Down East Super Moon

In Brooklin and Blue Hill, Maine, on November 13 and 14, 2016

Last night’s rare Super Moon came up like a molten bubble out of the darkness of Acadia National Park across Blue Hill Bay. The last time that we had one in the United States was in 1948; the next time will be 2034. This moon is “Super” because it not only is as close as it will ever get to this country, it’s also full when it arrives.

Initially, at lower levels, the sun's light turned the Moon golden.

The gravitational pull and push of this close encounter caused low tides that nearly emptied the coves around Brooklin and Blue Hill during the evenings of the 13th and 14th.

It also caused extraordinarily high tides in the mornings (almost 12-foot tides). Fortunately for the Brooklin Boat Yard, there were no significant waves, but flood warnings were issued for other areas.

As the moon gained height over Brooklin last night, it entered whispy clouds and turned silver. Then, the heavens bestowed on it a golden crown penumbra.

To see larger versions of these images, as well as a few additional ones, click on the link below:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/US-States/Maine/Out/2016-in-Maine/Down-East-Super-Moon/

Cheers,

Barbara and Dick

Postcards from Maine: the October Collection

In Hancock County, Maine

October in Down East Maine can be viewed as a three-act play. The theme of the First Act always is the peaking of foliage. The blueberry fields turn to scarlet at about the same time as the deciduous leaves send up gold, yellow, and red flares among the evergreens. In some places and at some times, the blue sky, multicolored woods, and the burnished berry fields appear to be braided together. That effect can be startlingly splendid.

There always are standout individual performers, including some that seem to be pointed out officially.

October’s Second Act contains the poignant scenes after the foliage has peaked.

The warm-cool breezes at the beginning of the month turn to chilly-cold winds in late October; morning fog is more frequent; much-needed rain arrives, sometimes in slashing sheets.

Winter is nearing; its breath can be felt.

The trees put up a fight in rain and sun, but they're doomed; the colors begin to stir, then disappear, one spiraling leaf after another.

Gradually, fruits previously nestled within leafy branches become isolated orbs in a fast-graying universe.

Many boats are put "on the hard"; sun pours through new skylights in the canopies of woods of mixed deciduous and conifer trees.

As the Second Act ends, Chokecherry, Bittersweet, and other berries are left standing exposed.

October’s plot turns darker in Act Three. As the once-vibrant leaves die, there is a macabre celebration of evil and dead spirits. (Scare contests such as that hosted by Mainescape in Blue Hill feature witches and skeletons; Jack-o-lanterns, originated to ward off such spirits, appear on porches.)

This year, October's play ends with a unique encore: the spirits of two Presidential candidates come to haunt us at the Brooklin Inn.

For larger versions of the above images, as well as additional images of October moments that we wish to remember, click on the link below. (We recommend that your initial viewing be in full-screen mode, which can be achieved by clicking on the Slideshow [>] icon above the featured image in the gallery to which the link will take you.) Here’s the link for to the full October virtual tour:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/US-States/Maine/Out/2016-in-Maine/October-Postcards-from-Maine/

Cheers,

Barbara and Dick

The Dangerous Coast and the Safe Haven

On Schoodic Peninsula (October 2016)

It's low tide at Schoodic Point. The golden light on this October afternoon warms the ledges of granite that cascade down into the sea. It's a calm day, but it's easy to imagine the danger of this rockbound coast to those who once used nothing but a paddle, oar, or sails to navigate wooden boats in these cold and often stormy waters.

The original Passamaquoddy tribe navigators here named this peninsula "Skute-Auke" (burned land), which later was transmogrified into English as "Schoodic." The tip of the peninsula, Schoodic Point, is now the only part of Acadia National Park that's not on an island. The Point is a very popular tourist attraction during "the season," but there are few tourists here now to see the windswept spruces stand serenely over the austere, but magnificent, landscape.

Nonetheless, there is danger within this beautiful serenity. This is where the tides continue their eternal war against the slanting, sharpened coast. Where careless tourists and their pets have slipped off wet stone or been drawn into the churning coldness and suffered a hideous death.

The seafarers who have lived in this area for centuries did not settle here.  They always have sheltered in nearby natural havens. One of these once was called Indian Harbor, a White Man's reference to the original Passamaquoddy settlers who congregated in the harbor. In 1896, that name was changed to Corea (pronounced Korea). Why it was changed to Corea seems to be a matter of conjecture. One theory is that it was named in honor of Korea, which sometimes was spelled Corea in the 19th Century. (Maine also has a town called China.) Despite the mysterious name, there is no debate over the fact that Corea has a calendar-worthy harbor.

One notable aspect of Corea Harbor is the Lobster fishing gear, especially ropes, lying around everywhere. Some is arranged artfully, although most is stored in purely utilitarian form.

But the realistic art is in the water, where the graceful sweeping bows continually swing slowly into the changing winds.

Finally, we would be remiss if we did not pause a moment in another picturesque place with a Passamaquoddy name:  Wonsqueak Harbor, which is between Schoodic Point and Corea. This shallow cove contains a unique bit of functional architecture that is best seen at low tide, when the little harbor's water virtually disappears.

That concludes the narrated part of our virtual tour. To view larger versions of these images and a few others, click on the link below. (We recommend that your first viewing be in full-frame mode, which you can achieve by clicking the Slideshow button [>] on the gallery to which the link will take you.) Here's that link:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/US-States/Maine/Out/2016-in-Maine/Schoodic-Point-and-Corea-Harbo/

Cheers,

Barbara and Dick

Postcards from Maine: The September Collection

In Hancock and Waldo Counties

September is the poignant month. It's when warm Summer slips away and increasingly chilly dawns foretell what is to come.

September is notable for being a favorite of artists. Paul Emile Chabas, in his painting September Morn, uses that rising sun to gild the innocence of a young woman bathing near the shore.

