It was hot and hazy as the sun went down on Great Cove Sunday (July 23). Almost unnoticed, the American Eagle slipped into Great Cove, anchored off Babson Island, and dropped her sails. It would be a night of good food, good drink, and good company. She was on an eight-day tour of Maine’s Down East coast, according to her schedule.
The next morning, she moved closer to the mainland and, after a leisurely breakfast, some of her passengers toured the WoodenBoat School campus.
[Background: The Eagle is a 90-foot, high-riding schooner out of Rockland, Maine. She was launched in 1930 as the Andrew & Rosalie, the last fishing schooner built in Gloucester, Massachusetts. In 1941, during World War II, she was patriotically renamed American Eagle. She fished until 1983 and then went through difficult times until she was totally renovated in 1986 as a tourist schooner. She has since become a National Historic Landmark.]
After the passengers returned to the Eagle, they didn’t dally. They helped on the ropes to raise her mainsail and then her foresail:
The Eagle then weighed anchor, swung into the southwestern wind, raised her two jibs and took off toward Bar Harbor:
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 23 and 24, 2023.)