Pride II Needs your VOTE

It’s FREE and it really DOES COUNT!

Pride of Baltimore, Inc. is in the running for a $50,000 Grant through Pepsi to develop a boating safety program to reach under served students in port cities of America.

 We are competing in a sea of 1,000 other great ideas. We really need your help.

It doesn’t cost anything.  Your vote can help Pride, Inc. win $50,000 to “Teach Boating Safety from the Deck of Pride of Baltimore II” to students.  Only 10 Awards will be made in the $50,000 price category.

Vote EVERY day - now through September 30th.  It’s free and it really can make a difference.

 Please Help Spread the Word.  Pride II needs lots of votes!

VOTE NOW!

If you would like a daily reminder to Vote, please send an email to missy@pride2.org and enter “Pepsi” in the subject line.

Thank you for your support!

Tuesday 7 September 2010
Pride of Baltimore II
Alongside in the St. Clair River
Wx SSW F 4 gusting 6, 1 foot sea in the river

After a weekend tucked into the excellent facility and protective dock at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy, Pride of Baltimore II had to make a mad dash around the “Tip of the Mitt” – the Northern Part of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. Our weekend in Traverse City was not the picturesque and mellow time I had hoped – even though the Grand Traverse is beautiful and quite a lot of fun for the crew, autumn definitely decided to arrive in force. There was no good weather for daysailing as the winds were gale force from the West and Northwest, but our evening event with the Maritime Heritage Alliance on Saturday was well attended. It even featured a double rainbow as a reward for each of the three squalls that passed through – a fitting natural phenomenon for the impressive landscape of the area.

Leaving Traverse City, our transit through the Mackinaw straights was fortunately timed during a lull in the breeze down to 20-25 knots from the North Northwest, going West and then shifting to South West with some more moderation. All of that represented good, possibly great, sailing conditions, but giving into the temptation to sail alone would have left us still on Southern Lake Huron and dealing with a Southerly Gale. Instead we motor-sailed, and then motored to get into the relative protection of the river before things went, literally, South.

Now we are sitting tight and waiting for the Southerlies to become Westerlies and allow us to leave the Detroit River without the experience of meeting a sea state that has been heaped up against the River’s two knot current. A bit of a breather after a full force summer tour through all five Great Lakes. It is also my last breather before leaving Pride II to rejoin her “sister” Baltimore Clipper, Lynx in Erie. My last passage aboard Pride II promises to be another downwind blast, and will take me back to the very waters I first learned to sail on as a kid. And strangely, though I sailed in and out of Erie aboard the Brig Niagara for several years, and countless other times on everything from a Sunfish to a 46-foot racing yacht, this will be my first passage into Presque Isle Bay as Captain.

What better way to do it – aboard such a splendid schooner, with a terrific crew & excellent support staff at home, and at the end of a tour-de-force of the Lakes that has totaled over 50,000 visitors to the ship, over 2,000 nautical miles sailed and awards for three races plus a First Place in the ASTA Tallships Challenge Series. To all the liasions, volunteers and organizers, and particularly to the crew and staff of Pride II and Pride, Inc. Thank you for an amazing summer.

 All best,
Jamie Trost and the Erie bound crew of Pride of Baltimore II

2 September 2010
Pride of Baltimore II
Alongside Great Lakes Maritime Academy
Traverse City, Michigan
Wx: S Force 3, Overcast with light rain

Pride of Baltimore II just ended a “Welcoming” engagement into Traverse City, featuring the Armed Sloop Welcome from Maritime Heritage Alliance (link to www.mha.org). Welcome is a replica of a Revolutionary War vessel captured out of the American Merchant Service on the Lakes by the British and made into a Military Ship. The replica was launched during the American Bicentennial at Mackinaw City and, after falling into disrepair, was donated to MHA for a restoration.

With Welcome and Pride II exchanging salutes and other MHA vessels tagging along for photo ops, we had a great entrance to Traverse City, our first ever. Pride II’s entrance into Grand Traverse Bay, however was far less dramatic as we motored in under pouring rain Tuesday night, having lost all of our splendid breeze at sunset.

