A Great Finish and a Wonderful Start

Good morning everyone. We finished of f the Wooden Boat sail training experience with the “final exam” on Friday. We did not have much wind but this group really capitalized on the opportunity to take the reins and sail Mary Day back to the “barn”. I could not have planned things any better than how they happened. This particular group chose to elect captains for each watch group. The individual captains did a great job with tremendous support form their “crew”. I encouraged everyone to taste a piece of the cake. I can only hope that happened even if it might not have happened exactly as people might have dreamed. The lack of wind was offset by some beautiful sunshine… an element we did not see an awful lot of last week. We actually came out quite lucky with the doom and gloom forecast we faced at the beginning of the week. For the first time in weeks I actually had my rain gear on for a couple hours on Friday morning. My fruit trees back home were thankful for a refreshing drink.

We are off to the Sweet Chariot Folk Festival this week. Yesterday we sailed all the way from Camden to Brooklin at 8-10 knots most of the day and anchored up with time to have a walk ashore. We are due to attend the festival Wednesday night. There is quite the concert happening right now on deck. We have some very talented guests this week. Great voices and some fantastic guitar to go with it. The folk festival will be its usual diverse collection of folk genres. It isn’t Dylan but it is always entertaining. We will get a picnic in tomorrow with any luck. It is another forecast with showers here and there throughout the week. But as I always say… a bad day on a schooner still beats the heck out of a good day at the office.

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Comments

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

Fall Maintenance

Good morning everyone. The sun has been kind to us these past few days and the crew has been spending much time aloft prepping and painting the mast heads and tarring the rig as part of our annual fall maintenance schedule. They were a little silly on tar fumes by the end of the day hence the rat board dance moves. Am I the only one who is reminded of Willy Wonka's little friends at the sight of the crew in their tyvek suits? Schoona-loompas? The smell of tar, after all, is what we sailors live for. Extracted from the stumps and roots of pine trees through dry distillation pine tar will cure what ails you especially some skin conditions and any emotional maladies from being too long away from the sea. All we know for sure is that Mary Day’s rigging is kept hail and hearty by coats of tar mixed with boiled linseed oil. Notice that I specified boiled linseed oil and not raw linseed oil. Tar mix with raw linseed oil will not “kick”. Don’t ask me how I know this… just take my wo

Oh Captain, Oh Captain, Please Don't Rumba!

Good morning everyone. Another 6” of snow fell this weekend and we took a few hours to enjoy the wonders of winter here in New England skiing in the woods. The full Wolf Moon on Saturday causing astronomical high tides plus a 1’ tidal surge brought by the low pressure system meant we had tides over the bulkhead in Camden. At low tide just the opposite happens and the tides dip well below normal. I was able to step to the docks from the beach and get aboard the schooner on Friday after work and all was well. I had an interesting email this morning from a wonderful gentleman looking for a vacation to replace a now defunct “windjammer” sailing experience that formerly sailed in the Caribbean. He sent us a very humorous swashbuckling note, complete with colorful pirate party images, wondering if we might be able to fill the void, complete with canons and limbo parties and would the captain be leading the rumba line? I regretted to tell him that we probably did not offer the booty he was

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