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I am on my way home having been relieved by my partner Captain Beebe-Center. I will return to the ship in early September.

The wind from the east-southeast that PRIDE II had Tuesday afternoon after completing her transit of the Welland Canal turned into threatening rain squalls approaching from the southwest. I thought there might be only one wave of squalls, so the crew struck and reset all sail (including the topgallant sail and the studding sail) as the wave of squalls passed. When a second wave of squalls approached as darkness arrived, I decided the thing to do was to take in all sail for the night. The rest of the night was spent motoring towards Cleveland. By morning it was apparent that the weather reports had underestimated the coming wind strength, and as PRIDE II made her arrival in Cleveland. the wind was 20 knots of wind from the southwest rather than the 5-15 knots from the south that had been predicted.

Tall Ship Festivals are complicated affairs to organize and execute. Besides the usual details about arranging space for the ships and the shore-side festival vendors, there is a significant amount of federal government security arrangements to be made. Federal government security you ask? Yep, security in the form of the Department of Homeland Security, specifically the United States Coast Guard and local auxiliary, as well as marine and waterborne metropolitan police to ensure that no terrorism could or would occur.

Once PRIDE II was cleared back into the U.S., she had to be inspected by the USCG for safety gear and preparations for being visited by the general public. Then she had to be inspected again by the USCG to determine that the ship and her crew were ãsecureä from being a threat to the festival, as well as being secure from being threatened by any external security threat. Once all inspections were completed and avenues of communications established for various scenarios of concern, including medical emergencies, the normal festival details could be attended to÷such as drinking water and electricity for the ship and appropriate personnel identification for all aboard so they would not be hassled as they wandered ashore at the festival or crossed the festival boundary into or on return from Cleveland.

After all the above was attended to, PRIDE II boarded some 32 local guests that had purchased a ride on a vessel for the Tall Ship parade scheduled to ãkick-offä the festival. These parades can be fun or boring depending on one's perspective and the weather. In Clevelandâs case it had both an exciting and frustrating quality because of several threatening squalls. There were at least three times when it was seriously considered the parade should be called off, only to be ãconfirmedä as still on. Due to this back and forth information, PRIDE II and other vessels got away from the docks late and were thus unable to ãfall in lineä as originally arranged. So the parade order became ãfirst come, first servedä. Still, all the professional captains knew what they were doing and, not withstanding an effort by the parade authorities to direct the new parade order by radio, there were neither risks nor threats as the vessels were ãsailedä into formation safely and orderly by their captains and paraded by the Cleveland waterfront for the crowds that braved the threatening weather. Just as the parade was halfway completed, the weather cleared dramatically and gave all in attendance a sense that all was beautiful and worthwhile.

Cleveland was also the place that PRIDE II exchanged several crew positions. Our cook, Ann Costlow, departed and was replaced by Mike Ito. Joe Lengieza was replaced as 1^st Mate by 2^nd Mate Alan Morris, who was replaced by deckhand Matt Oates, who had been pinch hitting as the bosun, which leaves the boat without a bosun. Engineer Jay Amster is also being replaced by James Errard. Last but not least, my partner Captain Beebe-Center was relieving me. So, while there were a lot of festival activities going on, there was no lack of coordination going on aboard the ship--all the above plus several evening daysails with client companies.

Considering all of the above, it is hopefully clear that having a boat and its crew in port is not necessarily an opportunity for a less hectic time and more rest.

Cheers,
Captain Miles