That’s right, Tuesday night. Leaving Chicago at 1400 EDT on Monday, we made it through the Manitou Passage by 2000 Tuesday. A total of 30 hours and four gybes (technically wares) on a downwind sleigh ride. The total distance covered under sail was about 220, with the actual distance sailed more like 260 with all the waring — an average speed of 8.6 knots.

Starting out well below this average, we had a pleasant sail away from the heat and crowds out into the open lake. With the Southerlies, we saw building seas and breezes as we sailed North. By Noon on Tuesday, Pride II was in a choppy 3-5 Great Lakes Sea, with breezes over 25 knots, still carrying everything but the stuns’l, which we’d taken in at sunset the night before. With the speed surging regularly over 10 knots, there didn’t seem much need to set it again. Pride II’s stuns’l and ringtail are egyptian cotton of very light weight, and so a bit delicate. When we are racing, we might risk carrying or setting them when the breeze is up. When we are not racing, the inclination to save them for the races is strong.

The weather was still hot, but Lake Michigan had taken on the apparance of an autumn gale, frothy and churning, the swell never consistent. We charged out toward the middle of the Lake, set up to make the Manitou Passage and gybed. The breeze kept surging up –- 26 knots, 27, 30. We took in the gaff tops’l to reduce the weather helm as we entered the Passage, the high dunes of Sleeping Bear and South Manitou seeming to funnel the wind, now gusting to Gale force. Pride II was flying, surfing down waves up over 13 knots.

Anticipating a need to gybe to clear Cathead Point in the north end of the passage, I decided on a double reef in the mains’l. Just before we started the process, Pride II surged up to 14.4 knots, the fastest I’ve ever seen her go. With the second reef in, we settled down to 12 knots with a much more manageable helm.

But then, not two hours after reefing, the breeze died out to 7 knots. Getting into the lee of the Leelenau Peninsula, the sea and wind subsided. Clouds started gathering, and the long range radar indicated some thunderstorms. The idea of ruining such a good sail with a night of drifting around in the rain was horrible, so we motored the 27 miles to Suttons Bay Michigan to anchor there at midnight.

Suttons Bay is an idyllic Northern Michigan town, tucked in a neat bowl of a deepwater harbor, it has good anchoring on a 30’ hump about mid-bay, and quaint down town and gorgeous landscape. Crystal clear water ends in pebbled or sandy beaches, then rolling green hills speckled with houses. The town of 600 people is also home to the Inland Seas Education Association(link to www.schoolship.org), which runs one of the best science education programs in the country aboard the schooner Inland Seas.

After a tending to the maintenance needs of the ship, the crew were sent ashore to explore the town and stretch their legs after such a brisk sail – the reward for working so hard on such a fast sailing schooner. For me, this was a special treat, as I worked as a Deckhand, then Mate for Inland Seas earlier in my career. The expansive volunteer core of the organization welcomed me in as if I were their son, or nephew back when I joined the ship in 2000, and I liked the place so much I stayed for two years – a rarity for deckhands there. In a life where we as sailors spend so much time on the move, finding a place that feels as much like home as Suttons Bay does to me is always a thrill.

I have not been back enough in the nine years since I left, though I did make a point of getting there last summer. The last time I actually sailed in was six years ago, as third mate of the Brig Niagara. The town has changed some – more condos and restaraunts than most of the citizens would like – and some of the volunteers have moved on or passed on. Even ISEA has changed its office from a cramped little rented space to an excellent new building with a woodshop, classroom and aquarium. But the feeling of the place is the same. The gorgeous park alongside the Inland Seas dock is still the same as I remember when I lived aboard the boat alone a decade ago.

The crew seemed to enjoy the place too. A few of them got as far afield as a custom Cidery up the road, run by a former Inland Seas cook. And, well rested at anchor they all made a fine show of exchanging salutes with Welcome this afternoon. Now, Traverse City awaits and we await its citizens. Pride II will be open more than expected to the public in this port, as the weather forecast is for horrid sailing conditions tomorrow. In Chicago, we had more people than the total population of Traverse City visit, so I suppose we are ready for them.

But first, the crew of Welcome want to “welcome” us to town again, this time with dinner instead of gunfire.

