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Greetings from the North Sea!

We are in the German Bight area of the North Sea sailing along the shallow shifting sand and island-ridden north shore of the Netherlands. Last night, we had thunder and lightning and some rain. Surrounding us were the lights of oil rigs, commercial and fishing shipping, as well as a dozen square-riggers all making way toward Germany for a tall ship event in Bremerhaven celebrating the Millennium. All of these traditional sailing vessels (and many, many more) have, like Pride II, recently departed Amsterdam in a huge Parade of Sail. We all cleared the locks at Ijmuiden and are now in the southern North Sea.

Sail Amsterdam - Ships, Boats, and Congestion!

Sail Amsterdam was the largest and most heavily attended sail event I have ever participated in, and I have attended some large tall ship events. The Parade of Sail into Amsterdam on Thursday, August 24, was, by far, the most congested parade I have ever experienced. And after consulting with other captains, that judgement was widely shared. Fortunately, every guest vessel succeeded in arriving safely, if not on schedule. The congestion, as well as difficulties getting the larger ships locked through at Ijmuiden on Thursday morning, caused a four hour delay for just about every vessel in the parade. The inconvenience to us and the charter party guests we had aboard, and their caterer was, thankfully, outweighed by the spectacle of so many spectator craft jamming in among the many honored guest vessels. After a very long day, we were final secure dockside at 1900 hours. The guests and the caterers, while pleased to see the spectacle, were happy to go. They had been aboard since 0700.

The thing that amazed us all aboard Pride II as we paraded in was the ever-increasing congestion as we got closer to Amsterdam. In each of the 12 miles we traveled to the harbor center where our dock was located, more local watercraft joined the armada snaking its way along the canal. At its most dense, there was two-way traffic and crossing traffic! Just as we were getting formally saluted upon our arrival in Amsterdam harbor, we were hemmed in by all manner of vessels. There were commercial canal barges going about their business. There were government vessels monitoring, but not policing, the movements of the water traffic. We were in a bend in the canal with a major turn off into the downtown system of canals, so there was traffic coming out of and into that turn-off while everyone in the main canal was negotiating the bend. Also, the turn-off into the basin where all the guest vessels were being tied up was just beyond and had local traffic going in and coming out at the same time the big ships were being assisted with tugs at their bow and the stern.

In the United States, all commercial traffic would be stopped for the duration of the parade and no private craft would have been permitted to move till all of the visiting vessels had paraded and been secured. However, everything about Sail Amsterdam was "business as usual." The fact there was also a Parade of Sail with all the attendant spectator craft moving at the same time seemed to phase no one. It was very impressive how orderly this disorderly situation truly was. Every vessel operator handled his or her craft with studied purpose. I did not see an incident nor did I see any "road rage" between operators.

What we witnessed during the Parade of Sail into Amsterdam we were to see again and again during the week, after dark too! Many spectators came to see the docked tall ships in their own watercraft as well as in charter vessels of all descriptions. They also came to watch the nightly fireworks. I marveled at the crowded waterways in the dark. The picturesque concept of being able to walk across the water on the boats littering it was about as close to true as ever it could be - short of every vessel being rafted up.

Sail Amsterdam Events

From the point when Pride II is secured to her assigned berth, all tall ship festivals take on the same general characteristics. The ship has requirements that the crew must attend to despite all the shore activities planned for them. This captain tries to make sure these obligations and opportunities are evenly distributed so that crew gets rest and time off in quantities that are as generous as possible, assuming there are no important maintenance or repair concerns with the ship. Once all the scheduling has been taken care of, the captain must attend to the resupply of the vessel's consumables during the stay in port as well as see to the preparation for the next leg of the journey. Along with this, the captain needs to handle the invitations to various official functions in the harbor. This can be tricky, for the captain of Pride II must also be aboard for the receptions that occur on the ship. Sometimes there is a little time left over for the captain to do personal things.

In the case of Sail Amsterdam, the ship was to be available for public visits from 1100 to 1500 each of the three days in port. Also, each of the three evenings in port was to be taken up with receptions for over one hundred guests, all arranged by Sail Amsterdam, to occur from 1800 to 2400. Since this schedule affected the crew more than me, I concentrated on divining a means for the crew to handle the ship's requirements and not have atrociously long days, yet get a decent amount of time off. After due consideration, I determined that the thing to do was have the watch rotation between the two ‘in port' watches rotate at 1530 hours every day rather than our usual 0800 hours. It worked out that even with a late arrival on Thursday and a morning departure on the following Monday, each watch received nearly equal amounts of time off, in two separate batches.

I don't normally stay around the ship for open houses. But I generally need to be around for on board receptions. With the Sail Amsterdam schedule of receptions aboard Pride II, I knew what my evenings would be spent doing. Thankfully I had only two other obligations required by the Sail Amsterdam organizers. The first was one I did not want to miss as it was the awards ceremony for the race across the Atlantic. The second was attending the captains' meeting regarding the Parade of Sail departing Amsterdam. A third event for captains was optional - the Captains' Dinner. When I learned this Captains' Dinner was to take place in a small town outside Amsterdam, which meant a chance to see a different part of the country, I arranged things aboard so I could leave the ship in good hands and attend the Captains' Dinner.