Amy Lowell, in her poem Late September, senses the “tang of fruitage in the air” and, in Earth, Wind & Fire’s September, the month is when “golden dreams were shiny days.”

And, of course, in Maxwell Anderson's allegorical lyrics to September Song, the month becomes human as “the days grow short” and “one hasn’t the time for a waiting game.”

Yes, the days start to get shorter and shorter and cooler and cooler in September. But, there is recompense for those changes here: the dawns and sunsets get more and more beautiful and more precious.

Between sunrise and sunset, September’s shiny days are filled with activity; there’s no waiting game. First, there’s work, including fishing and mowing.

There also are many country fairs for play and education.

There even are vintage car rallies and historic schooner sail-ins.

Although few of our trees have yet to change dramatically in September, many of our Wood Ducks already have emerged from their summer molts and regained their unique splendor during this short month.

September also is a time for us to change our perspectives, even if we cannot regain the beauty of youth.

Larger versions of these images and those of other September memories can be seen by clicking the link below. (We recommend that your initial viewing of these images be in full-screen mode.  You can achieve this by clicking the Slideshow icon [>] above the gallery to which the link will take you.) Here’s the link:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/US-States/Maine/Out/2016-in-Maine/September-Postcards-From-Maine/

Cheers,

Barbara and Dick

Seeking Common Ground

In Unity, Maine (September 25, 2016)

We’re in the big sky part of Waldo County, where picturesque farms cling to rolling hills and stratocumulus clouds stream above them. The sun is bright, but those clouds are gathering into family meetings; they’re beginning to cast large magic carpet shadows that sweep over the woods and pastures and us. It's getting on the cold side of chilly.

We -- and tens of thousands of others -- don't worry about the weather, though. We're making the annual pilgrimage to the renowned Common Ground Country Fair.

If there is such a thing as a serious country fair, the Common Ground is such a thing. There are no Ferris wheels or other carnival rides, nor is there a midway to shoot darts and other things at balloons and other things in the hopes of winning teddy bears and other things. This is different; it’s sponsored by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners. This is where people come to touch and inspect vegetables and animals, while getting educated on current issues that are important to Maine.

Our Internet research failed to disclose an explanation for naming the Fair the “Common Ground.” Perhaps it's a clever play on words: “common ground” is a term used for a basis on which differing people can agree; it also is a place where rural people can stand and raise food and animals. The Fair is a celebration of rural life and an attempt to educate all of us on why that life should be perfected and protected against today's threats.

A significant part of the Fair is devoted to presentations on the environment and community relations. These are not photogenic events. But, some of the hands-on education is photogenic, such as how to milk a goat.

Although this Fair is serious, that doesn’t mean it’s for the dour. This place is full of smiles that span the ages: a smiling little girl showing her pony with the help of her smiling sister, a master spinner smiling at her work.

To be sure, there are hair-raising moments, but these are more than balanced by the moments of mutual content.

It is true, however, that some of the demonstrators do give other demonstrators the evil eye and spook them.

In the end, however, we learn a secret here today: life is a colorful hula hoop. (Life is hard to get going right and even harder to keep going right, but we must continue to try, in spite of setbacks.)

You can't buy cotton candy here, but they do sell huge hula hoops.

For larger versions of these images and a few additional ones of the 2016 Common Ground Fair, click the link below. (We recommend that the initial viewing be in full screen mode, which can be achieved by using the Slideshow [>] function on the gallery to which the link takes you.) Here’s the link:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/US-States/Maine/Out/2016-in-Maine/The-Common-Ground-Country-Fair/

Cheers,

Barbara and Dick

Bugs Invade Brooklin!

In Brooklin, Maine (September 16, 2016)

We hear them getting louder and louder: Braaaap, BRAAP, Braaaaaap. They’re hidden on the other side of the hill, climbing up its dusty lane toward us. We wait on our side of the hill, seeing just the empty part of the lane wind down to us. It peaks into a horizon of nothing but blue sky and white clouds, looking like a road from eternity.

Finally, a Bug loudly crests the hill and descends toward us. It’s big-eyed. So are we.

We’re at a Bugatti mini-rally on the beautiful WoodenBoat School campus. Ten of the cars have been driven over from the American Bugatti Club Fall Rally in nearby Northport. These are vintage classics from the jazz-age and The Great Gatsby era. They're take-off-the-fenders-and-race-around-Paris cars, as well as swooping grand sedans for touring southern France and Spain before World War II.

These vintage vehicles are cramped pieces of machinery that may need hand-cranking to start; they’re also not easy to drive. But they're easy on the eyes.

The cars embody the vision of Italian-born Ettore Bugatti, who founded, in 1909, what became a French car manufacturing firm bearing his name. Ettore was born into a family of artists and considered his cars high-performance works of art. The public generally agreed, although most couldn't afford a Bugatti.

Only about 8,000 Bugattis were made by Ettore’s company, which floundered in 1947 when Ettore died. The Bugatti brand was revived in the 1990’s and (ironically) bought by Volkswagen, which means “People’s Car.” (VW promotes the new, swooping Bugattis as the fastest street-legal cars in the world and sells them at prices ranging from about $1.7 to $2.7 million apiece. You don’t have to crank a new one to start it, we hear. We also hear that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady scrambles around Boston in a modern version.)

Nonetheless, we’d rather travel Maine’s country roads in one of Ettore’s creations. Or, at least watch them go by.

For more and larger versions of the images in this posting, click on the link below. (We recommend that your initial viewing of these images be in full-screen/slideshow mode. To do this, click the Slideshow icon [>] at the top right of the gallery to which the link takes you.) Here’s the link:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/US-States/Maine/Out/2016-in-Maine/Vintage-Bugatti-Rally/

Cheers,

Barbara and Dick

Windjammers Galore!

On Great Cove, Brooklin, Maine (September 13-14, 2016)

You’re at WoodenBoat’s 30th Annual Sail-In and you’ll soon have the best seats possible.