All best,
Jamie Trost and the thoroughly “Welcomed” crew of Pride II

31 August 2010
Pride of Baltimore II
Sailing Northbound on Lake Michigan
POS: 43 55. 4′N x 086 36.7′W
Abeam Ludington, MI
Wx: SSW Force 4-5, Overcast, Seas 2-4′

Pride of Baltimore II has left the big city behind and is headed back toward the wild country of Northern Michigan. After a hot weekend in Chicago during which over 18,000 people boarded the vessel, she is now bound for a town with a population of just over 15,000. That will be quite a switch for the crew!

Traverse City, our destination, is a tourist town though, so on Labor Day weekend, there is likely to be a heavy influx of tourists in town for the last hurrah of the summer. Having lived in the area for nearly two years myself, I understand the draw. Traverse City itself is nestled at the bottom of Grand Traverse Bay, a long a very pretty piece of water that would be represented as the nail of the little finger if you do your Michigan geography using your hands and maps – which all the Michiganders I’ve ever met do. The whole region around the Bay is known simply as “The Grand Traverse.” Its coastlines are cut with beautiful bays and coves, a few islands dot the bay, and just inside the shore there seems to be an inland lake at every turn. Aerial photography of the region is simply stunning.

The Northern half of the Bay is North of 45 degrees Latitude. When I worked in the area years ago aboard the Educational Schooner Inland Seas, we would joking claim ourselves “half way to the North Pole,” or “half way to the Equator,” twice a day during our education programs. Not surprisingly, summer is short in the Grand Traverse. But it is also well enjoyed, as all the seasons seem to be in Grand Traverse Bay. Visiting in September will give Pride II a glimpse of people going all out to get the most out of the warm days before autumn sets in to cool things down.

This also represents a winding down of Pride II’s summer tour. The ASTA events are over. The fleet is going its separate ways. There are relatively large festivals in Erie and Montreal, and then the mad rush to get out and back to Maryland again. It seems like just yesterday I was trying like crazy to catch Pride II on her way to Oswego while in command of Lynx, and in just over a week, I’m scheduled to rotate back to the other Baltimore Clipper and turn command of Pride II over to Captain Miles. Where did all the days go?

So now, with Pride II surging North on brisk Southerlies, topping 10 knots from time to time, the real trek out to sea begins. Our Lake Michigan “detour,” which started over three weeks back when we motored under the Mackinac Bridge coming from Duluth to Green Bay, is nearly done. We are slowly working our way home, though quickly today with the breeze we have. Just as any place that is seldom visited and much appreciated, however, the Lakes deserve a few more days of appreciation. I’m hoping, with this forecast, that we can get to the Grand Traverse ahead of schedule and do just that.

All best,
Jamie Trost and the fast-sailing crew of Pride II

Saturday 28 August 2010
Pride of Baltimore II
Alongside Soutwest Wall of Navy Pier
Chicago, IL

Chicago, and Navy Pier, specifically, have given us throngs of people – over 10,000 in three days with the gates yet to open this Saturday morning. Navy Pier has become a village of sailors, maritime music, Great Lakes conservation and everything else that can be associated with a gathering of sailing vessels. Since Navy Pier was designed as a tourist attraction, all the activity cannot help but resemble a carnival. Whether that is inspiring or troubling is all a point of perception.

For sailors aboard Pride of Baltimore II, past the half way mark of a longish season and in the last official American Sail Training Association Festival, three to four thousand people crossing the rail in a day has the potential of being a real drag. The questions get repetitive – do you actually sail the boat? are you on your summer vacation? what are those fuzzy things on the ropes? – as do the answers – yes, we sail as much as we can; no, we are all 12 of us professional sailors; they are called baggywrinkle, and help prevent chafe between the rigging and the sails.

But the sheer spectacle of an event this size, with 18 ships and more shore-side activities for both the visitors and the crew, ought to be inspiring. For that to happen, the sailor has to take a step back, to use a minute of precious off time to take in the scope of what is going on out side the rails of their own ship. Just as the foot soldier never gets to observe the grandeur of a marshal parade, the sailor rarely gets to see the scale of a Tall Ships Festival because they are up to their nose in the festival itself.

