This is our Captain: Morgan Sanger. He is the principle in the Columbus Foundation who originally envisioned building the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria for the 500th anniversary of Columbus' exploratory journeys to what became known as the America's. However, the financial and political climate in the 1980's precluded building all three ships, so they settled on the Nina first (1992), then building the Pinta in 2006. There most likely will not be a Santa Maria. The ships have no home port, but travel continually from port to port on both coasts of North and South America.
This is our First Mate: Steve Sanger (the captain's 22 year old son), who plans to follow his father's work in the Columbus Foundation.
This is Don Bradley. He has been crewing on the Pinta for about five weeks, and will leave the ship in Brunswick, Georgia to return to his "other" life. He and his wife are the operators of "Palestinegardens.org", which is a miniature recreation of the Holy Land in rural Mississippi. He is a special guy!
Sally (no last name) has worked with Captain Morgan for 30 years, and has served as crew on the Nina and Pinta many times. She has volunteered to do most of the cooking for us, and is very knowledgeable of the boats and their operation.
Brad Johnston has been a crew member on the Pinta for about six months. He is a former firefighter who plans to become an "Able Bodied Seaman". He needs 360 days experience on a boat for his license, and plans to stay with the Pinta until he has the required number of days .
We are in Brunswick, Georgia and will be here until Sunday, I think. The captain has given me the day off tomorrow - for good behavior! I don't know what I will do except sleep late and maybe walk around
town.
You can see how small the Nina is when alongside a modern container ship!
This boat is docked next to us here in Brunswick. It is a 1930 Electric Launch Corp. boat, that was about to be destroyed when the present owner boat it and had it restored. It is immaculate. The picture does not do it justice - especially the mahogany.