You’ll be out on the water in a WoodenBoat School (WBS) skiff to greet 10 historic schooners when they come barreling into the choppy Cove, flags and pennants flying.

Six of these windjammers are old-timers that hauled granite, coal, timber, and other commodities along the Atlantic coast during the 19th and early 20th Centuries: the Lewis R. French and Stephen Taber  (both launched in 1871); Grace Bailey (1882); Victory Chimes (1900); J&E Riggin (1927), and American Eagle (1930).

The schooners are under a brilliant afternoon sun and their bow waves are high. If you're lucky, you'll see bow wave reflections in churning flashes on their hulls. And, if you're really lucky, you'll see a schooner cowboy bulldogging a reflective bow.

There's a good reason for the schooners to hurry: awaiting them at WBS are delicious steamed mussels, rousing steel band music, and engaging talk about building and sailing boats.

You’ll be out there on the water again early the next morning to watch the sun’s first rays gild the schooners while the mouth-watering aroma of strong coffee, baking bread, and sizzling bacon seeps from the ships’ galleys and wafts over the becalmed Cove.

And, you’ll also be there as the schooners weigh anchor in the soft light and leave the Cove under gathering clouds.

You’ll be doing all this as a virtual member of WBS’s Marine Photography II class. MP II is an intense, five-day course designed primarily for advanced study, although a few less experienced photographers sometimes attend. It’s a very warmhearted boot camp run by Jon Strout and Jane Peterson, both excellent photographers and teachers who helped us to better see the parts and the whole of things. 

The unusual (if not unique) opportunity offered by WBS does have its difficulties for photographers who love the sea and sea-going things: the experience is like drinking from a fire hydrant, as one classmate put it.  That is, we frantically take an enormous number of images that have to be culled and edited.

To see more images, in a larger format, click on the link below. (For a full-screen presentation, use the Slideshow function in the gallery to which the link will take you.) Here’s the link:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/US-States/Maine/Windjammers-and-Other-Boats/Schooners/2016-WoodenBoat-SailIn/

Cheers,

Barbara and Dick

The Blue Hill Country Fair

It’s a fine day to visit the Blue Hill Fair and enjoy Maine’s beautiful ’tween temperatures that occur when it's a little past real summer, but not quite real fall yet.

The Fair originated in 1891 and has become known especially for its extensive midway and ride choices (three Ferris wheel-like rides, among other things) and weight-pulling contests (this year: oxen. horse, and truck pulls, but no antique tractor pull).

In the Ox and Horse Pulls, a team of two animals is connected to a “stoneboat,” which originally was a flat-bottomed vehicle loaded with stone; it's now is a wooden sled loaded with cement blocks.

Usually, the starting weight is double the combined weight of the two animals and they’re judged by the amount of weight pulled over a given time.

The weight can be increased in the Canadian Ox Pull each time that it travels three feet or more.

The weight stays the same during the Horse Pull, which is categorized according to the combined weight of the horse team. For example, a “3600 Class Horse Pull” will involve a team of horses that weighs 3,600 pounds or less, usually pulling about twice their weight.

Other horses have it easier:

It isn’t an easy day for the sheep in the Sheep Dog Trials, however. This is where Border Collies intimidate them by giving them “The Eye” and herding them through an obstacle course in a set period of time.

The shelter dogs in the Stunt Dog Challenge are a little more dramatic and just as well trained.

The most popular event this year, according to reports, is the Truck Pull in which souped-up trucks are connected to a large “dynamometer pull sled,” which increases the weight drag as it moves. There's lots of churning wheels and eardrum-shattering motor noises, as well as a truck blowing an engine or tossing an axle every now and then.

Other rides are quieter.

Some are mechanically quiet, but you can hear the screams that they produce for half a mile.

For the full tour, including larger versions of the above images, click on the link below. (We recommend that the initial viewing being full-screen mode, which can be achieved by clicking on the Slideshow icon [>] above the featured image in the gallery to which the link will take you.) Here’s the link to take the tour:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/US-States/Maine/Out/2016-in-Maine/The-Blue-Hill-Country-Fair/

Cheers,

Barbara and Dick

August Postcards From Maine

In Hancock and Knox Counties, Maine

If there had to be only one time and place to meet Summer in her beautiful prime, it would be August on the Down East coast. Lost serenity can be found here simply by thinking "Yes!" -- and only that -- when Summer's sea breeze touches your face.

Yet, poignantly, Summer also passes her prime in late August and begins to age quickly, although we make believe that we don't notice. Where once all was vivid green, brown rashes are starting to appear. Coincidentally, children and their parents need to leave the waters and woods and return to school and work. It's then that memories of Summer's stunning beauty begin to get clouded.  When those memories get really dark, it's time to take out the Postcards From Maine and shuffle through some of the "good parts" of August's story.

August here is when flowered porches seem to say, "Come in; visit awhile!"

It’s the best of times for the little tourists that have finished the hard work of raising a family and are now resting before their long, tough trip home.

It’s when the flower gardens are overflowing with primary colors; apples are turning red on the boughs, and the woods are bristling with ripening black raspberries that we pick and eat without qualms.

However, for the usually well-coiffed male Wood Duck, its a time to hide in remote marshes; he's now bald and can't fly well due to his summer molt. (He's in his "eclipse" phase.)

Nonetheless, August also is a time for public events. It's the beginning of a two-month country fair season across the state. Town commons and perennial fair sites are filled with amusement park entertainment and, more important, opportunities to celebrate a pastoral way of life.

It's also when prehistoric-looking Pileated Woodpeckers put on summer dinner shows: gobbling fat insects for their entrees, tossing down viburnum berries for their desserts, and then flying off, cackling maniacally.

(A bird that is pileated ["peel-ee-EIGHTed"] is one that has a crest on its pileum, which is the entire top of its head. But, you're cautioned not to confuse the Pileated Woodpecker with another strangely-crested subspecies that also cackled maniacally this August: the Pileated Politician.)

