A sea voyage is like a trackless train ride across the water fields, relying only on the principles of physics and magic to keep your vessel floating above the water on a thin cushion of air. Unfurl your sea wings with today’s Groupon. For $16, you get any springtime sail on the Navy Pier's Tall Ship Windy, up to a $30 value. Check out the ship's schedule to find a shove-off time that works for you. This Groupon is only valid until June 15, after which spring sailing becomes summer submerging. Either walk up to the ship's ticket booth and show your Groupon or reserve online through the calendar page for an additional $2 fee.

No matter which journey you choose, you'll always depart from Navy Pier, guided by the steady, calloused hands and windblown visages of U.S. Coast Guard–licensed Captain Bruce Randall and the ship’s doctor, Karen Randall. At the whim of the wind's caprice, no two 60-to-75-minute tours on the Windy are alike. Some themes include environmental sustainability, Chicago architecture, the life of the sailor, and dynamite fishing.

The Tall Ship Windy is the official flagship of Chicago. With its sails filled by the Windy City's blowhard politics, the 148-foot-long, traditional four-masted schooner played a vital role in supplying Chicago with sport peppers during the Hot-Dog Prohibition era. Amid the snap of rigging and the calming billow of the sails, it's easy to get lost in an earlier, frontier-era Chicago, when the men were men and the women were men too.

Reviews

Frommer's highly recommends Tall Ship Windy, five Yelpers give it four stars, and seven TripAdvisors give it 3.5 owl eyes:

• The crew is very nice and knowledgeable and the ride was just so beautiful. Windy is definitely the coolest ship out there on Navy Pier!! – Rebecca L., Yelp
• What a fun time! The ship was beautiful the crew was fantastic - they told fun stories about pirates that sailed the great lakes and we got to put up the sails and some people got to steer the ship. – Jake P., Yelp