The magic of summertime Maine

Photo by Bob MugglestonThe editor and his family enjoying a windjammer sail in Bar Harbor aboard the Margaret Todd, a 150-foot schooner that was purpose-built for the tourist trade in 1998.

September 2023

By Bob Muggleston

I have a confession to make: Despite being aware that Maine is a world-class vacation and sailing destination, especially in summer, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been there. In fact, prior to the family vacation I went on at the end of July this year, I think I’d been to the Maine coast four times – once at the start of a race to Nova Scotia when I worked for another magazine, once visiting some friends for two days, once while delivering a boat back to Connecticut, and once while exploring the Maine Island Trail with my son on a Blue Jay, which I later wrote about in Points East (“Welcome To Our World,” July 2018).

Each time I’ve been, regardless of how criminally short the stay was, I’ve come away understanding why people are so enamored with the place. On a summer day, especially when there’s enough breeze for a halfway decent sail, there’s a magic in the air that’s tough to put your finger on. It’s such a heady elixir, the sweet summertime aroma of the Maine woods in summer, and the almost surreal light each afternoon that illuminates the water, rocky outcrops and fir-studded islands. It’s physically impossible to hold onto stress in this environment. You just can’t do it.

The problem with my Maine experiences in the past has been that they’ve been too short. Just when I’m finally in the swing of things, it’s time to leave.

Until recently, that is.

My wife booked a week-long vacation for the four of us and my mother-in-law in the Acadia region of Maine, which in theory was to be a week of exploring the park and some of the touristy destinations in the area, like Bar Harbor.

I’ll go out on a limb here and say that late July is not the best time to experience these treasures, as beautiful as they may be. The difficulty of getting to and from these places, and then finding parking once you’re there, rivals downtown Manhattan.

Fortunately the Airbnb we rented was 45 minutes outside of Acadia National Park. The amazing thing about Maine is that it’s big enough to accommodate everyone, and if you head 30 minutes away from the truly congested areas you’ll find something equally as magical that maybe only locals frequent. I loved the unscheduled exploring we did, which probably yielded two of the best three experiences we had the whole trip.

That third experience?

That one was a scheduled wind-jammer cruise aboard the four-masted, 150-foot schooner Margaret Todd, which was purpose-built for the tourist trade in 1998. But even up close (if you discount the fact that it’s constructed of steel) it looks like something that would have hauled cargo in Maine waters hundreds of years ago.

That disgustingly hot week in July – the one that was so humid? That was our vacation week. It was toasty in Maine, too. But as people were loading themselves aboard the ship for a 6:30 cruise I noticed many of them were carrying hooded sweat-shirts and jackets. I was in shorts and a tee-shirt, and convinced that the sweat on me wouldn’t even dry before the cruise was over.

We sailed out of Bar Harbor, and as soon as we got into the outer bay the breeze was a steady 15 knots, gusting to 20. Plenty of wind for the old girl to kick up her skirts. When the crew asked for volunteers to raise the four mainsails, my 17-year-old son and I volunteered. It was a hoot pulling the big gaffs up the masts.

Once you leave the dock in a place like Bar Harbor, which is a stunningly beautiful environment, it doesn’t matter how nutty things are ashore. Or, in this particular case, how hot it was. As soon as we cleared the inner harbor, and were weaving our way through the endless pots in the area under sail, the fun started for real, and the thermometer dropped at least 20 degrees. The “feels like” temperature meteorologists love talking about so much these days? That’s a real thing. I froze my keister off.

But it didn’t matter. The big ship put her shoulder down and I could feel the thrumming energy of the union – wind and massive sailing machine – rise through my feet on the deck. We tacked a few times, always backwinding one of the jibs, and sailed alongside a smaller schooner on which they’d forgotten to pull their fenders aboard. My wife and kids eagerly scanned the water looking for seals. There were young families with well-behaved dogs around me, a guy wandering around with his guitar, singing, the bar had a wonderful selection of microbrews, the wind continued unabated, and of course the light at that time of day was magical. Yeah, it was a pretty near perfect experience.

It’s not too late for me, you know. There will be more family vacations like the last. And hopefully, there will be months at a time when I’m up there aboard my own boat. It’s hard to envision a time in my life when I’ll have this kind of idle time, but someday, perhaps. Places like Bar Harbor visited by sea, instead of by land?

Now that sounds like magic to me.