PENOBSCOT BAY — The June 23 cruising sail aboard the schooner Mary Day got off to a sunny start out of Camden Harbor Monday morning, with 27 passengers and six crewmembers and Capt. Barry King.

The Mary Day sails on three-, four- and six –day cruises throughout the summer, which began this season June 4 with a four-day lighthouse cruise, and ending the season Sept. 25 with another four-day cruise, this time to view fall foliage and the new moon.

This week's six-day cruise is a nature and photography trip, also with a new moon. On board as featured guests are professional photographer Jim Dugan of Rockland, and Maine Master Naturalist Erika Carlson-Rhile of Cape Elizabeth.

As is often the case, the prevailing winds determine the destination, but there was a push to sail south out of West Penobscot Bay to Seal Island, where this time of year — late May, June and July — are the best times to see nesting puffins there.

Departing its berth at the head of Camden Harbor Monday around 10 a.m., the schooner Mary Day headed out into Penobscot Bay toward Rockland and tacked three times to get out of West Penobscot Bay. The schooner sailed past Owls Head and south of Vinal Haven, passing south of Isle au Haut to Seal Island.

Seal Island is a 65-acre National Wildlife Refuge, located about 10 miles south of Isle au Haut. Each summer, the Maine Coastal Island Wildlife Refuge employs researchers, many of them college students, to live on remote islands like Seal to monitor seabird colonies.

During the nesting season, April 1 to Aug. 31, the Refuge's seabirds islands are closed to the public to minimize disturbance to the birds.
Seal Island is home to a variety of seabirds, many of which were seen by the Mary Day group Monday afternoon.

Carlson-Rhile is a Maine Master Naturalist graduate with the first class offered at Chewonki Semester School in Wiscasset in 2011/2012. She is a marine ecologist and teaches science at Chevrus High School in Portland, and spends summers conducting research in marine ecology for the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Carlson-Rhile has been conducting research on Swans Island since 1997, which is part of why she and her family also live there part time.

Guests on board the schooner for this week's sail are two couples from London, Ontario, Canada, and another from Oakville, Ontario, Canada; a man from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; couples from Delaware, Ohio, Avon, Ind., Hampton, Va., and Eagle Lake, Fla.; a mother and daughter from Cape Elizabeth; and individuals from Largmont, Colo., Wallington, Pa., Henderson, Nev., Highland Park, N.J., and West Gardiner and Camden, Maine.

The crew includes Becca Johnson, Hali Boyd, Dylan Dwyer, Cari Baumgartner, Polina Yanovich and Niki Ripple, as well as apprentice Erik Blackwell.

Monday afternoon's multi-tack trip to Seal Island added nearly three hours of sailing to the day, and was well worth the effort and met with nary a complaint.

Arriving on the west side of Seal Island, everyone on board gathered on the starboard side of Mary Day with cameras raised and high hopes of capturing at least one well-focused photo of a puffin.

According to Carlson-Rhile, spotted on this trip were eider ducks and lots of baby eider ducks, razor bills, laughing, black back and herring gulls, cormorants and guillemots.

The enthusiastic photographers on this trip are armed with everything from tiny point-and-shoot cameras to Canon and Nikon DSLRs. There are zoom lenses and macro lenses, and a few phone cameras too, which Dugan said will come in handy and can take some pretty interesting photos with a few tricks he'll share.

The afternoon arrival at Seal Island put the schooner well into the afternoon sun for the final leg of the day's sail to a quiet anchorage, and it was a time for Dugan to tell the group it was a perfect time for portrait photos.

Throughout the day Monday, Dugan had wandered from photographer to photographer, answering questions and offering tips. With the sun setting to the schooner's west and gliding on a broad reach, the light casting off the sails offered beautiful amber light to fill the shadows on people's faces. Using the natural light the world offers can be a photographer's best, if not luckiest, tool.

While the photographers were  busy practicing and messing around, the crew kept busy making new baggywrinkle for the schooner’s rigging. Baggywrinkle is a pad or covering, that looks like a brush or a fuzzy microphone cover, that is attached to a shroud to keep it from chafing the sail it lays against. It is made by taking long lengths of old, worn, line that’s not good for use of much else, and cutting it into 8- to 12-inch segments, and then untwisting the segments to the core. The resulting, 1/8- to 1/4-inch strips of “yarn” are then made into rovings by passing the ends under and around a new double-line of 3- or 4-feet of core that is strung between two cleats or hooks. After tying off the ends of the baggywrinkle core, one end is attached to a shroud and wrapped around and around, until you end up with a brushy-looking covering.

As the final slivers of the sun settled on the horizon, the ship's bell clanged, signaling time for dinner. The night's menu was Parmesan crusted haddock, perfectly blanched green beans and buttered egg noodles – all served under sail and enjoyed on deck.

Dinner was capped with strawberries and shortcake, topped with ever-so-sweet fresh hand-whipped cream.

All of the food aboard the Mary Day is made from scratch — with many recipes courtesy of long-time cook Mary Barney, who passed away in 2009.
This summer's cook is Cari Baumgartner, and frequent Mary Day passenger and friend of the captain's family, Joanna Knox, said Monday night, "This haddock tastes exactly like Mary used to make it — no cook since her has made it so much like hers."

Working the sails to eek out the last wisps of early evening wind, the Mary Day rounded Marshall Island toward the northeast, pivoted into the breeze, dropped the top sails, one by one, and King gave the signal to drop anchor.

After furling sails and putting up the deck awning, it was time for the guests and to go below deck into the main salon, where the group was treated to a slide show, courtesy of Dugan.

The presentation included more "dos" than "don'ts," a rundown of the list of photo rules, and then a recommendation to "break the rules."

As the salon clock's big hand crossed the six, and the small stayed firmly on nine, the day's winds and sun had done their jobs to send the masses to their cabins — where sleep came fast and deep.

So ended the first day of this week's sail aboard Mary Day. There are five more to go — which will surely include rowboat trips ashore on numerous islands for beach-combing, hiking and maybe a little terra firma yoga.

Editorial Director Holly S. Edwards can be reached at hollyedwards@penbaypilot.com or 706-6655.