On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 04:18:26 GMT, Mark Borgerson
wrote:

In the past, I've always dragged the family along on
cruises aboard chartered boats in the San Juans
and Gulf Islands. It's getting harder to talk them
into that as various interests diverge. I'm considering
a 4 or 7 day Maine windjammer cruise in September to
get my sailing fix after the kids get back into school.
This would be a side trip from a business trip from
Oregon back to New England (which makes for tax deductible
travel, since I'm self employed---the air travel would
be deductible, but not the windjammer cruise.)

Does anyone have any experience with these cruises? Will
I enjoy the sailing, or will it be just a bouncy motel room
with a really small window?

My wife and I took two week-long windjammer cruises in 1976 and 1980.
The first was on Shenandoah, which sails out of Vineyard Haven, on
Marthas Vineyard in MA. The second was on Nathaniel Bowditch, which
sails from Rockland, ME.

We enjoyed both, but like cruising our own boat better (or a bareboat,
for that matter).

One very big difference for me is that Shenandoah has square sails,
top and t'gallant, on the foremast. At least in 1976, passengers were
allowed ot climb aloft. Very few chose to do so.

I found sitting on the topsail yard a great experience, with an
unusual perspective.

AFIK no Maine windjammer permits this. Of course none of them have a
reason for the crew to climb, as Shenendoah does.

Motel room with a small window no. Accommodations are spartan in the
two mentioned. No windows at all IIRC.

I have heard that the Victory Chimes has running water in the cabins,
but I haven't seen that for myself.

The Bowditch started life as an Alden schooner-yacht in the 1920s. She
had a marconi main then. Now she has gaff rig on both to look more
like a workboat, but she still has an internal auxiliary, unususal in
a windjammer. Most have pushboats ("yawlboats").

The Maine windjammers usually land for a clambake on an uninhabited
island once during a cruise. Two or three vessels will arrange to join
up so you will meet people from other boats. A "clambake" includes
lobsters and corn on the cob steamed under seaweed by an open fire. If
you want wine with it you had better bring your own.

Is mid September a good time for sailing in the area
around Mt. Desert Island?

September is the best time for Maine. There is likely to be little
fog. The windjammers sail mostly a little west from MDI, in the area
centered on Penobscot Bay. Once in a while they get to MDI.


Secondary question: Does anyone have any recent experience
with the Mystic Seaport museum in Connecticut? A few days
there are a second choice if the windjammer cruise doesn't
work out.

Mark Borgerson


Rodney Myrvaagnes J36 Gjo/a


"We have achieved the inversion of the single note."
__ Peter Ustinov as Karlheinz Stckhausen