It is easy to stay buried in the crowds and questions until the watch turnover comes around, then flee the scene to someplace ashore where they don’t know you are sailor, won’t ask anything about what you or your ship does. But that is robbing yourself of the simple satisfaction gained by seeing your part in the event combined with all the others to make it whole. At some point soon, the Chicago Festival, and the entire 2010 Great Lakes Tour will be just memories and photographs, so taking a moment to see things live and in person is worthwhile. But then it is back to work – when you are part of an event like this, you can’t stop to admire it for very long, or it all falls apart.

The crew of Pride II get this. They are professionals, underway, at the dock and with the public. Situated in the Southernmost corner of the festival, we are usually one of the first boats the public boards. The Schooners Unicorn and Denis Sullivan share this location with us and usually get the first visitors. From there the rest of the festival is gathered at the end of the pier – all the big square-riggers and nearly everything else afloat. With this arrangement, the crowds typically come see Pride II and her neighbors on the Southwest wall, then trek out to see the rest of the festival on the North side of the pier. Returning, they have to pass by our location again. And as a compliment of compliments, more than a dozen have waited in line to see Pride II again, and made a point of telling the crew how professional they think the ship is.

For a crew that strives for professionalism, there may be no higher compliment than the simple acknowledgement of a job well done.

Sincerely,
Jamie Trost and the top-notch crew of Pride II

Thursday 26 August, 2010
Pride of Baltimore II
Alongside the Southwest Wall, Navy Pier
Chicago, IL

Pride of Baltimore II and her crew have made a fine entrance to Chicago’s Navy Pier. During Tuesday’s Parade of Sail into Chicago Harbor she was prominently sailing under a 30’ x 42’ 15-stripe, 15-star American Flag. This “most splendid and magnificent ensign” was given her by Baltimore’s own Fort McHenry, and once actually flew over the fort. In similar show, during the land-based Parade of Sailors down Navy Pier on Wednesday morning, Port Watch marched under a large Maryland Flag (lent to us by our ship’s liaison Serrie) lashed to one of the spars from Chausser’s sailing rig. 

These events were appropriate spectacle to serve as preludes for the awards ceremony at the end of the land parade. American Sail Training Organization Executive Director Bert Rodgers presented us with second place for Race Four in the Tallships challenge Series, A Fleet Award for our service as communications vessel during races One, Two and Four, as well as calculating the race results based on the Time Correction Factors of each vessel.

 And finally (drum roll, please?) Pride II was awarded First Place Overall in the Tallship’s Challenge Series! Thanks to a great deal of grunting and sweating on the part of the crew, a few sleepless nights and one powerful Baltimore Schooner, we came out on top with one first, two seconds and a DNF (Did not Finish – in the Lake Superior Race due to scheduling conflicts). The Scrano-built, cold-molded Friends Good Will, another War of 1812 replica, sailed splendidly in Race Four and beat us on corrected time. Congratulations to Friends Good Will for their first ever race resulting in a first.

It takes more than one person to race any of the complex traditional vessels involved in the series – aboard Pride II, the ratio of sail area per crew member is roughly 800 square feet per person – it takes more than one vessel to make a race. And multiple crews all working to maximize the performance of their individual vessels in all variety of wind conditions is inspiring, a true capture of the Latin roots for our word “competition” – striving together. The race may be each vessel against the others, but the quest for better understanding of how to sail our own boats, of how to read the weather and react to the changes it brings or set up for the ones it promises, that is universal through the fleet.

All the tinkering and head-scratching of a racing environment engenders better efficiency, which translates to better, faster sailing, and resultantly, less motoring. So in one sense, the racing teaches us as mariners how we can reduce our carbon footprint by sailing faster and therefore, more. And since the Series itself was “The Race to Save the Great Lakes,” there is hope that our racing will draw attention to these massive and important Freshwater Seas. If everyone can tinker with their efficiency and reduce their carbon footprint, perhaps the next Great Lakes Tallships Challenge Series in 2013 will take place on cleaner, but familiar waters.

For our part, Pride II will keep up the tinkering, the training and the honing of skills that allowed us to claim First Place. And in the meantime, we extend congratulations to Europa (Second Place), Roald Amundsen (Third Place) and all the vessels that sailed any or all of the 580 nautical miles of races.

