Heading out of Rockland HarborHeading Out of Rockland Harbor
 Photo courtesy of Brian Thomas 

Schooner American Eagle Newsletter
May 2011
In This Issue
Cruise News
Crews News
Garrett's Food Shot
Tug News
Postcards
Around the Shipyard
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

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painting the topsides on a sunny May afternoon
Painting on a sunny May afternoon.

Here I am putting aside sandpaper, paintbrush, and hammer to try and write an enewsletter at this busy time when along comes a cruise review that says it all and much better than I ever could.

 

But we don't get to sail until the work is done, so back to the work list. Just as misfortune follows wickedness, painting is the reward for sanding.

 

 

  

 

      

Cruise News

 

August 14 - a six day adventure - $945 per person 

 June Sailing

photo courtesy of Garrett Lovell
  
Oftentimes the best cruise is the one without any special events, deadlines, or set schedules.  Those were the norm in the 60's and 70's here in the fleet when I started working on windjammers.  In many ways they are the ones with the best memories:  the spontaneity of a day's discoveries under sail here in Maine, the unexpected anchorage, as well as what you can expect: a well run, friendly vessel with good fare and a subtle sense of fun.  Here are six days of the best the coast of Maine can offer at the heart of our season.  

 

 


Crews News
 

 

They'll all be here by next week!  Gerard, Rachael, Johnny, and Nola are returning from past years, Matt from several seasons on another schooner in the Penobscot Bay fleet.  It says something that the faces of our crew are familiar ones for returning guests.  Two of the crew will have their captain's licenses by midsummer.  This is the schooner's 26th season windjamming:  what better job is there anywhere?  Nola's been clerking and cooking this winter, Gerard's been here since January, and we're all looking forward to retiring the paint brushes and sailing with you in another month!

Garrett's Food Shot 

 

Here's dinner on a regular basis beginning in three weeks:
Lobster feast on the beach

photo courtesy of Garrett Lovell

 

     

  
Tug Cadet

 

Several of you asked for more tug pictures, so here they are.  No, we haven't launched her yet.  Actually she hasn't seen the water since 1989.
  
  
  Cadet bow view
Cadet ~ anchor davit, bow chock, yellow chicken on pilothouse
  
  
 Cadet Stern View 
Cadet ~ Four bladed propeller and bronze rudder
  
  
 Looking into the wheel house
Cadet ~ looking into the pilothouse through the dutch door
  
  
 Cadet Galley
Cadet ~ galley looking forward. May 2011
  
  
Inside Cadet's Pilothouse
Cadet ~ pilothouse May 2011
  

   
Postcards from crew and guests 

 

 

Some people just can't keep away from the water even in Arizona, as Perry and Bethany did in a dory for eleven days, 280 miles, down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.  Perry was mate on the American Eagle a few years ago.

 

 Grand Canyon by dory

Not all postcards are up to date:  Bridget's card from Paris is a pre-war scene of what appears to be a barkentine moored in the Seine.  Homeported in Normandy, she is of a type built for the Atlantic cod fishery. One survivor of the type is the Gazela Primero which is now a museum in Philadelphia.  The last wooden cod fisherman from Europe under sail was on the Grand Banks in 1974. 

 

Barkentine moored in the Seine
Bridget has been both guest and crew.

 

 

 

And some guests can't keep away from water even while on a Habitat for Humanity project in Asia, as here with Joan and a friend cooling off.

 

Joan and her environmental sprinkler system 

 

Around the shipyard in early spring:

 

The American Eagle's old trawl winch, installed in 1946 and removed during the 1984-86 restoration, finally went to the scrap yard.  It weighed 60 pounds shy of four tons.
American Eagle's old trawl winch 
  
  
Herring gull carrying off a stale bagel after morning coffee break
Bagels for the gulls
   
  
Hauling the American Eagle at our yard on April 18th
  American Eagle on the marine railway
  
  
Our neighbor's crane barge and tug alongside last Thursday in the cove for some maintenance excavating.  They never touched the new paint on our topsides!
Crane alongside the schooner
  
  
And the new bowsprit finally in place
The new bowsprit finally in place
  
  
Sailing soon,
  
 John's signature
Captain John Foss, Schooner American Eagle

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 Schooner American Eagle
P O Box 482 
Rockland, ME  04841
(800) 648-4544