Midnite Oil

Good morning everyone. Here at the global headquarters we have discovered a new fuel supply that we are tapping into with wild abandon. It is an energy source that is renewable on a daily basis and seems to have no limits when put under pressure. Midnight oil is what I am speaking of course and we are burning it in great quantities. As the saying goes... we will have plenty of time to sleep when we're dead.

The crew is really stepping up to the plate getting everything ready. We have Coast Guard deck inspection on Monday and many details to take care of before then. The passenger cabins and companionways are all getting a makeover with new paint and varnish. Just when the crew thought they were done sanding we are once again tackling a major painting project.

During this past weekend we began a new electrical installation that will allow us to supply 110 power to all of the cabins. The new inverter/charger will supply a very limited (read No Hair Dryers!) amount of electricity to the passenger cabins for folks with sleep apneia who need a positive pressure ventilator called a CPAP machine to keep ticking through the night. These are appearing more and more frequently and the portable inverter we have does not fit the bill any longer. The battery bank that supplies power to the navigation electronics is being replaced as well. Each battery weighs in at 165 lbs. and let me tell you that getting them up out of the bilges is not fun.

Training is also big on the menu these last few weeks. As you can see the crew learned to prime the pump and we ran through some fire drills reviewing appropriate tactics for large wooden vessels. I am fairly confident that they don’t have time to read this but don’t be surprised if I spring a drill on them today. Prevention is the key of course and by the time the crew is done there will not be one area of the boat that they have not seen intimately. Next week we bend on sails and by Friday we will be ready to go... I think.

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Paint and Tar and Elbow Grease

Good morning everyone. The weather here in Maine continues to hold for us. The blackflies have appeared inland at our home and drive us to the coast where the cool sea breeze makes life more tolerable. Temperatures inland threaten to reach the 70-degree mark. Yeeeesh! Let’s go sailing.

Our schedule is currently driven by our annual Coast Guard deck inspection on the 19th of the month. With most of the rigging finished we now turn our attention to passenger accommodations. We will brighten things up with new paint on the overheads and in the companionways. In the past these have been painted off-white. We are going to try a bright eggshell white this year. Some of the bright work needs renewing with a hand rubbed effect varnish. The whole combination feels bright and cozy all at the same time. Not that any of us spends much time in our cabins but we do think the little touches make a huge difference.

Our last crew member Molly has finally joined us. She is currently attending the Maine Maritime Academy where she specializes in small vessel operations. She was thrown straight to the masthead where she sat for the better part of a day hooking up all of the wires that support the foretopmast. From the photos you can see that she can eye splice with the best of them. You can also see that rigging a schooner sometimes takes a few schematics to accurately describe how the rigging should be lead. Every boat is rigged just a little bit differently and every year I change one or two things. There is nothing static about these boats.

Jen and Alex spent yesterday prepping and painting the green accent on the stern. There are some folks in this world that can’t paint a straight line working right side up on hard ground (I know... I am one them!). Imagine painting an ellipse on a bouncing paint float upside down. Once again my amazing wife proves that defying gravity is not all that difficult. At least she makes it look easy. Alex learned not to paint with his mouth open. Of course Dad does what he does best.. stay out of the way. As you can see it did not take much bait to lure him and Sawyer off the schooner. There is something about men in plaid.

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Thanks to Professor Jim Dugan for grabbing our camera during his lunch break and taking these photos.

Happy May Day!

Good Morning! It's a beautiful one at that! We're still enjoying the sunny days, cool, but at least they are sunny. Ice on the decks in the morning makes for the first trip to the heads an exciting one! The crew have been "itchy" to rig and rightfully so. They have been sanding and painting for months now with the end of painting in sight. Rigging takes their jobs to a whole new dimension. Each block is hawled up and shackeled and moused in place. Lines are rove in a certain direction (sometimes taking more than once to get it right). Topmasts are ever so carefully lifted up and attached to their heel ropes. The crew are using these rigging days to "learn the ropes" as they say. Pins are in place on the pinrails now to hold their respective lines. Today they will be placing the jibboom back out for the head rig to go up. That funny piece they painted and smirked at this winter called the martingale (this is a test for Ed & Al) will finally make some sense for them. What a great day it is when it all comes into place.

After the rigging goes up, the schooner takes on a new look and feel, beginning to come alive. She seems as though she's sitting at the dock, tugging on her mooring lines, ready to be released. Patience, we say, sails will be bent on soon and passengers will arrive soon (21 days and counting!). It's hard to believe, but it only takes two days to rig the vessel...two very long days at that!

So it seems only fitting to share this photo of Alex on the masthead on May Day...as Sawyer and Nadie are preparing for their May Pole dance at school...It's amazing that May Day traditionally divides the year in half...can that be???

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

P.S. To those who have commented since this was published,

According to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, striking dolphins is clearly criminal activity. Now we won't judge what you do in your spare time but we here at the global headquarters of the schooner Mary Day protect the rights of all dolphins to swim the oceans freely without fear of being stricken by a piece of varnished wood. What did they do to deserve such poor treatment at the hands of maniacal schoonermen and square riggers alike, arm chair or otherwise, as they gracefully swim in the bow waves bringing joy to the hearts of many? On the other hand the term martingale speaks of beauty and grace. In that spirit we have chosen the more sensitive and graceful term to describe such a beautiful object. I reference, of course, Van Nostrands 1922 " Standard Seamanship for the Merchant Service", second edition, sixth printing, authored by Felix Riesenberg, C. E. (credits and accolades too long to list) where on pages 182, 192, and 194 he refers to the dolphin striker and martingale as one and the same.


