Hello Shipmates,
It's time to go Sailing! We have lots of special trips planned for this summer. The Father's Day trip is coming right up, then the Summer Solstice and Boothbay Harbor Windjammer Days trips.
The great Windship Heritage is celebrating her 35th season and is still the newest windjammer.
We had quite the haulout from April 23rd to May 1st, nine days! That's the longest time that she has been out of the water since before we launched her in April 1983.
Here are some photos as we hauled her out at the shipyard and worked on her.
April 23rd, early morning. The Heritage is in the cradle. You can see the uprights of the cradle on either side. Capt. Doug is watching as she begins her trip out of the water.
Sam Clark wearing an orange hat is under the schooner and working on the shoe, the long thin piece below the keel, at the very bottom of the schooner.
Nick and Nate are on the staging around the schooner, working on painting the hull. No, we didn't add a greenhouse roof over the deck. That's part of the winter cover which we do like keep on until we get everything sanded, painted and varnished on deck. This ensures we can continue working even when the weather doesn't cooperate.
The dynamic duo of Nick and Nate again, this time in the manlift, painting the bowsprit and jibboom. It's much easier than having to straddle the bowsprit and jibboom when she's in the water!
Nick and Ben are up on the dock while Sam stands by on deck as they work at bending on the aft end of the brand new main sail. It was so convenient to have the tide just right to allow them to do this. The main sail has to be stretched out so that it will perform efficiently while we're sailing. We haven't tried her out yet in the harbor but we think the sail is going to be a good one. Three new sails this year, the main, the jib topsail and the main topsail!
A sunny afternoon with a little bit of haze, but one of the few sunny ones we've had this spring. Here we're in full swing with Theo bending on the jib, Nate on the staysail and Nick and Ben working on the fore sail.
Sean's been busy getting the galley back in shape and painting the diamonds on all those deck boxes.
We're almost ready, and can't wait to get out past the breakwater and sail across Penobscot Bay. We can almost smell that salt air and feel the wind in our hair. Hope we'll see you aboard.
