Archives for October 2010

1100 Friday October 29, 2010
Moored in Chestertown, Maryland for Sultana’s Rig-down Weekend

The weather has come cool again…after being mid seventies. I find this notable for this time of year. Seems this fall we have been more warm than cold than during past falls. I have not heard any discussion of this in the news…so maybe this has happened before. It sure makes life aboard Pride II very comfortable! I remember more often being frozen down below at this time of year.

Pride II spent the last couple to three days sailing in the company of her little privateer sister Lynxbetween Cambridge, Annapolis and Chestertown. As I mentioned in an earlier log I am charmed by having two “Baltimore Privateers” sailing around the Chesapeake Bay at the same time in the 21^st Century. I hope all you readers are charmed as well. There is a friend of my wife Leslie’s that was at Sandy Point State Park Wednesday and caught a “mobile phone photo” of the two privateers passing through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. It is actually a pretty clear shot of another iconic contrast of the modern and the old.

There are a couple of old phrases dating to the mid 1800’s…cracker jack ship…cracker jack sailor. I believe it came about during the heyday of the American Clipper Ship era. I am sure all of you know that a clipper ship is a ship-rigged sailing vessel that is very fast…i.e. it clips off the miles faster than other more common ship rigged sailing vessels. Pride II is a clipper schooner…i.e. it is a schooner rigged very fast boat for her represented period. To confuse things Pride II can also be described as a Baltimore Clipper…meaning it is a fast Baltimore built vessel. Leaving the listener with the chore of assuming what rig it was. For the purposes of the 1812 War, Baltimore built vessels used as privateers might be described as Baltimore Clipper Privateers.

In any event, cracker jack sailors were needed for crackerjack vessels because smart and gung-ho sailors, or sailors with bully-mates, were able to hand sail and rigging more smartly than aboard the regular sailing cargo vessel. Between two cracker jack vessels would be some serious competition to demonstrate a “smart” style and maybe a notable seamanship style that could create envy in other vessels’ crews.

Fortunately the sense of competition between Lynx and Pride II is not especially strong. More it is merely pride in their vessel than it is any attempt to show the other vessel as ‘less’ in some aspect. There is no place for showing-up our little sister any more than it would be friendly to have Pride II welcomed to the West Coast with effort to show her as less than her hosts.

We are here in Chestertown rafted alongside. Lynx is outboard of Pride II because she is smaller and it is not ‘proper’ to expect her to act as Pride II’s fender…although Lynx is strong enough to have Pride IIalongside should the occasion merit. In Chestertown is a gathering of several sailing vessels to celebrate the end of the sailing season in the Chesapeake Bay for the larger working vessels…hence the “rig-down” reference. These next three days will be spent with the visiting vessels parading under as much sail as possible in a very narrow winding river showing off and showing to the gathered crowds this last major traditional maritime weekend of the season. The crews mingle after hours and do a lot of waving back and forth between the vessels as they pass. Pride II and Lynx are not the only rafted vessels, so good neighborliness is being demonstrated and experienced throughout the fleet. With good weather the good comradeship is felt by all the public as well.

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

1000 hours Wednesday October 27, 2010
Anchored at Annapolis, Maryland
Rain and threat of thunderstorms
Wind southerly 10 to 15 knots with threat of higher in squalls

We remain anchored in Annapolis waiting on the weather. We are ahead of schedule for arrival in Chestertown tomorrow late afternoon. No reason to get underway in the current wet weather. So crew are deep into cleaning and maintenance. A shore errand is being run with the aid of past Guest Crew and Annapolis resident Goldwin Smith, who has on several occasions assisted Pride II with errands and even “sitting” Pride II when we had reason to try and get the whole crew to an appointment. Goldwin first sailed Pride II on her Atlantic Crossing of 2005. He speaks fondly of that sail and wants to do it again…in spite of the strong gale we experienced on that crossing. Friends like Goldwin are very special to PRIDE.

The Cambridge Schooner Rendezvous was a pleasant event for all due to great weather. For the previous two years running the weather was awful. But this last weekend the weather was near 70 degrees F and moderate and steady breezes of day sailing angled best to permit sailing along the axis of the Choptank River.

Cambridge, MD has a long maritime history due to being a somewhat large harbor with depth located deep into the Delmarva Peninsula. In the old days before trains and bridges the only way to get farm goods from the Eastern Shore to “The City” Baltimore was by water. When trains and eventually a good road system was developed, Cambridge remained valuable for getting oysters, clams and crabs to market and restaurants. But even so, with competition of efficiency in transportation modes, seafood could be moved directly from the fishing grounds to “The City” and it was not long before Cambridge as a “port” was seeing significant loss of commercial value while holding on to recreational boating interests. For thirty years or more this transition has been seeing more loss of value than increase of value. However recently, within the last 10 years, especially within the last 5 years, retirement home and second home interest has grown and that has led to a greater interest in Cambridge as a port. The Schooner Rendezvous is a new event that helps highlight the value of Cambridge as a port for both historical reasons as well recreational reasons. Pride II was welcomed as the icon she is by locals expressing great appreciation that she and the other schooners took the time and effort to make the rendezvous.