Besides which, we just wanted to see if you were paying attention. By the reports of brown outs throughout the Alabama power grid it is clear that you were paying very close attention. On behalf of all of us here at the global headquarters... thank you... we are glad someone is reading this thing.

Best,
Jen and Barry

Whirlwind Week

Good morning everyone. Well it has been another very busy week here. After a whirlwind 24 hour shipyard event we rolled straight into school vacation week and painting topsides. The weather here the last few weeks has been just extraordinary. Sunny dry days with temperatures up into the 70s... is this really spring in Maine???

The crew spent 3 days massaging the topside planking and the results really show. They pushed really hard on Wednesday working late painting the beige and white on the bulwarks. Thursday was a very full day painting the topsides. On Friday the crew prepped and painted the bowsprit, and the yawl boat "gallows" along with its beige strong back. But wait there's more!

Training is a huge part of what we do this time of year. The crew will know this boat inside and out by the time they are done getting her ready to sail. This weekend, for the first time, we taught a first-aid course specifically geared for windjammers. The crews from the windjammers at the head of Camden Harbor spent the weekend reviewing techniques for dealing with medical and injury emergencies when we are just beyond the reach of 911. While much of the course involved American Heart Association first aid and CPR & AED curriculum the scenarios we practiced all involved what happens when the ambulance just can't get to where we are. Much time and discussion was dedicated to simple but very important concepts in providing extended care for injuries. We practiced scene size-up, initial assessments, and how to perform a more focused history and physical exam so that we can communicate the condition and nature of the situation. In our scenarios we provided care for injured crew members with multiple issues and passengers having "the big one" in the top bunk of their cabins (try doing CPR in those confined quarters!) complete with hysterical bystanders. Those scenarios, while just pretend at the dock, brought home the difficult nature of what we are confronted with when the 911 system will not arrive in 15 minutes. The response from the crew members was tremendous and demonstrated their commitment to passenger safety.

What's next you ask? Stand by...we're all having a day off!

Have a great day. Be well. Do good. Stay safe!

Homeward Bound

Good morning everyone. We launched the schooner yesterday on the tide (1 hour before high tide, that is). All went well on the trip back to Camden. We are grateful to have had Mary's smiling face gracing our yard period. She even brought the brownies!


This was a quick yard period for us. Normally we might spend a few days in the yard but the forecast for rain (which was wrong by the way) drove us to work by lamplight late into Friday evening and raise the sun yesterday morning. Pre-planning was critical. The crew had already painted the majority of the water line area and the green boot stripe so minimal staging was required saving hours of time. The great deal of work we have done in years past allowed us to take a little less time as well.

The return trip to Camden provided the opportunity to review the "station bill", crew duties in the event of any kind of emergency. We even did a man overboard drill as we motored past Curtis I Light. Sara and Alex recovered the fender and the proper CPR was administered accordingly. And as if 21 hours of work in 2 days (that is 147 people hours +/-) was not enough the crew turned to and oiled the deck for another 4 hours as soon as we hit the dock (an additional 24 people hours). We are very proud of this crew and they are discovering what a days work really looks like. I know they are tired and will be sitting in the pews for morning service praying that we go sailing soon. Feeling the roll of the vessel on the way to and from the yard was heartening. To feel my hand on the wheel, at home once again, with such beautiful weather.... well I am ready to get sailing as well.

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Speeding thru the Yard

Good Morning!
This week is or was a major turning point for us. Weeks or I should say months, have been spent sanding and painting, sanding and varnishing. You get gritty, you get covered in paint. The crew wonders if there is an end. We just keep reittering the words, be patient, it will be over, we will be sailing soon…..just keep painting! The weather this past week seemed unreal. Temps were in the 60’s! The snow has finally melted and the ice on the lakes have gone. People were out golfing and fishing on the lakes. We took off the cover and launched three boats….signs of winter times are finally gone! By taking off the cover and going for a ride in the yawl boat was the refreshing breeze for our wings to keep us flying thru this busy time of fit out.

From taking off the cover and launching boats on Tuesday, we went right into yard prep. The waterline was prepped and painted and the Mary Day was turned around ready for the early departure to the yard. Early Friday morning we slipped out of Camden Harbor to arrive in Rockland by 9:30. We hauled out on the railway and the crew hit the ground running….bottom pressure washed and scrubbed, centerboard trunk de-musseled, thru- hulls cleaned and regreased, zincs changed, bottom scraped and seams compounded. There was even time to paint the quarter & fore bits! By lamplight we finished the day edging the waterline in prep for spraying paint on Saturday morning. As I write this at 6am, Barry is down there now spraying the boat, hoping to be done for a 11am launching. He said he wanted the “super car wash” method. I think we managed to pull it off!

Have a great day! Do well, be good. Enjoy this beautiful time of Spring!

Brush Work

Good morning everyone. The weather this week has been just beautiful and we have “made hay.” The Michelin team came to tar the rig on Monday. Cabin houses were painted Tuesday and Wednesday. The reflection of the cover in the mirror finish was amazing. Topsides have been sanded from the cover skirt down including the green boot stripe. You will notice the vacuum attached to the sanders. Alex and Jeb sanded the Velcro right off the disc! Even the “dumpsters”, those deck storage areas above the main saloon were sanded and painted. It is all looking great. The crew has been putting in some very long days and we are grateful for their hard work.

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.