Sailing Vacations
A Maine Windjammer

Good Morning Everyone. The temperature is threatening to hit 50 degrees today which will be the warmest temperature we have seen in quite sometime. The rest of the crew arrived yesterday. Becki, Becka, and Sara will begin in earnest today to sand and paint anything that isn’t moving. Today they will be sanding the yawl boat and we will go to the harbor at low tide to switch out the bow mooring chains on the beach. From here on out I promise my blogs, on average, will become shorter as life becomes a whole lot busier. The picture is of ARNO in the barn. We are making a few structural modifications, laminating in new support knees on the thwarts and replacing a plank that was a little iffy. Though the cedar was good there was one spot where the back of the plank had blown out some years ago and has been backed by a block of wood. I am not saying it couldn’t have been asked to serve a little more time but we like to fix things as we can. This also gave the opportunity to reinfor...

Good Morning Everyone. A rainy last quarter moon morning here as we begin daylight savings time. We returned home late last night (after 9PM) having watched Nadie's dance recital debut. Best 55 seconds of dancing I have seen in a while. Even Sawyer liked it. We dedicate this blog to all the new crew members arriving in Maine over the next few weeks. You will never meet Major Floyd S. Chadwick, USAF (ret.) but he will touch your life. The major was a fixture here in Camden for many years, always encouraging crew (and owners too) to keep a stiff upper lip in the face of adversity and "be a friend on the side of the road" to everyone you meet. Major first came to Camden to sail aboard Mary Day and adopted the place and alll its windjammers. The Major eventually became the Camden Harbor Monitor helping the harbor master with his daily rounds and even filling in after hours to help the lost get found, his voice crackling out over VHF channel 11. He blessed every schoon...

Good Morning Everyone. Many of you who have sailed with us know we have a cat aboard. The schooner Mary Day has a long history of cats. The Hawkins family had at least one cat we have seen a picture of, Stump. And we have had 2 cats. The first, Chakra, came to town on a catamaran (it really did) and lived with us for many years aboard several boats. Chakra chased ducks into the harbor, literally in to the harbor. She swam like a dog and often came home soaking wet. Our current cat, Gus Hodgkins, is Chakra’s alter ego. She is not a big fan of water though her namesake was a rescuer at the Hunnewell’s Beach Lifesaving Station, built in 1883, at the west end of the Kennebec River. Legend has it that Mr. Hodgkins, after finishing saving a group from a schooner stranded on the ledges at the end of the river, rowed back out to the vessel because he thought he heard the ship’s cat yowling over the howling. This compassionate man rowed back out through the tempest and chased that ca...

Good Morning Everyone! We have all the makings of a beautiful day here. I am hoping to get the maple taps out. A few locals say they have sap running but it is on the early side of the season yet. The kids are down with some kind of bug; long night up with the poor urchins. We have a potential crewmember coming to interview for the messmate’s position. And I am on call on the ambulance. Another slow day here in the woods. I received an email the other day, curious about ARNO, the schooner’s yawl boat. Where did that name come from? Arno Day was Mary Day’s brother. He has passed on but he was a very well know and loved boat builder from Sedgewick, Maine on the Benjamin River. Arno also designed boats and shared his knowledge freely with any one interested. As I have it, and this may not be completely accurate, Arno built his own yawl boat namesake from a design drawing we have a copy of done by Havilah “Buds” Hawkins. Ronny Hawkins, one of Buds’s and Mary’s sons showed me t...