Schooner American Eagle
all photos this issue by Peter Atkinson unless otherwise noted 

Schooner American Eagle Newsletter

September 2015 

 
In This Issue
Cruise News
Crew's News
From the Galley
Postcards from Away

Vanishing Point by Shawn Payment
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Columbia bolting past us at the start

Now with fall clearly on the calendar and clear cool evenings, the big deal excitement of racing the new racing fishing schooner Columbia  (and coming in second ) has calmed down, only to be reawakened by whale watching mid-month

(actually taken by Susan Wallace in June)

 and counting five bald eagles in one day in the cruise that came in today. ( Good for eagles, not so great for young cormorants and eider ducks).

 

The 2016 sailing schedule is nearly ready. Planned are: 

 

   8 night trip whale watching to Stellwagen Bank in June

   

   6 night photography cruise to Windjammer Days in Boothbay Harbor

   

    11 nights in July to the Canadian Border and perhaps beyond

    

    6 night including a celebration for Acadia National Park turning 100 and our         return to the Swans Island Music Festival

 

   6 night adventure to the Mayor's Race for the Esperanto Cup in Gloucester

              ( attempt #27 to win# 12)

 

    CastleBay music cruise for four nights in mid-September.


 

As usual, any trip is open for charter until the first individual signs up!




Cruise News

What to do on your vacation aboard

Relaxing
relax


rowing
go for a row


holding supper
make new edible friends


Today's announcements
get married



Whale!
look for whales



Lighthouse Contest

Mystery Lighthouse
Be the first to name the lighthouse as well as
the type of pelagic birds in the flock (taking off in the picture below) and win a hat: ball cap or real wool navy watch cap. Both pictures are from our last six night trip of the season. Good luck!

Name the birds




From the galley
 

Andy & Angela with the salad  
Andy's news: haute cuisine on the water
 
 Can it be September already? I've been promising John a new screed for the newsletter since the Fourth of July, but what with one thing and another I kept putting it off. It seems to me I said everything of interest back in 2013, not that that usually slows me down. Angela and I have been running switchel, the honey-vinegar drink as promised, which is a big hit, especially with some raspberries in it to add color. I haven't had the nerve to serve it with oatmeal, as suggested in certain moldy volumes of farm cuisine. Maybe writing about it will encourage me.
Angela is doing more and more cool stuff with the ice cream. She simmered a vanilla custard yesterday and today she'll put in peanut butter and chocolate chips, and maybe something else. My suggestion of Old Bay Seasoning was met with stony silence. Maybe I'll sneak some in when she isn't looking. She's usually a big fan of Old Bay, being from southern Maryland and all.

   We had a lot of trouble with the water heater  this season, but John's finally gotten it all squared away. It got me thinking how my galley implements are based on an active process, as opposed to the homeostasis that typifies landward appliances.

      I start a fire in the morning that burns all day. I usually burn a couple of cookies before the iron conducts the heat away from the firebox and warms the whole oven. As the day goes on I put in logs according to what I'll be cooking and when, whether to get the range hot enough to boil water, or keep a gentler heat to proof my bread or  cook whatever's in the oven. But we keep this fire going till Angela has dried dinner's last pots and pans on top, then let it gently expire. And the next morning I shovel out the ashes and light another fire.

    The ice box is the same way, albeit to a slower rhythm. We load it with blocks of ice in the top and bottom on Sunday and I put in as much frozen meat as I can fit in with the ice. And the ice melts slowly over the week and it is the melting of the ice that chills the food in the box. When all the ice on top is gone, melted and sluiced down to the bilge, I take the remaining ice from the bottom and move it on top. By Saturday almost all the ice is gone.  Over a six-day trip there is once block of ice which cools the food by melting.

    It's not like your freezer that chugs to life when you  put  something  warm in it. If you put in something warm in the ice box, it melts the ice. It's hard to save leftovers, for instance,  as everything we put in makes  the whole ice box a little warmer.  Of course we lay the fish right on the ice, and we put the ham and corned beef, which are cured to make them last longer, in the middle. I freeze butter, I put as much frozen stuff in there as I can, but things like milk and cheese don't take well to freezing.



Fresh from the galley                            Potato salad never looked this good before!








Postcards from Away

 

Yes, we're accepting electronic postcards.

 

 

photo by Tom Geisler
Grand Central Hotel -Station
Glasgow Scotland




  
photo by MB Rolfe
I've started on the fall work list to keep the crew warm through the month of October and hope you all plan a revisit when we have everything on board repainted, coated with varnish, or polished.
Summer was wonderful.
Thank you!
John

 
John and the crew


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