The Captain's Logs are below.

Read the Crew's Views from John, KC, and Caroline as they reflect on their experiences in Asia.

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Ahoy,

My last log ended with the successful weathering of Hurricane Floyd in Philadelphia. Our five-day stay offered a chance for everyone aboard to see yet another fascinating American City and also adjust to some new crew changes. In New London we lost TC (Tim Collyer) as he went off to another maritime organization, Sea Education Association, to seek out more experience with their two schooners Westward and Corwith Cramer.

Jesse Kenworthy, who comes to us from a `round the world cruise as boatswain aboard the Barque Picton Castle, replaced TC. In Philadelphia we lost Likeke (Richard) Goings as he went west to a wooden boat construction school in Sausalito, CA. Sarah Ladadio replaces Likeke.

Sarah comes to us with experience in numerous smaller vessels and some time spent aboard Baltimore's other topsail schooner Clipper City as well the Chesapeake Bay Pungy Schooner Lady Maryland. We had another unexpected newcomer, Dan Thompson, from the reconstruction team of Baltimore's Civil War U.S. Navy Ship Constellation. Dan had recently returned from a schooner voyage to the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.

Dan filled in for Chris Landers who suffered a foot injury during docking maneuvers on our arrival in Philadelphia. We had to send Chris home to start his mending. These three changes are only the beginning of a whole crew change over the next month or so. You can learn more about all our new crew on the Crew Bio page of our Web site.

Over the weekend in Philadelphia, I had a chance to join a friend on his motor boat and take a cruise of the Delaware and Skuylkle Rivers in the area of the Philadelphia Airport and the recently closed Philadelphia Navy Yard. In a small 20 foot boat, one comes much closer to the impact of commercial heavy industry on the river than aboard Pride II. I got to see a lot of abandoned commerce harking back to the days of tremendous industrial and maritime activity in the Philadelphia-Camden area. All of these abandoned areas are overgrown with trees and bushes. There is very little trash to see but there are the ruins of docks and abandoned structures.

You can also get up close to the carefully stored Navy Mothball Fleet.

Meanwhile planes fly into and out of the airport just overhead. The tour with my friend set me up to record images of the Delaware River as Pride II departed Philadelphia in daylight on Thursday, September 23.