A Festive Stay in Greenport

Motoring in calm wind down the Atlantic Ocean side of Sandy Hook, New Jersey having just spent the dawn and early morning hours motoring down the East River through Hell Gate and on through New York Harbor and the Verrazano Narrows to the Atlantic.

The Memorial Weekend was spent in a Tall Ship festival in Greenport, NY, out at the end of Long Island. It was the second of four Tall Ship America Tall Ship Challenge Festivals scheduled for this year in commemoration of the Bicentennial of the start to the 1812 War with England. It has been some time since Greenport hosted a half dozen or more sail training vessels. For a small town, they went all out and so did the visiting crowds! The shopping streets were closed to vehicular traffic and the ships were mobbed. Many of the local establishments supported the Town of Greenport’s efforts to host a Tall Ship festival.  A couple of the proprietors we visiting crew got to know commented that no other type of festival drew as many visitors to town. The result of this draw – every proprietor was exhausted along with all of their staff. “You ships are welcome back any time…but don’t come back for three weeks…I need to get some rest!”

The weather was terrific for such a festival as well. Leading up to Memorial weekend there had been 4 or more days of cool & wet weather. Saturday the weather broke into sun and warmth and the crowds came from the full length of Long Island and beyond.

These Tall Ships America Challenges and Festivals are built around some inter-ship competition in the form of voyage racing. The first race of the 2012 series was out of Savannah and was along the Southeast US Coast up towards Frying Pan Shoal off of Cape Fear. PRIDE earned a First in that race. There was one planned out of Greenport. But as luck would have it every festival vessel in Greenport had financial obligations that precluded them participating with the planned race from Greenport down to the entrance of the Chesapeake Bay. As an alternative a “drag race” concept was created as a substitute. I call it the Tall Ship Challenge Sprint Race. Over the four days following Greenport’s Tall Ship Festival each ship will compete with the other ships by finding an opportunity to put as many miles under sail in 6 consecutive hours as they can. The results will be compared and a winner…under their “handicap”…will be identified by the most amount of miles sailed in 6 continuous hours. Each ship can try to do this as many times as they want till midnight on Friday. A vessel can even sail back and forth in a favorable wind slot rather than pick only one single direction to sail for six hours. It will be quite interesting to find out if any vessel does this.

PRIDE’s first stab at this was the sail out of Greenport and westward in Long Island Sound. The wind was just favorable being out of the southwest and fresh at 15 knots with gusts to 20 knots. After starting the “sprint” the wind got gusty and the crew had to strike the jib-top and the main-gaff-top. At the beginning of the afternoon PRIDE snored along at better than 10 knots over the bottom with the aid of the flooding Long Island Sound. Her speed through the water was near 9 knots. Late into the afternoon and into the early evening the current slowed down and even began to flow against PRIDE. Still, she was making better than 7 knots over the bottom while indicating near 8 knots through the water due to some moderation in the wind strength. Not sure when the next sailing 6 hours will occur. This calm is looking like it will last most of today. There is hope of a favorable breeze Thursday further down the Mid Atlantic Coast on our way to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. I hope so, we have some 245 nautical miles to cover by Friday afternoon. So we cannot wait for the wind. It must catch up to us.

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

Fleet Week New York ~ A Spectacular Spectacle

Pride II behind the Mexican Navy Sail Training Vessel Cuauhtémoc.

Every year the U.S. Navy is welcome to New York Harbor for Fleet Week. “Grey Ships” parade in and visit New York Harbor for several days. This year, in partnership with New York City’s own Operation Sail (OpSail) and to mark the Bicentennial Year of the start of the War of 1812 with England, Fleet Week was kicked off by two maritime parades. The first an international fleet of sail training vessels escorted by American sailing vessels. The second an international fleet of naval ships. The first fleet went up the Hudson River and turned around at the George Washington Bridge and proceeded down the Hudson River. The second fleet waited an hour and then proceeded up the Hudson River meeting the first fleet at the Aircraft Carrier INTREPID. As the two fleets passed each other the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels and other naval air craft flew overhead up the Hudson River.

