Sailing Vacations
A Maine Windjammer

Good morning everyone and a Merry Christmas to you all. Our Christmas celebration is a simple one. Last night friends stopped by and Sawyer read us Clement Moore’s “Night Before Christmas”. Today we will open a few gifts, some hand made and a few that bring food to the tables of others. We eat good food with appreciation for those who have made it possible, the farmers and fisherman, the good Earth and bountiful seas. The elves have been burning the midnite oil for weeks and will sleep well tonite in the wake of cherubs who could not sleep a wink last nite in restless anticipation of the arrival of the Big Man, Mr. Magic himself, the spirit of the day, St Nicholas. I am humbled by the magnitude of generosity, kindness, and compassion that is generated and magnified this time of year. Clearly the spirit lives in our children and in child-like hearts around the world. Whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year may your blessings be many and may your heart be filled with the spi

Good morning everyone. The festival of Santa Lucia, patron saint of light, was this past Saturday, the 13th. This coincided with the largest tides of the year following the Full Cold Moon on Friday and the moon at perigee on the 12th. The range in Portland was a whopping 14.1’ on Saturday! The moon also happened to be riding high on Saturday well above the celestial equator. With just a little snow on the ground here in Appleton the full moon negates any need for a flashlight while walking to the barn to check the woodstove. All is bright and moon shadows through the trees tell me how clear the night is. Light is a precious commodity this time of year. Time to bulk up on the D vitamins to ward off the cabin fever. Winter has yet to begin and already we crave light on these darkest days of the year. We take great comfort from lights. My guess is that we are the only household in town that lights an outdoor tree all year long. I’ll put our string of LEDs up against a stark white 60

Good morning everyone. The holiday season has arrived in Camden with snow and a chilly northwest wind. St Nicholas Day was Saturday the 6th and the patron saint of children arrived by boat in the harbor. He also visited our house Saturday night where the kids had left their shoes by the door. So much for sleeping in Sunday morning. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors. He is also the patron saint of some less savory characters but that paradoxical twist only gives credence to the saint who looks after those of us who chose to put to sea for a living. As the story goes, Nicholas was a sailor aboard a ship caught in a storm and his prayers for relief from the tempest were answered. After arriving at the island of Myra Nicholas went straight to the nearest church to give thanks. One church elder had a vision that a man named Nicholas would arrive that day to become the new bishop and despite his young age he fit the vision and well… tag, your it! Nicholas continued to inspire

Good morning everyone. The docks leading to the windjammers at the head of Camden Harbor were removed for the winter on the high tide yesterday afternoon. Many thanks to the town harbormaster and the crew from the highway department who pitch in to safely get these floats in and out so smoothly. I hauled the winter commuter skiff down to the sea wall and will make visits as frequently as possible. I spent Monday aboard winterizing and installing an emergency pump, just in case. I have heard tales from the old days when schooners mysteriously sprung a leak after a bad ice up. It has been so warm here that ice does not seem likely but I know freezing winter temperatures are just around the corner…so says the Old Farmers Almanac. Now that the docks are out we find it easier to settle into finishing some late fall onshore outdoor projects. There are several cords of firewood yet to split and stack, the garden to till, year end office madness, and leaves to rake. And so our lives and

Good morning everyone. Wow… did it blow Tuesday night. An intense low pressure system passed in land from the coast and brought a good southeasterly wind with it. Seas to 21’ and wind gusts to 67 knots were observed offshore. Rockland had sustained winds in the mid 40s with gusts to 53 mph. Here in Camden harbor the swell kept the windjammers rocking and rolling all day long. Jen took these photos at low tide late in the afternoon and the wind picked up even more through the early evening. She had everything she could do just to stand against the wind and keep the camera somewhat dry. We worked aboard the schooner painting and varnishing in the galley on Tuesday. Have you ever felt the land moving under your feet after a day on a rocking boat? That happened for both of us when we got home. What a peculiar sensation. The bay was feather white. At high tide that night the swell came roaring over the outer ledges and tossed the schooners about even more than we experienced aboa

Good morning everyone. We had a fabulous weekend with the kids playing tourist in our own backyard. Guests always ask what we do during the winter and this weekend was “Courtney’s Pick.” We were celebrating her 8th birthday and she wanted to go visit Fort Knox (no gold here) and Fort Point State Park. Just a 45 minute drive from home and with a few friends in tow we explored the coldest day of the season. Wow, was it cold! See what I mean about bragging rights. It was so cold… well, you get the point. Fort Knox is a small state park built around the largest granite fortification in Maine. Built between 1844 and 1864, long after the Revolution was over, the fort protects the narrowest section of the Penobscot River, the key to the highly valued timber resources up river in the deep Maine woods. I can’t imagine the amount of energy it must have taken to cut, move and build the fort from the tremendous number of granite blocks that are still as intact as the day they were placed. I

