The Captain's Log is below.

Back to Captain Logs Index

Greetings all.  I am writing from the beautiful city of Frederikstad, Norway, where we are participating in a Tallship Festival.  This festival follows the race from Newcastle, England to Frederikstad - a race my fellow captains and I agree was noteworthy due to the unfavorable conditions we encountered, and the fact that so many of the 105 tall ships that started the race did not finish it.

The race began well enough on Thursday afternoon, with a hitch that allowed PRIDE II to sail a close reach/close hauled, and, despite not being first over the line, to quickly pass through the entire Class B fleet.  In doing so, we also overtook many of the Class As, which had started a half hour ahead of us.  As the wind was just making up, there was no sea running and for PRIDE II, this was meat and potatoes.

It was 160 miles to the weather mark.  We were able to keep off the coast of the UK, generally heading for that mark, until we ran out of sea room off of Aberdeen, Scotland.  At this point, Friday morning and one day into the race, the wind was a sustained force 7, gusting to 8, and the seas were beginning to build and our way was slowing.  We shortened sail and tacked offshore, still gratified that we were keeping well up with the much larger Class As - CHRISTIAN RADICH, SOERLANDET, TENACIOUS and several others.  The wind occasionally dropped down, during which time we set more sail and pressed on.  As of Friday morning, 12 vessels had dropped out of the race, due to rigging or hull failure, or just decided that enough was enough and a cozy port in the UK was a more sensible alternative to a beating all the way to Norway.  We thrashed along our way.

By late Saturday morning, I believed we were finally at a point where we could "lay" the weather mark.  So we tacked again and made for it.  Wind was again Force 7 and we were reefed down with staysail, reefed topsail, foresail, and reefed main, moving reasonably well in 10-ft seas.  At This point, I should mention that the crew worked like heroes in the sail changes and heavy seas, to sail the ship and keep her safe, all the while in constant rain.

On Saturday evening, at 2000, we passed the weather mark and were able to lay the ship off on a close reach/beam reach and run straight towards the East and the second mark.  And run we did.  The wind continued to build (effectively stopping many other vessels from reaching the weather mark) to Force 8, which is sustained 40 knots, gusting as high as 48 knots.  We finally took in the mainsail all together in the early hours of Sunday morning and were still sailing at 9 knots or better.  We were finally heading in the right direction and really making time.  Norway or bust!

On Sunday morning, the wind dropped to 30 knots and we reset the reefed mainsail.  Then, at 0830, the wind just dropped out all together.  It was a sudden flat calm.  Not the seas, mind you.  They were still running at 10-15 feet.  And so we began the hideous rolling that all gaff sailors dread, where there is insufficient wind to keep the sails pressed in a high sea.  This is often more damaging to a traditional rig than strong winds.

When the calm befell us, 9 of the 14 Class B ships that had started the race had withdrawn.  At 1830 that evening, after 10 hours of rolling in no wind with chaff and holes in several of our working sails, and with 250 miles to go to Frederikstad and a schedule to keep, we became the 10th Class B vessel to withdraw.

We proceeded to motor through the evening.  On Monday morning, at the mouth of the Skagarak, a lovely breeze sprang up out of the southwest and the sun came out.  We had a first rate sail up the Skagarak and the crew brought all their belongings up on deck to dry them out after the long, hard push.

I must confess a perverse pleasure in noting that the wind did not fill in where we were becalmed, and where we left several of our brethren, until late in the day Monday, after the race had been ended.

Final statistics of the race:  105 vessels started; 53 withdrew and only 1 actually crossed the finish line.  We made Frederikstad on Tuesday morning, at which time we began the process of putting the vessel to right - patching holes in jib, foretopsail, and foresail; fixing chaff in the rigging; and sending crew off to the medicos for bruised ribs, sprained knees, etc. Today, we rest and tomorrow, it is off to Bremerhaven, Germany. 

Until next time, fair winds - please! 
Captain Beebe-Center