The wind was light so presented no headaches to the sailing vessels. While cloudy and a bit hazy the visibility was pretty good across the width of the river. All in all the spectacle was spectacular!

Crew enjoying the Parade. 1st Mate Sarah, 2nd Mate John and Deckhand Brandon. Lady Liberty and the Colombian Navy Sail Training Vessel Gloria provide a splendid backdrop.

PRIDE had a number of passengers who booked passage for the parade. Meanwhile PRIDE also had the Guest Crew from Baltimore sailing all of the way to Greenport, NY out at the tip of Long Island. Everyone helped the crew set all the sail. So PRIDE was one of the very few parading vessels that had most of the available sail up. Plus PRIDE had her cannons to pay proper respect to the hosting port of New York. Two guns for the World Financial Center and two guns for the dignitaries and special guests waiting at the Aircraft Carrier INTREPID. And just one more gun for the young kids aboard the Schooner MYSTIC WHALER. The kids were surprised but wanted another shot. The escorting USCG and New York Harbor Police requested no more gun shots. So be it. The guns shots were truly loud and all aboard PRIDE got a big kick out of them.

Now PRIDE is back inside North Cove Marina at the World Financial Center and everything is put away. All crew are now off on personal itineraries for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we get underway soon after 8 AM and head up the East River for the sail through Long Island Sound towards Greenport.

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

Baltimore to New York ~ Roll with It

It was a misty and rolly transit to New York Harbor’s North Cove Marina this time. PRIDE has made the voyage from Baltimore to New York Harbor at near the same time of year a number of occasions.  At least two times the transit was very fast under sail. This time it was slow and under power. Goes to show how wildly different the voyage can from one year to another.

The situation this year was a stalled low off the New Jersey Coast due to the jet stream formation above. Instead of the fast portion of the Jet Stream it was a slow portion of the Jet Stream that was not dragging the New Jersey Low off shore. As a result, the weather forecast last week was a fresh NE wind off of New Jersey. Not the type of sailing that you take PRIDE into when you need her to go towards the NE!

So…what do you do when it is best not go where you are supposed to go? You do something else for as long as possible hoping the weather will pass by in time to for you to catch up with your voyage plan. In our case we did not depart Baltimore till evening time Saturday…instead of departing in the morning. And when we did depart we went straight to the Eastern Shore south of Rock Hall and anchored around 11 pm. No sailing was lost because there was no wind. So a lot of logistics were taken care of.

After a good nights rest and because the NE wind that was off shore was going to reach the Chesapeake Bay we sailed around all day Sunday and went back to anchor in the same spot. Lots of good sail handling was practiced by the crew…as well some emergency drill practice through launching the small rubber boat for an errand ashore at Kent Island Narrows and recovery of small boat…all under sail.

After dinner and while everyone was resting I spotted a revised weather forecast that indicated we might best get underway rather than wait for Monday. By departing at midnight Sunday it might just be possible to live up to the original voyage plan arriving New York Harbor Tuesday afternoon rather than early Wednesday morning. So after hauling back the anchor at midnight we motored PRIDE up the Chesapeake Bay and through the C&D Canal and down the Delaware Bay to the Atlantic. Sure enough, the Atlantic was a bit roiled up with the previous 2 days of NE wind, but there was no actual wind Monday evening…so with a lot of rolling PRIDE motored on.

This morning we made New York Harbor as originally hoped for. Everyone is very happy not to be rolling around for a while. The Big Apple beckons to all once the work day is over.

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

At last…quiet, calm as we head up the Potomac

At 4 AM this morning, after 34 hours of steady motoring for a distance of 268 nautical miles (7.8 knot average) against a steady 25 to 30 knots of wind, PRIDE was able to stop motoring at the Patuxent River and sail into the Potomac River after breakfast this morning.

The above represents an atypical grind for PRIDE. Very fortunately, itineraries established for PRIDE usually enable her to sail more than half of all her transits. But in this instance, as in a small number of instances over the more than two decades of scheduling PRIDE, it was necessary to push PRIDE along with her engines most of the distance between New York and Washington D.C. because the weather was not only contrary for the overall direction of travel, but strongly so.