Good morning everyone. We are in the midst of an early cold snap here in Maine. Temperatures are about 10 degrees below normal so what should be lower 40s during the day are just barely breaking freezing. Every little snowflake sends the kids into their own flurry of excitement. I don't mind the colder temperatures. As I have said in these blogs before, cold temperatures give us 1) bragging rights, and 2) bananas left out on a cold day may turn brown on the outside but they are still good to eat on the inside. So to my delight I found bona fide ice on Camden harbor filling the entire northeast corner. Most of the ice around the windjammers melted away in the heat of the day. The local boat yard sent out a skiff with an outboard and 2 fellas (one up forward as ballast) to break up the ice around their pilings, some of which have been lifted out of the mud in the past by clinging ice and rising tides. I shook my head and thought that these fellas are in for one long winter. By

Good morning everyone. Nothing can be stranger than the weather around Camden. Temperatures have been extremely warm these past few days. Fog was hanging heavy on the harbor on Saturday morning and I just couldn’t resist getting my camera out to photograph the windjammers and the ducks that were hunkering down at the head of the harbor. We had a strong blow on Saturday night that took down a long deceased wolf pine here in the dooryard. Oddly enough we slept right through it never hearing the crash over the howl of the wind in the trees. Thankfully the leaf reefing process is done and the windage on the limbs has mostly been alleviated. We had a spring tide on the fourteenth that was quite a phenomenon with water lapping at the flukes. The moon was at perigee and also full (the full Beaver Moon) within a day of each other causing the tide to rise high above the wall as the leaf line tells. I am amused to see duck heads bobbing along at eye level with the wall and to see the dock

Good morning everyone. The weeks have been flying since we stopped sailing. Crunch time is here before the docks are taken out and we are forced to stop working aboard the schooner. Deckhand Rob has been diligently picking away at numerous small projects all of which add up to a tremendous jump start on the fit-out process for next spring. The weather has been quite warm, relative to the state of Maine. I know you folks from south of the Mason Dixon line might shudder to think we consider anything over 40 degrees to be varnish weather. We look at the directions on the varnish can as just guidelines. All of the cabin houses have been sanded and numerous repairs to the aging fiberglass are made. Whoever said fiberglass is maintenance-free must have been kidding. Yesterday we laid down a second coat of oil on the deck to seal things up for the winter and to guard against the inevitable small drips of paint that come with new hands painting each spring. As you can see, Rob gets the

Good morning everyone. I was in New Hampshire yesterday and the top of Mt Washington has a heavy dusting of snow. The view across the Mt Washington Valley was just beautiful and afternoon snow flurries confirmed the coming of winter. I attended a day long recertification workshop for my wilderness EMT credential. We spent the better part of the day practicing scenarios outdoors. I attend many of these kinds of workshops and trainings all winter long. Next week I will be attending the local EMS seminar here in Rockland including a day long intensive in pediatric issues. So it is busy, busy, busy. Today we will be spreading another coat of varnish onto the spars while the weather is warm. We are trying to get the deck oiled as well. I will continue vacuuming the bilges and cleaning the nooks and crannies below decks. Even the anchors on the wall get a coat of winter protection in the form of 50/50 gloss black paint and Penetrol. Penetrol is one of those sakes oils that helps s

Good afternoon everyone! Is this a trick or a treat? Well, if it has anything to do with sailing aboard a windjammer it must be a treat. During our last cruise we had some very special guests drop by as you can see. They were the life of the party and quite a windy party it was. We will be at the school All Hallows Eve celebration and then a little trick or treating in Camden. Courtney is going to be a pirate (as the bumper sticker says, pirate chicks kick butt) and Sawyer is going to be a mummy (where old schooner linens make their last public appearance). Hope you folks have a great Halloween celebration. Have a great evening. Be well. Do good, wicked good. Thanks for the photo Jim Dugan

Good morning everyone. Well it was a wild weather weekend here at the global headquarters. Storm force winds were observed offshore and I am guessing they made here. We tried to sleep with the windows open but the wind was just too loud. Nature has a way of “reefing” the trees against the density of the cold winter winds and Saturday did a good job of depositing quite a few piles of leaves in the dooryard. Jen and I were up most of Saturday night on watch, checking the mooring lines and chafe gear. The house didn’t move much more than a inch or so off the foundation. Trees were down across the driveway. Sawyer and I had a few hours of bucking up firewood and chipping limbs. We had a few calls with the fire department sawing tree tops out of the local roadways. Friday night we hosted our annual crew dinner here at the house with a surf and turf celebration. Sawyer built the campfire complete with tiki torches. Jen prepared a huge feast. I doubled as grill master serving sirl

Good morning everyone. We have been enjoying a beautiful stretch of weather these past few weeks. With all of the brilliant foliage and sunny days this has been an Autumn to remember. The crew have been hard at it aboard the schooner. With the cover in place we can get to all of those cover-dependent projects like painting the mast heads. We paint the mast heads in the fall to provide the best protection during the very long winter. And it is looking like a long winter with snow forecasted in the western mountains of Maine this evening. Under cover the gaffs and topmasts have been getting the first of several coats of varnish. The white plastic shrink wrap allows enough solar gain to heat the air to a reasonable painting temperature yet not hot enough to cause all of the wood to dry and check. With all of the nice weather we have been having and the full moon casting shadows through our woods at night I have been amazed at how brilliant the stars have been, even with the moon.

