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Greetings from our roly-poly barge dock in New York City. As I write, Pride II is demonstrating more "at sea" motion then she is likely to in a Beaufort Force 4 in the Chesapeake. And this agitated sea state is caused entirely by water taxis and ferry boats!

I rejoined the ship on August 21 in Martha's Vineyard, MA, relieving my partner Captain Jan Miles after he had completed the tour of the Canadian Maritimes. The weather on the island that Saturday was wet and gusty. Consequently, no one signed up for the scheduled daysails. But it was a different story on Sunday with clear skies and a gentle southwest breeze, which was just as well, since all the schooners in Vineyard Haven had an appointment - SCRATCH RACE!!!!

Now the Vineyard is famous for her boats, especially schooners. Among these vessels is the schooner Shanendoah, a ship which took much of its design from Baltimore Clippers as did Pride of Baltimore II. The two ships are fairly evenly matched with Pride II being a little quicker in lighter air and Shanendoah doing a little better in heavier wind. With the wind being fairly light, this looked to be a favorable day for Pride II.

Also present was the schooner Alabama, a McManus design from the 1920s completely rebuilt in 1995 and owned by the owner/Captain of the Shanendoah, Captain Bob Douglas. I was the Captain of Alabama during 2003 right up to two weeks prior to joining Pride II. I had occasion to race Alabama against Pride II at the Provincetown Schooner Race where Pride's waterline length and great sailing characteristics won the day.

So off went the fleet, including the smaller schooners When and If and Juno, out to Vineyard Sound and a truly wonderful sail. Pride proved able to easily dominate Alabama and kept well out in front of Shanendoah as well. This led to a change in tactics as far as racing was concerned. The real mission here was to get the three larger vessels into close quarters with one another for photo ops and to enjoy the spectacle of seeing these really powerful vessels working close in. Courtesy of our radios, we began coordinating tacking and points of sail so as to accomplish this. It had the desired effect - we got close enough to talk back and forth easily at about "half pistol shot" as they said in the bad old days.

I was thoroughly pleased with Pride II and her crew's performance. She out-tacked Shenandoah and was generally quicker to accelerate to her top speed than the bigger vessel. It was clear to all aboard that, if this was a race, we had won it. Imagine the crew's surprise, then, when the next week's Vineyard paper declared Shanendoah the winner!!! Ah well, if this little fiction is necessary to ease the bruised ego, so be it. We'll look forward to another go round and see if we can't settle the matter decisively. It was a great day to be out under sail.

The week following the Vineyard was not much for sailing with light westerly airs and a lot of motoring. We were able to make calls on several great ports including Stonington, CT, Port Jefferson, NY, Oyster Bay, NY and Manhasset, NY. Oyster Bay provided a surprise. Since I had been there last, the Waterfront Center had been built offering sail training opportunities for all and a dock for us. The gang there was very friendly and our crew enjoyed a scratch softball game with them at the end of the work day.

Our next stop, in early September, was the Big Apple, i.e. NY, NY, Pier 63 on the Hudson River during the Democratic National Convention. This was the Pier that hosted Pride II during Hurricane Isabel last year. Unfortunately, some silting had occurred and consequently, while we could lay comfortably through all tides, we could only move about at half water or better. This curtailed our sailing though we were able to make it over to Liberty Landing Marina and host the Maryland Port Administration for a reception of shippers from the New York area. Governor Ehrlich was able to attend. The weather stayed fair and it proved to be a fine event.

After a week in New York and being hosted by the occasionally loud but wonderfully friendly Pier 63, we were happy to turn our bow south towards Baltimore and home. The crew had undergone some changes during our stay in New York. PJ Meyer, who had taken over as Chief Mate after David Bradley's departure, did a fine job. Engineer Ben Hall and Deckhand Eric Shefland also moved on. Coming aboard to join or rejoin are Kelly Poole, a veteran Pride II crew member as well as Emma Millet and Jason Saxe - all as Deckhands. Miles Thurlow is now Chief Mate, Joe Linguisa is Second Mate, and Bill Ryall is the Engineer. Tom McClusky has risen from Deckhand to Bosun so there were lots of new faces and job descriptions as we swung the schooner off for a run down the New Jersey coast.

And what a sail it was! The wind filled in nicely from the northeast until it reached a sustained 25 knots with higher gusts. As the breeze was rising, we shortened sail appropriately and, as it worked out, we were constant at a speed of 10-11 knots through the water, despite double reefing the main and taking in the topsail. As we approached the mouth of Delaware Bay, the breeze stayed NE and allowed for a booming sail all the way up to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. We popped through and anchored up for the evening. The following day, the wind moved into the east and offered another day of 20 knots of wind on the beam and a cracking good sail that put us off Annapolis just after lunch.

