Freedom Schooner Amistad left Mystic Seaport after several busy days including serving as a centerpiece of the 18th Annual WoodenBoat Show.  The ship is expected to pass through Cape Cod Canal in the morning of Friday July 3rd - Photographers watch out!.

Amistad will be participating in Sail Plymouth 2009 Festival - See the tall ships this weekend!

The three-day Sail Plymouth festival will kick off with the Welcome Sail of the Amistad & Peacemaker into Plymouth Harbor to their docking location by Plymouth's Mayflower II on State Pier.

Events will include:

Friday Night Parade of Boats

 Blessing of the Fleet

Daily Tours of the Amistad & Peacemaker

July 4th Fireworks viewing from the deck of Amistad 

Schooner Amistad was the largest wooden boat and a centerpiece at Mystic Seaport for the 18th Annual WoodenBoat Show, June 26-28, 2009.  Captain Bill Pinkney interviewed Matt Murphy - editor of the WoodenBoat Magazine.

Late Wednesday evening the Connecticut Senate voted to formally apologize for slavery practiced in the state through the 19th century.

Sen. Toni Harp, D-New Haven, said emancipation bills were rejected by the Connecticut Legislature in 1777, 1779 and 1780. She said slaves often jumped ship in New Haven harbor, swam up the Quinnipiac River and joined the Narragansett tribe. She also touched briefly on the history of the Amistad and said the apology would go a long way toward making things different.

The House talked about the apology for about 75-minutes a few weeks ago, but the Senate didn’t have the luxury of time Wednesday evening and spoke for about 15-minutes on the resolution. 

Original article and interesting discussion at ctnewsjunkie.com

Captain Bill Pinkney , Master Emeritus of the Freedom Schooner Amistad presents the Amistad's Legacy - Confronting the Past; Transforming the Future.  Our new video "Connected" is intended to be a trailer for a longer documentary film utilizing many hours of footage that we captured in HD Video during the visit of the Amistad in Freetown in Sierra Leone. 

Watch in HQ (High Quality) on Schooner Amistad's YouTube Channel

After more than 16,000 nautical miles and two transatlantic crossings, the Freedom Schooner Amistad was hauled from the water at Mystic Seaport Museum on Thursday April 30th at 12:30 for critically needed repairs and a periodical, obligatory US Coast Guard inspection. The haul out was imperative to permanently repair a serious leak that first appeared while the schooner was visiting West Africa last year. Everybody was surprised how good Amistad's bottom looks after 25 month in the water including long period in tropics and winter in frozen Mystic River.

We invite you to come to Mystic Seaport within next two weeks - Take the advantage of unique opportunity of seeing two very different traditional wooden vessels on the dry - Schooner Amistad and Charles W. Morgan are hauled out right now.