Right now, the peace of having the engines off is almost shattering for the absence of the muted grinding roar of two turbo-charged 4-cylinder engines heard down below and the constant buffeting blast of 25 to 30 knots of wind one received while on deck. The lack of motion due to the virtually calm Potomac River also provides a near unreal bliss of ease for any effort to move around the ship. The transit along the New Jersey Coast was a jerky heaving motion that could often send one to their knees or lurching heavily to the side. While there was a respite from motion during the transit up the upper Delaware Bay, through the C&D Canal and down the upper Chesapeake Bay, the main body of the Chesapeake Bay created a definite hobby horsing motion as a result of 25 to 30 knots of southerly wind all last night.

But after all of the above, PRIDE is not only now sailing in some friendly wind, she is on target to make the scheduled Tuesday 4 AM lift of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, which crosses the Potomac River at Alexandria, VA. To be sure, the Route 95 traffic that will crossing the bridge at that hour will not be pleased!!! But at least it is a lift that won’t be happening between 5 AM and 11 PM.

PRIDE just spent a week in Manhattan as guest of Denis Connor’s North Cove Marina, managed by the Manhattan Sailing Club. She was there to participate in the New York Classic Yacht Regatta over Columbus Weekend and remained the following week to host an evening reception for Visit Baltimore, a tourism arm of the City of Baltimore, and to do a number of public day-sails to raise revenue for Pride of Baltimore, Inc. There was no wind for the Classic Yacht Regatta, but the weather was unseasonably warm and dry, so it was a pleasant day on the water for the 35 regatta guests on each of the three race days of the weekend.  The ship was filled to capacity for each race, representing a successful weekend of revenue raising business for Pride, Inc. through the direct use of PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II. Later in the week there was a lot of rain and wind during the scheduled day-sails, as a result those were cancelled. But the Visit Baltimore reception last Tuesday evening experienced very pleasant weather indeed, along with a spectacular view of Jersey City across the Hudson River during the evening sunset.

PRIDE’s scheduled departure of North Cove last Friday was delayed due to fresh southerly winds creating a significant contrary sea state along the Jersey Coast. Friday evening a cold front came through as forecast, bringing strong southwest and westerly winds. By Saturday, the sea state along the Jersey shore was down enough, knocked down by the fresh westerly winds, that it was deemed appropriate to depart New York. The loss of 24 hours from the delayed start and the lack of truly westerly winds, meaning that sea state along the Jersey shore was still somewhat robust and winds were still south of west, meant that PRIDE could not sail fast enough through such sea state due to the wind being south of west, and make the speed needed to remain on schedule. So instead, her two engines pushed her along.

There was some serious debate concerning going all the way to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay rather than up the Delaware Bay and through the C&D Canal then down the Chesapeake Bay. There is only an additional 20 odd miles to Washington D.C. using the “outside” route rather than the “inside” route. But the prevalence of the west wind turned out to be much less than originally forecast. Instead there would be additional southerly to southwesterly winds of some strength returning again Sunday afternoon. Those winds would be useful for going up the Chesapeake Bay, but PRIDE would not arrive the mouth of The Bay till early Monday morning, meaning there would be some stout headwinds while still off shore of the DelMarVa Peninsula. Meanwhile the Atlantic sea state persisted and looked like it would only be added to by the return of the southerly winds. By arriving near the mouth of the Delaware Bay around breakfast on Sunday, PRIDE could ride the Delaware flood current all the way up to the C&D Canal, plus catch a favorable “ebb” current thru the canal and down the upper length of the Chesapeake Bay. Turning up the Delaware would also eliminate exposure to the Atlantic sea state. The serious debate ended around 6 AM Sunday as PRIDE approached the mouth of the Delaware Bay.

