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Lake Superior Magazine Exclusive
Dispatch from the Pride by Anne Lewis

Dispatch #5 - July 31, 2008

TWO HARBORS, Minn. (July 31, 2008) – We’re in the final few hours of the Pride of Baltimore II’s sailing odyssey across Lake Superior. Today the sun was shining and the wind was out of the west/northwest gusting 15 to 18 knots. We made excellent time and will be well ahead of the scheduled arrival. Our rendezvous with the U.S. Brig Niagara and Madeline is coming up fast, too. We still expect to arrive all together around 5 p.m. But we’ll have to go out of the harbor and come back again to help launch the Tall Ships Festival in Duluth.

We’ve been on the Lake for three days now and this Lake I’ve known all my life has not disappointed. Since I long ago assigned a personality to Lake Superior and its moods, I’d say that Lake Superior was on its best behavior for this visiting vessel from Baltimore.

The Pride crew’s proficiency in managing this sail and the boat’s operations is a marvel to behold. The skill and attention to detail that are applied by this largely 20-something crew borders on poetry. They come from all over the country, some having sailed with the Pride before.

There’s always a lot of work to do on the Pride and we guest crew members shared it all, except mast climbing and jib furling on the bow spire. There appear to be hundreds of lines (ropes), each with its own special purpose and location. The crew knows them all and showed enormous patience with us. But they didn’t let us off the hook. After all, this is a working clipper ship and it relies on people power.

As guest crew, two of us share a shift with two other crew members and one of the mates. This means we stand a four-hour watch two times in a 24-hour period. We’re also on stand-by two times, in case extra crew is needed. We do boat checks once or twice a four-hour shift. And we add extra muscle for hauling and downhauling the sails. We’re also needed to trim sails when the boat tacks (shifts direction). When you’re a sailing vessel like this one, there has to be a continuous monitoring of machinery, speeds, course and the sails. The need for more hands when tacking can take place any time. We sleep prepared to be awakened, and we have been roused to pull on lines “heartily” at 5:30 or 6 a.m. after we completed an 8 p.m. to midnight shift. Everyone naps when they aren’t working or eating, so they can be ready.

On Tuesday (July 29) we got to experience a “full-court press” in sailing. Lightning was sighted off in the distance. A check of the radar and barometer confirmed a squall was coming our way. The captain ordered the main sail down along with several other sails, including the fore topsail. This involved sending crew aloft and out on to the spire to unlatch halyards. The rest of us scrambled to pull and secure lines in continuous succession until all ordered protection was in place. It worked like clockwork and was completed well within the seven minute requirement. More importantly, we were ready when the momentary weather front hit us with high winds and rain.

By Wednesday (July 30), we had overcome the deficit of speed we lost to calm seas and obligatory motoring instead of sailing. We found ourselves bearing down on the Apostle Islands earlier than expected and the captain announced we would do sightseeing through a few of them. The crew members loved the islands, declaring them “awesome.” I also began to see the names of familiar places I hadn’t thought about for years. I found myself coaching the second mate on correct pronunciation of the towns we were passing on the shore.

By the time you read this dispatch, we’ll probably be in port cleaning and polishing for the arrival of visitors who are expected to experience the Pride for themselves. (The three ships are scheduled to come together under the bridge sometime after 4 p.m.) When we see Duluth, I think the crew will especially like the way Duluth sits high above Lake Superior with a clear vision of the lake for most people. This is an advantage Duluth has over Baltimore because its hills rise up visibly behind the downtown, allowing sailors to see much of the town from the water.

For me, I’ll be sad to have this incredible journey over, but I’ll be eager to see family and friends. The Pride’s crew has more work to do as goodwill ambassadors from Maryland. I hope many of you will take this opportunity to learn about Maryland’s unique effort to share its cultural heritage through the Pride of Baltimore II.

I know you’ll enjoy it.

-- Anne Lewis

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