In the Right Place: Skill for Sail

It seems that true summer does not arrive here until WoodenBoat School students start learning the winds in Great Cove.

The Cove is intriguing in any weather; but, during cold and gray winter days when we try to remember the glories of summer, the ice-laden Cove can remind us of a playground that is devoid of equipment or children.

And then, in June, the boats are returned to the water and a day like June 27 arrives -- on-the-water sailing lessons begin at the School.

More specifically, the members and instructors of the Elements of Sailing for Women course went out on that chilly and slightly hazy Tuesday.

They beat into the wind toward Big Babson Island, then circled back through the other boats bobbing at their moorings.

The playground has come alive again. More images follow:

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Watching the Painted Dry

This little (about four-inch) Painted Turtle recently has taken a summer residency in our pond. We call it Tiny. It basks alongside the recurrent vacationer there, a Painted Turtle that is at least seven inches long, which we call Bruiser.

Painted Turtles are perhaps our best looking fresh water turtles, but we consider it a lucky day if we have more than a few seconds to study one before it plops into the water.

Here's Bruiser after it pushed Tiny off the best basking spot.

Female Painted Turtles should be impregnated by now. This month or next, they’ll leave the water; scoop out a nest hundreds of feet away; lay their eggs in the hollow, and scamper back to water’s edge. The eggs will hatch after about two months of self-incubation, but the small hatchlings will remain in the nest until spring, when they’ll march away seeking water. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Keeping Witches Away

Here we have a passel of Snapdragons, one of the quintessential summer plants. If you pinch the side of its flower, it opens up like a set of lips that can snap your pinky.

In Holland, they call the plant “Lion’s Lips”; in Asia, it’s “Rabbit’s Lips.” In times gone by, many people believed that Snapdragons protected against witchcraft – and, of course, when they were planted around the house, no witch visited. (Blue Hill, Maine, at Mainescape)

In the Right Place: Babe in the Woods

This fuzz ball is a Broad-Winged Hawk in a nearby nest that we’ve been monitoring. We haven’t seen a sibling, but the nest is high and we don’t get too close. (One fledgling would not be rare.)

We guess that this bird is about three weeks old, since its mother now feels free to leave the nest for long periods. In a week or so, the youngster should start climbing on the branches near the nest. About a week or two after that, it should be fully fledged and fly from the nest, learning to hunt mostly by trial and error. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Don't Stand By This Man

It’s a bird! It’s a plane!! No -- it’s Boatman!!! Faster than a speeding bullet, he bursts out of the fog, executes a perfect “J” power swerve, and stands steadfastly in control of his Boatmobile while it takes off to fly in search of those bad lobster poachers.

Amateurs: Don’t try this. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Tiger, Tiger Flying Bright

This Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly is resting amidst stiletto blades of beachgrass, allowing us to judge its beauty alone, without competition from colorful flowers.

The insect’s existence as a Swallowtail will last three or four weeks, but it already has led an interesting and dangerous life as an egg, caterpillar, and larva. During its brief passage as a butterfly, it will mate and subsist on nectar and water. It “dances” when it alights on something delicious and so would you if your taste buds were in the ends of your feet. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: That's Some Albatross

Why is the Brooklin Boat Yard building a 72-foot luxury racing sloop outside its main shop? Because the Yard is building a 91-foot sloop inside that shop. Things apparently continue to go well at the BBY.

This outside sloop (which actually is 22 meters or 72.1785 feet) is expected to be delivered this fall. Its name is Toroa, which is another name for the Northern Royal Albatross.

The 91-footer is expected to be delivered in the spring of 2018. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Beach Invasion

Beach Roses (Rosa rugosa) are starting to appear, much to the delight of Bumble Bees and the chagrin of some conservationists.  This highly-invasive wildflower, which originated in Asia, gets its name from being planted in sand dunes to stabilize shorelines.

It also was planted along New England roads when it was discovered that it had a high tolerance for salt and other chemicals used to melt snow and ice. However, once it gets going, its dense thorns and spines can make an area painful, if not impenetrable. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place

It's the first official day of Summer and the sun is finally out. Here we have the sailing equivalent of a workhorse – stable, sturdy, and forgiving. This is Shenaniganz, a friendly boat that, when resting alone in her element, exudes both grace and playfulness.  

She’s a 16-foot catboat designed by Fenwick Williams, the renowned designer of such sailboats. She was built by Maynard Lowery at Tilghman Island, Maryland, in 1983 and, for some time, has been part of the WoodenBoat School’s fleet of small boats. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place

We wait.

There can be an increasing heaviness that slowly presses upon us as rain and fog and wind and pewter light reappear day after day. There also is an increasing anticipation of the return of that special Maine-seacoast-morning-sunlight in which everything is seen as if through a glass of almost orange Pinot gris.