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

Landfall, Gloucestering, Bean-town and New York Bound

6 October, 2011

Pos: 41 07.1’N x 072 39.5’W
Wx: WNW F2, Seas calm, Sunny

PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II made landfall in Portland, Maine, five days ago. I can hear what you’re thinking – if you were so early getting the boat to the US, why is the blog so late? Well the interim days have been a bit of a whirlwind. In making Portland, we drove PRIDE II hard from the time of the last blog. Starting with a strong breeze just abaft the beam, we slowly took in sail as the wind veered, all the while laying a rhumb line for Portland. The Stuns’l had to come in when a fairlead for it parted, the T’gallant and Gaff top were too much by sunset, and near midnight, with the wind ahead of the beam, we reefed the Mains’l and took in the Jibtops’l. Even still, PRIDE II was charging along at 10 knots through the inky black and squall speckled night. Approaching Portland harbor, we took in the Foretops’l and saw the last of the rain.

Originally intending to anchor off of Portland Yacht Services (PYS), we sailed all the way to a spot I’d picked days before near the mooring field. But Phin Sprague, owner of PYS is a lover of tall ships and was kind enough to offer us a dock for clearing customs. There is no sailing through all the classic yachts and fishing vessels off PYS, so we took in sail where we would have anchored, and picked our way through the scattered boats under engines for the first time since securing in Lunenburg. Arriving at dawn, we were cleared through customs by 0815, but the crew was another three hours in stowing. We had, after all, used every sail we had.

With the rest of the day and night off in Portland, the crew had time to themselves, and I had a chance to ponder what the weather might do after the strong Southerlies faded. Originally, the lackluster forecast was tempting me to stay another day at anchor. Having lived for a time on Peaks Island, just off of Portland, I have a strong affinity for Casco Bay. But Saturday’s dawn weather report was calling for a significant Northeaster, lasting for days and heaping up a rotten good sea. It was time to close the distance to Boston. Unable to arrive before 1200 on Monday, we’d have to find an anchorage. The commercial anchorage in Boston Harbor is a forlorn place, with deep water, reversing current and little nearby ashore. Just 26 nautical miles north, however, is Gloucester, where our traveling companions LYNX and HIGHLANDER SEA were already alongside.

So we cast off and motored out of Portland, making a flyby of Peaks Island, and setting some steadying sail against the rolling swell. We arrived at sunset in Gloucester Harbor, anchoring within sight of both the other vessels we’d been traveling with since Montreal. Strange to reflect, but in two weeks, the three ships had never been further apart than 123 nautical miles – and the distance only got to that point because PRIDE II had lingered an extra day in Lunenburg.

After a Sunday evening of final farewells (for now) PRIDE II weighed anchor for Boston Monday morning at 0700. LYNX would be Newport, Rhode Island bound later the same day, while HIGHLANDER remains in Gloucester for downrig, and a potential new owner.

In Boston, PRIDE II arrived in PRIDE II style, then quickly opened to the public for the first time in two weeks. There to greet us were Alex Peacock’s parents Don and Nancy and Kevin Moran’s mother Sarah, offering logistic support but also collecting their sons. After seven months, our cook and deckhand cousin pair have signed off, along with deckhands Susie Ordway and Barbara Krasinski. Lots of new faces filled the ship, and we now have a few guest crew who have been aboard Pride II longer than the new crew! So much for these new crew to learn, so much for those remaining aboard to teach.

Boston’s events gave us a great start for getting our new hands acclimated to both the history and mission of Pride, Inc. and the esprit de corps of PRIDE II herself. Our Baltimore promoting partner Visit Baltimore hosted a reception aboard Tuesday evening, complete with excitement and fervor about all the impressive historical sites our homeport has to offer. Wednesday morning, after a quick diversion to Mystic Fuel to take on fuel for probably the last time this sailing season, we sailed off the dock and did some close quarters maneuvers in the harbor with a film crew from Puma Cast, a production company making a series of internet episodes following the crew of Mar Mostro, the Puma entry in the extreme sailing Volvo Ocean Race. While the focus of Puma Cast’s episodes will be the crew of Mar Mostro pushing the envelope of performance for the 60 foot high performance racing machine, they also wanted perspective on how sailing had evolved from the days of the Pilgrims to the 21st Century.