Ship Liaisons

Logistics for vessel resupply at an event this large is a major enterprise for the host port. Every visiting vessel has a number of needs, i.e. food, water, fuel, repairs, maybe medical concerns, transportation for crew, mail, and communications. With the advent of the mobile phone, host ports today are finding telephone sponsors to provide a loaned cell phone to each captain for the duration of the stay. Each phone has free communications worldwide. For foreign vessels, this can be a truly useful tool, since it is likely their own phones from home are not compatible with the host port's telephone system. With the loan of a phone, arranging the delivery of consumables is made easier.

To handle the local language, each ship is provided with liaison officers who know the language of the visiting ship. Our two liaison officers, Marleen and Mike, were a tremendous asset to our needs. Marleen is Dutch, but Mike is an American married to a Dutch woman. He is a licensed Master and spends his time as either second officer of the large tall ship Flying Cloud where his wife is the nurse, or they sail about the Caribbean in winter time and spend summers in Amsterdam. Mike knows Pride II from its visits over the years to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. Together Marleen and Mike arranged for diesel fuel to be delivered by fuel barge, drinking water to be delivered by hose, and customs clearance. They helped Andy, our cook, find suitable resources for buying food. They helped me locate an electrical part, and they helped the American Ambassador to the Netherlands with arrangements to visit Pride II. They also helped the caterer for the three evening receptions deal with the horrendous traffic jams, both on the water and ashore. Without Marleen and Mike, life in Amsterdam would not have been fun at all.

Even though my time was busy and thus I had little time to spend on personal matters, had they not been so good at what they did and interested in doing it, I would have had no personal time at all. And maybe the crew would have had less time to explore Amsterdam's unique blend of classical history and modern culture.

Catering Snafus

I have mentioned catering a number of times. In Amsterdam, it took on a whole new meaning. The first shock to Hannerieke Slump, the woman responsible for every reception and guest event aboard Pride II, was my demonstrating to her that she would not be able to put all of the "stuff" she had with her aboard. This was the eve of the Parade of Sail into Amsterdam - and we were expecting a shipfull of guests in the morning. There was no way Hannerieke was going to put even a quarter of the stuff she had with her on board. There was no room below in any of the passenger cabins, since they were full of cadets. And there was no way she was going to put tables and chairs on deck when we were going for a day sail in the parade. Apparently our written guidelines about catering had not penetrated down to the operations level. But like a professional, she culled out only what she needed and checked with me before leaving for the night. She was back again by 0600 to prep for the Parade of Sail into Amsterdam.

With the delay getting the ships docked in Amsterdam, Hennerieke's day got longer and longer. Still she remained a most personable individual with all her guests and catering crew. But who was to know how much more 'fun' she was going to have for the next three days? Everyday there were problems getting her equipment for the next party though the maze of restricted areas one had to negotiate just to get near where Pride II was. Since the events were evening parties, she and her staff did not need to be aboard till 1600. But the traffic jam of people ashore and boats in the harbor made it next to impossible to get herself and her staff out to the ship. Nor was her food arriving when it should. Meanwhile her guests were arriving on schedule.

Eventually the crew took pity on her and ran boat trips for her at the beginning of the evening and again at the end. This saved her from most of her anxiety as well as much of her time. Meanwhile, since Pride II was open to the public every day and needed cleaning before and after each catered event, all of the catering stuff had to be taken off the ship till the following reception. In consideration for the boat rides across the jammed harbor waters, Hennerieke made sure all of the clean up was fast and complete so the crew could go to bed. Even so, it was usually 0100 before anyone could say the "day was done" aboard Pride II.

Tall Ships 2000 Awards Ceremony

My first fun thing was going to the awards ceremony. Mingling with all those captains and cadets of the vessels we had raced against for the past month was great fun. The ceremony itself was short and sweet with only a few obligatory speeches by our Dutch host and the Tall Ship 2000 race organizers. I was flattered by the significant applause for Pride II when Brad Fleury and I went up to receive the First in Class B honor for Pride II.

But it paled in comparison to the honor of being singled out by His Royal Highness, the Prince of Orange, during the drinks party after the ceremony. The awards were made in mid-afternoon on Friday in a building that looked out over the tall ships moored in the harbor. Pride II was quite visible across the way.

The Prince is a sportsman and sailor. He noted the interesting appearance of Pride II's highly raked rig. His escort, the Chairman of Sail Amsterdam, introduced the Prince to me to talk about Pride II's rig. We conversed about the rig and the mission of Pride II for about five minutes. It appeared to me that the Prince was truly interested in the speculation surrounding why Pride II's rig is so raked - a question that has intrigued and baffled naval architects as well as laymen for decades.

