The JRA interview that Kevin Cardiff did with me this past fall got a little buried in the previous post. Also, because of the video format of the interview it wasn’t possible to include the credits for each photo individually. So here’s this. Thanks to all who shared the lovely pictures they took! Perhaps it’s also fun to see those photos sitting still.
Here’s the link to the interview (where you can see the pictures more like a slideshow with stories and some really nice music): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1mX-7L6yIU
And the photos, roughly in order of appearance:
On the mud off of Timber Cove in West Bay, Gouldsboro. Photo credit: Bonnie KaneYours truly, in Seal Bay on the east side of Vinalhaven Island. Joanne and I had such a good time there last summer! Photo credit: Joanne MoesswildeThere is a story about how this particular situation came to be. It’s in a post titled “Judgment,” from June 4, 2017. Auklet settles down on the mud quite well, but staying at those angles for many hours is a bit of an experience. Photo credit: Suzanne JeanAuklet when we were sorting out the new junk rig for the first time, in the Connecticut River at Warren’s dock. Photo credit: Suzanne Jean – with thanks to the Junk Rig Association for having archived this photo in the Boat of the Month page of the JRA website: https://www.junkrigassociation.org/page-1858518Great Auk coming into Pemaquid Harbor early last summer. Photo credit: Suzanne JeanIn the Penobscot River, approaching Bucksport. That’s the Route one bridge in the background. What a treat it was, visiting with folks from Bucksport at the dock there! Photo credit: David A. WeedaIn Seal Bay last summer, with Great Auk in the foreground, and Luke Tanner and his family’s Alert farther back. Photo credit: Shemaya LaurelAuklet at our float in Joy Bay. The lines from the masts, that lead down across the float, ensure that when the boat goes down on the mud it will lean onto the fenders alongside the float, rather than settling toward the rocks on the other side. The companion photo to this one, taken when the tide is out, is included in the post titled “Judgment” from June 4, 2017. The enormous fenders keep the boat far enough from the float to make sure that Auklet and the float don’t get tangled up with each other when the boat is on its side. Photo credit: Shemaya LaurelBonus photo, not included in the JRA video. Photo credit: Shemaya LaurelTwo junk rigged boats: Great Auk as seen from Marigold, in the cove by Pond Island on the eastern side of the mouth of Frenchman Bay. That’s Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park in the distance. Photo credit: Shemaya LaurelAuklet in Northeast Harbor, MDI. The inflatable radar reflector is really catching the light, near the top of the mizzen mast. Photo credit: Suzanne JeanThere is a detail of this photo in the interview, focused on the open fish door. Here’s the whole picture, in case anybody wants to see some of the other bits of how the boat is arranged. This is at home in Joy Bay. Photo credit: Suzanne JeanFrom my adventure day around the Muscle Ridge Islands, by the southwest corner of Penobscot Bay. Photo credit: Shemaya LaurelThose were some good-sized waves! For more about that day, scroll down in the post from July 11, 2021, titled “May/June 2021 Great Auk trip.” Photo credit: Shemaya LaurelOn the sand off of Louds Island, in Muscongus Bay. This was a temporary stop as the tide was falling and there wasn’t enough water to get into the more protected cove nearby, that also dries out completely at low tide. There’s more about this in that same post from July 11, 2021: https://sailingauklet.com/2021/07/11/may-june-2021-great-auk-trip/ Photo credit: Shemaya LaurelAnother view of that same spot. The channel opens up to the right also, and this shore was not as protected as I wanted to be for an overnight, especially one that involves going up and down on a firm surface. Waves can make that transition not a nice experience. After the water came back it was possible to go into the very well-sheltered drying cove behind the camera – there are more photos and discussion in the July 11, 2021 blog post. Photo credit: Shemaya LaurelA detail from this photo was included in the interview video, to illustrate the tabernacle. In case anybody was puzzling over bits of that image, this larger picture above explains a little more about what was going on. This is how the boatyard launches and retrieves trailer boats, on their beach. Gosh I love that tractor! Photo credit: Suzanne JeanThis photo from our second sea trial during construction is not in the interview video, but it’s handy for demonstrating the tabernacle and mast arrangement a little more clearly. The person in the brown jacket is turning the 30:1 worm gear hand winch that raises and lowers the mast. This is possible when the boat is rigged also, with some additional steps to support the sail bundle and take all the strain off the lines that run from the top of the mast. Photo