The WoodenBoat Store welcomes visitors

Huge brick barns house the workshops

WoodenBoat Magazine and the WoodenBoat School are a short 45 minute drive away from Acadia National Park in Brooklin, Maine. This is the center of the universe for people who lust after traditional wooden rowing, sail and power craft. Remarkably,  the magazine and school are situated on an incredible 60 acres of what can only be described as Maine coastal paradise. This property is open to any who would like to pay a respectful visit, and is a great day trip for folks lodging in the Acadia area.

Jon Wilson, July 29, 2010

WoodenBoat was started by Jon Wilson in 1974 from a nearby cabin without running water or electricity. He had two subscribers. After a fire destroyed his home he published out of a Volkswagen bus. Phenomenal growth in circulation allowed the purchase of the coastal property in 1977, the site of a grand family mansion and barns. WoodenBoat School was begun in 1981. Today, a wooden boat lover can choose from many courses, from building a skiff to making his or her own bronze cannon. These courses are not really “career oriented”, but more for enhancing quality of life. Students can camp on the estate for a nominal fee or accept dorm-like lodgings. Students are able to participate in the wetter aspects of boating as well; a beautiful harbor and dock allow full access to the southern end of Eggemoggin Reach. Students can even show up for class in their own boats!

WoodenBoat has been instrumental in the renaissance of wooden boat building and appreciation in Maine and far beyond. The culture of wooden boats has taken hold and inspired other schools, shows, regattas and builders. I know a few of the staff and I can tell you without reserve that this is a jewel of an organization, one we would be much poorer without.

So pay a visit to the store and buy a set of plans or a book  (like  Building Small Boats by our friend and WoodenBoat instructor Greg Rössel) and then check out the workshops. You will find yourself signing up for a course in no time.

This year has been a banner year for gardeners on the Acadia coast. Once in a decade. Maybe once in two. Let’s hope it happens next year. I’ve seen years when it takes four plantings of beans before success, sometimes as late as July. This year they were doing well in early June. The first tomatoes were red before August. Plenty of sunshine, adequate rainfall and temperatures in the 80′s during the days, 60′s at night. Wow!

My folly of the spring, to plant a Maine Coast vineyard has convinced some to consider me sane. It has thrived!  I pruned off all the grape clusters to allow the plants to put their energies into foliage. This is supposed to allow for faster wood growth above and below ground. I don’t expect a problem with winter damage here; the low winter temperatures are not that extreme unless the saltwater freezes hard–not that common. My next decision is whether to allow any fruits next year. It will be hard to not let a few go…. I was delighted that the grape seedlings I planted in spring grew all the way to the top wire, about five feet off the ground. This means that the horizontal branch on the top wire will become a permanent part of the plant. Everything else except the trunks will be pruned off in March. Every grape variety has an optimum number of buds allowed to produce in the spring depending on climate, soil, spacing, and who knows what else. Leave too many and you get overcropping, resulting in small, low quality fruit. Too few and you’re wasting space. Somehow, grapes need to be stressed into producing a good crop by being brutally pruned. I have a lot to learn.

Now, my bhut jolokia peppers have done fine in the greenhouse. These are the hottest peppers in the world; so hot that the Indian Army is weaponizing them into pepper grenades. They are from the Assam state of India and are translated as “ghost pepper”. You will not find seed for these babies at your local garden center. I got them from New Mexico State University’s Chile Pepper Institute, and they weren’t cheap. I grow them mainly so I can get good seeds for next year. The jolokias rate over a million Scoville units, twice as hot as its nearest competitor. The peppers make nice novelty gifts.

The greenhouse is devoted to peppers, mostly of the edible type. I find bells to be difficult to grow into the colorful version, they take forever and are not very productive. No wonder they cost so much! Sweet banana are my stars. They produce like crazy from June to November and have a sharp pepper flavor without heat. I also like Jalapeño. A little hot and if you let it go red it gets sweet too. One or two more experimental varieties and I’m a happy pepper guy!

It’s again that time of year again for knightly combat, suits of armour, authentic period costumes and Renaissance music as the The 8th Annual Medieval Tournament takes place again at Fort Knox near Bucksport, Maine on Saturday, September 11. Fort Knox is about a sixty minute trip from Bar Harbor. This event is put on by the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) a world wide organization devoted to pretending it’s 500 years ago. You may think this is silly, and to be honest, there is a bit of goofiness about it all, but it is easy to lose one’s self in the illusion. All of the members are so good at it! Each member adopts the persona of a character from a specific historical era and works hard to become knowledgeable about the life and times of that character. Even the dress is authentic. If the character is a poor shepherd and the cost of wool is beyond his means, he will be dressed in tatters.