For sailors, August can provide light breezes for contemplative gliding as well as stiff winds for vigorous tacking.

In fact, it’s when some of the most eager sailors have four legs.

In the end, though, August is at its wicked best when you bask in your special place and smile at life.

And, of course, August is much more. To see larger versions of the above images, as well as more images of the month's moments that we'll use to spark our memories, click on the link below. (We suggest that your initial viewing be in full-screen mode. To do that, click on the Slideshow icon [>] above the featured [largest] image in the gallery to which the link will take you.) Here’s the link:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/US-States/Maine/Out/2016-in-Maine/August-Postcards-From-Maine/

Cheers,

Barbara and Dick

At the Union Country Fair

On the Common in Union, Maine

We arrived here at the renowned Union Fair too early in the week to see the advertised Maine Blueberry Queen selection and the Blueberry Spitting Contest, the latter we assume not being part of the former. However, we enjoyed a fine afternoon at the Fair.

This country fair originated in 1869, when visitors arrived by foot, wagon, and carriage; they tied their horses to hitching posts when stables were full. Reports indicate that the hit events then were horse and oxen plowing contests. These were farming families, many with Civil War veteran fathers or War-widowed mothers. It’s hard to imagine what they would think of today’s rides and games, not to mention the popular burrito stand where we had a delicious lunch.

The Union Fair is one of three Maine agricultural fairs that have received considerable attention nation-wide, especially on the East Coast. The other two are the Unity and Blue Hill Fairs, which are held in September. (The Blue Hill Fair was part of the inspiration for E.B. White’s classic Charlotte’s Web.)

One of the most enjoyable aspects of all of these fairs is the participation of children and teenagers in the competitions. Below, a youngster helps her brother who is waiting to be called for a youth "steer pull" and a girl runs her oxen through the complicated “twitch and scoot” course:

The adult events come in fast, slow, and really slow versions, including fast harness racing and slow 2,450-pound oxen pulls. (During a three-minute period, the animals pull a sled piled with concrete blocks totaling the designated weight.)

We confess that we didn’t rise to the occasion and attend the Yeast Roll Judging, which we have to put in the really slow category, notwithstanding its many ardent fans. Mind you, we have nothing against the really slow moments here; some of the slowest – as when owners and animals simply are waiting to be called into an arena – can be studies in magnificent power at rest:

To see larger versions of the above images, as well as a few more images of the Fair, click on the link below. (We suggest that your initial viewing be in full-screen mode. To do that, click on the Slideshow icon [>] above the featured [largest] image in the gallery to which the link will take you.) Here’s the link:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/US-States/Maine/Out/2016-in-Maine/The-Union-Country-Fair/

Cheers,

Barbara and Dick

The Rock Star

On Mount Desert Island, Maine

This is not about David Bowie.

But, it is about a strange and oddly beautiful rock star that makes unique music. Some of you already are fans of this star, judging from the surprising number of requests for information about it, after it first appeared here as an unexplained image in our July Postcards From Maine.

Here’s a new image, one of the star making its music with waves and whistling wind:

This promontory has been a landmark to seafarers for centuries. It’s known as Star Point and it’s located in Salisbury Cove on the north shore of Mount Desert Island. Here’s the star at sunset during low tide:

Salisbury Cove is full of remarkable rock formations formed by glacier activity and erosion.  The geologic reports on the area indicate that much of these is metamorphic shist and flint-like bedrock, plus some petrified ash that arrived after ancient volcanic eruptions. It would appear to our uneducated eyes that Star Point was a compressed combination of hard and relatively soft rock and ash that, over the eons, suffered major wounds in its continuing war with water and wind.

Star Point is not the only attraction here. This rocky shore is now part of the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory campus. MDI Bio Lab is very visitor-friendly and community oriented. In fact, it offers regular, fascinating lectures and exhibits to the public, after which one can explore the shore. You may want to scan their website: https://mdibl.org/ .

The art exhibit at MDI Bio Lab now is “A Fresh Field of Life: Artists, Naturalists and the Vision of Acadia.” It celebrates Acadia National Park’s 100th federal anniversary and relationships between art and science. This is a remarkable exhibit of the works of over 40 artists, including a startlingly beautiful rendition of a Red-Winged Blackbird's nest of marbled eggs by Brooklin's Sherry Streeter. The show can be seen via one of the free scheduled tours, for which you may register on the Lab’s website.

Those  of you who want to see larger versions of the Star Point images above, plus a few others, can access them via the link below. (We recommend that the initial viewing be in full-screen mode, which can be achieved by clicking the Slideshow button [>] in the upper right of the gallery to which the link will take you.) Here’s the link:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/Maine/Out/The-Rock-Star/

Cheers,

Barbara and Dick

Five Tall Ones

On Mount Desert Island, Maine, August 2, 2016

We get here about Noon, two hours early, and stake out a good location. The day is sunny, the blue sky full of fast-moving clouds, and the breeze an intermittent thrill. We’re among thousands of people strung along Sargent Drive, overlooking glacier-created Somes Sound. We’re waiting for the “Windjammer Parade” in honor of Acadia National Park’s 100th federal anniversary. Local and visiting sail boats tack impatiently back and forth across the Sound as we talk and eat our fancy sandwiches from Rooster Brothers’ Deli in Ellsworth.

We kill time by checking license plates. Within a short time, cars from 24 states and Ontario pass by desperately looking for a spot; apparently, they didn’t get the message about getting here very early. When we get bored checking license plates, we discuss a relevant curiosity while watching the smaller boats tack and heel.

The curiosity relates to Mount Desert Island:  contrary to its spelling and original meaning, we and most locals intentionally mispronounce its name. The name is Mount “duhZERT” (as in dessert after dinner), not Mount “DEZZert” (as in Sahara desert). Why? Because it always has been called this around here, as far as anyone can remember. That’s a good enough reason in Maine. Besides, most of us call Mount Desert Island “MDI,” anyway.

