Castine is the home of the Maine Maritime Academy and a beautiful little town. The Academy has acquired the schooner Bowdoin, the first sailing ship to successfully navigate the dangerous Arctic waters. She was built in 1921 specifically for that purpose to do exploration and scientific studies of the Arctic. A wonderful, short article about her is here https://www.bowdoin.edu/arctic-museum/biographies/bowdoin.shtml
Here is a picture of her in the Arctic
And now.
She is the official ship of Maine and also the training sailboat for the Academy. It is awesome to stand beside this schooner and know her past!
Castine also has ancient elms. These magnificent trees were saved from blight in the 1930's and now each is tagged with it's own number. Many are as old a 150 years! Think of what they've seen...
Back to Holbrook Harbor, we decided to take a walk along the paths on Holbrook Island. The island was left as a public trust by the last living resident of it. An old barn starts the walk.
Some paths meander along the shore side.
Others are long and straight - straight through the pine forest! I don't believe they needed the red blazes on the trees to mark the path; there is no way to wonder about where the trail is! I have never seen a forest so dense and so lacking in under growth.
We left early the next morning and sailed to Rockland in preparation for having Latitudes pulled for the winter here. Almost in Rockland, we passed the beautiful schooner Heritage, full sails billowing in the light breeze. We were impressed that for several miles we we were able to sail apace with this much larger and more heavily canvassed ship.
We had some sail work to do, too. Both the jib and the main had to come down before we are pulled out of the water. Getting 'm down is easy - gravity helps a lot. However, folding them in an organized pleat so they can be rolled up is a lot of work, especially on the relatively limited open deck space that we have. We also needed very light winds to keep the sails under control. Our forecasts had a lull in the wind at noon, and we jumped at the opportunity.
Don't be fooled by that beautiful blue sky. This morning broke gray, 55 degrees, with the promise of rain and wind in the early afternoon. Boy, did it come. The wind is howling, rain is coming in waves, and Latitudes is bouncing and swaying at her anchor. But she is well anchored. We check on a regular basis and we are secure. The forecast is for a change in wind direction and velocity at midnight. It should be much calmer and tomorrow should be a nice sunny day. Luke and I are ready for the calm - Smokey couldn't care in the least!
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