Despite being burdened with unmanageable pilotage fees, the Norwegian Viking longboat, Draken Harald Hårfagre, and her crew have decided to sail on to the Tall Ships Celebration in Bay City, MI, on July 14 -17th. From their press release:

There is not room in our budget to go further west into the Great Lakes, but we can not let the people in Bay City down. The Tall Ships Celebration in Bay City is just days away and the planning is in it’s final stages, it would be great disappointment for us and more importantly to the people we already committed to, says captain Björn Ahlander.

There is still no solution to the fact the project does not have the funding to pursue the whole expedition in the Great Lakes. We wanted to be able to bring the ship to the people. We are overwhelmed with the interest and engagement people have in our project and we will fight to continue this expedition. 

A petition to Rear Admiral June E. Ryan, Commander, Ninth Coast Guard District, of the U.S. Coast Guard asking that the unreasonable pilotage requirements be rescinded “to allow the Draken Harald Hårfagre the same latitude as other non-commercial tall ships enjoy and to continue on the port visits for which dozens of Great Lakes communities have publicized, planned and sold admission and entry tickets.”  So far, 6,220 have signed the petition. Click here to show your support.