A very tall Swedish visitor comes to town

Hanna Varune glanced down from the swaying yardarm above the sea Thursday and saw a whale swim under the ship. That's how sweet this marine biology class is.

But on Friday the 17-year-old and fellow female shipmates were looking forward to putting on makeup and skirts and touring the town they had heard about in history class. Both she and male shipmate Antti Kivekas, 18, had the same thing in mind as the first thing they wanted to do after a few weeks at sea. They grinned at each other.

"Buy candy," Kivekas said.

The Gunilla is back in port in Charleston this weekend, for the eighth time in nine years, a three-masted barque that's a kind of Swedish big sister of the Lowcountry's own two-masted tall ship, the Spirit of South Carolina. The 160-foot-long vessel is impressive enough that its masts dominate the skyline at the Charleston Maritime Center where it's berthed.

Even the crew of the Spirit, moored alongside, paused in their deck chores to gape up at it.

"I didn't expect to see that," said Larry Bailey, of Mercersburg, Pa., as he aimed his video camera. He and Pat Musser had veered off Interstate 95 on their way home to have a look at Charleston and followed a visitor's brochure to the center, not knowing what to expect.

Like the Spirit, the Gunilla is used as a floating classroom, this time teaching 36 students, mostly from Sweden, either marine biology or seamanship, depending on which track they are on. Kivekas, of Nagu, Finland, is studying seamanship. The 17- and 18-year-old students embarked at Santo Domingo, and have cruised the northern Caribbean.

They will leave Charleston on Wednesday for Bermuda, then the Azores and Great Britain before disembarking in Holland after a 55-day cruise. The Gunilla hails from Goteborg, Sweden.

These students, Captain Jorgen Hansson assures you, "are focused on their studies and not so focused on going ashore." Ahhhh, well ... Anders Andren, the program studies director, gives a wry smile. "They are very keen on getting out in the city," he said.

What's a chaperone to do?

Andren assigned a paper. They're going to have to write about their experience here.

"I'm looking forward to meeting people. On the ship, you don't get (away) from people, but you look forward to meeting new people," Kivekas said. "And this city looks nice from the boat."

Reach Bo Petersen at 843-937-5744 or bpetersen@postandcourier.com.