The Captain's Logs are below.

Read the Crew's Views from John, KC, and Caroline as they reflect on their experiences in Asia.

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I recently left Pride II after a two-week stint on the bridge. Our plan of rotation for the captains this year is somewhat more frequent than last year. In part this is to accommodate some personal plans. It is also due to permit each of us to share the load of getting the ship and her crew back into commission after a winter of detailed maintenance that included taking her apart down to bare bones. It seemed to us that sharing the spring with short periods aboard would be the most expedient way to get Pride II's rig back to where it was before we took it down to bare wire last winter. Meanwhile, Dan is focusing on crew training in ship safety and policy.

My first sail with Pride II this year was from Baltimore to St. Michael's. It was one of the more active transits between these two ports I have ever piloted. The weather was clear and dry. The wind was from the northeast at a fresh 15 plus knots. This gave us all a chance to fill the sails and see how things were working. It also gave the crew their first chance this year to really sail Pride of Baltimore II. In short, it was a glorious early summer Saturday. The Bay was filled with vessels - many of them racing in formation around the race buoys. The feeling of newness for all aboard was enhanced by the reactions of the other vessels that came out of their way to take a look as we passed by Annapolis on our way down to the entrance of Eastern Bay.

The morning was spent settling the ship down below. We had taken aboard several items that we need for the summer season, as this was the last time the ship would be in Baltimore until next September. Later in the morning and after the four lower sails and the foretopsail were set, I spent time looking around the rig. There were numerous small details to check, not the least being the foresail. This year we are using our oldest foresail. We took it out of retirement because the foresail we used last year (Pride II's second) began showing its age on the way home from Asia. Due to miner modifications and a change to a heavier cloth weight when we had the second foresail made, the lead on several lines that control the foresail were now not exactly as we remembered them.

At the beginning of any season after winter maintenance, many of the crew are usually new to the ship. And the returnees are new to their jobs. This year was no different. Thus, even though the crew has been together and aboard the ship for nearly two months and know each other and the ship, they do not know Pride II's sailing details very well. So the first good day of sailing is a very busy day of learning and appreciating. For the captain, it is a busy day, too, especially on a fresh breeze day — even more so when we have a firm arrival date and time at the other end to worry about.

The fresh northeast wind that was speeding Pride II down the Bay would come ahead as she turned nearly 130 degrees to the left, into the wind, when we reached Bloody Point on the south end of Kent Island and headed into Eastern Bay. When Pride II goes against 15 plus knots of wind at a speed of 6 plus knots, it feels like 20 knots of wind blasting through the rig and over the deck. When fully sheeted in and sailing as close to the wind as she can, the ship's angle of heel is between 12 and 15 degrees. That is not a lot for small vessels, but it is significant for a new crew that has only experienced Pride II on an even keel so far this year. During this kind of sailing, the force in the sheets that control the sails is more than the crew has ever experienced. In fact, it represents many, many tons of drag that each crew member must haul through the blocks on each tack.

And then there is the fact that as Pride II sails against the wind up Eastern Bay, the distance she can sail on any tack gets steadily shorter as the river narrows. At the end of each leg, she must come about. To do this, the crew must brace around the two yards of the topsail, pass over two jibs, trade main boom topping lifts, and finally pass over the loose-footed foresail. In a situation like this, the brisk wind exerts a huge amount of strain on the sheets which the crew must handle. With ever shortening legs between tacks, there is less and less time to rest. Needless to say, it was a challenging first day at sea!

Navigationally, the challenge for the captain is no different than at anytime Pride II sails in narrow and shallow waters. But on the first good sailing day with a new crew, the challenge is increased by the effort to teach the crew the most efficient ways to handle the heavy gear. As each leg gets shorter with the narrowing bay, there is less time to discuss the nuances of tacking Pride II . But maybe that's not so bad. No amount of discussing can substitute for the learning that goes with doing. And hoo-boy, did the crew do that day!

While all this was going on, I might add that my sister, Taya, was aboard with the ashes of our father, John Miles. Dad was known by many Chesapeake Bay sailors, particularly in the early 1940's when he sailed his Delaware Bay-built oyster schooner, Elsie M. Richert, all around the Bay. He was also the last surviving founding member of the Sailing Club of the Chesapeake and the designer of that club's burgee - a white field with red Calvert Cross. I think Dad was particularly pleased by his friendship with Howard Chapelle (the great Smithsonian maritime historian) who had originally introduced him to the Elsie - a boat that Dad came to love immensely. He particularly loved her shoal draft and explored many out of the way places including visits to Chappie (his good friend Howard Chapelle) at his Eastern Shore home on the Little Choptank. One of Dad's favorite anchorages was the inner reach of Poplar Island. One of his stories was having the 55 foot Elsie inside of Poplar Island and watching a deeper draft sloop go aground trying to sail directly in from the deepwater Bay because the sloop assumed the "big" schooner in the harbor proved the harbor was deep. Dad went out to help the sloop off from their mishap, but marveled at the apparent inattentiveness to the chart showing there was no deep water in Poplar Island, much less a channel directly from the Bay!

