After a weeklong, very successful visit to the Portland waterfront, the schooner AMISTAD departed May 16 for Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and I had the opportunity to make the passage on the boat across the Gulf of Maine. This trip proved to be not only a pleasant passage on a traditional sailing vessel, but also a return trip on one of the fastest waterborne transportation methods in the country today.
The purpose of the Portland visit by AMISTAD was not only to provide a one-time historical teaching opportunity for school children (thousands of whom visited without charge thanks to the Portland-based hosts), but also to provide a chance for a deep community dialogue on race and cultural diversity, a dialogue which Portland and other cities in Maine could well use these days, with their increasingly diverse populations. The visit was sponsored by the City of Portland and the United Church of Christ and featured numerous school groups, deck tours for the general public, a reception with the Governor and other local leaders, and other events to promote the cultural and racial diversity and tolerance.
We set out into a freshening easterly breeze, seeming to blow straight out of Nova Scotia (our destination). We set the fore, the main, the staysail, the jib, the jib topsail, the fore square topsail, and the main gaff-topsail. We sailed well for some hours, but as darkness came on and the breeze died out, we set the diesels going as well.
For a couple of days we sailed and steamed through variable breezes, light and heavy fogs. We encountered various American and Canadian fishing vessels. The evening of May 18 found us the only vessel anchored in beautiful, wooded Rose Bay, just outside Lunenburg Harbor, enjoying the post-passage calm in a peaceful, somehow indefinably Canadian Maritime atmosphere, with a couple of quiet, slow Novi boats making the rounds of their lobster gear, fish hawks coursing along the shore, and only a few small cottages and houses along the verdant and steeply sloping shore.
After a smooth docking at the pier of the Lunenburg Fisheries Museum, made a little easier than the 1839 original might have had it with twin screws backed by a couple of Caterpillar diesels (of course the original would not have tried to wedge into some of the piers of today either), I left via taxi for Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, for a ride home to Maine on THE CAT. This vessel is an aluminum, twin hulled flyer, jet propelled by four engines and capable of carrying 240 cars and 900 passengers at almost 50 knots – as much of a change from the traditional AMISTAD as I think is possible.
Having boarded THE CAT in the nick of time (what fun is running for the ferry if you’re not worried about missing it?), we pulled out smoothly just as I took grateful receipt of a bratwurst and a cool Molson’s. Before I could work my way through this repast we were cutting a clean wake at 44 knots outside the Yarmouth inlet. As we averaged more than five times the speed of the schooner, I took a stroll around the enclosed deck (there is only one spot on the aft deck where one can step out for some air), glanced at the casino and the gift shop, and returned to my seat for a nap in the sun.
There was a slight, somewhat rapid oscillating motion to the vessel, but even as we bested 50 miles an hour, it was no more than that of a moving subway car, and I had to focus on it to really even notice. I have heard that in certain conditions THE CAT can be quite uncomfortable, and has garnered a reputation as a breakfast recycler, but thankfully I saw none of that on this leg.
What took us just over three days to cover by schooner on the eastbound portion was smoothly chewed up in three hours by the giant twin-hulled feline. Our arrival in Bar Harbor featured a surprising Coast Guard escort on either side, an effect, no doubt, of the heightened security alert at the time. As I drove back down Route 1 in late afternoon traffic, I reflected that my average speed over the ground had dropped considerably in my transition back to terrestrial mode, a quite uncommon phenomenon upon departing a ferry.
AMISTAD has continued on from Lunenburg, on a Great Lakes tour, with a train-conductor-sounding plan including stops in Cleveland, Toledo, Muskegon, Hammond, Sandusky, Ashtabula, Oswego, and points in between. More information can be found at www.amistadamerica.org. THE CAT sails twice daily through the summer from Bar Harbor to Yarmouth, with schedules at www.catferry.com.