The Fort Knox website has posted the following schedule:

Tentative Day Schedule – On the Parade Ground
9:45-10:00     Opening Procession into Fort
10:00-11:00     Rapier Duels & Fencing Melees
11:00-12:00     Live Music & Dance Presentation
12:00–1:00     Pas d’Armes Tournament of Knightly Combat, opened by our youth fighters
1:00-1:30     Fashion Show on the Parade Grounds
1:30:-2:15     Rapier Duels & Fencing Melees
2:15-3:00     Live Music & Dance Presentation
3:00-4:00     Pas d’Armes Tournament of Knightly Combat, opened by our youth fighters
Around the Fort
10:00-4:00     Arts & Science Exhibits in the Gun Bays
Battery A – times will be listed on site
Thrown weapons demonstrations
Combat archery demonstrations

See displays of Medieval life

Don’t show up expecting lots of souvenirs and food vendors; this is not a commercial event! It does cost to get in, but it costs the same to get into Fort Knox regardless of what’s happening there. $3 will get you through the door, $1 if you were born in this century. Out-of-staters have to pay $1.50 more. This event is primarily for the members of SCA and “not a show for outsiders to watch, but a living play into which new people can insert themselves”. That doesn’t mean you have to dress up or risk being shunned, the event is a good time for all.  SCA has a great .pdf file with lots of cool photos and FAQ’s here. Fort Knox is not a pretender to America’s gold warehouse, it’s a real fort built in the early to mid 1800′s to protect us from the Canadians. Needless to say, it never saw action. It’s the perfect setting for the Medieval Tournament because it’s so castle-like. You can combine your trip with a climb to the observatory on the top of the new Penobscot Narrows bridge. This is a September event not to be missed!

Acadia means more than our local Maine coast and Acadia National Park. I have been remiss, some would say sloppy, to have used the word in this limited way in previous posts. The real meaning of “Acadia” is an area containing all of the original maritime French colonial lands of eastern North America. This includes parts of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, eastern Quebec and Maine. Colonial Acadia was populated with a certain group of French immigrants who to this day distinguish themselves from the Quebecois. There are differences in culture, language and politics from both France and Quebec. The Acadians even have their own flag, but alas, no province.  The areas under French colonial control were always shifting, so the original Acadia grew and shrank over time. Today, besides our Acadia National Park area, it’s best to think of Acadia as those areas in northeastern North America where Acadian culture and language continue to hold sway. In my limited travels I have encountered Acadian enclaves in northern Maine, eastern New Brunswick, western Nova Scotia, western Cape Breton Island and eastern Quebec. Here on Mount Desert Island, our eastern half was granted to a granddaughter of Antoine La Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac named Madame Maria Therese de la Mothe Cadillac de Gregoire by a grateful post-revolutionary America and as a result, many of our present day deeds were originally written in French. But it would be a stretch to say we are part of where present day Acadians live, even though we were for a time under French colonial administration.

The Acadian group Vishtèn from Prince Edward Island.

The history of Acadians in North America is difficult to condense into a few paragraphs, but by far the most noteworthy episode occurred 1755-1758, the Great Upheaval or the Great Expulsion. This was the start of what Americans refer to as the French and Indian War, known as the Seven Year’s War elsewhere. Between 6000 to 7000 Acadians were deported from Nova Scotia to France, New England or further south by the British. Many more fled into the woods or to New Brunswick and Quebec. The British burned farm houses and generally made for themselves hundreds of years of ill will. Those Acadians who fled to Louisiana eventually separated culturally and became Cajuns.

From http://www.erudit.org/revue/cgq/1967/v11/n24/020742ar.pdf

The war and other political changes (including importing English speaking colonists from New England) resulted in another 50 years of migration for the Acadians. Eventually, many returned to their Nova Scotia homeland and their descendants continue their culture and language to this day.

So how did Acadia National Park get its name? Originally (1919) it was named Lafayette National Park to honor the French general who helped us fight the British. But in a few years a large landowner offered to contribute the Schoodic Peninsula, thereby doubling the park, if only the name were changed to something less….French! So George Dorr, the park superintendent relented (actually, it took an act of Congress and a delay until 1929). The new name was Acadia National Park, the Greek-derived name originally given to the area by Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524.

For all the Acadians who may have been insulted by my incorrectly limited use of “Acadia”, I apologize. There is a lot more to Acadia than the downeast coast of Maine. For others, put the Canadian Martimes in your travel plans and see the Acadian Acadia.