 All best,
Jamie Trost and the Proudly Victorious crew of Pride of Baltimore II

18 August 2010
Alongside in Port Washington, Wisconsin
Wind SW F1

Pride of Baltimore II is in early to Port Washington, Wisconsin, a quiet little harbor town just North of Milwaukee, after completing Race 4 of the Great Lakes Tallships Challenge. Between the finish line and here, the crew were also able to complete their Great Lakes Swim Call Challenge when the breeze died. They have now swum in all five Great Lakes.

All this was possible due to a fast finish in the race – 118 nautical miles in 18 hours and 15 minutes for an average speed of 6.5 knots. Not rocket speed for Pride II, but better than the drifting conditions of Races 1 or 2. By comparison, Race 2 was roughly the same length, 121 nautical miles, and took us over 30 hours to finish.

This race featured the largest fleet yet, and there was one start for both classes. The War of 1812 was well represented by the Brig Niagara, Pride II, Lynx and the Tops’l Sloop Friends Good Will, out of South Haven, Michigan. There are only five 1812 replicas sailing in the United States, so to have four at one starting line was spectacular.

Due to some irritating difficulties with a flag stuck in a Fore Tops’l reef tackle block, Pride II had a poor start – but so did the rest of the fleet. We all seemed to cross in one big pack roughly four minutes after the gun. Even Denis Sullivan and Lynx, whose captains have been pretty sharp on the line this whole series, were late.

After the start, the drag race started. With the wind just half a point forward of the beam, all the boats quickly established a pecking order based on waterline length. Pride II was at the leeward end of the line, where I though we’d have clearer air. Niagara, under relatively conservative canvas, was off to leeward and slightly ahead. She started making moves to press Pride II to weather, using their rights as the leeward vessel. This would have meant closing with the shoreline and getting into the dirty air of the rest of the fleet to weather. Making better speed under more sail, we ducked beneath her and sailed through her lee.

The race between Niagara and Pride II is always an interesting one. On corrected time, it is nearly a boat for boat race, with Pride II needing to be ahead by a scant 18 seconds per every hour raced. And while both vessels are sleek, attractive War of 1812 replicas, they are about as different can be. Niagara is a shoal drafted Brig with tremendous sail area – 2,000 square feet more than Pride II. Her namesake was designed for the shallow waters of Lake Erie, and to be sailed with a large military crew than could disassemble the rig to reduce windage and weight aloft in heavy weather. Pride II is deeper, with less sail and sail area concentrated in few sails.

The conditions often dictate how the race between the two boats is won. If the wind is on the beam or further behind and less than 15-20 knots, Niagara usually wins the day. In stronger or more weatherly conditions, Pride II often prevails. At the start, 10-15 knots on about the beam, it was still Niagara’s race. Just after we passed her, she shook out reefs and set royals, quickly coming up and then slowly overtaking us. As the breeze built and faded through the afternoon, we would rage up on her in the puffs, then drop back in the lulls.

A reaching race, while fun to sail, is often fairly boring in terms of tactics. All the boats point toward the finish, carry as much sail as they dare and usually finish predictably in order of waterline length. Variations in the breeze can determine the winners and losers – if it fills in late in the race, the smaller boats benefit, but they lose out if it fades after the larger boats finish. Consistency in weather, however, is not something the Great Lakes are known for, and the forecast for this race included a backing breeze. At some point, the wind was going to come ahead, but when exactly couldn’t be known. The sooner it happened, the better for Pride II, as she is among the best in the fleet for upwind sailing. The strategy was in how to set up for the shift.

In anticipation of the wind shift, I knew pointing higher than the rhumbline – that straight distance to the finish – was the best strategy, even though it meant more miles sailed. If we were upwind of the rhumbline, it would mean not having to tack, or at least not tack as much, when the wind came ahead. How far above was the issue. Closing with the Wisconsin shoreline too much meant a potential for less wind in the lee of the land, so I set us on a course with the wind just forward of the beam, so we could still carry the stuns’l to try for a bit more speed.

With the stuns’l just on the verge of collapsing and the deck edge occasionally getting wet, we had some of the most exciting sailing of the season aboard Pride II, topping out at 9.7 knots in 20 knots of true breeze. The rest of the fleet started to fade behind us, all but the modern racing yacht Fazizi – who would need to finish in half the time as Pride II in order to beat us on corrected time – and Niagara.

