Sailing Vacations
A Maine Windjammer

It's TRUE! Our own Annie Nixon is now with child. She and Carob are expecting an addition to their family in June. (new photo; Annie preferred this one)

Good morning everyone. Blockfest 2008 continues on this week in the barn. Alex and Elisa have been sanding and overhauling the last batch. We are taking extra care with the footblocks (the one attached to the deck through which the halyards fairlead so that everyone can pull in a line along the deck). Those foot blocks have only been thoroughly overhauled a few times over my 16 year tenure. We give them the annual greasing and paint but this process on the bench in the barn gives us a chance to use the fine toothed comb. So far all of the blocks look great. (No mice in the rigging this year!) On the birthday front we are celebrating 2 very special birthdays this week. Mary Day was launched on the 21st of January 1962 just 2 days under six months after her keel was laid. Our lovely and gracious executive chef de la cuisine was launched on the 23rd of January 19?? We aren't telling you the year but, for the curious, you can find out without asking only you have to come sailing...

Good morning everyone. I have typed those words 231 times in the past year. Can you believe it? I can't. How could one person write so much in a years time and yet not really have any point, except maybe to share a little insight into what it means for this family to be absorbed by a business of doing something a little out of the ordinary, sailing a windjammer. For any of you that have had the courage or stomach to read more than just a few of these blogs you know that this blog has been about a whole lot more than just sailing. For me this has been a year of lessons in learning to appreciate and share this wonderful world that revolves around a humble little schooner here on the Maine coast. And to have folks actually send comments back to us is heartening. But shouldn't you really be doing something better with your time than reading this??? We could never do this sailing vacation thingy ourselves but our biggest thanks goes to the wonderful man who works in the shado...

Good morning everyone. Spring made a surprise appearance here in Maine this last week. With temps in the 40s these past few days the snow was melting fast and gravel driveways had become something of a "mud run". The alignment shops are rubbing their hands together with thoughts that these ruts will be freezing solid in another week. Ball joints and tie rods beware! We have been moving quickly to pick up everything that to date has been buried under several feet of snow. Today winter returns with another nor'easter tracking through the Gulf of Maine. We are projected to receive 6+" of snow. The crew has been hard at it with Blockfest 2008. As you can see the block process has many steps: disassembly, cleaning, sanding, priming, painting, packing the patent bearings with grease, and reassembly. The crew have asked how old these blocks are and I am certain that many of them date back to the 60s. The Hawkins family experienced a barn fire early in the schooner...

Good morning everyone. Another balmy day in the state of Maine. I am not a huge fan of these thaws. I was just saying to Alex yesterday that if we are going to have winter then let's have winter. Let it snow. Keep the temperatures down in the teens, above or below zero, doesn't much matter. Now I know all this brave talk sounds a little crazy to folks from warmer climates but I do like the cold and this is Maine after all. Just last week we had sea smoke rising from the bay and this week we have humid air turning to fog over snow covered fields just like it does over the cold ocean water during the summer. Any of you who have watched the comments on this blog have undoubtedly seen comments from Ed and Al. Now you need to understand that Ed and Al keep the lights on in most of Alabama so what they are doing reading this blog is concerning on many levels. Why they would let these fellas out of the state is also beyond me but Ed was recently in Florida for a "conferenc...

Good morning everyone. Well the new year is off to a great start. I feel like things are really starting to get geared up here at our global headquarters. With a little bit of an early winter thaw upon us we can balance some of our indoor projects with some outdoor work. Already it is 30 degrees and the sun is shining brightly from a clear blue winter sky. We are so pleased to have Jake, this past summer's assistant cook, here for a couple of weeks on school break. He is giving us the jump start on fit-out that we really need. Last week Elisa, Jen and Jake busted out cabin windows and the paint has had the weekend to "kick" up stairs in the barn. This week we will be stacking some more wood, prepping and painting the buff cabin skylight covers, and starting "Blockfest 2008". All 77 of the wooden blocks will get overhauled and painted. It is a big job but with numerous folks we should be able to finish it off quickly. In the office Jen and Elisa have the...

Good morning everyone. We have shoveled out from another 10" of snow. The snow banks are as big as I have seen them in years and with the temperatures dipping into the single numbers we are experiencing that winter cold that makes me feel so alive. I absolutely love it. No one moves slowly in this kind of cold. It is called brisk because that describes how quickly you walk between the house and the barn keeping the wood stoves fed, which by the way, are going through wood briskly. The wind chill this morning is well below zero. So getting out for exercise, besides shoveling, is not easy. Going for a run takes on a new reality when one is dodging the town plow truck. We take the kids skiing at the Camden Snow Bowl which has a great covering of snow and from which we can see the Bay. But through the grace of good friends we have inherited a rowing machine. And I do love to row. Now the rowing machine in the barn loft is nothing like the real thing but we do enjoy the worko...

Good morning everyone. We hope all of you are enjoying a good start to the new year. We arrived home Sunday after the grand(mother) Christmas road trip. We are enjoying the fruits of yesterday's wonderful 10" snow fall and bracing for yet another snow storm slated to start this afternoon. We have had more snow in the last month than all of last winter. It is just beautiful outside. Santa dropped some new snow shoes and skis under the tree for the kids out of which they are getting some serious mileage. We have been hearing from many of you these past few weeks. We love the many holiday cards we have received and hope our fall newsletter and holiday calendars are arriving at your home through the holiday mail rush. If you have not received a calendar or newsletter please let us know and we will get one out to you in the next pony express. We hope that through the holidays you have been surrounded by the warmth of friends and family. I know that is not always easy to fe...