Sailing Vacations
A Maine Windjammer

Good morning everyone. We had a great trip this weekend as Jim Dugan's pictures show (Thanks Jim!). Of course the people made it. We are blessed with great guests and I can't thank them enough for getting our season off to a great start. Mary's friend Hank played some great fiddle tunes one evening. Jake, the assistant cook, is no slouch either and plays a mean dobro. I have my repair list for the day, replace pressure switch in saltwater pump, fix that squeaky bunk in Cabin 1,find small fitting for hanging lamp, install equalization timer for 24 volt charger system. I could probably think of a few more. The details are endless. I think we call that job security. Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Good morning everyone. We have enjoyed two great days of sailing. Saturday's sail was highlighted by one long tack up the bay. Yesterday we enjoyed numerous tacks and a "man overboard" drill. The crew did well and recovered the "victim" fender in jig time. Heaving to (stopping forward progress) under sail is accomplished by backing the headsails and easing the foresheet. I am delighted to see how well the schooner is sailing. We have passed 9 knots on both days beating to weather. And that ain't half bad. We managed to get Mary and her friend Hank, an amazing fiddler, to play some tunes for us Saturday night. Sawyer loves to hear the old time fiddle tunes. His favorite is "Smash the Windows", perhaps more for the title than the tune. My poor guitar is coming apart after the long dry winter so I will need to get it in for repairs this next week but I managed to follow along just the same. Last night we feasted together on an old-f

Good morning everyone. We sail on the tide today. The wind is light NW this morning and the sun is shining bright. We had record temperatures here yesterday and today looks to be quite warm as well. It is a perfect day to go sailing! Thanks to all of you who have been watching over us these past few months. You encouragement has been wonderful. It takes a village to raise a topmast and you have been as much a part of the process as we have. Yesterday we went to visit with Mary Day herself to receive the bronze medallion which graces the galley ice box each year. A piece of Mary and Havilah Hawkins sails with us. And now the schooner belongs to the guests and each of you who have been watching and wishing us luck. We are just the care takers. The schooner belongs to the village. Have a great day. be well. Do good.

Good morning everyone. Here we go. We board guests today and sail tomorrow. The schooner is looking great. The crew put the finishing touches on yesterday. Ice was delivered. Provisions were brought aboard. Jake loaded 28 crates of firewood into the wood hold. The jib topsail, back from warranty work, was bent on to the foretopmast stay. And finally, the trail boards were mounted on the gammon knee at the bow, literally, "gilding the lily." Those trail boards have seen over one hundred thousand miles of water pass under them (about 132,000 by my calculation) and are still going. Every year we comment on how they are on their last legs. They are as much epoxy and wood filler as they are wood. Pieces of the gilded scrollwork have fallen off and been replaced. They won't last forever we know. But we just keep nursing them along each year. Last fall we asked a carver friend for a quote to replace them. I guess you can see the answer for here they are agai

Good morning everyone. Sorry for the lapse these past few mornings. We passed our Coast Guard inspection with flying colors. The inspector remarked how well organized everything was and how beautiful the boat looked. Our homework these past few months paid off. The crew did a very good job demonstrating the new pumps. We will perform underway drills with the Coast Guard aboard sometime in the next few weeks. With inspection done by early Monday afternoon we welcomed aboard our first guests, Sawyers classmates and their parents, for an overnight dockside adventure. What better load test for the schooner than a group of first graders. Some of you may well have felt the tremor in the noosphere. Excited is the word we parents use to convince ourselves that we have some control over the barely contained mayhem in front of us and that it really is not as bad as it looks. And we were worried about the Coast Guard. The kids had a blast, the parents and teacher got exhausted and the sch

Good morning everyone. The midnight oil has been burned. And the results are stunning. The schooner looks absolutely fantastic. The kids were fast asleep on the settees in the main cabin by the time we were putting the finishing touches on the main cabin. I can’t tell you enough how impressed I am by the crew and how hard they worked. Today is Coast Guard inspection and I think we are in good shape for that. Jake Carey, our assistant executive chef de cuisine, arrived to find a schooner that by all outward appearances did not look too organized. By days end he had a uncorked the galley, washed all the dishes, washed all the utensils, helped raise topsails, organized the tools, and many other items. Sara, Becki, and Jen had bent on the staysail, fore and main topsails, and jib. The frustrating moment of the day for me was the discovery of a couple “iffy” seams in our 1-year-old jib topsail. Evidently the synthetic canvas is cut in to its appropriate widths with a hot knife. If

