Skip to main content

Windjammer Weekend




Good morning everyone. After a rainy week we are enjoying a weekend at home with the kids. As you may recall Jen was gone all week camping, canoeing, and hiking with a school group up at Baxter State Park, home of Mt Katahdin, Maine's highest peak. I'll let Jen tell you about that trip herself. Mr Mom survived the week in fine style with only a few transgressions (OK, I admit it, we watched a movie on a school night!). The kids sure were happy to see Mrs. Mom. What is wrong with my cooking I ask. "I thought you guys loved baked beans." We also had some great bike rides with the most colorful foliage coming on strong. The kids love to stop to feed our neighbor's goats.


At any rate, back at the schooner, the crew worked all through the rains that poured down from the heavens on Friday. It was toad soaker worth a couple of inches. Mary finished putting the galley to bed while Hannah, Sara, and Elisa started sanding covering boards and bulwarks. One of the things the crew has discovered is that hand sanding works just as well machine sanding. We had several discussions about the virtues of each method. As I tell them, any tool can be the right tool in the right hands. Because of all the ins and outs of the bulwarks hand sanding really does a great job and takes no longer than a machine. Thoreau would love this. We had a few breaks of sun on Thursday allowing Sara and Elisa to sand and prime the main mast head. This next week we look forward to finishing up the outdoor work, winterizing and hauling the yawl boats, painting mast heads, and tarring the rig.

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Comments

AL from Alabama said…
Seeing the Mary Day under cover reminds of something in the vast number of sea novels I have read. Back in the days of fighting sail they called this being "laid up in ordinary". I suppose this term has long fallen into disuse. There is a picture in Harland's book "Seamanship in the Age of Sail" (with which I have spent many a good hour) which shows a ship stripped down to her masts only and covered with a tarp of canvas. A caretaker was left on board to check the well and keep things in some order. I imagine shrink wrap would have been very strange to them.
Sleep well, Mary Day.

Popular posts from this blog

Hail Mary

My heart is heavy with sadness as I write this particular blog. Since the beginning of August our dear friend and cook for the last 12 years, Mary Barney, had been struggling with cancer. I have intentionally respected Mary’s privacy and I apologize to you for not sharing any news about Mary’s health sooner. On Monday afternoon Mary passed away very peacefully at home, surrounded by friends and “family”. Her departure was as graceful as the rest of her life. Many people, including Jen, have been doing heroic work to support Mary these last few weeks. Oddly enough Mary was never very excited about transitions though this was about the fastest transition she ever made. And as I struggle to let go of Mary I realize I am terrible with transitions as well. We used to joke about how we liked things just the way they are, thank you very much, so why change what is working already even if it might be less labor intensive. Hard works is its own reward. I used to joke about getting Mary a Cui...

A Golden Windjammer Anniversary

Happy Birthday Mary Day! 50 years ago today Mary Day slid out of the shed at the Harvey F. Gamage Shipyard in South Bristol, Maine marking the beginning of a whole new chapter in the history of the windjammer fleet. The Gamage yard had not launched a schooner since 1933 and Mary Day was the first commercial coasting schooner launched since 1938. That also makes her the first commercial coasting schooner launched in the second half of the 20th century and the first schooner ever launched for the windjammer passenger trade. There may be a few more firsts in there but that doesn't really matter. What is most important about this celebration is the fact that Mary Day was launched today and began her career touching the lives of thousands of people. This schooner was built by people, for people and has never done anything else but bring joy to peoples lives. She has become a legendary windjammer here along the Maine coast as part of the largest fleet of commercial coasting schooners...