Gloucester’s recently restored 1926 Schooner Adventure was hired by a group of Maine farmers, the Greenhorns, and an outfit called Maine Sail Freight, to carry goods from Portland to Boston for sale in the Boston Public Market, the first such delivery under sail since before WWII. Their idea was to show that there are alternative ways to reduce one’s carbon footprint. I shipped aboard as a volunteer deckhand. It was a privilege to be part of such a fine crew (most of whom are half my age or less).
We left Gloucester at 2300 on Wednesday after our regular member sail and arrived in Portland to load the next morning. There were plenty of volunteers to help get the goods on the ship. We left Portland at 0600 on Friday morning, sailed south all day and through the night tacking against the prevailing southwesterlies. I stood lookout and did my turns at the helm from 0400 to 0800 so I saw moonset and sunrise with my two watch mates while everyone else was asleep. It was an amazing experience to be sailing such a powerful ship twenty miles off the coast in darkness and almost total silence. Whales, porpoises, gannets, and shearwaters came by to check us out. There was some time to catch up on sleep and eat the great food coming from the galley before going back on watch from 1600 to 2000, and sailing into Boston Harbor. We unloaded early Sunday morning so the goods could be sold at the Boston Public Market and entertained visitors on deck during an Open Ship before sailing back to Gloucester and anchoring in the outer harbor allowing Columbia, in town for the Schooner Festival, to stay at our usual spot on Maritime Gloucester’s Webster Pier until the next morning. As the official schooner of the City of Gloucester, part of Adventure’s mission is to represent the city in places beyond Cape Ann, I think we did so ably. Our upcoming trips to Provincetown and New Bedford will continue that ambassadorial role.
A link to the NPR story:
http://www.wbur.org/2015/08/28/maine-produce-delivered-boston
My crewmate Lukas Baumgaertel sent these pictures. <<…>> <<…>> <<…>> <<…>>
Gregory R Bover
V.P. Operations, Project Manager
C. B. Fisk, Inc.
