Highly Variable

Good morning everyone. Well it has been a soggy last few days up here with a cold easterly wind. As usual we have made the best of it in fine fashion with mittens and hats and lots of layers. Is this really July? For those of you that have been living in blistering hot temperatures a trip to Maine will cool you off in short order. By the time you read this it will be sunny and warm again with rebounding temperatures and more normal Maine summer weather. The sun’s golden light is already warming the decks. And so it goes here in New England. The weather is highly variable. But one thing is constant and that is great guests. We have a fun mix of seasoned sailors and folks who are new. I think the age range is from 15 to 80. Folks are here from California, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Massachusetts, and more. The people are as variable and wonderful as the weather.

Yesterday we enjoyed a special treat when we visited Frenchboro, Long Island. As is normal I gave passengers a homework assignment to discover how may residents winter over on Long Island and more importantly how many kids are in the school. That number in particular tells more about the health of any island community. 12-14 students was the number many walkers came back with for the Frenchboro school. On Tuesday morning we visited Isle Au Haut and learned that there were 6 in the school there. Resourcefulness is the name of the game for island schools and no better resource can be found than the children in the one room school houses who grow up teaching each other and learning together. They invented the idea that no one, ever, would be left behind. How else could you have a lunch time soccer game?

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Happy Fourth of July

Good afternoon everyone. A little late day blog to wish you all a happy Fourth of July. The sun shone brightly today and "Big Bertha" flew proudly from the masthead causing everyone on the town landing to pause and give thanks for this wonderful country we live in.

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Great Windjammer Racing

Good morning everyone. I apologize for the long hiatus in this Maine windjammer blog. Frankly I have been overwhelmed these last few weeks with so much going on that I can’t even begin to stay up with it all. This past weekend was the first time in weeks that I have actually had a few hours to get a project done at home. The busyness is all good but it is very busy. Our cruises have been wonderful and the crew is settling in nicely with each other and with the boat. I am delighted with each of them.
This week we are participating in the annual Great Schooner Race hosted by the Miane Windjammer Association. The race was yesterday. I try to keep the perspective that this is just supposed to be fun… although there is a twinge of excitement when the winds favor us and Mary Day has a chance to show her stuff. The starting line ran east/west from Holbrook Harbor where we all rafted up Monday night. The raft up was a hoot with 11 windjammers present that we could climb aboard and tour. More than few folks admired Mary Day’s wide open decks and the fireplace that kept the chill of the damp night air at bay. Tuesday morning we started at 1030 to race up wind in a very light southerly that took us around Cape Rosier and the islands. The wind died for a while so we decided that rowing would help us keep momentum. Out oars and with tow line attached to the bob chains we managed to gain a tenth of a knot and keep the bow pointing in the right direction.
Again the wind came up and away we marched through the fleet. Even with a longer course to steer we managed to keep up and pass vessels that started 20 minutes before us and sailed a course that was a full mile and half shorter. In the end it was only Mary Day and Stephen Taber left standing. With a comfortable quarter mile lead in the dying wind we finally dropped the yawl boat and called it quits for the day. Most of the fleet anchored up in a nearby harbor together but I was yearning to put some distance on a fine day of racing in the fog. We motor sailed under the bridge and down the Eggemoggin Reach to anchor in Brooklin for the night.
Mary Day showed her stuff once again and we are pleased to hang on to the trophy for our class for another year. Kudos to all of the windjammer captains who deftly sailed their vessels in very limited visibility and such light airs. I figure any one can sail in a gale of wind but sailing in light conditions takes real a fine touch. The captains of the Maine windjammer fleet demonstrated that, when properly handled by passengers and crew, these vessels are able to gracefully glide on a whisper on wind.