Now is the time of year when visitors to Acadia National Park may find the skies filled with raptors. They migrate from the north to the south in fall, and they like to stick by the shore to be close to a resting spot. Otherwise, the ocean is their preferred highway since it offers the best chance of food and effortless flight. We’ve written before about eagles, but their migration timetable is different. Still, they will be around as usual to add to the mix. Last year, between August 19 and October 14,  rangers, volunteers and visitors counted 2,831 hawks, kestrels, eagles and falcons in the 2009 Hawkwatch. This tops the 15 year average of 2,579, and is the 4th best year.

from the National Park Service

Why get involved? Besides the fun of seeing rare birds soaring overhead in a beautiful location, participation in Hawkwatch adds to important data about population levels and helps scientists understand the status of the raptor population—if the numbers of a species are increasing, decreasing, or stable in the environment. If you participate you will learn how to tell one bird of prey from another based on silhouettes.

Don’t think that the best part of the Hawkwatch is behind us, the best single day last year (2009) was September 26. Who knows what effect our warm sunny summer will have on the migration? Park rangers will be on hand every day until October 12 from 9 AM to 2 PM, So bring a pair of binoculars, some warm clothes, lunch, a field guide…I would bring a folding chair…and join in Hawkwatch 2010 on the top of Cadillac Mountain.

from http://www.nature.nps.gov/stats/viewReport.cfm

Mount Desert Island, home of Acadia National Park and the storied towns of Bar Harbor, Northeast Harbor and Southwest Harbor, enjoyed a 19% increase in park visits over July of 2009. The Bar Harbor Chamber’s downtown welcome center saw a 108% increase in visits over last summer so far this year. The reasons are assumed to be weather related, the Presidential visit and the improving economy.

While the rest of the country was baking in triple digit heat and humidity, our Maine coast was mostly in the 80s during the day and 60s at night. But we weren’t socked in fog, our skies were sunny. Rain–just enough–came at night or in a quick daytime shower. No one delayed or canceled their Maine visit due to the weather this summer. In fact, they were in a hurry to get here and reluctant to return home. We did have 5 days of ninety degree weather at the end of August, but the nights cooled down into the 60s. Some store owners complained about how rainy days make for more shoppers and how this factor was in short supply, but I can’t believe those rainy day shoppers wouldn’t go somewhere else next time.

The quick visit of President Obama and his family in mid July put Mount Desert Island into everyone’s consciousness. Reports of the family eating ice cream, hiking, biking and boating made everyone want to get in on the action. Some folks grumbled about the short notice, inconvenience of rerouted traffic and restricted access, but it was over quickly and the buzz has lasted. If this visit had the effect it seems to have had, we should be paying for presidential visits!

The economy is also said to be a factor contributing to our banner year. A combination of value and nearness makes Acadia a sensible choice for those moving just a little beyond a “staycation”. While the early summer optimism about the economy seems to have hit a snag, it may be resolved just in time for next summer. I think it will be a long time before Americans feel flush enough to be flying to Paris and London for their summer vacations. Our local list of things to do does not require a big bank roll and lodgings a little off the beaten track can stretch your dollar more. We are after all, Affordable Acadia!

High tide view from Seacat's Rest shore

…and Susa Wuorinen is a play inspired by Carol’s grandmother who lived in Lamoine during the late 1800s. It is a play rich with local charm, language and custom, and geared towards audiences of all ages.

14 year old Lamoine schoolgirl Sadie Coggins looks forward to widening her horizons by attending the Belfast Academy for high school. Her parents have railroad stock they hope to use to pay the tuition. But hard economic times have rendered the investment worthless and Sadie is urged by her parents to apply for a teaching position in the same school she just graduated from. This sounds horrible to her, since one of her students would be the local bully who she was hoping to get far away from. A scheme hatches in her mind where she trades some worthless fool’s gold for some silver bars owned by a local simpleton (Cully), allowing her to pay for tuition. But things get complicated when Cully’s house burns down and her trade takes on urgent moral consequences. Will she go through with her plan or let the community use the silver to build Cully a new house? Through this moral struggle, she learns the importance of acknowledging the consequences of one’s actions and of making amends when needed.

Carol Korty with actors

Cully’s Gold is published by Dramatic Publishing and can be ordered here. The play was performed in 2008 and again in August of 2010 by our local theater group,  Lamoine Community Arts (LCA),  which usually performs in our local Grange Hall. This fall LCA presents Rumors, a play by Neil Simon, on two weekends: Oct 29-30 and Nov 6 and 7. The Lamoine Grange will once again provide the stage.

The cooler weather does not mean an end to life on the Maine coast. Our rich veins of semi-retired Eastern academics continue to fertilize our cultural atmosphere.  Carol Korty and Susa Wourinen are two of many examples. Come in late October for a culture tour. On October 23 attend A Victorian Evening; enjoy ‘High Tea’ served by volunteers dressed in period attire at the Seal Cove Auto Museum. And on October 28 (7 PM-9 PM) drop by Bar Harbor’s Jesup Memorial Library for a reading by Down East Magazine editor Paul Doiron of his new novel The Poacher’s Son. “Set in the wilds of Maine, this is an explosive tale of an estranged son thrust into the hunt for a murderous fugitive—his own father.” It has already been named one of the best crime novels of 2010, and is the first in a projected series.

