09-25-2022 Capital Style - Flipbook - Page 8
3 THINGS
By Mike Klingaman Capital Style
Jan Miles
captain of Pride of Baltimore II
Jan Miles, captain of Pride of Baltimore II, aboard his Whistler 32 Cat Ketch sailboat. PHOTO BY KIM HAIRSTON
For 41 years, Jan Miles has skippered
the Pride of Baltimore (I and II), replicas of a 19th century Baltimore clipper
built to circle the globe and promote
both Maryland and maritime history. At
71, Miles has logged more than 250,000
miles aboard the celebrated schooners (the first Pride sank in a storm in
1986). A graduate of Annapolis High,
he received a Lifetime Achievement
Award from Tall Ships America and
lives in Pasadena, a stone’s throw from
the Magothy River.
Here are three things you might not
know about Miles:
that I should have my own sailboat,
because what else would we do in
retirement? It’s a two-masted Whistler
32 that we keep in our community’s
marina. We’ve sailed as far as Chestertown; I have no ambition to go outside
the Chesapeake Bay.
“On this boat, unlike Pride II, I’m
doing all of the work — and I get a great
sense of accomplishment out of knowing what I’m doing. I don’t have a crew,
although — every once in a while — I
might want one.”
of two hours or more, I’ll look at radar,
maps and wind charts, and may find
cause to wait a day or two.
“The idea of flying can be problematic because I have to trust the pilot.
Sometimes, on a plane, I have to grab
my psyche and focus on something else,
so that I don’t drive myself nuts worrying if this guy is going to fly through a
thunderstorm. That’s when I need to
change the subject in my head.”
A lifelong seaman, he bought his
first craft at age 58.
Even inland, he keeps an eye on
Mother Nature.
“Being a sailor, I observe the weather
in a way that is pretty uncommon for
people onshore. Before going on a drive
“My father was a foreign service
officer, so I grew up mostly overseas.
My earliest solo sailing, at [age] 7, was
in Malta, an island in the middle of the
Mediterranean Sea.”
“In 2009 my wife, Lesley, decided
8
| CAPITAL STYLE | Fall 2022
He learned to sail a long way from
the Chesapeake Bay.