At 0800 local time Tuesday, July 21, light rain is falling on PRIDE II as she begins to motor to her Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada destination of Port Hawkesbury with the intention of arriving tomorrow (Wednesday) morning.

I believe this rain is likely to envelop the TSAC 2009 Race #5 fleet as both the race fleet and the weather track east towards Europe. Fortunately the rain should bring a new wind to the race fleet…assuming they experienced the near flat calm that PRIDE II experienced overnight.

Halifax was a good stop for all; certainly all of the fleet was somewhat more accessible to each other than in Boston. In Halifax, it was merely one long walk from end to end of the fleet mooring area rather than the significantly longer and multi-directional walk with two bridges to cross that existed in Boston.  Halifax does benefit for having a waterfront that permits a sizable sail training vessel fleet to be moored pretty close together and also pretty close to the center of town. With such accessibility came a lot of crew and officer inter-ship mingling when not on watch. I am tired, PRIDE II’s crew is tired, and I heard others mention that while it has been a good stop in Halifax, they will be quite happy to get to sea. Certainly after a quiet night underway I feel rather refreshed.

PRIDE II hung around the starting line of TSAC Race #5 to observe the Class A start as well the smaller class start. All vessels got off to clean starts. Class A showed some strong effort to get to the line on-time and in front…three Class A’s hit the line with speed…at least the speed available for the moderate wind of 10 knots. EUROPA to windward, CAPITAN MIRANDA to leeward with SAGRES in between. For the smaller Class B and D vessels it looked like JOLIE BRISE was first across the line well down at the leeward end of the starting line with PETER VON DANZIG to windward of her but a bit back and RONA II further to windward and back a bit further. Unlike JOLIE BRISE the other two were carrying spinnakers so they slowly sailed ahead of JOLIE BRISE after the start.

Strategically speaking I found it interesting that EUROPA, JOLIE BRISE and TECLA seemed to be sailing a more southerly shaped course than the rest of the fleet. Doing so would put more power in the their sailing…but it would represent not sailing directly to the first waypoint. It will be interesting to see how, or if, doing that represents any advantage.

Well…BON VOYAGE, FAIR WINDS & FOLLOWING SEAS, SAFE PASSAGE…to TSAC 2009 Race #5!!!

Cheers,
Jan C. Miles, Captain aboard Pride of Baltimore II

For the last 72 hours, the weather forecasters have been correcting their original forecast for a coming northwest wind with every update. Yesterday’s evening forecast indicated there would be no northwest wind…that the wind would remain light. With 200 nautical miles to go, and only 36 hours left to cover the distance, PRIDE II got moving ahead under power. Of the small fleet of collected vessels within range of PRIDE II’s AIS that left PETER VON DANZIG as the only vessel remaining underway under sail at 2100 EDT yesterday.

Off in the distance, with the aid of some VHF propagation “skip”, yesterday afternoon I had seen on PRIDE II’s AIS both KRUZENSHTERN and EAGLE some distance to the west-southwest; they were right next to each other and evidently sailing by the indication of their speed and their course over the ground. Considering they can motor pretty fast, maybe they continued their “match sailing” well into last night as well.

Light wind sailing can be pretty frustrating. Aboard PRIDE II it was seen as quite acceptable this time around because of everyone being tired from all the activities in Boston. There is anticipation of a lot going on in Halifax, so there is no desire to get in early. Hence everyone aboard was quite comfortable drifting along until it was absolutely necessary to push on.

This morning PRIDE II is just to the east of the fabled Cape Sable and its strong ocean currents located at the southwest end of Nova Scotia. The morning weather report suggests some wind coming off of the land before shifting to parallel the coast and increasing to 20 knots in a typical summer day southwest flow. We have 110 nautical miles to go and do not really have to be in Halifax till business hours open tomorrow. I think we will go sailing again!

Cheers,
Jan C. Miles, Captain aboard Pride of Baltimore II

The non-parade of sail out of Boston was sort of a slow parade of sail with each visiting vessel departing hour by hour with a favorable northwesterly breeze that permitted all to sail out of Boston. Once outside of Boston the wind died and some of the fleet started motoring. But soon the wind was up from the south at a strength of 20 knots and all the fleet were gamboling eastward toward Cape Sable, the southwest tip of Nova Scotia, on their way toward Halifax. Last night’s sailing was cool…a big change from all the sailing before Boston…and all of PRIDE II’s crew are dressed with multiple layers of clothing and talking about using blankets below while sleeping.

Now, Tuesday morning some 115 nautical miles east of Boston out in the middle of the Gulf of Maine, the wind is very light from SW to West and many of the fleet have chosen to move on under power. With only 240 miles to go over the next 48 hours till the “official” arrival in Halifax the morning of July 16 and vague wind promises by weather forecasts it is a tough call deciding to motor PRIDE II or remain sailing. We can do 7 knots under power with quiet conditions, which means only 34 hours. But in 4 hours time there is supposed to be more wind coming from the SW. Maybe we will wait for that wind. Meanwhile, out of our company of local sailing friends…JOLIE BRISE, PETER VON DANZIG, TECLA, AMISTAD, URANIA…all but PETER VON DANZIG are now pushing on under power, so maybe we will continue to have some company today.

The Sail Boston event was a fun event for PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II. There was not the press of enthusiastic crowds lined up to get aboard due to special restrictions for this tall ship festival where only some of the fleet were open to the public. As a result PRIDE II’s crew was able to get some maintenance done as well as have some time off rather than get no maintenance done. Also, the fleet was spread over a distance of almost three miles of Boston’s waterfront. With PRIDE II positioned in the middle along with EUROPA, JOLIE BRISE and all of the Class D vessels we were the happy recipients of a lot of visiting crew from other vessels located some distance to either side of us as they traveled from one end of the fleet to the other.