An Ocean Lover in Maine: Boats

Showing posts with label Boats. Show all posts

Monday, November 16, 2015

A couple of cool places, part 1

So the other day Damon was lazing around reading a cruising guide to Maine, dreaming of all the cruising we're hoping to do next summer on Fulmar. He and I got into a conversation about what lies beyond Christmas Cove -- virgin territory for the two of us. Muscongus Bay, full of fog and islands, is the gateway beyond our known world, so we delved into the cruising guide to find interesting spots to check out, and found a place we simply couldn't wait to visit. After a session on Google Earth flying around Muscongus Bay, it was off in the Mighty Kia, dog in the backseat, to find Bremen and the wreck of the Cora Cressy.

The Cora Cressy was once a queen of the sea: a five-masted schooner built in 1902 at the Percy and Small boatyard in Bath (where the Maine Maritime Museum now makes it's home). She was 276 feet long, and could carry 4000 tons of coal as she made her way along the coast.

Alas, her days of glory were short. In 1928 she was severely damaged in a storm, and repairs were too expensive -- it was cheaper to replace her than fix her up. Life didn't quite end here however; she became a floating speakeasy, a role she held during the 30's. Once prohibition ended, she found her home in Bremen -- not as a boat, but as a lobster pound. I'm not too sure how this would have worked, but apparently the plan was to bring her into the bay, drill holes in her hull to allow water circulation, and sink her in place. Old Cora was too wily for all that though -- she'd been built too well, with thick planking that just couldn't be drilled enough. But the trip to Bremen ended her, and she sank in place. Supposedly you could still see curtains on her portholes until the 80's.

Our trip to visit Cora was easy. You can see her right from shore -- thick planks and all. It was a great way to enjoy some of the last of autumn. Check her out if you get a chance!

That's her. Keeping the dinghies safe as a breakwater.

So they seriously thought they could drill through that!

A lovely older work boat. Love me a well-kept boat.

It was indeed a working port.

Someone has new floats.

Another lobster pound -- less chancy than using an old schooner, but still defunct.

Wanna visit? I decided to start embedding maps rather than writing out directions:

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Coveside Boats and Burgees

Although I had to work this past weekend (yup, laboring on Labor Day), Damon didn't. He had a great weekend on OPB's -- other people's boats. I didn't let him have all the fun though. He sailed into Christmas Cove (where John Smith, yes that John Smith) spent Christmas in 1614, and I drove over to meet our friend Bruce and him. Dinner was fun and Coveside was funky.

Worth the drive. Or sail.

Bruce's boat Hepatica, a Cape Dory 30.

Looking for their assigned mooring.

These people sailed onto their mooring. Nicely done.

There might have been a Dark n Stormy on the deck while waiting for them to sail in.

The deck.

Hungry guys after a long day of sailing.

Wicked Pissah decor. Yacht club burgees from all over the world. Damon found one from Jubilee Yacht Club, where his parents were members long ago.

Friday, April 17, 2015

Maine Maritime and Coastal Studies for Girls

Maine has some pretty amazing educational institutions, and this past week I got to hang out with folks from two of them. Maine Maritime in Castine is one of the most incredible colleges around -- where students focus on practical experience and leave with hundreds of companies (and the military) clamoring to hire them. And Coastal Studies for Girls, a young program focusing on semester-long residential learning for high school girls, is an up-and-coming place.

Put the two together and what do you get? Lots of energy, lots of competence, and lots of exploring.

I'm working with Kerry Whitakker this semester, and she spends half her time at Bowdoin and half at CSG. She's also a great biological oceanographer and educator, and tolerates my nosiness. So I just wangled an invite to go up with CSG on their field trip to MMA. MMA is actively working to recruit more women, so this is a natural fit for them. The first day the girls got to spend time in the "bridge simulators" -- where they "drive" tugboats, tankers, and other boats through computer simulations. They also visited the amazing planetarium. Then, on the second day, they hit the water.

A tugboat bridge simulator. Those "windows" are all separate flat screens, but they work together to make it look like you're moving. I actually started to get queasy! Students work on simulations testing their boat-handling skills in all sorts of situations. Apparently the CSG students had their skills tested in rough seas and calm, and only a few of them crashed!

It wasn't exactly the nicest day to be on the water, but the wind was minimal, so it didn't seem that bad. We pulled on our rain gear, layered in a bunch of clothes, and boarded. The girls went out on two boats; each for an hour. The research vessel collected plankton samples using a plankton net tow and a rosette water sampler, and water chemistry parameters were collected using a CTD -- depth, temp, salinity, etc. We got a lot of interesting samples and they learned a lot about research methods:

The R/V Friendship is MMA's research vessel.

Kerry Whitakker explains how the water sampling will work.

Captain Zander uses the A frame to deploy the sampling equipment.

Resting a bit.

The navigation vessel blew me away. This 70 foot boat is specially equipped with a large wheel house that has multiple navigation stations -- each with a chart table, GPS, and radar. MMA students use it to plot courses and learn how to get from point A to point B. What an amazing boat! Luckily it was a bit foggy so we could really see the usefulness of radar.

Each station has everything you need to navigate.

The girls got to drive, under the direction of an MMA student.

One of the best parts of this trip was watching the MMA students interact with us. Both boats had an instructor (and captain) from MMA, but they were piloted by students. Each was exceptionally mature and competent. As one of the captains told me, "Our students go out for their practical experiences each summer, and when they come back, we can treat them more as peers and students." I could see this was true.