Sailing Vacations
A Maine Windjammer

A bell from Santa's sleigh ring truest in the heart of a child. Have a great day. Be well. Do Good.

Good morning everyone. I was coming up the drive way the other day when I saw this pattern in the snow. I instantly thought of white sand beaches and ripples sculpted by the waves. Have you ever seen this? It is incredible that nature can create such beauty, asymmetrical though it may be. Each ripple influences the shape on the next down stream ripple by changing the way the water (or wind in this case) moves across the surface, The fact that I am thinking about sandy beaches might make you think I have a one track mind. Maybe I do. But I am reminded of a few island picnic spots we visit that do have beautiful sand beaches and how nice it is to be with everyone on a hot summer day enjoying good food and swimming. Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Many of you have by now seen my lobster bake photo in the Mary Day 2010 calendar. Pretty wild, huh? And I've gotten a couple of "HOW did you do that?" questions. So I might as well answer all at once. I wish I could tell you it's my idea, completely original, etc. Not so much. I found this technique on the internet. Here's a good roundup of how it's done: http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/create-your-own-panorama-planets/ Fairly simple: 1. Make a panoramic series. In this case, I stood on a rock with a good 360-degree view, with the schooner, the lobster bake and the beginning of sunset. I then took about a dozen pictures, turning a few degrees each time and making sure I overlapped enough. (I hesitate to publicly name a private island but I'll tell you it's near Bucks Harbor. If you know the area, you can likely figure it out.) 2. Turn the series into a panorama I use Photoshop's "autostitch" function to automatically (if slowly) cr...

Good morning everyone. It is a whopping 10 degrees out this morning here at the global headquarters for Schooner Mary Day. I recently talked with a young lady from Austin, TX and she told me they have had snow and cooler temps there as well. I for one am glad to see the snow arrive although it settled upon the earth that had nary a few inches of frost in the dirt. The plow on my truck pushes more than just snow even with my best attempts to keep it a few inches off the ground. This photo by Meg Maiden shows the scene here last Wednesday. It was just wild with storm warnings in the Bay. The No'easter blew with a will and what that wind didn't get the No'wester behind it did. Katie and I were aboard on Tuesday making sure all was right. Even though we were safe on shore with heavy mooring lines holding the schooner secure we still braced ourselves for electric lines to be knocked out, oil lamps filled and drawn buckets of water. All passed without incident and we are bac...

Good morning everyone. Four inches of snow on Saturday ushered in the holiday season Currier and Ives fashion. We spent the day scrambling to get everything covered or off the ground before the snowfall. Lately we’ve taken several trees down around the yard trying to get some more sunshine to the house so we have been chipping branches and stacking wood like crazy. I have also generated a number of logs for the sawmill in the process. But this being a day of “rest” we decided to take a walk in the woods and get our Christmas tree and enjoy a big family dinner. The late day sun cast golden light on the treetops and the winds which had blown so hard at the height of the storm eased to just a whisper. Woodpeckers were calling deep in the woods. The kids dragged the tree most of the way to the house. Dad did jump in on the last uphill. After pruning and adding a few branches to what was the top of a thirty foot fir the tree now stands trimmed and lit filling the house with the scen...

Good morning everyone. Well here is just a sampling of the girls one day efforts and a follow up to yesterday's blog. The big one is from Acadia, the white Peking. The greenish shells come from Hershey and Chicago. All the others come from the chickens. Katie and I are building them a new coop today. Yesterday we had 19 eggs... one per bird. As Ed's comment pointed out yesterday Jen feeds these birds like no others. A daily diet of layer pellets, watermelon, spinach, cracked corn, cucumber, and strawberries confirms our family motto: Quisquam dignitas effectus est dignitas effectus ut redundo! And you thought those high school latin classes would never come in handy. Not sure how that will influence the cholesterol level but visitors have commented on healthy out birds look. Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Good morning everyone. Well it has been warmer than usual this last month. Finally the cold weather is beginning to set in. The docks were taken out down at the harbor yesterday. Winter is not far off. Katie and I are working here at the house these days. And we have some new employees that have finally begun producing some noticeable results. We can't keep up with them actually. Meet the girls... The chickens (all 16 of them) really don't mind being picked up. The ducks on the other hand get a little bit antsy.The chicken on the left is a barred rock. The chicken in the middle is a buff orpington. The black chicken is an astralop. At this point all of them are in full production and we get at least a dozen eggs a day, usually more. The idea is that this summer we should be able to supplement the 22 dozen schooner eggs we use each week with our farm fresh eggs. If you have never tasted a duck egg they taste just like chicken... eggs that is. The duck egg white is m...

Good morning everyone. This week we have been trying to tie up loose ends aboard the schooner and prepare for the removal of the docks for the winter. Katie and Rob have been busy vacuuming the bilges and painting the galley. If you ever thought of bilges as dirty, disgusting crevices that no one ever wants to look at… well, you are right. But being the guy accused of being “fastidious” by one journalist I like my bilges clean as can be. Where does all that dirt come from in just one season? That is a mystery rivaling the question of why the chicken crossed the road. With scrub brush and vacuum in hand the bilges get cleaned from stem to stern, a heroic effort deserving of great praise. Today is Friday and as any of you who have sailed with us know… that means “Flair Friday.” Flair Friday has become a bit of a crew tradition the past couple of seasons and the longer it continues the more the crew try to “out-flair” each other. Even guest sand the kids jump in. Rob’s golf getup, co...

