Day 28: 402 years later; Henry Hudson returns?

I was jogging by the ferry landing, returning from Cape Henlopen State Park, when I was stopped dead in my tracks by a strange sight.

Moored over at the dock was one of those three-masted ships; you know, the kind where you expect to see Johnny Depp at the helm.

The first thought that came to my mind was that Henry Hudson, who sailed into this very harbor in 1609 in a vain quest to find the non-existent northwest passage, had somehow worked out a deal with the powers that be so that he could return to earth and resume his quest for the passage, now that global warming is on the verge of creating a real northwest passage.

Quickly, I came to my senses.

“That’s crazy,” I said to myself. “There’s no such thing as global warming. If there was, Congress would be doing something about it.”

Based on this reasoning alone, I completely dismissed the idea that Hudson had been reincarnated and sailed the ship into Delaware Bay and docked it here in Lewes. With that possibility discounted, I went over to the dock to further investigate the odd-looking ship.

It turned out to be a replica of the Kalmar Nyckel, the Swedish ship that came to Delaware in 1638 with the colonists that founded what is now Wilmington (and later built what is now called Old Swedes Church).

The first Kalmar Nyckel made four crossings of the Atlantic. Today, for $60 bucks, a person can sail out into Delaware Bay on the replica for two-and-half-hours.

Spotting the ship and returning later with Betsy for a closer look and some photos was pretty much the highlight of the day, along with hearing Mrs. Osprey squawk and move around some in the nest as I watched on Osprey Cam.