Good morning everyone. Hope you folks have been enjoying the crisp autumn air as much as we have. You can't imagine how busy we have been this last week. Getting back ashore involves many hours of dismantling and down rigging. The crew have been hard at work. We did take this Columbus Day Weekend off and escape to the North Woods thanks to some very generous friends that allowed us to share their small cabin on the shores of a beautiful lake over looking Mt Katahdin. We even met a few of the locals. Folks often ask where we go for vacation and these pictures should tell you why we seldom leave the state of Maine. We returned home to the frenzy and yesterday unrolled the shrink wrap. Capts. Garth and Jenny from the Lewis R French turned to and helped with our cover and we reciprocated. Two schooners covered in one day! The final shrinking is still to be done but the cover is tight enough for the moment. Today we start sanding and painting the mastheads and winterizing yaw

Good morning everyone. Well we have finished the sailing season in very fine fashion. Notice the bow-in winter configuration and the lack of sails on the spars. I won’t try to gloss over the amazing wonders, and challenges, that have given this season its unique twists. A few short sentences can’t sum it all up. I have been marveling with wonder at the amazing people and places we have been. While I will miss the bay very much I will also tell you it feels good to be ashore back with family and friends. These last few cruises were certainly challenging with weather systems moving through like a ball in ping pong match. The foliage is like nothing I have seen along the coast in years. My jaw hung open Saturday as Jack Frost’s magic spread far and wide across the entire Camden Hills. A photograph just couldn’t capture it all. The foliage on the drive from Camden to Appleton is astounding. So life here is good… no, great! We have just a few very busy weeks to get the boat put t

Good morning everyone. Autumn has arrived in full force and with it the highly variable weather that makes New England unique. Just a few weeks ago we were cloaked in sweaters and just yesterday we were in t-shirts. Kyle brushed by Maine yesterday. The forecasts and predicted tracks all had tropical storm warnings and even a hurricane watch posted for the Down East coast. One independent forecast service had very dire predictions for extended power outages from down trees. But Kyle had its own plans and swung off to the East at the last moment. We had braced ourselves by hauling small boats up into the park and lashing the sails with extra gaskets. Additional mooring lines were attached. After a bleak early morning forecast the noon-time updates suddenly dropped the tropical storm warnings. The “wait a minute” adage about New England weather certainly came true. In this case 7 hours made an enormous difference. We listen carefully to these forecasts and respond accordingly wi

Good Afternoon! It’s hard to believe that Fall is just a few days away, but the frost on the pumpkin this morning proved it's timing is just right. Trees are starting to show their fall colors, pumpkins in the fields are bright orange, mums are in full bloom as well as apple trees loaded with ripe fruit just waiting to be picked. Today is the day for us to harvest our plums! This was a great summer for the plum tree and with this harvest comes one of Mary’s recipes! This recipe can be used for apples as well. Plum Fruit Torte ¾ cup sugar ½ cup butter 2 eggs fruit (can be plums or apples) 1 cup flour 1 tsp baking powder pinch of salt 1 tsp lemon juice 2 tsp of sugar/cinnamon mixed together Cream butter and sugar well. Add eggs, mix then add sifted flour, baking powder and salt. Pour in a 9” spring form pan. Cover surface with fruit slices. Sprinkle top with lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon. Bake @ 350° Serve with a dollop of whip cream an ENJOY! Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Good morning everyone. We just finished the first of our season end 4-day trips. The wind blew everyday. In fact our departure on Monday was delayed by very strong southerly winds that raised quite a swell in the wake of Ike. Although Ike never came to New England the gradient created by such a vigorous low passing northwest of the state created some strong winds just the same. The cold front left in its wake raised gale warnings here in Penobscot Bay so we enjoyed a hike in the Camden Hills and then a spectacular moonlight sail as the full Harvest moon rose above Islesboro. Tuesday and Wednesday were more of the same Maine coast beautiful. Yesterday another cold front crossed the state bringing more brisk northerly winds that thankfully eased up just long enough to get in to the dock. We visited an island last week during our lobster picnic that has many good memories for me. I remember visiting the island (which shall remain nameless... don’t you hate when outdoor magazines p

Good morning everyone. Well last week was a great one with the final gathering of the fleet at our annual Wooden Boat Rendezvous. Of course the beautiful weather and windjammers were only a small part of the adventure. Thanks to all who were aboard to celebrate our last six day cruise of the season. As the leaves begin to turn and the sun begins to set earlier each day autumn is making it grand entrance to New England. Enjoy these images from the week. Windjammers strutting their stuff! Sunset at Wooden Boat bathed everything in golden light. Have a great day. Be well. Do good.