BUFFALO, N.Y. — Blazing heat, long lines, and confusion made for a rocky start for the Tall Ships Festival. As visitors made their way down to the water on Sunday, those troubles were nowhere in sight.
"Everything was fine, everybody that belonged to the crew, they were just willing to tell you everything you wanted to know," Sandy Gerstner told 2 On Your Side.
Paula Blanchard, the co-chair of the Tall Ships event, explained that the planning committee tried to address concerns as they came up.
"One of the biggest things that we did was we adjusted our check-in process so that people who purchased tickets in advance had dedicated lines so they could just get scanned in and brought right into the festival very very quickly," she said.
Blanchard also had the checkpoints spread farther apart to create less confusion. It's one of many changes that have been made during this inaugural tall ships festival. She told 2 On Your Side she's hoping to fine-tune these changes when the festival returns in three years.
"We've kind of got it down to a science now, so we did learn a lot and expect to put those actions into practice when the ships come back."
Before the ships headed out, a missing crew member returned.
Fiji the cat is the Picton Castle's mascot of sorts. She wandered off on Friday and was brought back.
Gabe St. Denis is the ships 1st Mate and says he's not surprised because Fiji tends to wander whenever they dock. He's happy someone brought her home and plans to lock her up before the ship pulls off, just to be safe.
"Just before we leave we have to lock her up. She hasn't quite figured out that when the engine comes on, it means we leave," he told 2 On Your Side.
The tall ships will begin departing beginning Monday morning. The last ship, the Santa Maria, will leave on July 14.
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