Why do we go windjamming?
To provide a bit of adventure and a lot of fun.
To preserve perishable skills
To pass along what little we have learned of what our sailing predecessors forgot
To share the art and fabric of working sail in our small but beautiful corner of the oceans
National Historic Landmark Plaque
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More on the Tug
Towing Receipt
Steam Tug Boat Eddie
August 1901
Towing Receipt
Steam Tug Boat Thurlow Weed
1890's
Cadet's wheel from Lunenburg
There was an osprey on the schooner's foremast head the other day but the tug Cadet just received the gift of a traditional copper eagle for the top of the pilot house. |
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Sailing in a month! We're twenty gallons into the thirty or so gallons of paint, varnish, tar, and linseed oil that make the American Eagle look new every season. Our out of the water experience took parts of five days and included a work crew from 17 to 63 [ages] devoting over three hundred hours of scraping, sanding, planking, caulking, puttying, and more painting. 
The local paper ran an on line article and pictures of our relaunching April 21st. All this preparation for a summer's holiday; time well spent both now and then. If you have a group of friends or family still considering what to do for a few days or a week this summer, there's still space for you on many of our scheduled cruises. |
 | Our Feathering Wheel | |
The schooner since new in 1930 has had a Hyde propeller made in Maine, and a feathering one [the blades turn to reduce drag in the water when sailing] since the rebuild completed in 1986. Well, it turns out that there's even an historical precedent for that as in this full page ad reproduced below.
The Stranger, built in Essex, Massachusetts in 1903 and designed by B. B. Crowninshield was within inches of the Eagle in every dimension. And in her later years, I believe, she too was engaged in carrying passengers rather than fishing. In her case it was from New Bedford to the Cape Verde Islands across the Atlantic in the 1930's.
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| Ralph's Food Shots | |
Cookies from our galley have to be big enough to cover a coffee mug, be they ginger snaps, chocolate chip, or snickerdoodles. It's usually well into the afternoon before the ones from lunch are polished off.
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| Postcards on the edge
postcard courtesy of Capt. Ed Glaser
This is an old one, on loan from another captain for many years and I finally returned it. The steamer J.T. Morse was on the run from Rockland to Mt. Desert for several generations, keeping to a schedule no matter what the weather or visibility. This happened off Stonington, Deer Isle, in July, probably on a rare foggy morning. The note on the back is worth reading:
 It says, "This is how the Morse looked at Low Tide. I did not try the Sugar Loaves but tryed to make her Jump over Crotch Island and she would not quite. she will be on the run again Saturday next so we can try it over again."
Thank goodness for our flexible itinerary and electronic navigation. |
| Cruise News
 Featured cruise....every cruise What to expect when you come sailing aboard the American Eagle? Lobsters, more often than not home made ice cream, fresh baked bread, an engaging crew working very hard. And a key element: returning guests. There's rarely a trip without repeat sailors among the passengers and that's reassuring. As I often say as we wrap up another sailing adventure, our cruises are not only survivable, but they're also repeatable. We offer a relaxing vacation, not an ordeal . |
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Hope to see you aboard in the months ahead,
Captain John Foss, Schooner American Eagle |
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