Here, trying unsuccessfully to hide in a crowd, you see the schooner STEPHEN TABER and the hermaphrodite brigantine now named SWIFT. They were getting ready to depart from Great Cove as the fog was lifting Tuesday. The daily WoodenBoat School small boat sailing class was beginning, fog or not.
The TABER departed under full sail. (See the image below.) She was on a “Three-Night Music Trip With Cara and Friends,” according to the schooner’s schedule. It promised guests that they would, “Enjoy a beautiful and sometimes quirky blend of Cara’s fiddle, Graham Lent’s acoustic guitar with vocals from Sophia Hart.”
The TABER is 110 feet long overall (68’ on deck), can accommodate up to 22 passengers in 12 “compact” cabins and usually has a crew of 5, according to her website. She was launched as a cargo cruiser in 1871 in Glen Head, New York (Long Island,) and now homeports in Rockland, Maine.
The SWIFT’s published schedule didn’t describe the cruise she was on when she stopped at the Cove this time. (Those brigantines can be secretive, perhaps a trait descended from their pirate heritage.) I didn’t see SWIFT leave. She’s 75 feet long overall (57’ on deck) and can accommodate up to 6 in three cabins for overnight trips and up to 12 for day cruises, according to reports. She hails from Camden, Maine, these days.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 18, 2026.)