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After a great stop in Halifax, we bid fair winds to the TSAC Fleet

At 0800 local time Tuesday, July 21, light rain is falling on PRIDE II as she begins to motor to her Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada destination of Port Hawkesbury with the intention of arriving tomorrow (Wednesday) morning.

I believe this rain is likely to envelop the TSAC 2009 Race #5 fleet as both the race fleet and the weather track east towards Europe. Fortunately the rain should bring a new wind to the race fleet…assuming they experienced the near flat calm that PRIDE II experienced overnight.

Halifax was a good stop for all; certainly all of the fleet was somewhat more accessible to each other than in Boston. In Halifax, it was merely one long walk from end to end of the fleet mooring area rather than the significantly longer and multi-directional walk with two bridges to cross that existed in Boston.  Halifax does benefit for having a waterfront that permits a sizable sail training vessel fleet to be moored pretty close together and also pretty close to the center of town. With such accessibility came a lot of crew and officer inter-ship mingling when not on watch. I am tired, PRIDE II’s crew is tired, and I heard others mention that while it has been a good stop in Halifax, they will be quite happy to get to sea. Certainly after a quiet night underway I feel rather refreshed.

PRIDE II hung around the starting line of TSAC Race #5 to observe the Class A start as well the smaller class start. All vessels got off to clean starts. Class A showed some strong effort to get to the line on-time and in front…three Class A’s hit the line with speed…at least the speed available for the moderate wind of 10 knots. EUROPA to windward, CAPITAN MIRANDA to leeward with SAGRES in between. For the smaller Class B and D vessels it looked like JOLIE BRISE was first across the line well down at the leeward end of the starting line with PETER VON DANZIG to windward of her but a bit back and RONA II further to windward and back a bit further. Unlike JOLIE BRISE the other two were carrying spinnakers so they slowly sailed ahead of JOLIE BRISE after the start.

Strategically speaking I found it interesting that EUROPA, JOLIE BRISE and TECLA seemed to be sailing a more southerly shaped course than the rest of the fleet. Doing so would put more power in the their sailing…but it would represent not sailing directly to the first waypoint. It will be interesting to see how, or if, doing that represents any advantage.

Well…BON VOYAGE, FAIR WINDS & FOLLOWING SEAS, SAFE PASSAGE…to TSAC 2009 Race #5!!!

Cheers,
Jan C. Miles, Captain aboard Pride of Baltimore II