And who better to exemplify the dawn of speed under sail than PRIDE II? She evokes a class of schooners who first gave a currency to speed, who took the world, and the British Navy, by surprise with their swiftness, and forever put Baltimore on world stage as both a maritime center and a town full of hard-nosed citizens who repelled invasion and refused to yield. The style of the Baltimore Schooner influenced ship building for decades to follow, inspiring the great clipper ships of the late 19th Century and the Schooner Yacht America, one of the first vessels designed to race for the sake of racing.

And as PRIDE II strutted her stuff to illustrate just why her ancestors were so revered and feared, in her backdrop lay the most storied ship of her era. USS Constitution’s yards rose high above Boston Harbor, and the maritime heroines of 1812 shared a stage together once more.

All best,
Captain Jamie Trost and the once more rearranged crew of Pride of Baltimore II

A Light Transit From New York to Boston

PRIDE II has just cleared the Cape Cod Canal on her way to Boston from New York. Wind is not favorable so we are motoring. We have a date this evening with the Maryland Port Administration (MPA) for a sailing reception starting at 1800.

The transit from New York was mostly light winds…except for a period of contrary 25 knot winds late Saturday afternoon, which lasted through the evening while PRIDE II was passing New Haven, Connecticut.

PRIDE II had been sailing much of Saturday with a down-wind configuration in light winds of less than 10 knots. The forecast had at first, the day before, indicated the contrary winds from the east would come in Saturday afternoon at 10-15 knots with gusts of 20 knots after having been blowing lightly from the west. But Saturday morning they said we would experience light north winds with contrary easterlies of 5-10 knots. We never saw the north winds…but we did see the west winds. Around 1700 the light west winds died and we could see there was wind ahead…not strong…but we could not tell from what direction. Location reports of wind direction and strength never indicated the new fresh easterlies. As the new wind came in…from the east…we maneuvered the ship to take in the downwind sails and trim up for going to windward. Not quickly…but steadily…the east wind increased and additional shortening down was required. After a little while with a full 25 knots blowing and only the four lower sails up (mainsail, foresail, forestaysail and jib) the sea was beginning to rise and I was seeing futility in thrashing to windward in Long Island Sound well into the night. I examined the chart and decided to bear away from the wind and loose only 8 miles or so by anchoring behind a outer breakwater of New Haven Harbor. Taking the mainsail in as we bore away meant we would have a comfortable fast ride to New Haven rather than a very fast and stressful sail fighting PRIDE II’s helm due to the strong weather helm that occurs with wind from abaft the beam in a schooner rigged vessel. PRIDE II was anchored by 2000 with all secure by 2100 and crew and Guest Crew were able to start a night’s rest while taking turns for a night watch.

Sunday presented more light winds…still contrary…but with a promise that some usable southerly winds would come up late in the day. PRIDE II sailed off the anchor and with all sail set, including the topgallant, sailed across Long Island Sound with light east winds. Early afternoon the wind conveniently shifted southerly and PRIDE II began to sail east again.

During all of the above was the considerable planning for dealing with the strong currents of more than 3 knots at The Race as well as in the Cape Cod Canal. With the southerly forecast turning true and the afternoon & evening ebb current in Long Island Sound and also through The Race, PRIDE II was able to sail well into Sunday evening and cover quite a bit of distance with the additional aid of a favorable ebb current. But around sunset and off the Rhode Island beaches, the wind died as forecast and motoring was commenced. The motoring speed chosen was to ensure we met favorable current in Cape Cod Canal.

The early forecast for the waters off of Boston indicated calm winds or light winds from the north expected to shift northeasterly through the day. A contrary direction, but not hard to motor against. Thus far the direction is accurate but the strength forecast was not. The wind is actually a moderate to fresh 15 knots. Not enough to make us late for our date with the MPA. Meanwhile, in the time it has taken to write this the wind has moderated to 10 knots…but remained contrary.

Signed,
Jan C. Miles, Captain aboard PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II