Raising Children on Windjammers
Ben McCanna
(page 1 of 2)
The weather forecast for the next few days is “unsettled”—a polite euphemism for wet and dreary. For the time being, however, it’s merely cloudy, so it’s a good time for a midday lobster bake. Captain Mike motors his Angelique out of Mt. Desert Island’s Southwest Harbor and heads for nearby Placentia Island. As we putter along the calm channel waters, we pass Great Cranberry Island, the lobstering community portrayed in Trevor Corson’s excellent nonfiction book, The Secret Lives of Lobsters.
Sitting atop the wheelbox is Katie McHenry, Captain Mike’s 16-year-old daughter. As Mike puts it, Katie has been sailing aboard the Angelique “since she was a baby in arms.” Katie’s older brother, 19-year-old Ryan McHenry, is attending a small boat program at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, but he frequently sailed with his dad when he was younger.
Katie McHenry.
Starting at about age 4, the McHenry kids began helping out in the galley by chopping vegetables, then slowly assumed more responsibilities as they grew older. There were times when Captain Mike would only bring one kid at a time because the two siblings were at an age when they’d fight with each other, but, despite the hassles, Mike always wanted to sail with his children.
“When they were younger,” Captain Mike says, “it would’ve been heartbreaking to leave them ashore. And even now that they’re older, I like to have them aboard just for the pleasure of their company.”
Nowadays, Katie is employed on the Angelique as a full-fledged deckhand; however, a wrist injury keeps her from hauling lines on this trip. Instead, Katie takes turns at the helm while sitting quietly near her dad.
According to Katie, this will probably be her last season aboard the Angelique. She feels a little too out of the loop from her friends in Camden when she’s out on the Bay for 6 days a week.
“Next year, I want to get a real job at a restaurant,” she says. “Either that or I’ll work on a daysailer.”
When I ask what she means by “real job,” Katie smiles.
“I get too much special treatment from my father,” she says.
Katie raises a good point, but when you see her scouring marine toilets with a bristle brush, the term “special treatment” quickly loses its meaning.
Captain Mike and his daughter.
Posted on Tuesday, September 16, 2008 in Permalink
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