As I think back on that sail to St. Michael's and all that it entailed, I am almost sure Dad would have loved the confluence of fresh breeze, big schooner in tight places going fast, and crew scrambling about the deck in haste as my sister and I struggled to open the "no instructions for opening" plastic container. With Pride II leaning over hard and my sister braced with white rose petals in hand, we both smiled knowingly as both Dad and the petals slid over the side into lower Eastern Bay near Poplar Island. Vale John Miles.

Pride II tacked six times going up Eastern Bay. Then at the entrance of the Miles River, the course was a close reach rather than hard on the wind. Also the wind strength had increased to 18-20 knots. Whenever Pride II is able to turn off the wind a little, she accelerates to the maximum for the given wind strength. With 18 plus knots of wind, Pride II accelerated to full speed (unfortunately, I did not have time to see what the GPS speed was). She also leaned over sharply with the increased wind and boat speed. The water raced by the hull right along the sheer line and the cannon barrels had their muzzles pointed into the trough of the wave the ship made.

It felt good to ride Pride II as she roared her way up the Miles River with a number of weekend cruisers for company. But my mind was necessarily focused on piloting. The Miles River is an easy river to sail for most sailing vessels in a northeast wind, but not for Pride II. Because of her draft, she must follow the deep water channel when others not drawing more than 8 feet can cut across a shoal as they make a straight line up the river.

Entering St. Michael's harbor is not straightforward for Pride II either. The harbor is shallow and can only be entered at high water. Even at high tide, the northerly winds can blow the water out of the harbor to make it the equivalent of low tide. With the northeast winds blowing that day, I was unsure if we had the depth needed to get dockside at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. While sail was being stowed by most of the crew, I dispatched two others in the small rubber outboard boat. Using a lead line, they plumbed the depth in the harbor and alongside the dock and were able to radio back to me the depths. All was clear and we came alongside at about 5 p.m. after a very busy day for all!

Our stay in St. Michael's is always pleasant for the crew and productive for the ship's care. The open house guests were mostly folks from the area and museum enthusiasts. They were thoroughly curious about Pride II's latest activities (last year's Asia voyage was a big point of interest) and the life of her crew. The visiting 4^th grade school groups studying Maryland history found their visit aboard a fascinating diversion from the school day routine. Between all the visiting, care to the ship was able to go apace. Crew re-tightened the six lanyards that control the bowsprit and the jib boom that support the forestays, and the jib and jibtop stays. This was necessary as I had observed during the sail to St. Michael's that the head rig was not as tight as we normally have it.

Our sail to Cambridge was uneventful. In fact, it was a great opportunity to go over more rig details as the wind was lighter than it had been going to St. Michael's. We practiced sail handling drill as we tacked up the Choptank and Tred Avon Rivers. We spent the night at anchor off Oxford on the eve of our arrival in Cambridge. We spent the morning before arriving Cambridge tightening all four of the foretopmast shrouds aloft on the fore lowermast. We also re-pitched parts of the mid-ships deck seams.

Our visit to Cambridge, MD, was another opportunity for our friends on the Eastern Shore to see Pride II after a long period of being away. Cambridge, like St. Michael's, has played a significant role in the development of the Bay from the earliest Colonial period.

Any observant visitor first notes this when looking at the architecture found on the older streets closest to the old town center. Unlike St. Michael's, Cambridge was a much more commercial Bay Town and was also a seat of local government. Over the years, the architecture has not all been obliterated by the advancement of modern commerce because the focus of commerce moved away from Cambridge. In the meanwhile, modern urban sprawl has spared some of the older downtown portions of Cambridge by staying close to the main highway — Route 50. This "preservation by being passed by" now provides a clear visual reminder of the style of life back in early Bay history.

Local 4th graders also visited us in Cambridge. We also had an afternoon Membership Sail with Pride II members. Whenever we are in the Bay, we make every effort to invite our membership for a sail aboard. This is an adventurous way for them to support Pride II's activities and gives everyone a taste of what sailing aboard Pride II is like. Want to become a Member of Pride of Baltimore Inc. and support your ship? No problem, just click on Membership, and then contact Emily in the Pride office.

