Down East Magazine - Maine Vacations, Real Estate, Lifestyles

There are twelve traditional tall ships in the Maine Windjammer Association; this summer I'm sailing on all of them.

For many, a windjammer vacation represents the perfect Maine getaway. Each day is filled with the sights that have become shorthand for Vacationland: lighthouses, lobster pots, and loons.

But life at sea isn’t pure leisure for everyone. To keep these antique vessels shipshape, the men and women who sail them must first endure a season of hard labor during spring fit-out. Then, in summer, these schooner bums will work long days at the helm or in the galley, only to bed down for a short night’s sleep in a humble crew berth.

Over the next six and a half months, I’ll learn what makes these trips so special for the passengers, but I’ll also find out what it is about the cool waters of Penobscot Bay that keep these schooner bums coming back for more.

Ben McCanna is a freelance writer, editor, and videographer. He lives in Rockland.

• When the Captain and Mate are Mates
• Pirate Adventure Cruise
• See the World:
  Learn to Cook
• Going Aloft
• Raising Children on Windjammers
• Maine Windjammer Whale Watch
• A Cunard Among Coasters
• Sailing in Penobscot Bay on the Fourth of July
• The Business of Raising Sails on a Maine Windjammer

• October 2008
• September 2008
• August 2008
• July 2008
• June 2008
• May 2008
• April 2008