After cooking, extract the meat and simmer the shells

You definitely want a boiled whole lobster for your first visit to Bar Harbor. Maybe even the next meal. But sooner or later you will want to experiment with another lobster dish. Perhaps a lobster roll or lobster sauce over linguine. Here on the coast, where obtaining lobster is a matter of hauling a trap, we have to get creative. The bib and a plate full of shell carnage gets old. Lobster bisque to the rescue!

• two medium sized lobsters
• 2-1/2 cups beef, chicken or fish stock
• 6 peppercorns, two cloves, one bay leaf
• one medium yellow onion
• two carrots
• two stalks celery
• 1/2 stick butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• one cup dry white wine-buy local! (optional)
• three cups milk
• one cup cream or half and half
• 1 tsp paprika
• chopped fresh parsley

A bisque allows two medium sized lobsters to feed more than two people, so it’s a way to stretch the food dollar. Boil the lobster as usual (10 minutes for the first pound, 3 min. for each additional pound…more details here) and after extracting the meat, break up the shells and body and put back into the pot, covering with 2-1/2 cups of chicken, beef or fish stock. Simmer for 1/2 hour with 6 peppercorns, two cloves and a bay leaf. Chop up the meat and keep it cool. In a skillet sauté a medium sliced onion and 1/2 cup diced celery and 1/2 cup diced carrot (not shown) in 4 tbsp butter until tender. At this point you may wish to add 1 cup of dry white wine and cook until almost dry. Whisk in 1/4 cup of  flour and gradually add 3 cups of milk until smooth. Transfer this to a blender with all but 1/4 cup of the lobster meat and liquefy, thinning if necessary with a little stock. Now strain the shell stock and add to the bisque. Set on simmer, add 1 tsp paprika and salt to taste and stir in one cup cream or half and half. When heated through, mix in reserved lobster meat or use as top garnish along with parsley when served.  Yields 8 cups.

Should you find yourself wondering how you are going to prepare this meal in a cramped hotel room, remember that SeaCat’s Rest offers a full cook’s kitchen with basic stuff like spices, flour and sugar. You’ll have to buy the lobsters and other ingredients.

The State of Maine offers its residents a recreational lobster license; we can have up to 5 traps. The number one rule is that the lobsters can’t be sold; they have to be for the resident license holder’s use only. You have to establish residency by 1) living in Maine for at least 6 months, 2) voting in Maine and 3) paying income taxes in Maine. The process also involves an open book test with a one time fee of $15, a license fee of $65 and fifteen cents per trap for identifying tags. So far we’re up to $80.75, the equivalent of maybe ten lobsters.

I have always been hesitant to get into this for two reasons. First, I thought I might make local lobstermen/women mad at me for muscling in on their territory, even though it’s in front of my house. These folks work hard and they are not known for their gentle ways, at least that’s the stereotype. A local Lamoine recreational lobsterman dispelled this notion and offered to “straighten them out” if I had any trouble. He claimed that the locals are doing fine and would not begrudge a few additional traps. This made a big change in my attitude.

from State of Maine lobsterguide09.pdf

The second reason is that I don’t have the right boat. I only own kayaks, a canoe, a dingy and a small sail boat. I suppose I could rope them all together to haul traps, but the license application requires naming a specific boat with a registration number, so I have to get a boat. I don’t know what this will cost, but I know what I want to do: build a boat and have it powered by electricity. No diesel-belcher for me!

I’m really trying to fit in, right?

The Redwing 18 from Chesapeake Marine Design

I’ve been interested in electric boats for years. To me they are a perfect application of electric propulsion. Unlike cars, weight is not an issue. A ballast of lead acid batteries would make any boat more stable (or sink). A short lesson about boat design: boats can be designed to either be “planing” or “displacement”. A planing hull requires a big motor to rise out of the water, a displacement hull has a maximum theoretical speed through the water related to its waterline length, usually around six knots (6.9 miles per hour)  for a 20 foot craft. It does not lift out of the water, it just makes a wave. A well designed displacement hull can move very efficiently at displacement speed, so an electric motor capable of moving a boat at displacement speed can do so for many hours with a bank of six batteries. The batteries can be recharged for much less than an equivalent amount of gas or diesel fuel, especially if done with photovoltaics. Imagine gliding through the water with no smoke or vibration, just a slight hum….

I hope to make this project into a blog series as I go through the process of building a boat and getting my license. Stay tuned.