During the ceremony, special awards were made to a variety of vessels: to the Japanese sail training vessel Akagore from Osaka for being the vessel that traveled the farthest to participate. To the Russian training ship Kruzenshtern for winning Class A, finishing third in fleet, and going to the aid of another vessel. To the sail training vessel Dasher from the UK for returning to port after the start in Halifax to attend to a broken tooth in one of the crew, then later standing by Arung Samudera while she sorted out her situation after losing one of her masts. The award sought by everyone is the one recognizing outstanding work towards international goodwill and promotion of international sail training. This award went to Sarie Marais of Plymouth of the UK.

Captain's Dinner

A second interesting event was the Captains' Dinner Saturday evening. To deal with the congestion in the city, the Sail Amsterdam organizers decided that the captains would be transported part way out of town by water. So we dutifully congregated at the pier for boarding our water transport. It was an army landing craft. What a weird feeling it was to stand inside a landing craft with no ability to look out due to the military purpose of the design. Here we were in beautiful Amsterdam and we could not see out! Upon arrival at our destination, not a word was said about what to do next. We were at a set of locks that were busy locking through recreational and commercial vessels. All very interesting but time was passing by. Suddenly the mob of us was walking in a purposeful manner as we followed a military uniform. Soon we came over a rise to see another group of captains. It turned out they had been the first load brought out by the another landing craft. They were waiting for the buses that were to take us to our dinner engagement. They had been waiting for about half an hour since being dropped off on the beach by their landing craft. All of us waited together for two hours! Apparently the instructions to the bus drivers were not clear . They went into Amsterdam instead of to the rendezvous point. When it was discovered what had happened, it took over an hour to get the buses out of Amsterdam. Imagine being a captain of a 400 foot sail training ship and an honored guest, yet helpless to change the situation of standing in a remote place for two hours, ostensibly being taken to a party in your honor! I could not help but laugh.

Finally, our buses came and we were taken to the wonderful little fortified town of Naarden. We were hosted in a church that was huge and dated from about 1600. The meal was first class and the relaxed atmosphere with colleagues a rare treat. But then I had to depart quickly just after desert to rendezvous with the American Ambassador to the Netherlands, Cynthia Schneider. She had asked, via her staff and Pride II's office, if she could bring her family aboard Saturday evening to view the nightly fireworks.

Visit by the American Ambassador

Considering the crowds on and off the water, it was amazing that the timing worked out so well. I got back in time and the Ambassador's family arrived in time and the evening was a success. While aboard, the Ambassador asked me if I knew of the company that owned Giant Foods of Maryland. I did not and learned that the parent company is Dutch. It happened to be the company aboard Pride II that very evening! So the principles were able to speak with the Ambassador.

Meanwhile, the Ambassador's children and their friends enjoyed the fireworks and the visit aboard the only civilian-run international American sailing ambassador. The next day, Sunday, while on a boating outing with friends, the Dutch sailing barge carrying Ambassador Schneider pulled alongside Pride II for an impromptu visit. Again Pride II happily hosted our American friends.

Goodbye to the Cadets, Hello to the Teacher Aboard

As the days went by in Amsterdam, we had to say good by to our cadets. First Brandon flew home, then Freeman. Later Addison, Eric, Jeremy, and Jennifer departed as Pride II made ready to join the outgoing Parade of Sail. These six individuals contributed greatly to life aboard Pride II during the transatlantic crossing. I wish them all the very best and hope we will hear from them again.

Even as we lost our cadets, we gained our Teacher Aboard, Lee Vogtman, who joined us in Amsterdam for our goodwill tour of Europe. Lee joins us just as the school year is beginning in Maryland. He and the Pride office have cooked up an exciting Internet curriculum for middle school students. Lee will be reporting back to them via the Internet, visiting schools, and setting up exchanges between Maryland classes and the schools he visits. Lee's introduction to Europe, tall ships, and the Pride II way could not have been more hectic. He is certainly getting a baptism by fire.

Goodbye Amsterdam

Our parade out was not as congested as the parade in. We were able to set sail and actually do some sailing as we left. A small inconvenience was the scattered rain. But that did not arrive till we had to take in sail anyway due to the direction the canal had taken near the end of the parade. So it was easy to put the mid-ship awning up. As soon as we completed the parade, we went alongside and dropped off our guests and Hannerieke and her catering staff. We also said goodbye to our liaison officer, Marleen. She had joined us again for the sail parade out. Then it was off to the locks and hopefully a benign North Sea.

And benign it was. We spent the whole evening and late last night sailing along with all sail set including our much admired studdingsail. Pride II has been gliding along at up to 8 knots with the somewhat fickle wind. We observed the distance closing with some of the square-riggers ahead and the distance opening between some of the ships behind. There was one sailing vessel that caught and passed us last night at sundown almost as if we were standing still. It was a ultra-modern, 60 foot sloop from Germany which had a colorful corporate logo all over the hull. By its looks, I guess it could be one of the "Round the World" racers we see these days on TV. It was certainly flying along with its colorful spinnaker pulling it along merrily. Eventually, the wind went dead and we watched the clouds come in on radar. After they passed us by, we set the studdingsail again and continued on our way. Soon we will be into the crowds again with Sail Bremerhaven. It is nice to have this sailing respite.