(We suspect that the local pronunciation has something to do with the accents derived from the early French settlers in this part of the state. But the original meaning seems clear: history has recorded French explorer Samuel de Champlain, who played a part in naming the island, as erroneously stating that the mountains here were bare – desert-like -- when he saw them from far out at sea.)

By the way, MDI is the second largest island on the Atlantic coast, after New York’s Long Island. It contains most of Acadia National Park, many quaint harbors, and Bar Harbor (which isn’t that quaint when it’s crawling with cruise ship tourists).

Somes Sound, where we are now, almost divides MDI in two; it passes through parts of Acadia and has been a great place to sail since well before President Woodrow Wilson designated much of MDI as a national monument in 1916. (Three years later, the monument was redesignated as a national park and named Acadia in honor of the original French colony that was established in Maine and Nova Scotia.)

Our waiting is over at bout 2:30 p.m.! The welcoming Host vessels, fully dressed in their maritime signal flags, form on the far side of the Sound, below Acadia Mountain.

Most of the Host boats are sail boats, but one is a classic Lord Nelson Victory Tug named Loon. She’s a 37-foot luxury tugboat built in 1987 that hails from Southport Island, Maine.

The first windjammer to be welcomed is the Heritage out of Rockport, Maine. She’s a 1983 replica with an overall length of 145 feet and, unusually, a yellow hull.

Next is the Lewis R. French out of Camden, Maine. She’s a refurbished 1871 coastal schooner with an overall length of 101 feet and a gray hull.

Following her is the Isaac H. Evans out of Rockland, Maine. She’s a refurbished 1886 coastal schooner with an overall length of 99 feet and a white hull.

Next is the Angelique, also out of Camden. She’s a 1980 replica with an overall length of 130 feet, a green hull, and unusual tan-bark sails.

Ladona, also out of Rockland, frolicks on the sidelines to the joy of the crowd. She’s a 108-foot refurbished 1922 coastal schooner with a white hull. (Ladona was her original name, but she was known as the Nathaniel Bowditch for a number of interim years.)

After the parade, it was Heritage’s turn to show her speed and pose close to the crowd.

As we pack up after a long and satisfying day, the schooners are led off by a Host boat toward Somes Harbor at the top of the Sound, where most of them will moor overnight. A lone kayak paddler, almost invisible in the middle of the Sound, says a final good bye.

Larger versions of the above images and a few others can be viewed by clicking the link below.  We recommend that your initial screening be a full-frame slideshow.  (To make that happen, click on the Slideshow button [>] above the featured [largest] image on the gallery page to which the link will take you.)  Here's the link:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/Maine/Windjammers-and-Other-Boats/Five-Tall-Ones/

Cheers,

Barbara and Dick

July Postcards From Maine

In Hancock County, Maine

July is when the wonderful days of summer get shorter and shorter as we try to do more and more within each one.

It’s a time to walk under seaside clouds through fields that are starting to turn to autumn colors.

July also can be a time to seek the thrills of fast, cold water.

On the other hand, it’s when we can tidy the front porch for the quiet enjoyment of summer days and evenings.

For many here, it’s a time to hunt the wind over clear waters.

It’s when the smallest and largest of our feathered tourists come here for working vacations.

It’s also a time to enjoy sand between your toes.

July is a lot more than this. We have many memories of the month that we’ll want to refresh from time to time as autumn and winter slide in. To see more of them, click the link below.  (We suggest that your initial viewing be in full screen mode. To do that, click the Slideshow button [>] above the featured image in the gallery.) Here’s the link to that gallery:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/Maine/Out/July-Postcards-From-Maine/

Cheers,

Barbara and Dick

The Breakthrough

In Brooklin, Maine

This is a tale about historical ingenuity and classical beauty. It begins in the late 19th Century, when lobster fishermen worked the sea in cumbersome sail boats and dories, often alone. Our heroes are Wilbur Morse and a few of his contemporaries whose names seem to have been lost.  They were fishing boat designers and builders on Maine’s mid-coast. Wilbur, the most famous, worked out of the small harbor town of Friendship.

In the 1880s, after years of trying, Wilbur and a few others evolved small-crew fishing boats into more efficient, affordable, classic beauties. (That's the rough equivalent of turning a modern tractor into a more efficient work vehicle that looks like a Ferrari and can be afforded by those who work the land.) These new Maine fishing boats soon became known as Friendship Sloops. They revolutionized lobster fishing and beautified our coastal waters for decades, until motorization made the Friendship Sloops collector’s items for pleasure sailing by those with historical tastes.

Friendships never were a pedigreed “class” of boat that has to meet a host of design standards.  They simply have certain things in common that make them an “I-know-one-when-I-see-one” thing.

A Friendship Sloop has a high, sharp clipper bow that can part waves and reduce pitching and rolling. The boat’s sides sweep down gracefully from the bow to an elliptical stern; and, the gunwales are low to the water, which helps in taking traps or nets in and out of the sea. The highly maneuverable main sail is four-cornered and hoisted on an angled spar pole called a “gaff”; thus, a Friendship is “gaff-rigged.” Above the mainsail, there is a main topsail attached to the topmast when the boat is fully rigged.

An important feature of the Friendship is its  self-tacking staysail (or self-tending jib) above the bow; this three-cornered sail is connected by rope and pulleys to the mainsail apparatus. It frees a solo sailor from the need to go forward and furl or otherwise control jibs; he (and now she) can use a staysail as a jib and let it swing in coordination with the main sail, which is controlled from the cockpit.

And now the story-within-the-story.  The Friendship Sloop shown here is the Belford Gray, which has its own distinctive history. Jon Wilson, the visionary founder of WoodenBoat Publications and the WoodenBoat School, found small-scale plans for her in a 1907 magazine.

