July 10, 2025
Captain Jeff Crosby has taken command. Time together exchanging information will continue through another day.
Pride of Baltimore II is now as high above sea level as she will ever get this year. 705 feet. It is a long climb accomplished over the last three weeks starting from the western Gulf of St Lawrence near the Gaspe Peninsula. A lot of motoring against river currents interrupted by turbulent waters of 16 locks (7 between Montreal & Lake Ontario, 8 between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, one at Sault Ste. Marie), ranging between 20-50 foot lifts. With two short breaks. If one could call two separate Tall Ship Festival weekends with plenty of deck visitors asking questions, a break from the constant state of climbing altitude, and experiencing headwinds from the normally dominant westerly winds ranging from southwest to northwest. We got lucky with fair wind sails the full lengths of Lake Ontario and Lake Huron. Lake Superior proved gentle overall with maybe half its length sailed. Still, in total, a pretty steady grind with few periods of steady sailing. The hidden satisfaction? From here through the rest of the summer, it is all “down hill”. With shorter legs between ports. Meaning mostly a week or less duration. And more frequent time off to crew during port stops nearly every weekend.
For those who won’t know, Captain Jeff Crosby grew up in Duluth. Being a Pride, Inc Partner Captain for several years now, whenever Pride is in Lake Superior, we always schedule our Captain command changes so that Jeff is in command. This time around, the command rotation is in Duluth. It was planned that Jeff would command Pride for the Parade of Sail. However, a Parade of Sail organizing glitch developed at the last moment. Jeff was asked to take over the role of Parade Marshal. So I stood in as Captain of Pride for the Parade of Sail. While Jeff marshaled the Tall Ship Fleet and escort vessels from the center of the lifting portion of the Duluth Bridge. Those who look at the videos from Duluth webcams, or Pride, Inc social media videos, will note Pride entered Duluth with only a couple of jibs and her square-topsail. Just at the last minute before heading into the jetties and the lift bridge, a wind squall of around 18 knots blew up from what had been 6-10 knots from northeast. The northeast direction is a nearly dead downwind sail into the jetties and through the bridge for all the sail vessels. Had to strike Pride’s mainsail ahead of entering the jetties to maintain limited speed behind the Parade Vessels ahead. Just as the Pride entered the jetties, the wind squall died off. Forcing starting Pride’s s engines to keep up. Timing is everything.
Signed, Jan C. Miles, Senior Captain
