Sailing Vacations
A Maine Windjammer

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...

Good morning everyone. These short cruises take the most time and energy so the blog has been catch as catch can these last few days. Seems like we just departed and then we are back again only to spend a couple days getting the boat ready again. We returned from our last 6 day cruise to some very sad news. The schooner's namesake, Mary Day Hawkins passed away last Friday morning. Mary has been sick for the last few years, in and out of doctor's offices with congestive heart failure. I think I might have given up long ago but Mary was never a quitter. When I visited with her in May she was short of breath but smiling just the same. I think that is what I admired most about Mary. I never felt like I had room to complain in her presence. Mary lived a very full life and though I only heard small snippets of it I feel honored to have known her. The medallion on the ice box belongs to the Hawkins family. Each spring for the last 9 years we have visited with Mary and she has ...