Noted naval architect Joel White created construction drawings from the magazine plans, at Jon’s request. These drawings were used by WoodenBoat School students to build the Belford Gray – during six summers of five two-week classes and one four-week class. She was named after a highly regarded Brooklin boat builder and launched in 1992.

For those who are fascinated by nautical numbers, here are some of the Belford Gray’s:

     o   Overall Length: 28’ 6”;

     o   Beam:9’ 6”;

     o   Draft: 5’ 4”;

     o   Sail Area: 636 sq. ft.

She's constructed with northern white cedar on white oak frames.

The many lines and sheets of the Belford Gray are now used as part of a WoodenBoat course on Craft of Sail.  In the images here, instructor Daniel Bennett and his class recently were sailing her fully-rigged in very light air – a beautiful sight, to be sure. But, some would say, the time to see the sensuous beauty of this Friendship Sloop is when she is alone and undressed:

Larger versions of the above images and a few others can be viewed by clicking the link below.  We recommend that your initial screening be a full-frame slideshow.  (To make that happen, click on the Slideshow button [>] above the featured [largest] image on the gallery page to which the link will take you.)  Here's the link:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/Maine/Windjammers-and-Other-Boats/Lobstering-Elegance-The-Friend/

Cheers,

Barbara and Dick Leighton

The Magnificent and the Mundane

In Hancock County, Maine

It’s hard to ignore a female Bald Eagle bearing down on you with a complaint.

She is, in a word, magnificent.  She’s even more magnificent than her magnificent mate because, as with many birds of prey, she’s larger than he is. Her wingspan can approach seven and one half feet. (That’s a size that is not easily appreciable in the open sky, unless you’re capable of imagining a professional basketball center elevated and rotated 90 degrees.)

On the other hand, it’s easy to overlook the drab female Mallard when she is not with her sartorially splendid mate. She never would bear down on anyone, unless her ducklings were threatened.

It’s in that relationship with her ducklings that Mother Mallard becomes awe-inspiring, if not magnificent. That’s part of this strange tale about birds that have little to do with each other (except, perhaps, when Bald Eagles run out of other food).

The story and images here derive primarily from two recent trips. One was to a wooded bend in the Union River in Ellsworth, where eagles often come to show off. The other was to a marsh and lily pond in Brooklin, where a shy Mallard Mom was discovered trying to hide and herd her cavorting ducklings – nine of them, which is not unusual for a Mallard.

What would be unusual for a Mallard would be for the handsome male to do any domestic work. In that, he differs from the male Bald Eagle, which helps his mate with the nesting and raising chores while maintaining his majestic, war-like presence.

The male Mallard's laziness is the probable reason that female Mallards have evolved into drabness: they have to build the nests, incubate the eggs, and raise the ducklings. These are chores best done while inconspicuous.

However, don’t feel too sorry for female Mallards. They do have their Victoria secrets: they and their mates wear matching blue-purple underthings that they flash when they fly. (Well, if you want to get technical: their secondary flying feathers contain an iridescent band, a patch known to birders as a “speculum.”)

As you would expect, a short-winged Mallard’s fast-flapping flight is less graceful than the slow undulations and soaring done on the huge wings of a Bald Eagle. That grace is especially evident when a Bald Eagle turns quickly in the air, swirling its wings like a matador’s cape.

There is, however, such a thing as grace under fire. Keeping a group of frisky ducklings safe in an environment filled with predators is difficult work, which the Mallard Mom does expertly. As of today, each of her totally alert and feeding offspring could fit into a tea cup or sail on a lily pad.

While swimming, these ducklings face danger from below and above. Larger fish and snapping turtles seem to think that they’re candy; coyotes, dogs, and other mammals consider the small birds to be a floating hors dourves tray, and hungry raptors find them to be amusing delicacies. 

In the end, though, the successful Mother Mallard has the last laugh: the Bald Eagle’s slow-maturing and ugly eaglets are not nearly as magnificent as her adorable fuzz balls.

Larger versions of the above images and a few others can be viewed by clicking the link below.  We recommend that your initial screening be a full-frame slideshow.  (To make that happen, click on the Slideshow button [>] above the featured [largest] image on the gallery page to which the link will take you.)  Here's the link:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/Birds/From-Flying-Magnificence-to-Fl/

Cheers,

Barbara and Dick

A Glowing Moment

In Brooklin, Maine, at Dusk on July 10, 2016

There are times here when the elements make visual music the way a great chamber quartet makes aural music – intuitively following leads, changing rhythm, playing together, playing alone, creating something that is both natural and supernatural. Such times here are not rare, but they are unusual, brief, and almost always beautiful.

One of these times materialized, ghost-like, in the early evening after several days of gloomy storms. As the rain gradually stopped, the wind died down to a mere hint, and the sky over Great Cove began to clear slightly in the southwest. The sun arced slowly behind a thick bank of clouds in the west, backlighting that still-overcast area of the sky.  The sea, at ebb, was remarkably still. As the overcast thinned, shafts of white sunlight pierced the clouds to paint the Cove in silver streaks.

Boats stood calm in the Cove, waiting to be stroked by the diffused light when it reached them. As it did, the almost-motionless grace of the boats became a fixed halo over their dancing reflections. Then, the silver light searched elsewhere.

 It was the kind of moment that would make J.M.W. Turner smile.

Meanwhile, fingers of shadow spread within the very wet woods, fields, and gardens bordering the glowing sea. Some of the flowers had been ravaged by the storms, exposing the almost-erotic beauty of their disturbed centers to the lowering light. It was the kind of moment that would make Georgia O'Keefe smile.

Other flowers bejeweled themselves with captured raindrops as the light disappeared.

As darkness won its daily fight, the sky cleared and stars appeared.  The next morning, we awoke to a sunny dawn, blue skies, and a Cove that was rollicking in a stiff breeze.