Good morning everyone. Busy day here yesterday... again. Everyone is working incredibly hard to pull this boat together and we are well ahead of the curve. The boat looks great. We started bending on sails yesterday and despite a very dismal forecast enjoyed a dry day with even a few breaks of sun. By days end we had installed the main and foresails. The cabin divas had worked their magic below decks, making up all the bunks and cleaning the cabins within an inch of their lives. The pump I mentioned yesterday was load tested and did an admirable job of moving water. Jen pulled together the first aid kits, gilded the trail boards, touched up the stern boards, varnished the oars, sorted and then drove the laundry to Camden, tended the kids, answered the phone and emails, put the finishing touches on our peapod Departure, and a few other things I am forgetting as well. They say that if you want to get something done give it to a busy man... well Jen could show any busy man a thing

Good morning everyone. Well yesterday was what we call a "toad soaker". It just poured so figuring that we were going to get wet anyway we played with water all day. We started the day priming and firing off the new fire/bilge pump installation. It worked like a charm. We have also brought aboard a small portable pump for increased capacity and helping other vessels. We discovered that it was a trick to get it primed but it did work well. We also discovered a leaky fuel gasket in this brand new pump and took it back to the local farm supply store who put it right onto the bench and made it right. More great strides of progress occurred yesterday. The fresh water system was put into service with only one minor drip under Mary's sink that was easily fixed with a twist of the wrench. I think that is the best I have ever done. I usually forget one valve or another and create a minor flood. OK engineers, grab your pocket protectors. The water is stored in 16 differen

Good morning everyone. Seems like I was just here with you a few minutes ago. I am not sure what happened to yesterday but it vaporized and I am still not certain what it is we did. Mary placed some food orders in the morning. The crew and I did a few hours of training in the yawl boat and rowing. We practiced coming up alongside docks under power and oars. All of this training is a good break from painting and reinforces that we will be sailing soon. But don't you worry, we did some painting yesterday as well so we are in good shape. We touched up where the spar stands sat upon the cabin houses and deck. We are in for a good slug of rain today so we will head below decks to finish off a few details. I get to climb into the "engine room" where all the plumbing comes together behind the cook stove to get the fresh water system up and running. As I tell Mary, it is a bit of schooner yoga. Mary tells me it keeps me young. Grumble, grumble, sputter...says the capta

Good morning everyone. So we have to keep the blog quick this morning. Jen has been up since 2 cranking out confirmation letters and balance paid letters. I was in the barn late welding, painting, and repairing trailboards. So we saw each other for a few minutes in between. Mary called from the schooner at 7 o'clock last nite having just finished painting the brown thresholds. These next few days are the last big push towards our Coast Guard inspection on Monday. Elisa Olds, our new reservationist is awesome. She has been slowly gathering speed in the office and painting as well. I kid her that her resume grows everyday, painter, rigger, plumber, bookkeeper, data base manager, logistics coordinator. So bear with us and thanks for your patience. We will be sailing soon. Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Good morning everyone. We have a rainy drizzly day on our hands today. The crew will be out here in Appleton working in the barn on a few final miscellaneous painting projects. Mary will be aboard painting cabin thresholds and I will be working in the bilges today finalizing a new fire pump installation. The last minute details are many but we are in good shape for our annual Coast Guard inspection on Monday at noon. We even have the awnings set as you can see in the picture. Of course if you're a loon you don't need an awning. Becki, Sara, and I finished rigging the main and fore peak and throat halyards yesterday. That just about finishes the rigging work aloft. The lesson of the entire rigging process these last few days is the "devil is in the details." One shackle put in the wrong place, one line lead unfairly, one missing cotter pin, one block put together incorrectly during "Blockfest" 2 months ago, and the entire process comes to a screechin