Sailing from Cambridge to Annapolis was very pleasant with a fresh southerly wind and near balmy temperatures. We had Pride II’s “little sister” Lynx in company the whole way. Two privateers of the 1812 War vintage in the same water is unique enough…but in the Chesapeake Bay brings back essences of what the bay scene must have offered way back then.

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

0800 hours Wednesday October 20, 2010

Moored alongside the Solomons Island Yacht Club pier.

It is raining and has been since 0315 this morning. It is promised to rain through much of the day. With such weather coming in today…yesterday I contacted our friends at the Solomons Island Yacht Club to see if they had space and willingness to permit PRIDE alongside last night in anticipation of the rain. Fortunately they were not full up and PRIDE was welcome. Today, after breakfast, I gave all aboard the morning off. Nothing much to do in the rain and there is a great maritime museum less than a mile away…the Calvert Maritime Museum.  Weather is expected to change late today and actually become pretty fresh from southwest to west tomorrow…which should make for a good and fast sail to Cambridge.

Over the years, Solomons Island Yacht Club has hosted PRIDE for those times when she visited to provide the opportunity for school groups to visit. It has been a number of years since PRIDE’s last visit. In the meanwhile the yacht club has done some major adjusting. They expanded and upgraded their clubhouse and re-did some of the main dock. I am most appreciative of their continued willingness to permit PRIDE alongside. Their dock is popular with other yacht club organization members looking for reciprocal docking and membership privileges. Pride of Baltimore, Inc. does not have facilities to reciprocate with…so the generosity and support of Marylander’s PRIDE by the Solomons Island Yacht Club is truly welcomed. 

Departing Norfolk Harbor on Monday the wind was favorably on the beam from the east so the crew and our new Guest Crew set all of PRIDE’s sail…including the studding sail…for a little while. The wind pushed PRIDE all the way to the Great Wicomico River, just south of Smith Point, the lower lip of the entrance of the Potomac River. We sailed in right up to the anchor at about 2100 hours. Wind near 10 knots from the ESE.

The Great Wicomico River is home to Reedville, Virginia and the Menhaden fishing industry. As PRIDE made her approach to the river she was overtaken by some five of the Menhaden fishing vessels on their way home. These are not small vessels. At least as long as PRIDE is. The Menhaden fish is used for several things including animal food and fertilizer.

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

DOCKSIDE PORTSMOUTH, VIRGINIA

 GREAT CHESAPEAKE BAY SCHOONER RACE RESULTS FOR 2010

The Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race awards were presented late afternoon yesterday. PRIDE was awarded the exquisite ship’s clock “LINE HONORS” award…recognizing that PRIDE was indeed the first boat in fleet to finish the race. PRIDE was also awarded 2^nd in Class AA,while the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point entry, SUMMERWIND, was awarded 1^st in Class AA.

There is a handicap for all of the schooners. While Line Honors is awarded to the first schooner to finish, the handicap establishes the fist three “winners” of the each racing class in the race based on a time allowance created from the handicap system. 3^rd in Class AA went to Privateer LYNX.

Handicaps are sometimes funny things. For instance LYNX was rated in such a way as she had to “give” time to SUMMERWIND. Meaning that in this race LYNX would have had to lead SUMMERWIND across the finish line by nearly an hour in order to actually place ahead of her. From the perspective of technological representation alone, such a rating where LYNX, a model of a 1812 War Privateer, gives time to the highly modified 1929 schooner yacht SUMMERWIND does not make sense. Even so, LYNX did very well to cross the finish line only 15 minutes behind SUMMERWIND.

Meanwhile the success of this schooner race is to be envied by all. It provides support to all things good about the Chesapeake Bay ~ Financial support to the Save the Bay Foundation; education of youth about schooners and the Chesapeake Bay; and mutually supportive community that spans the Maryland/Virginia border. The race also gathers what is the largest fleet of schooners in North America and maybe the world. What a remarkable legacy for all of us and thank you to the originator of the idea…Captain Lane Briggs…a most beloved character of the Chesapeake Bay from Tidewater Virginia.

