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1492 replica sails in, sets up shop

Tours now are available in Clearwater Harbor on the Nina, a replica of one of Columbus' ships.

By VANESSA DE LA TORRE
Published December 22, 2005

CLEARWATER - A replica of Christopher Columbus' ship, the Nina, sailed into Clearwater Harbor on Wednesday and now is open for public tours.

Docked at the city marina on Clearwater Beach, the ship is open to self-guided tours on the upper deck.

The lower deck is off-limits because of Coast Guard rules. Too bad: Back in the 15th century, live chickens, pigs and goats were among the yearlong supply of food stored in the cramped 200-square-foot space.

The current day crew stocks up on sliced ham, cheese and Miller Lite in enormous ice boxes.

The ship is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, including Christmas and New Year's Day, through Jan. 2.

Thirty-minute guided tours can be scheduled by calling the ship at (787) 421-0402.

Admission is $3 for children older than 4, $5 for adults and $4 for seniors.

The Nina's broad square sails could be seen from Clearwater's Memorial Causeway as it sailed into the Municipal Marina on a cool Wednesday evening.

The journey from Cincinnati took two weeks. The crew of five sailed down major rivers, eventually entering the Gulf of Mexico. Crossing the gulf was a challenge; the wooden ship was slammed by 8-foot waves.

"It was wet and choppy and rough," said Capt. Kyle Friauf of St. Petersburg.

The vessel is a 75-foot replica of one of the ships in Columbus' small fleet that crossed the Atlantic. It is made from Brazilian hardwood, cut and constructed mostly with hand axes and hammers, no power tools.

Its dank helm station has a 14-foot-long tiller. "(It's) the only way we steer it, the only way there is," said Friauf, 46.

The Nina is a floating museum, re-creating a sense of 15th-century exploration.

"Can you imagine how it was being on the ship for months, not knowing what was out there?" Friauf asked. "Not knowing if you would see land again."

The Columbus Foundation spent $750,000 to build the Nina. Its maiden voyage was from Brazil in December 1991.

Originally, plans were to build the Nina, along the two other ships in Columbus's fleet - the Pinta and the Santa Maria - as a way of honoring the 500th anniversary of his 1492 explorations.

Costs got in the way and organizers decided to focus on the Nina, said to be the explorer's favorite.

The Santa Maria, the flagship, was a stout and clunky freighter that sank on the first voyage after it ran aground in Hispaniola on Christmas Eve.

And the Pinta, known as a caravel like the Nina, fared only slightly better: The trading vessel survived that first trip across the Atlantic, but its later voyages have been wiped from history.

The Nina would travel 25,000 miles under Columbus' command, and gained historical points as flagship for his second voyage.

[Last modified December 22, 2005, 00:58:15]