Even lobster traps on the Town dock seem to be waiting for the fog to lift, so that they can take a boat ride and a deep dive. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place

  The drizzly rain and thick fog that blanketed us Friday through Sunday enjoy this place so much they’ve decided to extend their vacation here until Wednesday, June 21, according to the weather forecast. Grand vistas of the rolling sea under blue sky and rockbound coast under tall spruce have disappeared; the end of our world now is a visually impenetrable wall that is less than 100 yards away.

However, within that 100 yards, some of the smaller scenery is lush and lovely. Here we have a Dwarf Iris, bejeweled in raindrops. The flower is named after Iris, the Greek Goddess of the Rainbow. We’re hoping to see its namesake in a day or so. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place

It’s been wet and foggy here the past three days, which has led us to muse about a moment partly captured by this image taken Thursday, June 15. It’s early, breezy, and cool as we stand behind the Pond, gazing up the slope of the North Field.

The morning sun is just now touching the field’s wildflowers and grasses, making them glow with appreciation. Stratocumulus clouds are commuting to work above, their reflections gliding across the slightly rippling pond water, where the frogs and turtles are stirring in the increasing warmth. The sun’s fingers are probing into the woods slowly, as if taking care not to alarm the deer, the last of which has just eased into the trees after spending the night in the field.

A good day begins. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place

A Broad-Winged Hawk has renovated and taken up summer residence in an old raptors’ nest in the nearby woods. She’ll soon conduct summer camp for her fledglings, which may number up to five. They’ll learn to hunt in the dense woods and field edges, where they’ll develop tastes for frogs, toads, snakes, small rodents, and large insects. In the fall, they’ll instinctively head for Central and South America.

However, right now, these potential campers are incased in shells beneath their still and well-camouflaged mother. She innately knows that danger surrounds her – raccoons, porcupines, owls, hawks, and crows around here prey upon nested eggs and fledglings. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place

The Hibiscus flower is daylight sex on a stem. When it offers itself, it offers all it has – it becomes a cosmic explosion of unfurling, exotic colors and shapes that attract humming birds, bees, and many humans. At night, it wants to be alone and closes itself tightly.

In Tahiti and Hawaii, the tradition is that a woman wearing a red Hibiscus behind her right ear is looking for a relationship; a woman who wears one behind her left ear is signaling that she’s in a relationship. Around here, the Hibiscuses usually are in movable planters, rather than behind ears. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place

The Lewis R. French motored into Great Cove with sails furled during an afternoon stillness Wednesday; yesterday morning, she charged out with a 15-knot tail wind. Here she is moored near the WoodenBoat School, which her passengers visited as part of their tour.

The schooner was launched in 1871 out of Christmas Cove, Maine, where she was built by the French brothers and named after their father. In her youth, her life was varied and hard: Among other things, she freighted bricks, granite, fish, lime, firewood, and Christmas trees.

Now, the French is a classic and almost luxurious vessel out of Camden, Maine. She takes visitors out for leisurely, week-long sails among the islands and coves of Down East Maine. Here, the last passengers are returning from ashore, and the French hoists sail.

She tacks into the wind and then veers off with the wind behind her.

//5. 5843

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place

In the Right Place: It’s Flag Day. On this day in 1777, the Second Continental Congress resolved that “the flag of the United States shall be of thirteen stripes of alternate red and white, with a union of thirteen stars of white in a blue field, representing the new constellation.” Congress didn’t specify how the stars should be arranged in the flag’s upper left field (the “union” or “canton” of a flag). Consequently, flag makers arranged them in circles and other designs.

This “Stars and Stripes” version was the second “American” flag. At the time of the Declaration of Independence, the original Continental flag also had the 13 alternating red and white stripes, but its canton was a variation of the British Union Jack. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place

Maine has four species of the orchid known as the Lady’s Slipper: The Pink and Yellow Lady’s Slippers are uncommon; the Ram’s Head and Showy Lady’s Slippers are rare. (Yes, “Showy Lady’s Slipper” is the real name.)

The problem is that these attractive plants not only require special conditions to grow, but humans like to collect them.

Lady’s Slippers need soil that contains the mycorrhizae fungus; the plant must carry on a symbiotic affair with that fungus to obtain the energy and nutrients it needs.

The image here is of a Pink Lady’s Slipper. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place

June is the time when many lobster traps and their buoys are trailered to the shore, sometimes looking like a traveling art form. (Three-dimensional geometric abstraction?)

This gear is then stacked on the fishing boat’s deck, often taking up almost all available room there – and more. (See the second image, below.)

The traps are taken for a ride to their seasonal destinations, where they’re lowered in little colonies onto the craggy bottom, while their buoys bob in colorful patterns on the sea surface. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place

Roses are in bloom. Greek legend has it that the rose was created by Aphrodite, the goddess of love, from her tears and the blood of Adonis, the god of beauty and desire (and her lover). The truth is more mundane.

The rose apparently has been developed into one of the world’s most loved and varied flowers by eons of competitive growers and exhibitors. They continue to create species and give them marketable (and trademarked) names. The rose in this image is an Italian Ice® rose. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place

In the Right Place: On a clear day, we can't see forever here; but, we can see the June moon 238,900 miles away. (Brooklin, Maine)