Larger versions of the above images and a few others can be viewed by clicking the link below.  We recommend that your initial screening be a full-frame slideshow.  (To make that happen, click on the Slideshow button [>] above the featured [largest] image on the gallery page to which the link will take you.)  Here's the link:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/Maine/Out/An-Enchanted-Dusk/

 Cheers,

Barbara and Dick

A Maine Town Celebrates America

In Brooklin, Maine, on July 4, 2016

Independence Day is celebrated here the old-fashioned way: It’s a time for enjoying a small town’s gifts; gossiping with friendly neighbors, and realizing – in one of the most basic ways -- how privileged it is to be an American on a fine day in Maine.

The morning begins with buying a balloon to help the eighth grade and waiting for the parade to start.  It’s summer time and the waiting is easy.  There are many people and dogs to greet. In the background, the remarkably good Brooklin Town Band plays rousing marches and lilting summer tunes under the tall maple trees in front of the Library.

The parade starts on Reach Road near Haven Colony and winds its way down tree-lined country roads – east, past the small Post Office, Brooklin Inn, and Betsy’s Sunflower Store; then, south at the Stop sign -- the Town’s only traffic signal -- onto Naskeag Road, where the General Store is being rebuilt; and, finally, west on Mountain Ash Road to the Town Green. 

Leading the parade are four veterans who no longer are young, but who still can march a couple of miles or so, sometimes in unison. One of these men carries the Stars and Stripes, one carries a military rifle from a prior era, the other two carry veterans’ organization flags. People clap as the Nation’s flag reaches them; the flag, in turn, waves gently in a slightly-sea-scented breeze.

Thus begins the annual Brooklin July 4th parade. Fire trucks and rescue equipment from Brooklin and neighboring towns get priority positions – our taxes tangibly at work in glistening red equipment that speeds on fat tires, has sirens, and even protects us. One or two fire trucks from the past usually appear, as well.

There also are the antique and vintage cars. Collecting old automobiles is a popular hobby in Maine, especially for those who have heated garages in which to spend evenings and winter weekends trying to keep these disappearing vehicles not only operational, but beautiful.

The rest of the Brooklin parade is an exercise in creative eccentricity. There are floats and other large, homemade mobile displays that differ each year.  One especially intriguing display this year was a pair of huge ospreys that “flew” over the parade route on sticks borne by their creators (à la the Muppets or Lion King characters).

Interspersed within the parade are those who simply want to strut and pedal: a bag-piper in Elton John sunglasses,; children on decorated bikes, and other happy travelers.

Barbecued chicken, hot dogs, and all the trimmings await everyone at the Town Green, where the Brooklin Band once again provides a background of summer music for more socializing.

Of course, there also are games for the young, including the infamous Brooklin wet sponge throw.

And, there is more. Larger versions of the above images and others can be viewed by clicking the link below.  We recommend that your initial screening be a full-frame slideshow.  (To make that happen, click on the Slideshow button [>] above the featured [largest] image on the gallery page to which the link will take you.)  Here's the link:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/Maine/Out/July-4th-2016-in-Brooklin/

Cheers,

Barbara and Dick

June Remembered: Postcards From Maine

In Brooklin, Maine

June was named by the Romans in honor of Juno, their goddess of marriage and eternal youth. And, in Maine, the month is true to those sentiments: June is a time for marriages and for youthful states of mind. Astronomically, summer begins at June's solstice, the 21st. Weather-wise, however, it’s not that simple here: spring is short and summer always begins suddenly and gloriously at some unpredictable time in June. We find out that summer has returned when we forget winter and begin to feel younger by just looking out the window.

In June, the fallow fields here seem to erupt with wild flowers overnight.

Among these are luminous wild Lupines (“Lew-Pins”), a signature legume here that ancient peoples cultivated for its edible beans.

Bashful Wild ("Blue Flag") Irises can be found hiding among other flowers and grasses in the fields.

The June gardens burst with early-blooming perennials and annuals, including startling red-orange Poppies and soothing magenta Peonies. 

June is when sailboats are loosed upon the clear waters of Brooklin’s Great Cove to hunt for wind in sun and fog.

Picturesque schooners begin to arrive in the Cove in June. Ironically, the business of these sparkling windjammers is taking well-off summer tourists sightseeing. This is quite different from the desperately hard and dangerous journeys that schooners originally took around here. In their time, these ships’ holds and decks often were overloaded with granite, coal, wood, and other commodities; they sailed in all seasons, and, sometimes, they were covered in grime and ice. But not today.

After terrestrial winter vacations, many lobster boats are returned to their element in June to work the sea hard for six months or so.

By about mid-June, the big deciduous trees are in full leaf and their branches reach out to each other, creating a high canopy over the woods. Where once full sun lit up the trails, there now is dappled light that dances to the wind’s tunes. One can find serenity here just by being still and letting it seep in.

June also is when Black Bears discover and destroy bird feeders. We’ve come to rationalize this as nature’s way of letting us know that it’s time to stop feeding our feathered friends so that they can concentrate on propagating wild flowers and gulping insects.

It's also the time when White Tail Does give birth well within the woods, where they hide and nurse their fawns two to three times a day.

And there’s much more to June. The short virtual tour of moments that we'll use to help us remember the month can be viewed by clicking the link below.  We recommend that your initial screening be a full-frame slideshow.  (To make that happen, click on the Slideshow button [>] above the featured [largest] image on the gallery page to which the link will take you.)  Here's the link:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/Maine/Out/June-Postcards-From-Maine/i-KcQrTZ5

Cheers,

Barbara and Dick

A Fishing Tale

In Harford County, Maryland, June 10, 2016

We’re at the base of the Conowingo Hydroelectric Dam, which spans the Susquehanna River near the Maryland-Pennsylvania border. Fish swimming up the River are blocked here by the Dam, except when the fish ladders are working; fish swimming down the River get sucked into the Dam’s turbines and are spit out on the other side, dazed or dead.

