DATE: Friday, May 30, 1997
TIME: 1600 GMT
POSITION: Latitude 41 25,85 N Longitude 070 54,93 W.
At Anchor, Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts
TIME OF ARRIVAL: 0500 HRS LOCAL THIS DAY
ENTERED BY: Captain Jan Miles
This has been one of the more uneventful passages I can recall making between the Delaware Bay and Southern New England. We motored the entire way in a relatively smooth sea with a slight breeze from the east and southeast. This coast usually offers either a good sail, a bad sail, or inclement weather. It hardly ever offers nothing!
PRIDE has anchored off Cuttyhunk Island, the last on a chain of islands known as the Elizabeth Islands. They stretch from Woods Hole on Cape Cod to the southwest. These islands separate two bodies of water, Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound. Except for Cuttyhunk, the island chain is predominately owned by a few families. So it is only on Cuttyhunk that you can find a public phone, a small store, an Inn, or an eating establishment. All of the islands offer good walking if one is into exploring, although there are few or no formal paths. There are few trees. Between the shingle sided and roofed houses, the wild long grass, and the scrub bushes, the land looks as if Andy Wyeth had landscaped the area. With the island some 5 miles off the mainland and PRIDE anchored just off the island, the feeling about this place is one of quiet remoteness during a long past era. The locals are happy to be on their own, but tolerant of visitors. The summer season has not begun here as yet, so it is really pretty quiet. I hope the crew will like a good walk or maybe a ride on one of the ship's bikes.
We departed the Sassafras River Wednesday morning and had a quite motor up the Bay, through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, and down the Delaware Bay to the Atlantic Ocean. Since the day was warm and dry, maintenance continued apace and complemented the successful day of maintenance that occurred on Tuesday. By 1600 hours all that could be done was done, including the first coat of varnish on CHASSEUR's sheer plank and combing clamp (that had finally been completely stripped of it's 9 year old varnish). The crew then broke into sea watches _ 2/3rd of the crew went to sleep while 1/3rd took care of the ship.
2100 hours Wednesday evening found us out of the Delaware Bay and into North Atlantic swells left over from the previous two days of northeasterly winds. It was good that we waited to pass this way. Even with the wind laid down over the previous 12 hours, there was still a 4-6 foot swell that PRIDE had to breast as she made her way towards Southern New England. As we turned from heading southeast down the Delaware Bay to northeast in the Atlantic, it was possible to set the foresail and help dampen PRIDE's rolling due to the left over light winds now coming from the east. For the next 30+ hours we motored along this way. The only change was the shrinking swell of the ocean.
The crew is now back to maintenance; more varnish for CHASSEUR, scraping of broken spots in other varnish around the ship, and more deck patch pitching. After lunch, we may get the gun doors removed so the metal hinge straps can be cleaned of rust and painted. Whatever we start today must be completed today, at least as far as external cosmetics are concerned because it is expected to rain a bit tomorrow. A weak low to our northwest comes by us to the north _ a harbinger of the coming weak cold front. But all will not be lost. We only have 83 miles or so left to Boston. We will probably stay here till Sunday. This could give the crew an opportunity to spend some time ashore in a quaint Southern New England setting. They won't find much culture, but there is a substantial bit of "character" to be found here.
Cheers
Captain Miles
Back aboard! Except for my short time aboard in March during 'THE MOVIE' (a.k.a. La Amistad) with Steven Spielberg, I have been ashore working in the office and taking time-off. Once I relieved my partner, Captain Robert Glover, on Memorial Weekend Sunday, my concentration was divided between moving into the Captain’s cabin, checking over the ship and crew, and researching the next leg that PRIDE was to take – the short coastal cruise to Boston.
