If endless buffets, getting fancied up for a captain’s ball or waiting to see what animal shape the bath towels have been folded into is your idea of fun on the seas, then the Pride of Baltimore II’s guest crew program is probably not your thing.
But, if you want to work alongside a crew, haul lines, furl sails, stand watch in the dead of the night and help with maintenance of a tall ship whose design dates to the 18th century, then you’ve found your people.
For more than 30 years, the Pride of Baltimore II has offered an immersive experience, where sailing aficionados pay around $150 a day to take overnight excursions – some for more than a week or more at sea aboard the topsail schooner. Guests pay to work with the vessel’s professional crew and take part in all facets of ship-board life, based on the guest’s ability and interest.
“This is not a five-star hotel experience,” joked Patrick Smith, who has been with the Pride organization for more than a decade. “The best way to describe it is a glamping experience. You share a cabin, you have running water and meals, but it’s definitely not a luxury experience.”
The schooner was launched in Baltimore in 1988, based on the Baltimore Clippers made famous as privateers during the War of 1812. They were built as small, nimble, fast-sailing vessels for trade. The Pride II, the second reproduction, was built as an homage to a 1986 ship that was struck by a squall near Puerto Rico and sunk.
The Pride II typically sails with a professional crew of 12, including the captain, ship’s cook, two mates, deck boss, engineer and six deckhands. There are three passenger cabins with two berths each available for guest crew, allowing up to six guest crew to share accommodations. Guest crew cabins are doubles with two snug single bunks and all guest crew share one bathroom.
The crewmembers eat in the main salon with meals served buffet style from the galley. “You could have pork chops one night and stir-fry the next night, but there’s definitely no midnight chocolate bar,” Smith said.
Since the deck on Pride II is open and the weather is unpredictable, guests are encouraged to pack for sun, rain and gusty wind, and to prepare for rough conditions that are likely to cause sea sickness.
Charles Scott, an experienced sailor from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who has logged 25,000 offshore miles on numerous ocean passages, wrote about his experience in Sailing Magazine as a member of the guest crew. Calling his account of the trip “Disaster Aboard the Pride of Baltimore II,” Scott signed on for an 800-mile passage from Jacksonville, Florida, to Baltimore to fulfill a lifelong dream.
“I’m not sure what I expected when I signed on as guest crew for a week aboard Pride of Baltimore II. But in the windy rain, my fingers sticky with tar as I helped tension the rig, I sure didn’t expect this,” Scott wrote of the experience that put his expert sailing skills to the test.
“We were holed up behind Cape Fear, North Carolina, making repairs after the jibboom had snapped off in heavy seas the day before near Cape Lookout 70 miles to the northeast. Helping to rig a temporary stay for the fore topmast, I thought of the countless sailors who must have done the exact thing in this very place,” he wrote. Over the centuries, this anchorage had likely seen many a crew licking their wounds and repairing broken gear after a tussle with the treacherous waters of Cape Hatteras.”
Scott’s encounter was unusual, Smith said, adding that the crew is prepared for possible scenarios. “One sail can be flat and no wind, but in another one, it will have to wait out a storm.” And just recently, the sail had to delay a journey in Plymouth, Massachusetts, because of Hurricane Debby. “Each sail is unique,” Smith said.
Even though Charles Scott’s sail was not what he expected, he wrote that it wouldn’t be his last. “Soon after we docked, the crew began their farewells, drifting away to homes and families (and some to the local pub). I sat on deck enjoying the evening quiet. I had fulfilled a lifelong dream, and in the active week aboard I gained confidence that I can continue the sailing life for years to come. I look forward to joining Pride II again. She’s scheduled to visit the Great Lakes in 2025, and I’m marking my calendar for a chance to relive again the bygone days of sail.”
Pride II has loyal followers who are frequent guest crew members like Greg Bower, who drives three hours from Central Pennsylvania to sail on Pride II, and has been a guest crew member a dozen times. “I remember the feeling I had the first time I sailed,” Bower said. “I didn’t know the crew and I didn’t know the ship. I entered the ship wide-eyed and excited. The captains and crew are all fantastic.” As a bonus, Bower said he has made friends from all over whose paths he never would have crossed. “Every time I get off, I look forward to the next time.”
Bower is one of many frequent sailors. “We have a core group of guest crew who have been sailing for 20 years,” Smith said. “They come back every year and coordinate with their former guest tour. What we have found is that our guest crew starts out as strangers, they stay in touch and they sail together. They have become lifelong friends, and that’s special.”