Except for one instance in which we made Captain Wesley Heerrssen a bit jumpy by suddenly falling off to keep the stuns’l full, we slowly drifted west and to weather of Niagara. While this was my strategy, I began to wonder if Niagara, sailing roughly the rhumbline yet actually able to point higher, was on to something I wasn’t. A check of the most current weather forecast gave me even greater concern. While the overall picture was for the breeze to keep backing and eventually come due south, there was suddenly an evening forecast of easterly winds. How were we to set up for that? A shift to the east could put us flat aback or get us turned in totally the wrong direction. As we approached Sheboygan Point, Wisconsin, the proudest headland before the shore curved in the west, there was much to mull over.

I decided ten miles off Sheboygan Point was the closest we should get. This marked roughly the halfway point of the race. By the time she drew abeam of it Pride II was more to weather than anyone else in the fleet. But Niagara was still ahead and still on the rhumbline. The wind was already beginning to back, and so I elected to alter course with it to keep holding onto the stuns’l and start slowly closing with the finish line, aiming just for the West end of it.

With this strategy, we were also slowly converging with Niagara, who was slowing down due to the wind shift. But our instruments indicated hours to go before we would intercept them, if at all. I had the sensation of being torn by two totally separate races – one against Niagara (boat for boat) and one against the rest of the B, C & D fleet, none of whom had reached the decision making point at Sheboygan.

Nightfall saw the wind go southwest and fade. We hardened up and took in the stuns’l. The wind was anything but steady, and our course was alternately laying the finish line or well to weather of it, but we would be on the wind for the rest of the race. After ten hours of racing the powerful square-rig of Niagara off the wind, conditions now favored Pride II.

Maximizing the performance of any vessel while close hauled in shifty wind takes a careful hand and a keen understanding of what the boat is communicating through angle of heel, speed and general feel. Doing this aboard a large traditional rig is even more difficult, and when darkness enters the equation, only those who have a real knack for it can succeed. Pride II is more responsive than most vessels her size, and in the flat sea conditions we were experiencing, she handles like the world’s heaviest J-22. She is also fortunate to have a number of crew who spent their youth racing small boats. Second Mate Emily Harwood is one of them, and she spent most of her 8-12 watch that evening working Pride II for all she was worth, slowly inching up on and weathering Niagara as the wind came further ahead.

With the vessel in Harwood’s hands, I took a short rest, first sleeping on deck between the transom knees, then actually making it to my bunk for a spell. After 45 minutes, Harwood woke me with this news – Niagara had tacked. We were now out in front, and still laying the finish, but barely. Now I started to wonder if I hadn’t given away too much of our ground to weather in trying to cover Niagara. In the dark it was difficult to pick out who was who on the radar screen and so knowing about the competion astern was nearly impossible. The race was now to get to the finish before the wind backed anymore.

As the watches rotated and C watch came on at 0000, Deckhand Jeff Crosby, another former small boat racer took the helm. I assigned Bosun Mark Scibinico to start plotting the various targets we had on the radar so we could assess our speed and heading against theirs. I took the rest of the watch and looked after trim – a little ease in the jib tops’l sheet here, a few inches in on the fore sheet, a sweat on the topyard brace – anything to keep her point and moving fast. At 0200, the breeze freshened to 15 knots again. Pride II dug in her heel and took off. Six knots, seven knots, 30 degrees apparent wind angle. She was doing the things that only Pride II can do and Niagara’s running lights disappeared. The wind was still shifty and laying the finish was no certain. Now we had it, now we didn’t.

In the end, we didn’t. A quick tack at 0400, six minutes on Port tack and then back to Starboard again. We finished at 0414, two hours behind the modern racer Faziz, but first in the 1812 fleet.

As for the rest of the fleet, particularly Europa? Well, the final results are forthcoming for the race and the series when the fleet gets to Chicago.

All best,
Jamie Trost and the crew of Pride of Baltimore II

Approaching the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal

Pride of Baltimore IIhas left Green Bay. Issues with our fresh water pump kept us alongside until near sunset yesterday and the festival grounds were all broken down by the time we left, but we are underway and sailing for the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal, and then the start of Race Four in the Great Lakes Tallships Challenge Series.

