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We arrived here late evening on Thursday, June 22, after a decent sail from Boston that started Tuesday in light air, interrupted by cold front squalls of rain with wind in only some of them.  For the most part though, we sailed with a broad south to southwest to northwest and back to southwest breeze of about 10 knots.  Even so we got ahead of schedule and slid into Lunenburg, a commercial fishing port with a lot of interesting history and home of the Barque PICTON CASTLE, a six time circumnavigator of the world, just now home from the latest around the world voyage.  We depart for Halifax later today in order to maintain our published itinerary.

I last wrote just before entering New York Harbor on Monday, June 12.  PRIDE II docked at the North Cove Marina, which is located just west of Ground Zero and hence provides immediate access to Manhattan.  The Cove is also one of the more protected marine facilities available for PRIDE II in Manhattan.  Even so, it can be tricky for a vessel as large as PRIDE II to get into this Cove considering the potentially strong flood and ebb currents of the Hudson River.  However, conveniently, we arrived at a time of moderate current strength, so we entered almost immediately upon arrival into the Cove and tied up.  The crew immediately turned to on ship maintenance and preparation for hosting a cocktail reception held by the Manhattan Yacht Club, a trade in services for free dockage.  PRIDE II was also host to a Maryland Port Administration reception on Tuesday, June 13.

From New York, PRIDE II headed east towards Boston, up the East River through Hell Gate and into Long Island Sound.  The wind was virtually calm until mid-afternoon.  PRIDE II was off Huntington Harbor (or about a third of the length of Long Island Sound) when the wind filled in from the southerly quadrant and the crew immediately went about getting all sail set, including the topgallant sail.  Interestingly this was the first time that particular sail had been hoisted this year...all this way from France!  So the event turned into a "show and learn" setting for all aboard, including the veterans, since it had been nearly a year since they had seen the topgallant.

By dark the wind fell to near calm, but we kept sailing as I felt we had the time to wait for the coming wind from the north.  And it did soon after midnight and off PRIDE II went eastwards toward The Race.  Later, soon after the change of the watch at 0400, I was called by the watch leader and notified that there was a heavy rain echo on the radar to windward and forward, about six miles away.  One look told me we had to get sail off quickly and ordered the stand-by watch to be called and to ready the jibtop and topgallant to be lowered.  While we waited for the stand-by watch, I had the on-watch go to the weather braces while I went to the lee yard braces and eased them out and they hauled the yards to windward - not to back the squares but to reduce their angle to the wind and reduce the power they were generating, which also reduced the angle of heel.  Then as the topgallant was being released and lowered, I lowered the main-gaff-topsail. As soon as the topgallant was down, the jibtop was lowered, followed quickly by the jib.  Then the mainsail was struck 'on-the-fly', meaning we did not sheet in the boom.  We left it eased off and merely took up the lee topping lift to match the windward lift tension and lowered the sail down between the lifts and the lazy jacks.  Once down, the crew hauled in the boom and secured the rest of the mainsail.  Taking all the sail taken was accomplished in about 15 minutes.  The rain came and the wind, which had increased already, did not increase much more and quickly diminished to the strength it had been before the rain cloud threatened.  We then spent the next hour and a half raising sail again.  But not the main-gaff-topsail or the topgallant, as the conditions looked like there could be more scattered rain which could harbor some puffs of wind.  A busy dawn, but the rest of the sail to Vineyard Sound was comfortable and fairly speedy at about 8 knots.

We sailed to the anchor mid-afternoon Thursday in Tarpaulin Cove, a famous cargo schooner waiting location for desirable wind and current conditions sailing east or west "back in the day."  Today it is popular with recreational boaters looking for a fairly deserted land area to enjoy.  We remained for two nights because we had the time and it was much nicer than going to a populated port.  While we were there, the cove was visited by another topsail schooner CORWITH CRAMER of the Sea Education Association (SEA) based in Woods Hole, MA.  They were out with alumni for an "overnight."  The crews of the two schooners traded visits.  Several of PRIDE II's crew this year are alumni of SEA.  I also paid a visit to say hello to Captain Peg Brandon, who has been in the schooner captaining business for a long time.

On Saturday morning, we sailed off the anchor and sailed around from Vineyard Sound to Buzzards Bay and on through the Cape Cod Canal and then up the coast to Boston.  Again, the topgallant was set (every setting of a sail provides more learning and better performance out of the crew, as well as adding to the overall sailing speed of the ship).  Also, to sail into Buzzards Bay from Vineyard Sound we had to beat to windward, which provided the crew with a lot of practice getting that procedure right.  For the Cape Cod Canal we had the wind so far aft, actually right up the stern, we took the main-gaff-topsail and mainsail first, then the topgallant and jib-topsail and sailed through the canal with just the foresail, fore-topsail and jib.  We had taken the staysail down as a way of not blanketing the jib. Once clear of the east end of the canal, PRIDE II reached up the western shore of Cape Cod with a fresh southwesterly breeze that prompted her to sail so fast with the already shortened sail area that we took in the square-fore-topsail and shifted from the jib to the staysail.  Around breakfast time, PRIDE II was off the small coastal town of Hull at the south entrance to Boston's outer harbor.  With rather light southwesterly blowing, we set the mainsail, the square-fore-topsail and jib again and sailed on in.  By the time we arrived off our dock in Boston on Sunday morning at 1000 hours, PRIDE II had sailed without engine from the western part of Long Island Sound all the way into Boston Harbor.  A good feeling for all aboard.

This visit to Boston was different in that there were four other schooners in the harbor rather than only one.  They were WESTWARD, SPIRIT OF MASSACHUSSETTS, ROSEWAY and the LIBERTY CLIPPER (Boston is CLIPPER's summer home; the other three are from other areas). So there was some yarnin' by the crews after the work day ended.  Meanwhile our host, Rowes Wharf was again very accommodating to PRIDE II providing free dockage for her short stay.

Boston was a busy port stop for getting last minute things before the voyage around Canada to the Great Lakes.  During the stop, my wife Leslie came to visit me and we were hosted by long-time family friends in Cambridge.  Boston is where we also got our new full-time cook aboard.  Ann Costlow is a Pride, Inc. Board Member who runs her own crepe restaurant and had time to make a return cameo aboard PRIDE II as cook. Back in 1999 she cooked aboard when she was between shore based jobs.  Later she became a Board member.  She is filling out a vacancy until Cleveland when the "rest of the season" cook comes aboard.  Considering Ann's previous experience and profession, plus the fact the crew had been 'filling in' for the cook vacancy for the previous two weeks by taking turns in the galley, there was a sincere welcome expressed to Ann by the whole crew.

As I mentioned earlier, our sail to Nova Scotia was another good sail in so far as there was nearly no motoring. The crew even got a chance to set the topgallant again and a studding sail for the first time (no studding sail had been set during the trans-Atlantic return from France so the process was a re-education for the veterans as well).  Squalls threatened again, twice, but overall, even with fairly light wind plus taking sail for the squalls, PRIDE II slid along nicely and we got ahead of schedule again and diverted to Lunenburg to see that venerable traditional Canadian Maritimes fishing town.  The town is also the winter home of the Canadian fishing schooner BLUENOSE II, as well as the home base of the round-the-world square rigged voyager PICTON CASTLE, which was back from her 6th world circling voyage.  PRIDE II was welcomed to lay alongside the Canadian Atlantic Fisheries Museum.  The crew did more work on PRIDE II and also got a full day off to mix things up with the crew of 'PICTON'.

Cheers,
Captain Miles