Our sail from Cambridge to Annapolis was another opportunity for the crew to drill on sail handling. This time the wind was back in force again, but with a twist. A cold front was due and that can mean many things. There were warnings of thunderstorms, but we were not bothered by any. Instead we started out with fresh, 20-knot southerly winds with light sprinkly rain, followed by gusts increasing to 30 knots from the southwest, followed by clearing, and ended the day with another shift of wind to the west at 20-25 knots.

Departure from Cambridge was a smart sail with what we call our daysail combo — the foresail, staysail and square foretopsail. The Choptank River runs northwesterly from Cambridge. So with a southerly wind, Pride II had a fair romp down river. But as we got close to the entrance to the Choptank as it spills into the Bay, the wind was getting up to 30 knots so we jibbed and took in the square foretopsail. I sent the crew aloft to stow it quickly to be ready for the possibility of high winds. That was completed as Pride II sailed back up the Choptank for I did not want to get into the middle of the "s-curve" at the entrance of the Choptank when the wind might change at a critical time in the river's narrowest part. So we spent the next two hours reaching back and forth across the veering wind that kept shifting from south to southwest. When the sky final cleared and the wind moderated a bit, we reset the foretopsail and followed it with the mainsail, the jib, and the jibtopsail — and headed out of the river. That took two tacks as we weathered the south end of Tilghman Island and took the short cut north of Sharp's Island Light.

Once out in the Bay, the wind increased again and veered further to the west. The crew took the jibtop and again the foretop and stowed both. As the afternoon came to an end, we sailed into the outer part of Herring Bay and dropped the hook. Another full day for a fast learning crew!

On this transit between Cambridge and Annapolis, we had overnight passengers. This is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to participate as crew alongside Pride II's professional crew. (Click on Passages for a list of overnights still available.) This trip we had five guest crewmembers. All but two had sailing experience before coming aboard.

Our two novices were Pride Inc.'s computer consultant, Chris Hutson of No Limit Associates, and his girlfriend, Dr. Wendy Street. This was a special adventure for Chris. He has been helping the company for a couple of years now and was instrumental in installing the complex communication system that permitted us to transmit digital pictures between the ship and office during our voyage to Asia last year. These were the pictures that you saw on the web throughout the voyage - thanks to Chris. He and Wendy are not sailors but Chris is adventurous and wanted to feel first hand what he had heard about from the crew and read about on Pride II's web site.

But Chris had another reason for coming sailing on Pride II. He wanted to propose marriage to his girlfriend, Wendy. He and I had consulted several times on what the weather was going to be like and how he was going to propose to her during sunset while at anchor. He also wanted one of the crew to film the proceedings - and he wanted it all to be a surprise to Wendy! This meant getting everything set up so that she never caught on. I guess the fact that she accepted means all went as planned. All in all, it was a very adventurous day for our novices as well as the crew of Pride II.

Arrival day in Annapolis was another fresh wind day. But instead of getting underway immediately, the crew jumped on some more rig adjustments and Chris got onto the ship's computer and straightened out some glitches and added some gear for better handling of digital photos. The wind was fresh southwesterly at 20 plus knots. When we got underway, I had the crew reef the foretopsail. After we got the jib, staysail, and foresail on, we set the full mainsail so we could also set the maingafftopsail for the first time. (It had finally been seized-on during our stay in Cambridge). When it was set and I was satisfied that it had been rigged correctly, we took it in again and reefed the main to the first reef. By this time, we were sailing by Thomas Point Light and moving fast toward Severn River.

Annapolis is the Capital our State of Maryland and continues to hold much of its old charm. It is so popular with tourists that there is an abundance of trinket and clothing shop not to mention places to eat or drink. It is also considered by many as the sailing capital of the east coast. Or maybe the country. Or maybe the world. In any event, it is certainly a very popular place with smaller vessels, as well some of larger ones. Throughout Pride II's stay, there was plenty of traffic going to and from the slips and moorings. There are also several daytrip vessels, both motor and sail, in the harbor. While the crew tended to more 4^th grade school groups and ongoing ship's care, they were able to observe and be observed by lots of others - be they sailors or tourists.

This was also another rotation for the captains. Dan Parrott relieved me after we had an intensive debriefing of how things were going on and off the ship. In his case, he talked about what he had tended to in the captain's office and described the first two weeks with our new Executive Director, Dale Hilliard. In my case, I shared about crew development and ship readiness. I return to Pride II at Boston in late June for the run into the Great Lakes.

Cheers,
Captain Miles