing museum. They offer guided tours and displays for school groups and the public. Each ship has a crew of four people who will be on hand to answer questions and talk about the vessels.
The two Columbus replicas were most recently docked in Alabama and, after a weekend in Panama City, they will make their way south to St. Petersburg and then up the East Coast.
This Niña was launched in 1992 and has been called by Archaeology magazine the “most historically correct Columbus replica ever built.”
Of the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria, the smaller, faster Niña was Columbus’ favorite ship, and he made most of his journeys on it.
The replica Niña has sailed a half-million miles, docked in 600 ports and traveled through the Panama Canal about a dozen times. This is the fourth time the Niña has docked in Panama City.
“Panama City has always been great,” said Niña Captain Morgan Sanger. “They really support the ship.”
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