Work has slowed down a bit now that the summer people and the autumn leaf peekers have mostly gone back home for a while, so I find myself taking back up with my poor neglected blog. If you like your blog posts fresh and up to the minute, then you had better look for another, this post is not for you! But if you're like me, and love anything historical, well then, read on.
When we first talked about taking this trip to Maine last September, it didn't even occur to me that we might be able to go sailing. But earlier in the year, I had gotten together with some friends in North Carolina, and we did just that. So much fun being under sail after so many years. So when the trip was getting closer and we started actually making plans for what we were going to do, I did some searching online and found that, yes indeed, we could go sailing. The only problem would be choosing which of the many boats for hire we wanted to go on.
The craft we settled on was the Surprise, a beautiful century old windjammer, skippered and crewed by a pair of former teachers.
They have been sailing together for years, so along with a beautiful day on Penobscot Bay, we got a bit of sailing instruction and a lot of stories. Probably not all completely true... at least according to them!
Captain Jack (yes, that's really his name) always asks one of the passengers to volunteer to help raise the mainsail. I think this guy was the closest, so he got recruited for the job.
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| Curtis Island Lighthouse |
Being there in late September, we thought to miss the summer crowds, but the area was still pretty busy with other vacationers. We wanted to get a morning sail, so we got to town early to miss the crowds, found a parking spot and walked down to the docks to get our tickets.
We spent the intervening time wandering around town, looking in some of the shops, and just generally admiring the lovely old buildings.
In front of one shop we met this sweet Lab waiting patiently for his owner, then saw him again on the docks when we went back for our sail.
The boat itself, being wood, reminded me of sailing on my cousin's boat on Lake Charlevoix and Lake Michigan back in the 70's.
This outing was much more sedate, however, than some of those past trips I remember, as the Surprise takes quite a few passengers on each trip.
You can't just go zipping along and heeling with that many people aboard, some of whom may never have been on a sailboat before. So you couldn't exactly call it exciting, but it was fun, and a beautiful day, and any time out on the water is a good time.
First mate Barbara was nice enough to take a photo of us, and she got a nice shot on the first try. I am really bad at self photos, unless I can find a spot to set the camera down and use the timer, and that wasn't going to happen on the boat!
Well this post, I believe, has more than enough photos, so I will save the afternoon's excursion for the next post. I promise it won't be another seven months! (If you still want more, clicking on any of the photos will take you to my Flickr albums).