Good morning everyone. We are enjoying a stretch of warm dry weather here. I know many of you shake your heads when I describe temperatures soaring into the 50s but remember that under the cover, with a little solar gain, that means painting and varnishing weather. Katie and Rob have been hard at it. They are quite amazing at their ability to keep the fit-out process going as the days get darker earlier. Sowing seeds towards sailing seven months from now is not easy when the sun barely clears the horizon by 7 AM and is gone by 4 in the afternoon. So when you see them next summer thank them for all their endurance. I know I am singing their praises. I am spending this week at an EMS conference here in Rockport, brushing up on my EMT skills. I am stuck inside, all for a good purpose I know, but stuck inside none the less. The cruel view from the window is of the sun lit bay gently ruffled by the breeze and the islands stretching down east to Acadia National Park. Did I mention...

Good morning everyone. Sawyer recently came by a pair of radio controlled sailboats. Here is the evidence that sailing never stops in this family. I don't know who was more excited... Jen or Sawyer. The afternoon sun on the harbor and the light NW wind made for perfect small boat sailing. Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Good morning everyone. Well we have been very busy these past few weeks racing what wonderful weather we have had. Sunny days have placed temperatures in the 50s and low 60s. Spars have been varnished and painted and most everything on deck has been sanded. I tried something new this year by "plumbing" the main cabin wood stove up through the cover. Having heat down below will ward the chill off for another couple weeks so that painting the main cabin will be a much more comfortable event. It got so hot yesterday that I decided it was a perfect day for a swim. Have a great day day. Be well. Do good.

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...

Good morning everyone. My usual apologies for the lapse in the blog. The transition from summer to winter has been especially fast… all of one week. And to be truthful I have needed a break although I haven’t really found it yet. The intensity of the end of this season was quite a shoulder full. This last week has not been much of a let up in the action either as the cold weather has us racing to get things under cover. We have been working every day and well into some evenings. All of that is personal choice of course but the cold weather has set in faster than usual this year and the weather changes so fast that a day can make a huge difference. To prove my point I enter exhibit A, the scene from the schooner last Saturday and exhibit B, the scene from our deck this morning. There is an emotional let down to the end of any season and with the loss of our beloved Mary the let down has been harder than ever. I will miss her. I will miss sailing. I will miss all of you. I have n...

Good morning everyone. The light in the sky and on the islands is so clear this time of year. I know this was a favorite time for Mary and she is up there smiling as the inevitable changes come with the seasons. While the temperatures are certainly cooling off that same cold air makes everything seem bigger and so much more clear. Click on the top image and notice how the bell bouy to the left looks so tall and the Graves ledges look so dark and ominous. The clouds look darker, the green look greener, the bay looks stirred up as the light is refracted by the cold dense air close to the surface. A whole new definition to, "Wow... that's cool!" It really is cool. Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Friends are Invited to a Celebration of Life to Remember Mary Barney baker, cook, musician, friend 4 p.m., on Sunday, Oct. 11th at Blueberry Cove Camp, Tenants Harbor, Maine All are welcome. Please bring a pot-luck dish, preferably one with ties to Mary (from her cookbook or one that you've enjoyed with her). BYOB. There will be some prepared remarks but also free time for all to share memories of Mary. A slide show will also be run. Digital pictures of Mary can be sent to jim@jimdugan.com by Oct. 5 at the latest. Bring musical instruments for music and dancing. Bring items knitted by Mary. In lieu of flowers, donations in Mary's memory may be made on the day or can be sent to either Kno-Wal-Lin Hospice House c/o Kno-Wal-Lin 170 Pleasant Street Rockland, ME 04841 or The Mary Barney Memorial Garden (to be sited at at the Trailing Yew) Donations may be sent to: The Mary Barney Memorial Garden c/o The Trailing Yew Monhegan Island, ME, 04852 ...

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...