For all of the planing and reviewing, we have not gone very far. I decided that it was best to hole up here in the Sassafras River to wait out the northeast breezes that have been blowing since late Sunday evening. Since this northeast system is a dry one (once the cold front passed by), ship's maintenance has benefited hugely by the delay in getting on with this transit to Boston. Interestingly, so has crew morale. The last two months in The Bay have been so busy and cool, cosmetic maintenance has been very hard to get done. Today was a good full day of work, and everyone is pleased for the opportunity.
Memorial Weekend Sunday night was one of the wettest nights I have spent aboard PRIDE in a long time. But it cleared up Memorial Day Monday and we got underway and motored down the Chester River from Chestertown, where we had spent the weekend. Pretty soon we were surrounded by weekend sailors headed home from their weekend cruises in the Bay. They were all sailing and must have wondered why we were not. But we got sail up around the middle of the day, down by Kent Island Narrows (where the Chester River becomes wide enough for PRIDE to sail with relative ease), and proceeded to sail to windward in the northerly breezes. The crew got a lot of sail up with a will and handled the gear smartly as PRIDE tacked out of the horse-shoe bend of the river in a moderate breeze of 12-16 knots. The wind direction was the wrong one for getting up the Bay to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, but it was worth the effort to get sail up and observe the crew and check the ship out.
Everything was fine. So when the wind died out around 1400 hours, we took in sail and under a now clear sky with lots of sunshine, the crew turned-to prepping the rail cap for spot-varnishing. This they completed by the time we anchored at 1900 hours.
Today the crew picked up where they left off yesterday by re-spotting the rail cap with varnish. They also added to the work list; finishing stripping the varnish rail on CHASSEUR, the small pulling boat carried on PRIDE's deck, and getting the earliest coats of pre-varnish oil on; patch pitching the deck; spot prepping the aft-cabin skylight; spot prepping the in-board portion of the bowsprit; re-placing the old weather-fax antennae with a new one better suited to the new weather-fax machine that came aboard only a week ago (courtesy of Henry Rosenberg, Jr., Pride, Inc.'s Chairman); prep and oil the foremast fife rail and the sill cap to the mid-ship hatch companionway threshold; spot paint the port-side black stripe between the covering board and the whale-strake; re-tie hanks on the staysail and the jib and attend to a possible leak in the main- mast wedge boot cover.
Supper at 1800 hours was met with a great feeling of accomplishment by all; and there was plenty of appreciation left over for the superb supper of coq au vin produced by our new cook, Mark Randall.
I have not quite made up my mind about when we should get underway. I have been paying a great deal of attention to the weather. The new weather-fax, with it's new antennae, produces very clear pictures when typically we got clear pictures at only certain times of the day. These depictions of weather are much like the maps you see on television, only they are graphic and not in color. There are maps of current and forecasted weather depicting changes every 6 hours and predictions for the next 12 hour, 24 hour, 48 hours. There is also a twice-a-day prediction of weather at 96 hours. (This 96 hour product is to be discontinued by the National Weather Service on June 10 thanks to of Congress’ reduction of the Service's budget in an effort to balance the national budget). Looking at these maps/graphics as they change is helpful for developing a sense of the trends of weather. Combining these maps with the marine radio weather broadcasts requires a lot of time and concentration but can mean the difference between a good, safe transit and an uncomfortable and possibly unsafe transit.
The current situation is more a choice between being able to sail, rather than motor, as well take advantage of the dry weather to get a jump on the behind schedule cosmetic maintenance. While it is possible we could leave tonight, I think it will be tomorrow morning. The timing relates to the fair currents as they pass through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and the Delaware Bay. There is a favorable time between late this evening and tomorrow morning or late tomorrow morning and tomorrow evening. If it is predicted the wind will remain fairly fresh out of the northeast off of New Jersey tonight and into tomorrow, it will not make sense to stay up all night merely to face the sea and wind coming from where we want to head. By waiting we could get another full day of maintenance in as we motor through the canal and Bay. And we may find reduced, possibly favorable winds upon arrival at the Atlantic.
