WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - Delaware's tall ship is ready to set sail.
The Kalmar Nyckel was scheduled to depart Wilmington on Tuesday for a stopover in Lewes, followed by journeys to Portsmouth and Cape Charles, Va., and Solomons Island, Md.
The ship will return to her homeport of Wilmington in late June in time for the second annual Wilmington Pirate Festival on June 30.
The Kalmar Nyckel is an authentic re-creation of a 17th-century Dutch built vessel that brought some of the earliest settlers to the American colonies. The ship has eight sails and eight miles of rigging.
The original Kalmar Nyckel sailed from Sweden to the New World in 1638, leaving passengers to establish the first permanent European settlement in the Delaware Valley at Fort Christina in present-day Wilmington.