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Puffins, Auks, and a Big Surprise

Good morning everyone. Well just when we thought it couldn’t get any better it has. This week is one of two 6-day naturalist cruises we offer each June and we are off to a great start. We left Camden after breakfast yesterday morning and pushed out of the bay to the southward. I had a hankering to get offshore and after the last 2 days of NW winds I suspected that the ocean swell would be knocked down some. After an hour’s push with the yawl boat, during which we saw a red phalarope, we caught a SSW wind and away we went sailing outside the islands that guard the south end of Vinalhaven.
Just after lunch we reached Seal I about 20 miles from Camden and a known nesting spot for Atlantic puffins and razor billed auks. I was a little nervous when just a mile from the island I wasn’t seeing much in the way of pelagic species. And then they came. A gannet soared across the bow and then the alcids began to appear. I don’t think I have seen so many puffins and auks as we did yesterday. The place was teeming with them. We also had a surprise guest that even naturalists Mike and Margi Shannon had never witnessed, a white tailed tropic bird. Usually seen no further north than the Virginia coast here were, not just one, but two of these magnificent long tailed species. This photo was taken by passenger Elaine Cundiff. The wind stayed fair as we sailed wing and wing all the way to our anchorage at Burnt Coat Harbor on Swan’s Island. I am still shaking my head at the extraordinary luck we had. Just amazing!

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

More Cool Lighthouses

Good morning everyone. We sailed off the anchor yesterday morning after breakfast and enjoyed a light onshore breeze all day long. Once again sunny skies were the rule. Eider ducks are everywhere. I love seeing the males skittering across the water as we approach the ledges.We sailed through the dozens of islands in Merchant Row and ran down the East Bay passing very close to the Deer Isle Light, Eagle I Light and Dice Head at Castine. We had a distant glimpse of Pumpkin I light which marks the west entrance of the Eggemmoggin Reach. We finished our day with walks ashore at Fort Point State Park. Ranger Terry Cole welcomed guests with tours of the tower and the original 4th order fresnel lens. How cool is that!

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

As Good As It Gets

Good morning everyone. Well yesterday was about as good as it gets in our neck of the woods (or should I say bay). We left the dock at 10 o’clock and with all sail set and the yawl boat hauled we tacked our way up the bay towards Rockland on the ouitgoing tide. This being a 4 day lighthouse cruise we were able to view the lights at Curtis I, Indian I, Rockland Breakwater and Owls Head… all before lunch! We snuck through the Fox I Thorofare and across to the Deer I Thorofare, a route which gave us views of Browns Head, Goose Rocks and the Deer I Thorofare Light on Mark I.

Dinner time found us anchored next to a delightful small island where we feasted on lobster and enjoyed a spectacular sunset. Guests exploring the rocky outcroppings discovered a small seal pup hauled up on a ledge. Keeping a respectful distance we all enjoyed a sight that is common along the coast during the spring but rarely witnessed by guests at a beach during a lobster picnic. How lucky we are.

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Sail Training with the Hartsbrook Waldorf School

Good morning everyone. We are off and sprinting in very fine fashion. The crew is doing a tremendous job of pulling everything together. We just finished a very soggy cruise with a group of young adults from the Hartsbrook Waldorf School. I was so impressed by their maturity in the face of adversity. We had three straight days of rain, which I would call adversity for 8th graders, but these folks stood their watches in the rain without a whimper or a complaint.

Our sail training program introduces all the elements of watch standing including standing a bow watch, sail handling and trim, knots and nomenclature, and steering. The domestic chores, galley duty and cleaning heads, are also a piece of the puzzle of shipboard life. The pictures here are from the last day when the sun finally came out and we had every kind of weather imaginable… sun, wind, fog… and even an afternoon thunderstorm. The students had sails down and the vessel secured in minutes and the storm tracked just to the north of us quite uneventfully. I could not have asked for a better drill to reinforce the importance of knowing every line on the schooner. Back in Camden we laughed as the vessels we built raced across our small cove to the proud budding naval architects waiting on the beach. Congratulations to all of the students for a job well done!

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.