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Our stays in Erie and Cleveland were marked by mechanical problems along with the occasional fresh weather that caused some angst. Otherwise meeting up with other sail vessels and seeing shipmates highlighted the visits.

Erie, Pennsylvania, is the home of the sailing museum and reproduction of Commodore Perry's War of 1812 Brig Niagara. Today the ship is commanded and crewed by a number of folk who have sailed aboard Pride II. In fact over the years, all the crew that have sailed in both vessels (except two) have started sailing aboard Niagara. This, I believe, has benefited Pride II more than it has Niagara. Their program is more fundamental in it's training than what we provide. But I believe we have given those trained aboard Niagara and who later sailed aboard Pride II a chance to see how their knowledge works over a very wide span of differing places and conditions. For those that sailed with us before going to Niagara, my guess is they have learned more about discipline in leadership. There are many more crew to manage aboard Niagara than aboard Pride II and so there is a greater delegation to officers to ensure the details are attended to. Aboard Pride II, by virtue of her smaller crew on a smaller vessel, the captain often can and will exert influence over more details than can be covered by a captain aboard Niagara. In any event, seeing old friends highlighted our stay in Erie along with being able to get things done in a facility designed especially to care for a traditional sailing vessel. It was easy to feel we had come to rest in a traditional maritime heaven.

So we did the best we could to attend to maintenance over the short period of our visit, interrupted by a daysail with the Maryland Port Administration and an Open House attended by museum visitors. We were doing very well till the last day when a few sprinkles came down while we were in the midst of a varnish job of Pride II's rail cap. This was on a day when the weather persisted in indicating there was no moisture in the area to threaten the crews' work. Fortunately, the varnish job was not completely ruined. But it was upsetting to see a very good job rendered mediocre by bad luck.

The transit to Cleveland was threatened by summer thunderstorms as another in a series of minor cold fronts came through. One vessel, Highlander Sea, a fishing schooner design, got caught in one early morning squall and lost her foretopmast. Fortunately Pride II, by virtue of her route from Erie, missed all the wind activity but not the rain. Our problem was discovering after the wind died and after motoring for an hour that the port engine shaft was trying to disconnect from the port transmission. We discovered this by smelling an overheating shaft support bearing. We quickly turned off that engine and let things cool down and proceeded under one engine. This is not a problem with Pride II - she does very well under one engine. In fact, I have had experience moving her through locks and numerous dockings using only one engine. But life is sure easier when both propellers are available.

We arrived in Cleveland well in advance of the time we needed to be there since it was raining and I saw no reason to drift around out in the Lake with the rain. I also hoped a mechanic might be available to look at the transmission. We had no luck that day but the weather cleared and there was a gorgeous afternoon of 12-14 knot winds coming from the northeast to provide great conditions for the Cleveland Fest ships to show off their sailing beauty.

Maritime festivals can be great for visiting vessels. There can sometimes be significant revenue for the ship. But for certain, there is a lot of work for the crew! On an average day, a ship is boarded by between 5,000 and 7,000 persons per day! That is a lot of gangway security to be concerned about, not to mention all the conversation initiated by oft repeated questions. Of course, in between the Open House schedules are regular duties - like washing down the deck, attending to garbage and drinking water, sewage pump-out, as well as food shopping and procuring ship supplies. In our case, we needed a mechanic. Ron from Great Lakes Power came down and worked with us all day Thursday. In order for Ron to get a proper look at the shaft, it had to be moved back. To accomplish this, the connection to the transmission had to be broken. But to move the shaft back, the shaft support bearing which had overheated had to be taken apart. So, while thousands of Ohioans were exploring Pride II on deck, we were trying to determine if the transmission problem was the type that required removal of the transmission from the ship to a machine shop. What a nightmare that would be! But we were fortunate that was not the diagnosis. So the repair was made before the end of the day and Ron left us to put the shaft back against the transmission and get it hooked up. We would have worked into the night to do that because of a promise of severe weather the next day, but we had a sail charter to execute with the Maryland Port Authority. We did that with one engine again in very light winds.

In an effort to avoid exhausting the engineer, I chose not to proceed with repairs all night long. It might have been the smarter thing to do. Friday morning before we could get the shaft put together the promised weather arrived and the sea came in through the breakwater. Pride II started bouncing around making the boarding of guests potentially hazardous. The bouncing around also threatened to damage the ship by smashing her into the wall. So with the one engine we got away from the dock before things got too rough to get away. We left a large crowed on the dock looking forlornly at their missed opportunity to visit as we struggled away from the dock.

Maritime Festival planning is no easy task. The more vessels visiting the more complicated things get. So success (in number of vessels attracted) brings mixed realities. In the case of Cleveland, there was no other place for Pride II to dock that was within the already established bounds of the festival. The available choices were way out of visibility. So I anchored Pride II just out from the middle of the moored fleet of visiting vessels and shot cannon at the crowd every half-hour. I was told by several that Pride II was beautiful at anchor and shocked the crowd repeatedly with her very loud cannon.