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

Dockside Portsmouth, Virginia
Post 2010 Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race

It is just better than 30 hours after completing the 2010 Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race. Most of that time I have been on my back catching up with sleep…no sleep for the race…which started at 1340 hours on Thursday and ended at 0250 hours Friday morning. Up at 0600 on Thursday, asleep for only a couple hour nap at 1000 hours Friday…a span of 28 hours…followed by another couple hour nap from 1600 to 1800…followed by a dead to the world sleep from 2100 to 0715 Friday night to Saturday morning. I feel human again. So seem the ship’s complement…but I do not think they slept as much as I did.

The weather forecast for the race suggested a “parade” of racing was in the offing. Meaning, once the order of start was established…there might not be much change to that order. In the end, that seems to have come to pass…more or less. PRIDE was able to achieve a good start and came out 2^nd in fleet parade order after the start…behind the well crewed Annapolis “hotrod” schooner WOODWIND. It took PRIDE half of the Chesapeake Bay to get by her…a vessel nearly half of PRIDE’s size. But with a much more modern underbody and construction…she is very fast…and very well sailed.

New to the race is United States Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, entry SUMMERWIND. A recently donated schooner yacht of 1929 designed by the venerable John Alden. She is being promoted as a “practical” experience training platform for Merchant Marine Cadets. (Agile and responsive sailing vessels are a really good addition to any maritime academy if anyone were to ask me). Updated with a very high-tech schooner rig with fully battened mainsail and foresail with squared off tops to her sails and a full suite of reaching sails like jenikers (radial head single luff spinnakers) and a gollywobbler (mainmast balloon staysail reacher…rigs like a fisherman between the two schooner masts and reaches all the way to the deck), she was an unknown entity. Let me say she is very fast. In size she is midway between WOODWIND and PRIDE. In the first third of the race she came up from behind during the reaching phase of the race and threatened to pass PRIDE. With conscientious attention to “blocking” strategies, PRIDE was able to force SUMMERWIND to jibe away. This gave PRIDE a chance to maximize her deeper reaching capability during the more downwind phase of the race to extend a lead upon SUMMERWIND.

Meanwhile not far behind was Privateer LYNX…also new to this race…did a decent job with her start…meaning she was not among the first to cross…she was right behind. This enabled her to capture the reaching winds and sail a direct course towards the finish…finishing within only one quarter or a third of an hour behind SUMMERWIND. Good job LYNX! By the way, her skipper is our own relief “partner captain” Jamie Trost. So it stands to reason LYNX would turn in a good performance.

Even though PRIDE had to spend time steering away from the centerline of the race course to attend to preventing SUMMERWIND from overtaking, PRIDE was able to speed down The Bay with the fresh and favorable winds and be the “first in fleet” to cross the Thimble Light Finish Line, more than an hour ahead of SUMMERWIND. But SUMMERWIND was not the second vessel to cross the finish line! It was the venerable WOODWIND from Annapolis! Hail to WOODWIND!

What was it like to sail PRIDE in this 2010 Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race? It was a lot of yelling and bellowing and rushing from one end of the ship to the other hurrying to get thousands of square feet of sail up in a very short time while trying to position the ship for a decent start in a day of constant rain ranging from drizzle to downpour with a 15 knot breeze…i.e. a fresh breeze. The “bellow and bark” from this captain and PRIDE’s mate is always a function of a race…especially near the start…but also due to lots of new hands aboard still becoming familiar with PRIDE. Once the start was accomplished the ordering was much more conversational and the work less constant…plus there was a pause in the wind as it began to morph from SE at 15 knots to NW’rly with virtual calm in-between. Still, there were intense and stunningly dynamic moments (the rain eventually passed and the late afternoon broken cloud sunlit sky painted everything beautifully) where PRIDE crew were standing-by to attend to sail when we were “jousting” with SUMMERWIND by steering ahead of her with the goal of blocking her efforts to pass PRIDE. Then there was the after mid-night, post half moon darkness when the wind rose to an erratically puffy 35 knots and also backed towards the west from northwest (wind more on the beam) and it was necessary to get sail down. First the main-gaff-topsail to reduce weather helm, then the studdingsail for reason of strength of wind, then the topgallant for angle of heel followed by double reefing the main and taking in the jib-topsail, followed by taking in the rest of the mainsail. Right afterward the wind moderated some, so the crew reset the jib-topsail because, with the wind more on the beam, it was the better choice than resetting any of the mainsail. All the above took about an hour and a half.

We do not know if PRIDE was able to “save her time” on those vessels of her class she led across the finish line. What we do know is that PRIDE was the first in fleet to finish…HAIL PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II.

Signed,
Jan C. Miles and the hard working, very proud crew of Pride of Baltimore II

Baltimore Photographer and Pride friend and supporter, Greg Pease was on a chase boat following the action for the first few hours of the race.  Here are some photos from the start.