Sailing Vacations
A Maine Windjammer

Good morning everyone. Today we finish another Wooden Boat Sail Training Course. It has been an amazing week. At the risk of sounding like a broken record I am once again in awe of this week’s participants and how much energy they have put forth. Yesterday our final exam was more of a trial by fire than anything else. A brisk nor’easter blew through during the late morning and early afternoon. With a reduced sail plan and teams at the ready we beat out into the waves and had quite the sail. We never did get to our final destination but instead anchored earlier than anticipated in the lee of North Haven. I think most folks had their fill of excitement. We were singing sea shanties on deck Thursday night and so many of the songs dealt with the hardships of life at sea. What we have experienced, surging through the waves, and feeling the salt spray hit our faces, was better than any shanty. We have lived the 21st century version of the real thing this week. I don’t think the sail...

Good morning everyone. This week we are in sail training mode once again as we invite a group of adults to live as deckhands aboard the schooner. So if you ever wanted to work aboard a large sailing vessel when you grow up this is a chance to try it out without having to clean heads or stand night watches. In conjunction with the Wooden Boat School we are exploring “Schooner 101” with a varied group of sailors from all over the country. Some folks have plenty of small boat sailing experience and some are completely new to sailing. The challenge to being a deckhand is learning the ropes and learning how to work as a team to handle sails. Participants get a chance to get their hands dirty learning navigation and knots, sail trim and steering. At the end of Day 1 the students smartly tacked the schooner up into Mackerel Cove here on Swans Island and even learned how to sail a schooner backwards. (Backing the schooner three boat lengths under sail was performed in a closed course by ...