Good morning everyone. Well we did it. Topmasts are up. And yesterday was a very long day. The crew was rigging until 8 o’clock last night and was pooped by the end. They worked incredibly hard all day. But given today’s forecast I think we can be glad for the work we did. We still have halyards to rig today but nothing too crazy. The goal is to have awnings set before the day is over and to start work sprucing up passenger cabins. Jim Dugan took some great shots of Becki aloft. Notice her clipping in. My answer to the annual question of whether to clip in or not is pretty firm. Don’t clip in for yourself, do it for all those folks back home who love you dearly. Do it for us left behind who will forever be asking ourselves some very tough questions. Imagine if we lived our lives with this thought process in mind. If our every action looked not at how we influence ourselves but those around us after we are long gone. I think of this when I plant fruit trees or sugar maple

Good morning everyone. Well we had a busy weekend here. The weather was absolutely beautiful. On Saturday the crew had their first chance to work at the mast heads. We spent the better part of Saturday morning sending out the head rig, the jib boom and its associated martingale and wire. Not an easy task for the uninitiated by any stretch but it went very well. Sara and Becki were most impressive at the masthead when we sent the main topmast aloft. It strikes me that I did not take enough pictures to really flesh out the entire picture without having to babble too long. We will be sending up the foretopmast today or tomorrow and I will try to get better pictures then. It is a real thrill to work aloft even just sitting at the dock. Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Good morning Mama, and everyone else too. Thanks for everything you give us each day. Thanks for giving us life. Thanks for giving us a chance... to be alive and experience the challenge and joy of another trip on the cosmic sailing ship of life. We don't really know where the boat you put us on is going. We just ride the swell with all the gifts and tools you have given us. Every so often we see a lighthouse and get our bearings. Sometimes we sit in the lee of the land and wait. Sometimes we put forth in to the tempest, ready or not. But what ever we do we bring you with us. We carry your goodness in our hearts just like you cradled us as little babies. And we are comforted to know that you are behind us, waiting on the beach, for the day we return to tell you about our exciting journey. Thanks Mama...we love you. Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Barry and Jen, It took some doing but with the proper research and the help of several search engines I found the following pictures of the Mary Day crew working very hard to finish the painting and the results of their hard labor... (scroll down) After viewing the results of their work the crew realized their mistake and tried to correct it. Okay, so I took a few photoshop liberties. You guys do a great job, obviously with the schooner but also with the blog keeping the curious among us up to date and engaged. From my perspective it doesn't seem like you have a business with customers but rather a large network of friends who contribute a little money from time to time for the privilege and joy of sailing with you. Looking forward to sailing with you in August and again in September, Ed PS Thanks Ed, for sharing your great sense of humor, and giving us a refreshing perspective. A warning to you all, beware the perils of what you publish on the web! Ed's agent, attorne

Good morning everyone. Well, the crew did it. The bulk of the exterior painting is complete and today we begin rigging. Jen and the crew finished painting the topsides and the painted the beige rail cap yesterday. The paint was kicking fast but nary a brush mark can be seen. The boat looks great and in the next week you will begin to see the schooner come together quite rapidly. Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Good morning everyone. Have you ever felt like life was larger than you? The hero in this picture was not afraid to row up to the giant island and pluck a little seaweed for our lobster picnic. On this particular day we needed to gather seaweed before the rising tide hid it from our reach at picnic time later that afternoon. Gently he sculled his way between the rocks that guarded the entrance to this cleft in the island, the only calm spot available, affording him the opportunity to do his work and leave without stoving in a plank. Successfully Eric returned and away we sailed with our picnic plans secure. So if you are ever feeling a little overwhelmed by the swell (and we sure are these days), look for that safe little cleft in the giant island in which to find calm waters to grab a little of life's good stuff. Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Good morning everyone. Have you ever had one of those days? I had one yesterday. I, literally, kicked the bucket, of deck oil. Thank goodness for Jen and the crew and their quick actions to help spread the oil before it ran away from us. No harm done in the end, except to my fragile ego. I kicked myself from one end of the boat to the other. As I told the crew later, that was some helping of "humble pie." And a lesson in teamwork. Humbleness... seems like an easy concept but not when you discover it the way I did yesterday. As I reflect upon my own imperfection I am always lured in to that delicate balance (and sometimes trap) between "human being" and "human doing." Humility, for me, seems to come when the "doing" doesn't work out the way I wanted despite the "being's" best intentions. So today I get back on the horse and ride like the wind "doing" my best as a "being" cause we got a boat to sail in a

