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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We are about 70 nautical miles from the southwest tip of Nova Scotia. This puts us about 180 miles from Boston and in the middle of a deep water area called Crowell Basin. The Basin is 130-140 fathoms deep, surrounded by shallower areas of 60-90 fathoms. We are crossing the mouth of the Gulf of Maine. The bottom is littered with large and small shoals that rise up suddenly from the bottom as close to the surface as 5 fathoms. The fishing here used to be very rewarding and many fishing vessels once harvested the Gulf. There are lots of well known underwater shoals, variously called knolls, banks, ridges, ledges or swells. Pride II has crossed Stellwagon Bank (where a lot of whale watching goes on), Wildcat Knoll, Sharrer and Parker Ridges, Cashes Ledge, and Truxton Swell. Tonight we will get pass the shoals of Cape Sable as we sail by Brazil Rock and turn northeast along Nova Scotia's Atlantic shore.

I returned to Pride II two days ago while she was docked in Boston at Rowes Wharf. She was surrounded by new office buildings that mark the continued reclamation and renaissance of Boston's waterfront from the former days of industry and commerce. This is also where the biggest public works project in the world is going on, locally called The Big Dig. It is a 12 year project, now some 8 years old, to put a main highway underground. A lot of dust and noise goes along with this work. I won't attempt to describe the traffic snarl that accompanies with this "improvement" of Boston's downtown.

Pride II looked well and I found my partner, Captain Parrott, overseeing the crews efforts in readying the ship for the next leg of the summer campaign. This will be a three week transit to Wyandott, Michigan, just south of Detroit. So we will be in the middle of the Great Lakes before we make the next formal stop on this year's itinerary. I gave the preparations a nudge by pointing out that the National Weather Service was predicting a low to form off of Cape Hatteras that may or may not come northeast. If it did, it would cause us some grief in crossing the Gulf of Maine. So I wanted to have the crew and ship ready to leave after the evening reception scheduled that day. The crew were shocked but responded willingly. However, it left them scrambling to adjust personal plans for the evening. As luck would have it, I later found the National Weather Service had discontinued that warning and we could in fact depart the next morning as originally scheduled.

Since departure, we have mostly motored in light winds from the southwest. In these light winds there have been times when the wind died and the crew had to take in sail - only to put sail back up again later. There was a particular moment, after having a nice sail of a few hours, when the wind came from all directions within half an hour. Then died! Thus within the briefest space of time, we took in all sail after having adjusted it many times to accommodate the changing wind patterns.

Whenever we are on passages that are longer than 12 hours, the crew is divided into watches of three or four persons. Each watch stands duty in four hour shifts twice a day. A watch is large enough to keep the ship pointed in the right direction and monitor the weather and other conditions. Thus our crew of 10 officers and deckhands (the captain and the cook do not stand watches), is divided into three watches. This division of the work force means it is possible for the two watch groups not on duty - the off watch and the standby watch - to get some rest. The off watch is never disturbed, except in a significant emergency. The standby watch may be asleep but they must be ready to jump on deck quickly on short notice. When the wind is fickle as it has been today, the standby watch does not get as much sleep as they otherwise might. But at least they get their off watch time to sleep.

But now we are sailing well with a nice southwest breeze carrying us on toward Brazil Rock on the southeast corner of Nova Scotia. The deck is nearly deserted as all the off duty crew hide in their bunks till the next call to go on watch. With this steadier breeze, I expect we will arrive at Brazil Rock about sundown today.

Captain Jan Miles