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A Great Weekend in Rochester

DATE: SUNDAY JUNE 26, 2011
LOCATION: ROCHESTER, NEW YORK
CHANGE OF COMMAND BETWEEN CAPTAINS MILES & TROST

Rochester has proven to be a very busy port. The usual set up of the ship takes crew several hours rearranging the ship from voyaging mode to port festival mode. This involves a myriad of activities:

  • re-stowing emergency gear (designed to be available in case of abandon ship) down below to permit PRIDE II to appear more as she might have appeared back a couple of centuries ago;
  • furling sail used to parade PRIDE II into port;
  • setting up, both ashore and aboard, propaganda displays depicting the coming Star-Spangled 200 and bicentennial of the War of 1812;
  • figuring out and setting up electrical hook-up of the ship to the local power grid, as well connecting to the fresh drinking water network.
Pride of Baltimore II approaching Rochester with the Schooner Lynx.

It is most beneficial to all that PRIDE II was able to catch up to her original schedule and parade into Rochester Harbor on schedule with Schooner LYNX last Thursday at noon. Arriving any later would present the specter of doing all of the above prep in a compressed rush.

On top of the above there is the need to figure out crew work schedule between maintenance needs, festival needs and of course some time off. Oh, did I forget shopping? What about the needs of the galley? How and where do we send the cook to shopping? Then the phone rings…concerning daysail passenger candidates wanting to reserve space…or the local festival organizer regarding logistics or the mail that has been received on behalf of the ship…or getting the latest passenger manifest from the office for the scheduled daysails…or a friend of the ship living locally offering a car and a summer cottage for the crew!?!

Bob Castle is father to David Castle, PRIDE II crew alumnus currently out in Portland, Oregon. Young David arranged with his family to let PRIDE II’s crew use the family summer cottage and have transportation to get between that cottage and the ship, as well as any other errands wanting to be run. Thursday evening Bob met with me and took me on a tour of the cottage a mile and a half away and turned a car over to me. What a sublime setting and thoughtfully useful gift to the crew and the ship!!! And what a lot of coordinating added to the regular coordinating. The festival organizers had also provided a hotel room to the ship…some 8 miles away. With the Castle car, it became possible to get the crew between the cottage and the ship in shifts as well as get this captain to the hotel. But wait…LYNX’s captain does not have any transportation and also has a hotel room. And LYNX’s crew are welcome to the cottage as well. OK. PRIDE II’s captain has the car. So there was a lot of end of the day driving to get folks back and forth. By the way, late in the day was often around 11 PM! Because both Friday and Saturday the ship had obligations that went that late.

Now it is time for the “change of command”. Captain Jamie Trost returns to PRIDE II and Captain Jan Miles head’s off for Maryland and home & office till the end of July when he returns to PRIDE II. Jamie is coming from LYNX…only a couple of boat lengths away…so the captains discussion of the status of things is spread out over several days rather than compressed into less than a day. Sunday afternoon finds Jamie heading off for a daysail aboard PRIDE II and Jan standing on the dock dropping dock lines.

Rochester is the first Great Lakes port for this campaign. It was a busy stop with a number of day-sail events per day scheduled between being open for deck tours. During this port stop, with all of the public activities as well as getting crew to and from the cottage as well as the captains to and from the hotel, it was also important to locate and procure fuel, food and spare parts. Considering the tremendously thoughtful gift of the cottage and transportation provided by the Castle Family…something that will not be available at future ports…it will be interesting how similar scheduling & logistics will transpire. I am certain we will all look back at Rochester as particularly special for the most thoughtful gift provided by the Castle Family!!!

Signed,
Jan C. Miles, A Captain with PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II