While at anchor, we got the port shaft reattached to the port transmission and the support bearing re-installed. Even with the day off from welcoming festival revelers, it was a close call getting the shaft and bearing together in time to do another underway charter set for the evening. The weather stayed fresh all day so there continued to be a sizable swell inside the harbor affecting even the bigger vessels. So it was imperative to have both shafts and engines on line to contemplate doing the daysail. But we got things together in time and hauled back the hook and maneuvered to a temporary location vacated by another ship, the Denis Sullivan from Milwaukee, that also had a charter and seemed to be riding out the swell nicely at her dock. So we boarded our guests and took off again. We were only away for an hour due to the weather, the onset of sunset, and the need for the Denis Sullivan to get back by dark. But just as we were about to return our guests ashore, the weather increased significantly and I decided it was too risky to go to the temporary location. So there we were with a bunch of party revilers, guests of the local office of Merrill Lynch, stuck aboard Pride II with no readily obvious means of getting off! But the festival organizers had an idea and we went to a dock managed by the Army Corps of Engineers and found a perfectly sublime protected location to tie up and debark our guests. The Army Corps even permitted Pride II to stay the night, so for at least the evening Pride II was in a secure location.

On Saturday the wind continued fresh but not as strong as Friday. Finally by early afternoon the weather was down enough to consider going back to our original location. It was still fairly rough and the wind was driving the ship onto the dock. I ordered the crew to set the starboard anchor as a means of controlling the landing and thus making it possible to hold Pride II off the dock a bit. Still we busted some docking gear and gaffed up some recently varnished rail cap. We also popped a fender during our time along the dock. I guess I should have waited for the weather to die down further before we went alongside.

We had another charter Saturday evening and as luck would have it, the wind was perfectly flat and the Lake had calmed quickly, too. Not a breath of air to set any sails. So after getting underway and hauling back the anchor, we motored around and returned to the dock on schedule. After the guests left, the crew had a lot of work cleaning up and stowing sails made ready to use for the evening sail - which were not used. They were not done until about 11 p.m. Fortunately, this crew had not been working since 8 a.m. I had established a two-watch system where one watch worked 24 hours but did not start "the day" till 3 p.m. This provided a significant rest period between 7 hours of work in the afternoon and evening and 7 hours of work in the morning and early afternoon. Then they had the following 24 hours off. So, while I had to be around to make decisions all day long while the weather was a problem and the mechanical systems were not up to snuff, the crew was getting some regular rest.

With the strong weather dissipated and the new high-pressure system installed over the region, Sunday turned into a beautiful summer day. I could leave the ship and take some personal time ashore. I was back aboard again for the evening sail with a Maryland based company, Tate Access Floors. There was just enough wind to go for a sail and so the crews' efforts with the canvas weren't for naught.

Monday was Race Day, the first of four in the American Sail Training Association's 2003 Great Lakes Tall Ships Challenge. It was a short 38 mile race and, as fortune would have it, one with a nearly perfect wind direction for the square-riggers of the fleet. The day was dry and practically cloudless with a light northeast breeze. This made for a calm Lake Erie. The ships all forgathered at the start for the noon gun. Pride II got off to an early lead, but we kept looking back over our shoulders at Brig Niagara which was slowly creeping up on us. Half way through the race, it was just the two 1812-era reproductions in the lead by miles. The rest of the fleet, all but one representing sail from the early 20th century, were spread far behind. Niagara is somewhat larger than Pride II, which is critically important for speed through the water. Her waterline length at 110 feet is 19 longer than Pride II's. This alone should make Niagara faster than Pride II.

However, whenever the wind is ahead, Pride II can work more closely to windward and thus get ahead. With the wind on the beam or behind, Niagara can scoot right along impressively. During the six and a half hour race, she did not pass us till the fifth hour and crossed the line a mere two minutes ahead of us. She looked very impressive as she sailed along. There were no tricks to this race. It was a straight line from start to finish with the wind favorable to all vessels and remained more or less the same strength for all throughout the race. Except for a little bit of sail trim tweaking and my effort to prevent Niagara from passing by forcing her to sail through our lee wind shadow (which she eventually succeeded in doing), yesterday's race boiled down to vessel differences. Pride II is an efficient sailor. But even with her high degree of efficiency, she was unable to keep ahead of another fast vessel that had a longer waterline and a favorable breeze.

