Above, we see the Schooner Mary Day on Monday (September 24) in Great Cove. She soon will raise sail and depart. All of the passengers — except one — are below deck or wearing jackets or sweaters because it’s somewhere between very chilly and cold on the water this morning. The holdout is a young man in swim trunks. We watch through a big lens in disbelief as he climbs onto and dives off one of Mary’s gunwales:
Why did he do this? Perhaps the full moon that day has something to do with it; perhaps, he doesn’t believe in the most basic of climate changes – which happens when summer is over. Whatever the case, the relevant facts are as follows, according to local records: the ambient temperature when he jumped ship was 49 degrees (F), the surface water temperature was 55 (colder below), and there was a 13 mile-per-hour wind just for a little bracing effect. After the swim, Mary left the Cove on the fair wind, flying only her two mainsails and a jib:
The Mary Day is a 125-foot schooner out of Camden, Maine. She was launched in 1962.
(Brooklin, Maine)