Leaving last and seeing only empty space where the festival had been was a bit bittersweet. After such a flury of activity, seeing the place empty felt a bit hollow, like the circus being gone. But then I realized that all the people were there just to see the ships we sometimes take for granted. And the idea of inspiring that sort of response is inspiring itself.

And Green Bay certainly responded. A total of 8360 walked across our decks during the three-day event, and the reception from the town itself was excellent. Green Bay is an inviting place, with lots for the crew to do ashore, and the festival organizers even arranged for a few free tickets to the Packers Saturday Night Pre-season game versus the Cleveland Browns. During the game, Captain Robin Walbridge of Bounty asked me, “How many people you think this stadium holds?”

 “About 70,000,” I said. (I was wrong, Lambeau Field can seat 72,928.)

“What do you think to population of Green Bay is?” Captain Walbridge asked.

 “About 70,000,” I said, marveling at the idea that the entire town could go see a game together. (I was also wrong, Green Bay’s Population is 101,025.)

 But it isn’t just for football that Green Bay turns out. An estimated 50,000 people came to see the 12 ships that made the event last weekend. And in the same fashion that Packer-Mania seems to involve the whole state, the Tallship event started 46 nautical miles away from the dock. All the attending vessels paraded through the town of Sturgeon Bay at 0800 on the day of arrival, then raced down a flat calm Green Bay under power to reach their moorings in the Fox River.

Weather made for some challenges as the wind filled in Southerly on Friday, then Westerly on Sunday. But throughout the festival, the lines kept filing aboard. Sunday marked our busiest day this summer with 3130 visitors.

And now the fleet is gone. Pride II’s sunset sailing out the Fox and into Green Bay was the last departure. It will be a week of before the fleet gets together again in Chicago – in the meantime we are breaking up into smaller squadrons and visiting ports off the beaten path. Pride II will join a four other vessels in Port Washington, WI.

 But first, there is Race Four of the Tallships Challenge Series, and the Series itself to try and win. Pride II trails Europa by one point entering race four. Wish us luck.

All best,
 Jamie Trost and the race course bound crew of Pride of Baltimore II

Pos: 45 00.6′N x 088 56.9′W
Wx: NE Force 2-3, numerous squalls about
Motoring sailing under fores’l and stays’l at 1400 RPM

Pride of Baltimore IIis Southbound through the Manitou Passage, between the Manitou Islands and Sleeping Bear Dunes in the “pinky-finger” section of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. According to the Chippewa Legend, a mother bear and her cubs fled a forest fire in Wisconsin and swam for the safety of the Michigan Shore. The gigantic dune rising 470′ above Lake Michigan just quarter of a mile in from the shore, is meant to be the mother bear, sleeping on the coast and waiting for her cubs, the Manitou Islands, to swim in. It is a beautiful landscape, even on an overcast and squally day.

And the crew have seen some landscapes lately. We are fresh from an overnight stay in Boyne City, Michigan, clear away at the East end of Lake Charlevoix, itself an inland Lake accessed by a man-made channel in from Lake Michigan. The passage along the lake reads like an atlas of Earnest Hemingway’s “Nick Adams” stories – East Jordan, Horton Bay, Charlevoix. This is the country where the famous macho writer spent much of his youth.

It is also the current country of long-time Pride friends, the Kidds. Jack Kidd was one of the first Sales Reps to fully sense the benefit of using Pride for corporate hospitality.  In 1981, he started using the first Pride for dockside receptions. The Maryland based company he worked for, Tate Access Flooring,  had offices in most of the ports that Pride visited.  Jack took care of the crew too – whether they were in Michigan, Baltimore or another port where the company was doing business.  In the mid-eighties Jack became a board member.  He retired to Michigan shortly after the construction of Pride II was completed.  But his tradition of taking care of the crew had been started and whenever the ship was in the Great Lakes he invited the crew for some Rest and Relaxation at the family cottage on Walloon Lake.  Though Jack passed away in 2003, his sons, Jack Junior and Wally, along with their wives Doris and Margie, have continued the standing offer of hospitality.  