credit: Suzanne JeanIn Frenchman Bay, off of Sorrento, September 2020. Some items of note: the dock line visible along the outside of the boat is rigged to be handy from the bow or the stern. With no side deck, it’s a real chore to get a line past the cabin in a hurry, but this one works out well when left in place, to be untied from whichever end makes sense at the time. This photo was from when I still used to sail with the leeboards further down in the water, using that light line that shows from the forward edge of the leeboard. The boat will actually make progress a little bit upwind if you take the trouble to do this and the water is pretty flat. We installed the starboard motor bracket in 2020, but didn’t actually put another motor on it until mid-summer 2021. I did want to clarify, from the interview, that the steering was problematic when the boat was underway using just the motor. When sailing the boat steers quite well. Photo credit: Christopher LaRiviereSolar panels went on at the end of 2020. The longer one across the far end of the cabin top charges the 12 V system; the other four shorter panels are wired together to charge the 48 V system that powers the outboard motors. Also on the top of the cabin are the stove pipe for the wood stove and the antenna for the MerVeille radar detector, as well as cradles for the mast. Photo credit: Suzanne JeanThe very first time that Great Auk sailed. Dave and Jeannie McDermott had a perfect view from their cottage on the shore, with the boat headed out through The Narrows at the entrance to Joy Bay. Suzanne was even on the boat! Photo credit: Dave McDermottThis is a Google Earth view of the inner part of Timber Cove, off of West Bay in Gouldsboro. Note the serious rocks at the entrance, on the lower right, as well as the noticeable isolated rocks surrounded by smoother mud, toward the left. You can also see the darker channel toward the middle right of the cove, which is to be avoided because of steep slopes. The smaller rivulet tracks toward the left are not a problem. With a couple of anchors positioned across from each other, on opposite sides of one of the clear patches, it’s quite easy to get the boat to come down on the mud between the isolated rocks, through several tide changes without any further attention. When the only workable spot is quite small it’s helpful to have three anchors arranged in a triangle, so the boat settles on exactly the same spot each time.
Also notable in the above image are the remains of the wooden wrecks that show as somewhat faint outlines toward the upper right. Retrieved from Google Earth November 21, 2021This is that same cove that was shown in Google Earth, looking across one of the wrecks from the eastern shore. The boat is just starting to come down on the mud. Photo credit: Chubba KaneHow not to do this… here’s an example of a somewhat deeper drainage channel (in a different cove). Although it’s not dramatic enough to be a hazard for the boat, the angle was pesky. Some drainage channels are big enough and steep enough to be real problems as far as instability, or possibilities of catching the rudder on a high spot when the huge weight of the rest of the boat will be going down further, which could do serious damage. In this particular location I had gone swimming after anchoring, and I had felt the dropoff with my feet, near the stern of the boat (there was no visibility down through the silty water). But I had not quite connected the mental dots that would have helped with positioning the boat in a better spot before it was aground. So we learn! As mentioned in the interview, soundings all around the perimeter of the boat, using either a lead line or a pole, are also either reassuring, if all depths are within a few inches of each other, or signal a call to action while there is still time. Photo credit: Shemaya LaurelSunset at the south end of Joy Bay, in back of Roger’s Point. Photo credit: Shemaya Laurel
Many thanks to Suzanne Jean for the video at the end of the interview, with the Peep Hen Serenity moving out into the Bay under yuloh power.
Additional thanks to West Cove Boat Yard, of Sorrento, Maine, for building Great Auk.
In closing, I would like to again thank Kevin Cardiff for all the work he put into this interview. Although I sent him a number of the photos shown here, in the process of putting together this collection of pictures I realized just how many photos he found on his own before we even started. It was an interesting exercise tracking them all down to include here! Of course I could have simply asked him, I’m sure, but I didn’t want to be a bother, and the process of locating them all was both a wonderful review of these past years, and a testament to the thoroughness with which Kevin approached this project. Thank you Kevin, for inviting me to do this interview, for making it such a pleasure, and for producing such a lovely record.
And thanks again to all the photographers, who so kindly agreed to this use of their work.
