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The Port that Kept on Giving

Tuesday, July 5
Position: 12 nm North of Dunkirk, New York
Wx: SW F 3 Partly Cloudy and warm Sailing at 6.5 knots, close-hauled, steering 190 under all plain sail, plus T’gallant

After nearly a week of tours, daysails and all around excitement, PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II left Buffalo’s Erie Canal Harbor this morning at 1100. As always there were details to attend to before getting underway, and more than in most ports lots of thank-you’s to say. Our visit to Buffalo was a crescendo of enthusiasm that seemed like it wouldn’t end. Thanks to the media blitz that followed our arrival, the ship was sold out for all her daysails by Friday morning, and the one we added for the afternoon of July 4th filled up in hours and over 1,500 visitors came aboard for dockside tours.

This is great news for PRIDE II, and for Buffalo. If the city ever wanted proof that a Baltimore Inner Harbor type development would be a big draw, I think the excitement of this weekend stands tall as supporting evidence. And aboard PRIDE II, we are happy to bring the flavor of Baltimore’s revival to other cities looking to emulate. Particularly when they give us such a warm welcome – special thanks to the Hilliman family of SPIRIT OF BUFFALO for all their help, and the same for Ardrey Manning for the host of volunteers she had ready to handle lines, manage crowds and stamp hands all through the weekend. Of course a huge thanks to the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation for arranging docking and the media onslaught, as well as to Buffalo Place for your assistance with advertising and promotion.

Now it’s on to Detroit, with a whole Lake in between. Unlike the departure from Rochester, however, the weather is the typical Westerly and Southwesterly winds of summer. Not the right direction, in fact, the exact WRONG direction, but a pleasant and workable strength for PRIDE II to ply her way to weather. From here until Duluth we will be mostly working against the prevailing winds. Fortunately, PRIDE II is about as weatherly as schooners can be, so we have the chance to keep sailing as long as there is a breeze to work with.

All best,
Captain Jamie Trost