Good morning everyone. Mt heart is still flying from a fantastic week and I wanted to share a few of the photographs from this past week. As advertised, Maine photographer Neal Parent was aboard coaching our picture taking efforts. I think we fed off of each others energy. I for one really pushed my envelope. I kept my camera in manual mode all week meaning I had to think about aperture, speed and ISO settings with every shot. A very few of the results are here with photo credit given. There were tons of great pictures(286 in our Friday night slide show) and I just can't put them all on so forgive me if you were on the cruise and don't see one of you photos here. If you weren't on the cruise I hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed an absolutely beautiful week filled with windjammers, Maine islands, great people, and very nice sailing. Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Good morning everyone. We had a dandy sail yesterday as a light northwest wind came gently off the Camden Hills, We sailed in company with the rest of the fleet. This afternoon we gather at the Great Cove in Brooklin for our annual Windjammer Rendezvous. This is our last 6 day cruise of the season. That brings sadness to my heart like you don't know. This season has flown by way too fast. We had some great photographic opportunities as windjammers comparatively sailed side by each (aka racing). The light on the water was its usual Penobscot Bay run of the mill awesome. Maine photographer Neal Parent is aboard helping us get the most out of our cameras. As we will be anchored with the fleet this afternoon I took the opportunity to hide away in this tiny little cove. We'll wait for this morning's gentle showers to clear off before we get underway. Life is good here in our little windjammer world. Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Good morning everyone. Sorry to bore you with another broken record tale of a great day sailing. But yesterday was quite exciting. The wind came onshore from the south about 1030 and away we went. We saw 5 lighthouses including a close up view of the Blue Hill Light. The light is long since gone from the lantern room but the green beacon atop the skeleton tower stills guides mariners into the bay. The light was very conducive to taking many pictures. The lobster boat pictured here pretty much says it all. Though built of fiberglass her handsome lines caught my eye. Notice the windjammer in the background. Is the irony lost on anyone else? The Maine windjammer Angelique looked particularly stunning in the light. As a replica of a Brixham trawler she comes from a traditional background on the other side of the pond. We didn't tire of watching her ease between the islands. Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Good morning everyone. The weather here continues to be dry with chilly mornings and warm sunny days. This week we are looking at lighthouses and our resident pharologist and friend Ted Panayotoff is sharing marvelous stories about the keepers that made these lights live and breathe. On Monday we saw 8 lights close up and one off in the distance. Tuesday we sailed offshore to visit Mt Desert Rock Lighthouse and Great Duck Lighthouse. Hurricane Bill really battered Mt Desert Rock several weeks back and destroyed the bottom floor of the barn adjacent to the keepers house. The boathouse is completely gone, save on wall that is still standing. Just imagine the seas that must have been washing over the Rock to have done damage the likes of which hasn't been seen in many years. I have been told that the water was up into the first floor of the keepers house. Yesterday we had a chance to walk out to the Bass Harbor Head Light from the harbor of the same name. We also had a fine ch...

Good morning everyone. The windjammer fleet arrived here in Camden Harbor yesterday afternoon. The harbor was packed with schooners as far as the eye could see through the forest of masts. There was a terrific talent show last night followed by fireworks over the harbor. This celebration is as much about the guests and the communities surrounding these vessels as it is about the vessels themselves. This is the last and largest fleet of large commercial sailing vessels in the country... a national treasure of sorts. This is the greatest show on earth and it happens every week here in Maine. How cool is that! Have a great day. Be well. Do good. Thanks to Jim Dugan for these terrific photographs. He climbed Mt Battie to capture the fireworks and then the main mast to capture the fleet. That says alot about Jim and his continuous quest to share his very unique perspectives with the world.

Good morning everyone. Sorry to shock your systems like this but 2 blogs in 2 days? Does this man ever sleep? Not nearly enough some days of the week. If you looked up perfection in the dictionary there would be a picture of yesterday. Not that there really is any such thing as perfection but yesterday wasn't half bad. We went ashore briefly at Swan’s I to see my dear friend Earl… the Earl of Swans. Many of you have been up to see Earl and know what a treat it is. Summer is winding down for Earl as Labor Day looms too close for comfort and his summer friends begin to head home leaving Earl to survive the winter on “Alcatraz” as he calls it. Compared to his very busy social summer schedule life does slow a bit for Earl during the winter. I am not sure when I will get back to see Earl myself so I felt a special bit of sadness myself. One of the guests asked in jest for a white sand beach for our noon time lobster picnic. Of course I had to produce just to prove that here in Ma...

Good morning everyone. We are certainly savoring this stretch of weather. The air is noticeably cooler and and we have seen our first flock of cormorants headed south signaling a turn in the seasons. But with clear days and starry nights we can't say that we have too many cares other than how many lobsters we'll eat at the picnic today. On Monday we left Camden with just about the most perfect nor'west wind. We sailed all day and dropped the hook at Islesford in time for dinner 45 miles later. I am always fascinated by Bear Island Light which guides sailors in to the principal anchorages on the south side of Mr Desert. Privately owned for many years now the keepers house and light must afford quite a view of Acadia National Park to the north and the ocean with all its moods stretching as far as the eye can see to the south'ard. Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

Good morning everyone. Sunrise at Isle Au Haut was nothing short of inspirational today. A low, thin cloud shield to the east was crimson at dawn as Katie and I rowed ashore for a run. When the sun broke the horizon there were just not enough eyeballs in my head to take it all in. And of course my camera was aboard. Katie and I agreed that mental photographs keep longest, or at least until the mindful hard drive crashes. This entire week has been filled with sunrises and sunsets that fill my heart with joy and my hard drive with images to carry me through the winter. After several weeks of heat and humidity and great swim calls fall temperatures are at the door. A frost warning was posted for northern Maine yesterday morning. We picnicked earlier this week in one of my favorite coves with the hills of Acadia as our backdrop. We had the place to ourselves, unusual for this time of year. I cherished that night with all my soul. The previous night anchored off the busy summer anchora...