Good morning everyone. We are back from the yard. We did everything we could in 2.5 days and I think Jen described most of it to you yesterday. Not that I was keeping track but I believe we put in at least 243 people hours of labor while we were on the rail way. That averages out to be 12.46 hours/person/day, give or take. There was more I wanted to do but the time just wasn’t there. I would have done some more nit picky stuff that I would have felt good about but no one else in the world would have noticed. We were racing the tide at leisurely pace after lunch and were ready with 15 minutes to spare. In railway time that is the equivalent of lunch and a nap. The crew was most impressive. I know pride is a sin but you should have seen them work. They should be very proud of what they accomplished. So much of what we accomplish, in the schooner and in the world, is done with will power. For any non-believers out there, come spend a few days on the railway with us and we will sh

Good morning everyone….Capt & crew are hard at it ( and yes we do start work at o’dark thirty) as it’s counting down the hours to launching with a laundry list of items to check off before we go. The kids are still in bed trying to catch up on sleep and we’ll join them shortly. It’s been a long 3 days which all seem like a blur…it went something like this: Thursday: hauled in the afternoon, pressure washed the bottom, set staging, started to reef out a few seams to be rechaulked, thru hulls taken apart and cleaned, prepped for coast guard inspection on Friday am. Friday: inspection in the am (passed! It’s hard to see the boat get pounded on with the red mallet.) sanded boot stripe & grey topsides, sanded bottom where winter ice rubbed, Capt cut forearm with grinder (stitches?), shipwright and old Mary Day crew member Brad Ellsworth begins a long day of recaulking, seam compounded the grey topside and green boot stripe. Saturday: painted the foot of grey topside (will do the res

Captains and crew are hard at it in the Rockland boatyard, where Mary Day has been hauled up the old marine railway so they can work on the part of her that's almost always underwater. So it falls to me to fill you in today. I apologize for the late-morning posting. I've had some work to do but, let's face it, I just don't get up as early (Oh-Dark-Thirty) as Barry and Jen. Hauling the boat out of the water is a major operation and the pressure is really on for the (usually) 2-3 days of bottom work. It's mostly a process of scraping and pressure-washing off old loose paint, checking all planks and replacing a few, filling and caulking all spaces between planks, then repainting the bottom. Above is Executive Chef de Cuisine Mary Barney wielding the power-washing wand with all the skill she uses with a wisk in the galley. Power-washing is messy but there's no clean work in the yard. Deckhand Becki, who was scraping, shows off the reason these guys wear respirators.

Good morning everyone. Well today is the big day...we are off to the railway. Should be a big adventure for the crew. The winds are supposed to breeze up a little with the NW wind predicted to be 15-20 with gusts to 30. We will be pushing down "twin screw" with both yawl boats lashed up astern. We shall see how it goes and give you a full report. We have a wonderful weather window these next few days and plan not to waste a minute of it. Wish us luck as we work under the Full Flower Moon. The accompanying picture is from last year. Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Good morning everyone. Well as you can see the schooner is pointing the right direction now, headed out of the harbor. The shipyard emailed yesterday and indicated that we should plan on coming down to haul on the tide tomorrow. We started sanding the topsides yesterday and will spend all day today doing the same. We have a few more details to touch on today, get the radio on board, fill a few jugs of diesel , and launch our Avon inflatable "Rugby". We got the anchor and chain aboard yesterday and hung the centerboard in its gear. Finally the crew had a chance to use their new rigging knives and marlin spikes. Now we got this sailor thing going on. Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Good morning everyone. Fresh air at last... and plenty of it. The cover came off yesterday as scheduled. The rain poured down as scheduled as well. With rain gear on we took our knives to the shrink wrap under which the schooner has been protected for the last 6 1/2 months. Imagine that... the schooner actually spends more time under cover than exposed to the elements. This is lavish treatment the likes of which our forebears would shake their heads at. We do feel good to have the sunshine pouring in today and know that we are one step closer to going sailing. We also launched the yawl boat Arno yesterday. She is as tight as a tick, a happy sight for me having just replaced a plank. The harbor was flat calm at low tide so we spun her around end for end into her usual summer position (not pictured here yet). The new crew members remarked how agile Mary is in the yawl boat under the stern. Jen and Sawyer gave a gentle nudge under the bow with Chadwick just to get her spinning.