Day 06 - Race Day

This was the day of the Great Schooner Race. After breakfast the ships began to cast off and sail out into the bay, one-by-one. Since we were one of the anchored vessels, we were one of the last to leave. It was awesome to watch the ships sail away.



The race consisted of three classes. The first was the coaster class. These were the slowest of the schooners. Typically they would ground themselves after high tide and unload right on the beach. At the next high tide, they would be floated again and leave. The next class was leeward class. They were bigger than the coaster class. All but two of the boats fell into those two classes. The last class was the windward class. There were only two in this class. These were the fastest boats. We were in this class. Our boat could point more into the wind than any other boat in the race. In lighter winds, the other boat, the Mary Day, had more light weather sails and would be faster.

There was a staggered start. The slower boats started first, followed by the next two classes. The starts were a half hour apart. Since we were in the last class, we were chosen to time the starts. We also got to see all of the other classes start. It was a spectacular sight to see all of the schooners in each class jockeying for a good starting position. As I watched the first start, there were schooners everywhere. There were a few boats that were not part of the race. All of them were sail boats. As I gazed at this scene, it probably could have been a scene from a hundred years ago. All you saw were sail boats!



















During the first few tacks, we were in the lead. It didn’t take long for the Mary Day to pass us. The winds were light in the morning. After lunch, Kim and I went into our cabin and took a long nap. It was neat to feel the boat rock as she made her way among the waves. When we came out, we found out that we had slept through the end of the race. A bunch of the schooners were heading out east. We passed many schooners on our way to our third night’s anchorage. Most of the schooners headed for one particular harbor, but we kept going until we arrived at what Captain Foss referred to as the last non-foggy harbor. It was Mackerel Cove on Swan’s Island. All we could see was a ferry boat and a few houses.

After dinner, one of the passengers and two of the crew played a game called “fluffy bunny”. Rules for the game include take turns stuffing marshmallows into your mouth and still say fluffy bunny. After about 6 or 7 marshmallows it became comical watching the participants try to find room in their ever expanding mouths. Ten marshmallows won the game.



Once we were anchored, the three younger passengers were looking for some people to play a game of Celebrity. Everyone comes up with some famous people’s names and puts them on slips of paper. You could give clues about this person, but you could not say their name. If you were totally stumped, you could rhyme the name. This could be very hilarious, depending on the name. We played two or three rounds of this until we hit the quiet time at 11:00 PM.