Right on time, at noon on the high tide, HMS Bounty arrived in St Augustine. I was so hoping to see her come in under sail, but that didn't happen for a couple reasons. One, she actually arrived six hours early and had to sit outside the harbor waiting for the tide and the schedule. Also, it's a small harbor with strong currents and she's a BIG ship! Our own pirate ship, the Black Raven, which is a pretty impressive ship suddenly seemed to shrink as the Bounty sailed past her. The Bridge of Lions was lined with folks to watch as Bounty navigated the, for her, narrow opening under the draw, but her captain and crew has battened all the spars down and she went through like a hot knife through butter.

I had to wait a few days before I could go aboard, but eventually the Coast Guard finished checking her out and folk were invited to visit.
  You can see how impressively big she is, totally dwarfing the Bridge of Lions just beyond her.

After a weekend of visitors, the crew and many of the local folk who helped sponsor her visit came to Taberna del Gallo to party. Since Sunday night is my regular night to volunteer there, I got to rub shoulders with captain and crew, pirates and corsairs and lots of other fun folk.