Fish predators wait for the fish on the downstream side of the Dam, where we wait. We focus on the Bald Eagles, Ospreys, Great Blue Herons, and Double-Crested Cormorants, each of which has its favored mode of hunting.  

The Eagles often perch in the big trees on the ridge above the River, where they are virtually hidden in summer.  It’s hard for an Eagle to hide completely, however: its wing span can exceed seven feet (that’s a professional basketball center rotated 90 degrees) and It can weigh up to 14 pounds.

Bald Eagles tend to circle above their scaly prey, swoop down, pluck the fish neatly from the water, and then arc upward. They can reach up to 99 miles an hour in a dive.

The Ospreys usually take their meals to nests outside the area, where the Eagles can’t steal from them. An Osprey is mostly wings – it weighs only about three pounds, but its angled wings can span up to six feet. It sometimes hunts by the circle-and-pluck method like an Eagle; however, an Osprey often hovers like a helicopter high above the water, tips over and power dives straight down, head first until the last second.  This bird can reach up to 80 miles-a- hour this way, knock a big fish silly, disappear under the water while gripping it, swim up with its wings, and fly off with the prey.

Great Blue Herons also can pluck a fish from deep water while flying or while briefly floating like a duck, but usually that prey is a dead or dying fish on the surface.  These birds, for the most part, fish from a still stance in shallow waters. They can reach four feet in standing height, weigh almost eight pounds, and have a wingspan of over six-and-one-half feet.

A standing Great Blue that sees a nearby fish will coil its long neck, slowly move its spear-shaped head toward its unsuspecting prey, and then strike like a snake into and below the water.  As often as not, it will emerge from the imploded water with an amazed fish in its sharp beak.

Unlike the others, a Double-Crested Cormorant usually swims below the surface after its prey, using powerful webbed feet and, sometimes, its wings. This prehistoric-looking bird’s bright blue eyes pierce the murky depths and its hooked and serrated beak can grab and hold not only slippery fish, but ultra-slippery eels.

The Cormorant can weigh up to five-and-one-half pounds, be almost three feet long, and have a wingspan of up to four feet.

The waters below Conowingo Dam contain larger predators than those mentioned here, but these are far from self-sufficient and much less interesting.

For full-size versions of these and a few other images, click the link below.  We recommend that your initial screening be a slideshow.  (To make that happen, click on the Slideshow button [>] above-and-to-the-right of the featured image on the gallery page to which the link will take you.)  Here's the link:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/Maryland/A-Fishing-Tale-June-7-13-2016/i-qv9X6Pt

Cheers,

Barbara and Dick

Blue Sky Returns to Blue Water

In Brooklin, Maine, on May 31 and June 1, 2016

Blue Sky is a fine-looking fishing vessel.  She spends her winters on land here, sailing the snow while her owners enjoy the warmer climes of Florida. 

In June, however, Blue Sky is reintroduced to the wild where she belongs, an interesting process that is the focal point of today’s Journal entry.  But first, some background. 

Neighbors Sandy and John White own and run Blue Sky. They and an additional crew member fish for lobsters off the boat. As such, they’re part of Maine’s vaunted lobster industry.

According to state data for 2015, Maine fishermen brought in – “landed” -- over 121 million pounds (live weight) of the delicious crustaceans, which was worth more than $495 million.

As for Blue Sky, she was Maine-built in 2004 at the RP Boat Shop; she’s 35 feet long; almost 14 feet wide, and her gross weight is 20 tons, according to her registration data. 

Getting a vessel of Blue Sky's size to the water is not a job for the local AAA towing service.  However, it is a job that is not unusual in coastal Maine towns, where big boats traveling down Main Streets don’t generate many gawkers.

There are several ways to get a commercial fishing vessel into the water.  Blue Sky is taken by a hefty Mack truck cab trailing a large-load boat cradle in which the vessel nests.

It’s just a short ride from Blue Sky's winter site to the sophisticated launching equipment of the famous Brooklin Boat Yard at Center Harbor.  (The Yard is owned and run by John’s brother, Steve. There’s interesting history here: the brothers are the sons of Joel and Allene White. Joel, who died in 1997, was the nationally- acclaimed naval architect who started the Yard; Allene, who continues to live here, was a locally-acclaimed newspaper columnist. Joel, in turn, was the son of E.B. ["Andy"] White, Brooklin’s most famous author, and Katherine White, respected Editor of Fiction for the New Yorker. E.B. and Katherine are buried in the Brooklin Cemetery.)  

Back to Blue Sky as she enters the Brooklin Boat Yard:  one of the better makes of motorized boat hoists (a Marine Travelift®) is driven over. It straddles the boat on the trailer bed and the hoist’s heavy-duty slings are slipped under her. The slings are raised to lift her slowly out of her cradle. Then, the suspended boat is driven by the hoist to a nearby slip between two hoist-tracked piers that jut into the clear waters of Eggemoggin Reach.

Big boats need to be launched from this slip at high tide, but the tide was fairly low when Blue Sky arrived in the afternoon.  Therefore, she was suspended over the incoming water like a huge jewel displayed on a simple necklace. There she remained overnight.

At about 7 a.m. the following morning, Blue Sky was lowered into the high tide; Sandy and John boarded her; the slings were relaxed, and John reversed her out of the slip.

She swung to port, veered around Chatto Island, and traveled the very short distance to her mooring in Naskeag Harbor at the end of our peninsula.

That was the easy part.  Soon, 800 lobster traps will need to loaded, launched, and tended regularly. But Sandy and John don’t seem to be daunted.

For larger and additional images of Blue Sky’s return, click the link below.  We recommend that your initial screening be a full-frame slideshow.  (To make that happen, click on the Slideshow button [>] above-and-to-the-right of the featured image on the gallery page to which the link will take you.)  Here's the link:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/Maine/Windjammers-and-Other-Boats/Blue-Sky-Returns-to-Blue-Water/n-sPNgMs/

Cheers,

Barbara and Dick