Blow Your Worries Away Story by Andrea Gross • Photos by Irv Green
he first night I crack my head when I sit up in bed. No headroom. The second day I strain my back when I help hoist the sails. No know-how. But by the third day I’ve caught the rhythm. I’m sea-steady if not exactly sea-savvy, acclimatized if not accomplished, and completely relaxed. “Wicked nice, isn’t it?” says my fellow passenger, a bornand-bred New Englander. I start to answer but the wind whips my words away, and I can only nod happily. We’re doing 12 knots, the deck is pitched at 45 degrees and the sky is cloudless blue. Wicked nice? You bet. My husband and I are aboard the American Eagle, an authentic Maine windjammer and National Historic Landmark. Eighty years ago she was hauling fish off the shores of Gloucester; today, having been lovingly and expertly refurbished by owner/captain John Foss, she carries passengers on three-to-six-day cruises around Penobscot Bay, 95 miles north of Portland. As newbie sailors, we’ve a lot to learn, beginning with an understanding of the type of ship we’re on. A windjammer, we’re told, is simply a vessel powered by wind. The term originated around the turn of the 19th century and was used by the owners of newly developed steamships to denigrate their more primitively powered competitors. That’s the technical definition. In common usage, “windjammer” refers to a special type of wind-powered boat, a schooner, which means they have two or more masts, the aft ones as tall or taller than the others. Gradually we make the transition from landlubber to sealover, learning to read the charts, raise the sails and, under Captain John’s watchful eye, steer the ship. When the wind blows hard, we seem to fly, skimming
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over the water with deck tilted and passengers cheering. But mostly the boat moves slowly, giving a sensation of drifting. Time has no meaning. There’s no schedule, no itinerary. The weather is mostly glorious — blissfully blue skies with white fluffy clouds and enough wind to give us some good rides. The old-timers discuss the best month for windjamming. June can be chilly but has the longest days. July and August tend towards foggy mornings and warm afternoons. September is colder but the winds are stronger and therefore the sailing is faster. “All the summer months are good,” concludes one passenger, and the rest agree. The Maine Windjammer Association says 50 per cent of its travelers are repeats. We have two murky mornings, during which Captain John anchors near small towns where we climb steep hills, poke through small shops and buy tasty treats by the pier.
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