 As Walloon Lake is one of Michigan’s splendid inland lakes, a dock nearby and transportation overland has always presented a logistical challenge. Typically, Pride IIwould secure alongside in Charlevoix, and the Kidds would ferry the crew 15 miles away to the cottage. I did this in 2008, the last time Pride II was on the Lakes. But just this spring brand new docks with length and depth to accommodate Pride II opened up in Boyne City, a mere 4 miles away from the cottage. So early Tuesday morning, we made for the far end of the lake and secured.

As an added bonus, our little sister, Lynx, was in the area and an invitation was extended to them as well. As you know, when I am not in command of Pride II, I take command of Lynx, and the two crews have been getting to know each other quite well since the boats were first together in Lunenburg two months ago. Currently, former Pride II Captain John Bebe-Center is in command of Lynx. John brought the Pride II crew to the Kidd’s cottage back in 2006 and so is no stranger to the family.

Coming in and securing unannounced to anyone but the Kidds and the harbormaster just before 9am, Pride IIcreated quite a stir, and all through the morning as people clustered on the dock. Lynx came in and rafted alongside us at 1030, putting her bow at our stern to create a dramatic “X” of raked masts and braced yards. According to the crew members assigned to keep the duty watch aboard, there was non-stop curiosity throughout the day. It would continue Wednesday morning, when seven people even elected to sign-up for a last minute one-way sail to Charlevoix, 12 miles away. But most of us missed the crowds and were carried away to the relative bliss of Walloon Lake. At noon, the waves of Lynx and Pride II sailors began departing to the cottage.

Set back from the lake 150 yards on a bluff, the cottage offers two paths that sweep through pines, birches and maples down to a grassy flat just before a strip of beach on the lake. In 2008, the crew played an epic game of whiffle ball on this flat, while in other years it has looked like a nursery at nap time for all the sleeping sailors. A dock juts into the clear emerald water with a pontoon boat, sunfish, and canoe for exploring the lake. Family dogs chase tennis balls and swim until they are utterly exhausted. On Tuesday, there was scarcely a cloud in the clear northern air and the afternoon breeze chopped the surface of the lake to glitter. The crew set about doing everything there was to do – sailing, paddling, swimming – or simply did nothing at all and soaked in the respite from tours and watches.

And then there was food. And more food. Delicious salads and side dishes, marinated hot-dogs and bratwursts, massive combinations of ground beef and cheese! We eat quite well aboard Pride II– we always seem to enlist a cook who knows how to prepare fabulous meals on a very tight budget – and so were not hurting for flavor or quantity, but boy did we stuff ourselves. The feast slowed the activities, and allowed the crew some time to visit and admire the cottage. It is a simple, cozy place – single story with brown cedar shingles – but the careful eye will note the breath and depth of Pride memorabilia. Artwork and pictures, a half-hull model, a magnet on the fridge from the early days of the old boat. All testament to longstanding involvement with Pride and the support the Kidds have given to help keep us sailing.

A day at the Kidd Cottage is what R & R was meant to be – immediately refreshing and without complications. Any Pride II crew member, or guest crew (and this year Lynx crew too) is instant family. The setting, too, of a Northern Lakeside in summer is a relaxing one. Maybe not instantly so:  Plenty of us are a bit more worn out today from all the swimming, paddling and dog chasing than if we’d been underway. But as a battery recharge for a bunch of sailors who have been putting on their best show for the tens of thousands of visitors Pride II has seen, and working the boat from port to port in diligent and professional fashion, a day at the cottage will go far, farther than a good nights sleep or an extra day off. It will serve as a reminder highlighting that what we do in sailing Pride II is held in extremely high regard by one outstandingly generous family.

By sunset, most of the crew had left the cottage. Some were tired and off to their bunks, others were interested in what nightlife in a Northern Michigan town might have to offer. A few of us lingered while day faded. I took the canoe out for a paddle in the fading light. Just after sunset in the middle of the lake, I turned back. And for a few minutes I stopped paddling. The breeze had faded to calm and there was still light enough to see the colorful sails of the moored sunfish along the beaches. I was alone, on the water with no orders to give and no reports to hear. Now that was a good way to finish out my R& R.

From Hemingway Country,
Jamie Trost and the exceedingly grateful crew of Pride II