When we say we go over the schooner from top to bottom every spring this is what we do. Asher puts the customary coat of gull feet yellow on the main truck, locally known as the cheese wheel. Eighty feet further down he's overhauling the wheelbox and steering gear earlier this month.
This afternoon we hauled the American Eagle out on our railway and at the moment we're pressure washing the bottom, so that's top to bottom, all in the same month.
Cruise News... Spring into Summer
In a few days she will look like this. That's about ten gallons of bottom paint. The white stripe (boottop) takes an extra day for one painter (two coats).
It's not all work. In a month the cruises begin and there's food for your soul."
Thanks to Ralph Smith for all of the food shots.
Three meals a day from a galley about the size of your compact car! Breakfast will put some btu's in your boiler.
Lunch is apt to be a hearty soup, homemade biscuits or bread, an imaginative salad, fruit, and cookies.
Before you know it, we've found a quiet anchorage, furled the sails, gone for a row, and it's dinner time. The scenery is too nice to eat below.
Y And before you know it it's pie time followed by a walk ashore.
Crew's News
As nice a job varnishing as we've ever seen.
It must be Friday during outfitting. The varnish is wet and the crew are pleased.
Below, riding for the brand. Everything is American Eagle!
A pair of Osprey are back for the season at the shipyard. A family of sparrows live safely under the nest box.
Postcards from not so far away
and a while ago
Castine in 1906 with as healthy a canopy of elms as at present. A three-master at what is now the town dock and a gently sloping shore just right for pulling your small craft up to the high tide mark on sleepers laid into the beach. That section of the harbor has long been called Oakum Bay.
Up the Penobscot River to the head of navigation; Brewer on the east side, Bangor on the west. One of the better shipyards in Brewer was the Barbour Yard, building schooners as well as really handsome small passenger steamers for near coastal and river service. A local boy made a habit of hanging his hat on the main truck of sailing vessels built in Brewer. When that boy became president of a Maine College, one of his students set a record hanging his cap on the top of the chapel tower, a stunt talked about a hundred years later. Those two were Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and Robert E Peary.
Up
It's beyond belief what shipmates plot and plan for fun!
A birthday card signed a season in advance.
Crew from 2014: Christa, Brad, Olivia, a friend, Gerard, and Mike.
More pictures next month as the vessel looks more like yours and our home afloat either for a trip or the season!
