After eating my fair share of lobster and soaking up the rugged shoreline last week, I’m still in a Maine mood. So if you don’t mind, I’m going to blog about my favorite Maine activities the rest of the week. We started with L.L. Bean yesterday. Today I want to delve into the Maine windjammer. Maine’s 2500-mile stretch of jagged coastline, where long inlets form sheltered bays, is tailor-made for sailing. No other sport gives you the freedom to anchor in a pristine cove, hike on an untrammeled island, and sleep with a lighthouse beacon as your nightlight. Yet, most people don’t have the requisite experience to charter a sailboat. A viable alternative is to crew those schooners of yesteryear that line the mid-Maine coast, the Windjammers. 

It’s hard to go wrong with any of these historic vessels, so choose whatever’s available. Each boat has a story to tell. Built in 1882, the Grace Bailey sailed to the West Indies in the fruit trade and carried granite to New York to help build Grand Central Station. In 1990, Captain Ray Williamson gutted and completely rehabbed her for commercial travel. The Victory Chimes was built in 1900 in Bethel, Delaware, to carry lumber within Chesapeake Bay. Today, she’s the only remaining three-masted schooner on the East Coast. The 92-foot American Eagle was built in 1930 as part of the Gloucester fishing fleet. It was revamped in 1984 and, along with Grace Bailey, Victory Chimes, J&E Riggin, Lewis R. French, Stephen Taber, Mercantile, and Isaac H. Evans, are all National Historic Landmarks.

See more information on Maine windjammers in the story I wrote last summer for Gatehouse Media.