The Captain's Logs are below.

Read the Crew's Views.

Back to Captain Logs 2001

It is now a very different experience to what was happing yesterday! Wednesday was spent thrashing and heaving against a 20-25 knot breeze with 4-5 foot seas in the northern end of Lake Michigan. The crew handled everything with an aplomb not evident back in May when I was last aboard. The guest crew did their best to participate in the midst of the action, despite the motion and feelings of illness. Everyone was careful to accept without complaint a non-event lunch since Ray, our new cook, did not feel well and did not put much out except a junk food substitute meal. For supper though, PJ and Abigail, presented everyone with left over food heated up and a fresh salad on the side. They were everyone's heroines, indeed they were!!!

When Pride II makes her way to windward in 20 to 25 knots of wind with its associated seas of 3-6 feet, life aboard is like a rough airplane flight in turbulence. Walking is hard. Hanging on is hard. Even sitting or standing is hard with a 12-15 degree angle of heel and a deck that rises and falls with constant irregularity and substantial jerking. It is not much more comfortable down below, but some. However, if one is apt to be sensitive to motion sickness, being below is not desirable. So many of the guests, along with our new cook, Ray, stayed on deck hour after hour wanting to lay down and drift off to never-never land. During this, the crew and some of the guests tended to the needs of the ship with their normal watch routines - steering, making log entries, and conducting safety checks below and aloft. When the wind increased from the 20 knots it had been all morning to 25 knots in the afternoon, the crew turned to getting the foretopsail taken in and furled. This required climbing the rig to the top yard while Pride II was near breaching her way to windward through the roiled lake waters.

But all the fun was soon to end. By suppertime, the wind had abated some and by midnight the wind was all but gone. The sea was less than half what it had been and certainly it was not as organized or regular. Today the wind has not done what the weather prognosticators thought it was going to do. But at least the weather chose to be quiet rather than rough. Everyone is back into his or her normal groove. Ray is cooking again and the crew is mighty happy about that! The guests are able to stare off into the misty distance between watch-related chores and let their imaginations roll. Soon enough, despite the discomfort of some lively sailing, this trip aboard Pride II will be over. The ship and all will be in the center of the big city of Chicago with all its attendant distractions and chores. And, since it is August, it may also be a lot hotter aboard than it has been out on the lake. But the guests will leave and probably get into air conditioning. The crew may well find respite in air conditioned establishments ashore before returning to get ready for the next open house, the next maintenance chore, the next question from the public - "What is this ship?" "Where is it from?" "What do you do?" "Can I do it too?"

Cheers,

Captain Jan Miles