By David Harry

Staff Writer

Vic Bickel’s sleeping quarters are not much bigger than the office space he left when he went out to sea.

“I spent 22 years in a computer cubicle,” he said. “This just grabs you and hangs on.”

Replicas of the Niña and Pinta have grabbed Bickel – he was scheduled to sail and motor the Pinta into South Portland this week as the ship’s first mate. The ships are scheduled to be docked at South Port Marine and open for tours from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Monday.

Bickel and about 15 other volunteers have set sail to tour the Western Hemisphere on the replicas of two of the three ships Christopher Columbus sailed on his first expedition across the Atlantic Ocean. 

At 65 feet by 18 feet, the Niña is the smaller and older of the replicas. It was built in Brazil using traditional methods and hand tools, and set sail in 1991 to help commemorate the 500th anniversary of the first voyage by Columbus. Both ships were commissioned by the British Virgin Island-based Columbus Foundation. 

Bickel has been aboard the ships for three years. He said when he first saw them in Sacramento, Calif., he knew he wanted to be part of the floating museums that visit inland, lakeside and saltwater ports.

The Pinta is 85 feet by 24 feet and was launched in 2007 as a companion vessel. Both are design replicas of the Portuguese caravel, used for a variety of purposes until replaced by galleons to carry more cargo back from Spanish colonies, according to the foundation website.

The foundation notes the Santa Maria was the flagship for the first expedition, but Columbus never liked the ship and it ran aground in 1492 before he returned to Spain.

The original Niña and Pinta each carried about 25 to 27 sailors who rarely had the luxury of sleeping below deck as volunteers do on the replicas. The holds instead were filled with supplies and livestock. Horses and cows were carried in slings to prevent injuries caused by rolling seas.

Visitors have a common reaction when they board the ships, Bickel said.

“The first thing we hear is, ‘they are so small,’” he said.

Ship visitors are not allowed below deck where the crew sleeps on bunk beds. The quarters do not reek of livestock, but they are far from spacious, said volunteer Ethan Platt.

Platt, 21, was living in Illinois when he toured the ships last year. Both ships have drafts of seven feet that allow navigation in shallow waters. With little prior sailing experience, Platt volunteered. 

The days are often busier when the ship is in port because it does not always use sail power, he said. Being aboard the ships has taken him to places he had not imagined he would visit.

Platt and other volunteers, including Neal Drown, 25, guide 30-minute tours over sloping decks. Visitors are given a whiff of pine tar, which was used to preserve the wood on the original ships, and a chance to turn the crank used to pull the anchor.

“I signed on for three weeks and here I am seven months later,” Drown said. 

He. too, was drawn to the sea after visiting the ships in Knoxville, Tenn.

The ships rocked gently as even the smallest boats passed where berthed last week at Badger Island Marina on the Piscataqua River in Kittery.

Bickel said he most enjoyed the voyage to the Pacific Ocean through San Francisco Bay, but that ocean trips can be turbulent.

“It’s a very sporty ride. You tend to bob and weave,” he said.

For more information about the replica Niña and Pinta, visit thenina.com. South Port Marine is located at 14 Ocean St. in Knightville, next to the Snow Squall Restaurant.