I am not anxious about the time remaining to get to Boston as we still have time to cover the distance once the weather becomes favorable. There is not much question in my mind it will become favorable – it is a question of when. My personal drothers is that we wait to get underway tomorrow morning. The crew's momentum on maintenance is so great I would like to see another day of productivity before we have to stop for the sail towards Boston.
Cheers
Captain Miles
DATE: Monday, May 19, 1997
TIME: 1100 LMT
POSITION: Northern part of Chesapeake Bay, sailing between St.
Michael’s and Baltimore
ENTERED BY: Captain Robert C. Glover
Ahoy all,
We are northbound with the 5 lowers, foretops'l, port studs'l, and ringtail set in a SW'ly breeze of 10-14 knots. The breeze is warm and the air is clear as we make our way back to Baltimore.
We spent the weekend in St. Michael, MD, along with four other tall ships. We participated in the Mid-Atlantic Maritime Arts Festival in St. Michael’s where we were open to the Public on Saturday and Sunday. We left Baltimore Friday evening after participating in the Preakness
Schooner Race. We had a quite evening sail down to the mouth of the Magothy River with five passengers aboard. The breeze was from the NW and we sailed right up to our anchorage just as the sun set behind Gibson Island. We stowed away the ship’s gear and then had a birthday party for Summer O'Malley a deckhand aboard PRIDE II. Next morning we awoke to the sight of a fine schooner anchored next to us. The SPIRIT OF MASSACHUSETTS anchored up along side around midnight. We both got underway before breakfast and raised sail so that we could arrive at St. Michael by 1300. We sailed into the harbor with a cannon salute and went dockside on the high tide.
Sunday from 1400 to 1700 was a new member sail along with the winners of the Internet contest we had last fall. Congratulations to all and THANKS! for supporting PRIDE II.
We will arrive today in Baltimore for a week of school tours and a few sails. On Wednesday we are involved in a O's game, so that should be good fun.
Bye for now,
Captain Bob
DATE: Monday, May 12, 1997
TIME: 0800 LMT
ENTERED BY: Captain Robert C. Glover
Ahoy Folks,
The eastern sunrise finds PRIDE II anchored off the mouth of the Magothy River just north of the Bay ridge. We came to anchor about 1800 last evening after departing Annapolis about 1545 yesterday. We had a glorious sail in the northern half of the Bay and with the westerly wind we were able to sail up to our anchorage by striking the foresail, heads'l, then round up, drop the anchor and use the square tops'l to back down and set the anchor. Great satisfaction for the crew to perform all this without the engines. Many weekend sailors sailed by to say hello and admire PRIDE II sailing in the Bay.
We spent the weekend in our State’s capitol, Annapolis. We hosted two school tours and an open house on Friday, followed by a day sails for our Members and one for the Renaissance Hotel. The weather was cool and blustery – sort of like a day with Winny the Pooh on one of his many adventures in the woods with Tiger. Sunday was bright sunshine with NW'ly winds. We had another day sail with Members from Noon to three. As it was Mothers Day, there were quite a few moms on board. We hope they liked their sail aboard PRIDE II. Not your average mothers day gift!!
Last week was spent in Baltimore doing lots of needed maintenance and many school tours. Today we will do some more sailing with just the crew. We will practice "reefing" and some of our safety drills. Reefing is a maneuver in which we reduce the amount of sail area exposed to the wind. When it gets over 25 knots or so we often "reef" some of PRIDE's sails. As we have not done this yet this year we have to have set aside some training so that the crew will have practiced the procedure prior to being called upon to it at sea. Better to learn under ideal conditions rather than do it the first time in a 30 knot wind with 10-15 ft seas crash around. We will anchor this evening in the Patapsco River. Tomorrow we will enter the Inner Harbor in the morning to get ready for an afternoon sail with Heery International. As it is Preakness Week, we will be participating in the Schooner race scheduled for Friday.
Bye for now,
Captain Bob
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