This brings this missive up to September 7 and a visit to the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, our home port. We arrived home on September 8 and immediately started on a rotation of maintenance, time off for the crew, and preparations for Defenders Day weekend events - including Pride. Inc.'s annual gala wherein we would celebrate our Man-of-the-Year, Governor Robert Ehrlich. The fast sail down the coast had cost us some topside paint and we set about to paint Pride II up as much as possible in the time available. This process involves sanding and scraping the old paint and then priming the bare wood with an orange primer. I believe that I may have caused our Executive Director, Linda Christenson, some consternation when, on the eve of the gala, she observed the ship all spotted up, orange on black. But the weather was cooperative and the crew was willing and before we returned from Ft McHenry on the day of the event, the vessel was back in her usual yellow and black livery.

The event itself was a success with more than 280 folks turning out to honor Governor Ehrlich as PRIDE Person-of-the Year, prior to his heading over to an Orioles game to throw out the first pitch. The gentleman certainly keeps a busy schedule.

From Baltimore it was back up the coast to Bristol, Rhode Island, and a sail with the Maryland Port Administration. Prior to departing, our wonderful cook Kathryn Strand departed the ship and headed home to the midwest. Cooking aboard Pride II was Kathryn's first shipboard cooking experience. For Jan and myself, hiring her was a bit of a throw of the dice as she had no previous experience at sea. She could not have done better and is missed by all aboard, both as a cook and a shipmate. We are not going hungry, however. Kathryn was replaced by Margi Hayes, from the down east region, and the galley is continuing to generate lots of great cooking.

The sail to Bristol was only remarkable in that the winds were out of the northeast when they should be, more commonly out of a westerly direction. We motor sailed and worked our way up, spending the night of September 15 in Newport, RI, prior to transiting up to Bristol in fog and rain the next day.

The weather was so wet that MPA decided to turn the event into a dockside reception (where we could spread awnings over the deck in an attempt to keep people dryer). That evening we also hosted a joint reception with our hosts, the Herschoff Museum. This was lightly attended due to weather, but it did afford the crew an opportunity to view the museum - a tour de force of yacht history.

From Bristol it was off to Provincetown on Cape Cod for their second annual Regatta and Schooner Race. We had a pleasant sail up Buzzards Bay and through the Cape Cod Canal, arriving in Provincetown's outer harbor at about 2 AM on Saturday September 18. By 6 AM that morning, a fresh northeaster had set in with plenty of rain left over from a passing hurricane and winds gusting up to 40 knots and better. Around 1 PM, in these conditions we made our way to the dock assigned to us.

The next day, the day of the race, the weather had cleared but it remained fairly windy with sustained 30 knots, gusting to high 30s. The start of the race was delayed (for the second year) due to the committee boat's inability to get her anchor to hold in the breeze. Pride II was short tacking with a triple reefed main, fore and staysail, making 9 to 10 knots and the crew was pulling like heroes for each tack. Now at the start of the day it seemed as though Pride II had already won her class (the over 65 feet at the waterline group) as Alabama had not been able to work her way up wind against the weather to attend the race. The organizers, however, determined that someone should race against us and elevated Grand Nellie, the extremely light, semi displacement, convex, full batten foresail with plenty of winches schooner into our class. This is a tough combination for Pride II to beat, but it has been done.

So, at the start it was Grand Nellie by two ship lengths. At the first weather mark, we were gaining and, just after the first reaching mark, we passed Grand Nellie as we added reefed topsail and jib to our sail plan. Pride II's longer water line was proving its worth. As we approached the second to last mark, we were several ship lengths ahead and a little to leeward when, dear reader, I made a miscalculation. Upon halving this mark 120 degrees, relative, usually an angle through which Pride II can tack easily, I put the ship about. What I had not factored in was the difficulty that the crew would have getting the sails and gear across in that fresh breeze. When we were finally all squared away, we could no longer weather the mark and had to tack twice more to get around it. Grand Nellie, quite properly, carried on several more boat lengths than I had, laid the mark, and shot ahead to win the race. We were second out of a fleet of two, none the worse for wear save two broken mast hoops, one sprained ankle, and a captonial bruised backside acquired as a result of my kicking myself for an extended period. The crew was excellent considering the strain on the gear during the race. The safety sheet on the foresail actually melted part way through due to the friction involved with passing that sail.

From Provincetown, it's back to Newport, RI, and then on to the Solomon Island, MD, in the Patuxent River. All hands are in good spirits and well and enjoying chasing summer temperatures as we work our way southward and home.

As ever,

Captain Beebe-Center