Sunday, October 3, 1999

My week is beginning on a beautiful, sunny day at the Fell's Point Fun Festival in Baltimore, MD. Have you and your family ever been to Fell's Point? I think a lot of visitors to Baltimore and the Inner Harbor may not have ever visited here. I never came to this side of the harbor until just a few years ago. It's really easy to get to Fell's Point from the Inner Harbor - just take the water taxi (Mrs. Rallo talked about this means of transportation in last week's log). As we learn in social studies, people use their environments to meet their needs. So, if you live near the water, that means you use boats for transportation.

My husband and I took the water taxi to the "Point" (Fell's Point's nickname) and here I am aboard Pride of Baltimore II. I wasn't alone on the boat this day, as the crew welcomed aboard about 3,000 people during the Festival. Do you see the interesting buildings in the background? Fell's Point is home to many distinctive building styles.

The Fell's Point Fun Festival is held every year, the first weekend in October. This year was the 33rd year. Can you calculate what year it began? Fun Festival is the perfect name for this event, because everywhere you look, you see people having fun.

This year's festival included an area called "La Plaza Hispana Stage." This was a special stage set aside for performances from the growing Hispanic population of this area. Performances included Hispanic music, (Latin jazz, Spanish rock, and Mexican folk). I think if you ask your music teacher, she or he could share some of this music with you. Several dance groups were on stage, performing the Salsa, Mexican folk dances, and my favorite - the Flamenco! The dancing is done to Flamenco guitar. The female dancers are dressed in long, brightly colored costumes with many frills.

The movements of the dancers are dramatic and are done to the rhythm of the music. Much of the excitement of the dance is the fast, sophisticated foot movements of the dancers - sometimes going so fast I could hardly see how it was possible.

At the end of the dance, the dancers strike a dramatic pose, much like you see in the photograph. The dancer pictured is Natalia Monteleon. I was able to talk with her after the performance. Natalia is a native of Baltimore who first became interested in the Flamenco when she was nine years old - your age! She began taking lessons when she was a teenager, and started teaching twenty years ago. She now has her own dance school called Arte Flamenco. If you are interested in finding out more about the Flamenco, you can check out this Flamenco web site in Spain, where the Flamenco originated.

Of course, the best festivals have lots of food! There were foods representing many different cultures and countries - polish sausage, pizza, fried bananas, tamales, Peking duck, and much more. Baltimore specialties included oysters, fresh fish, crabs, and pit beef or turkey. I ate as much as I could, enjoying every bite. I wasn't the only one - this family cooled down with ice cream cones for all.

Monday, October 4, 1999

I could hear the rain on the roof of my berth last night and it's still raining this morning. After breakfast, Pride II crew musters (meets) to go over the work and activities for the day.

We moved the ship from the dock at Fell's Point to the "home" dock in the Inner Harbor, between the Harborplace shops and the Maryland Science Center. Since it's a short trip, we used the motor to travel over. Even for a short trip, the crew has many assignments to perform. Stephanie, the First Mate, gets in the inflatable launch boat, Hippo. She drops one of the crew members off at the Inner Harbor dock - this crew member will be there to catch the dock lines (the lines which hold the boat to the dock). The First Mate stands-by (watches closely) in the launch boat to help the boat tie up to the dock safely. The crew takes their positions in the bow (front of the boat), stern (back of the boat) and midships (middle of the boat) and follows the directions of the captain.

You may be surprised to learn that the crew of Pride II has to take tests, too. While sailing is a lot of fun, it also takes skill, experience, and knowledge to be a crew member aboard a boat this size. One of Pride II's crew members, Jesse, just passed an important exam this week! Jesse passed his 1,600 ton Mate's License and his 100 ton Master's License. The crew congratulated him and Jesse was proud of his accomplishment - much like when you get a good grade on a test or report card. It's almost like the crew has their own version of MSPAP!

Tuesday, October 5, 1999

Today's another rainy and overcast day, but that doesn't mean the crew of Pride II doesn't keep busy. Today is a day for doing maintenance work to the boat. The deck (floor) of the boat needs to be re-pitched so that it won't leak.

The boat's deck is made of boards with small spaces in between. Those spaces are filled with oakum and tar. Oakum is very similar to hemp, which is used to make ropes. Every five to ten years, the seams of the deck need to be re-pitched to keep them waterproof. This process involves digging out the old oakum and tar, and using a reefing iron and a vacuum cleaner to pick up the dust and dirt. Then the new oakum in pressed into the cracks. You can see Christine hammering the new oakum into the cracks with a caulking mallet.

Next, tar is poured into the cracks. It's important that the tar is just the right temperature. If it's too hot, the tar will become brittle and crack; if it's too cool, the tar will not fill in the spaces. A thermometer is kept in the pot (look closely at the photo). It seemed funny that tar would need to be "cooked" so precisely, but to get the job done correctly, you're got to watch it just like a pot of soup. The final step is scraping off the extra tar and wiping everything down. The deck of Pride II should be tip-top and waterproof for years to come!

This afternoon, we had a special surprise in the harbor - a three masted schooner from Maine arrived (a schooner is a large wooden sailing boat with a particular type of sails). This schooner, Victory Chimes, came to Baltimore to celebrate her 100th birthday, and to participate in next week's Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race. Victory Chimes used to spend a lot of time in Chesapeake Bay.

In fact, she's one of the excursions you can explore in the lesson on Chesapeake Excursions. She was called Edwin and Maud then. But now she's Victory Chimes.

In recent years, she's been used as a passenger boat for visitors who want to sail along the Maine Coast. Captain Miles of Pride II was very excited to see Victory Chimes as he is good friends with her captain. Chimes and Pride II traded "explosive" greetings, with cannon fire from both vessels and from Clipper City, our dock neighbor. These boats say "hello" in a way that everyone in the harbor hears.

Stephanie's dog, Oxford, wasn't too crazy about all the noise, though.

Go to Part 2 of the October 11, 1999 Log