After the finish, Niagara and Pride II sailed in tandem to a selected anchorage on the east side of Middle Bass Island. The positioning of the two vessels was as if they were a small naval squadron sailing in formation. For the last several miles, they sailed side by each all the way into the anchorage. Because they were sailing downwind and thus wanted to turn around before dropping anchor, they executed turns to the right at exactly the same time. Arrived head to wind at the same time. Dropped anchor at the same time. Settled back on their anchors at the same time. Stowed the last of their sails at the same time. It was a wonderfully choreographed performance that would have been hard to duplicate even after training for a long period. Serendipity is a wonderful thing.

Today is a "make and mend" day, or a "rest and repair" day, whichever way you might chose to describe the time taken to skip sailing and instead attack the myriad small repairs and cosmetic chores that await the crew of a vessel. As it has turned out, it would have been a hard sailing day. The wind has been up and down from 15 to 25 knots all morning and early afternoon. There is another cold front approaching and the south to southwest wind is strong in anticipation of cooler air. We have even set the second anchor in case the wind spikes in a thunderstorm. Tomorrow we haul back both anchors early in the morning and rush off to get into position for the parade into Toledo. We have had a TV cameraman aboard all the way from Cleveland. Another is boarding tonight by water taxi from Put-in-Bay. Yet another comes aboard tomorrow as we motor past Put-in-Bay on our way toward Toledo. Toledo is Tall Ship Festival Port # 2 in a line of eight port festivals to take place from July 11 through August 25. I hope we can keep our positive moods throughout the next six weekends.

In the middle of writing this log, Pride II was paid a visit by Captain Walter Rybka of the Brig Niagara. He was out in the late afternoon, post-thunder squall breezes with his ship's sailing gig and some of his crew. Walter came aboard for a short gam while his Second Mate Jesse Kenworthy (ex-Pride II bosun for the 2000 Atlantic Tall Ships Race to Europe) continued on sailing for a bit before coming back to pick his Captain up before dark. Walter and I have known each other for 30 years and we both have successful careers in traditional sailing vessels. Racing together is a rare experience; racing side by side is unique. So we had fun comparing notes. He especially liked the CD of digital photographs we gave him of shots taken by Pride II's crew of the race and of Niagara passing by and getting the "photo finish" with Pride II directly behind her. During our discussion, we talked about our strategies. My simple declaration of trying to keep Niagara from sailing "over" us (pass us to windward) contrasted deeply with the detail of strategy aboard Niagara. Their concerns were focused on how to pass Pride II by going through her lee. Would I drive down on them and try to shadow them? If I did, would they then be able to pass Pride II and still have the wind angle to lay the finish line mark? Ultimately, they had the power to sail by with Niagara's greater sail height (some 10 or more feet over Pride II) and her waterline length. But to hear Walter describe the details of thought was a marvel to me. After a pause I confided to Walter that they had been much more intellectual than I had been in the race. Walter laughed. He pointed out that he had three officers aboard that all had sailed with me. (Wesley Heerson, Chief Mate has sailed numerous times with me and was last aboard as First Mate on the return trip from Asia; Jesse Kenworthy, Second Mate, spent a year aboard Pride II and raced to Europe as Pride II's Bosun; and Jason Quilter who spent a year and a half with Pride II and was aboard for the outbound voyage to Asia as First Mate). They were all trying to guess what I would do and figure ways of getting around my maneuvers. To describe me as flattered by their concerted effort is an understatement! Upon reflection, the combined efforts of those three officers and Walter caused them to work very hard at doing all they could to get past Pride II, which they eventually succeeded in doing. My strategy of preventing them from passing to windward and to try to blanket them if they tried to pass to leeward was sound but badly executed. I did not follow them to leeward as closely as would have been necessary to succeed, assuming it were even possible to blanket Niagara, considering her greater height of sail area. But I did not prosecute my strategy as fully as they prosecuted their strategy and so they passed us by. Which is a demonstration of consistent concentration and clear commitment to sound strategy. It is possible that if I had fully prosecuted my strategy that they may not have been able to pass. But if they succeeded, by the time they had passed by, both boats would have been so far to leeward of the rhumbline that the wind angle may have been too close for Niagara to keep the lead. But because I was inconsistent in executing my strategy, we will never know. The captain and mates of Niagara did a much better job of racing their vessel than I did racing Pride II.

So, where were Pride II's officers? They were there and they worked very hard at everything I tasked them with. They trimmed and retrimmed sail tirelessly. But none of them had any command time and hence were unable to help much with strategy. And if they had some command time, they had very little. Each of Niagara's officers had significant command time since sailing with Pride II and before sailing aboard Niagara. Hence, as officers they had the experience to be able to anticipate what might be needed by their captain. Together they made a tremendously capable "bridge management team" and so executed a flawless race in favorable conditions to wrest the lead from Pride II at the very end of the race. I congratulate them! If I contributed to their efforts of professional development, I am flattered. But they did a proper job on their own and deserve full credit. It truly was a good race between good boats with good crews!