Monthly Archives: October 2025

Still Out Here

20 Monday Oct 2025

Posted by in Great Auk, Junk Rig, Trips

≈ 4 Comments

Yellow houseboat with large burgundy junk rig sail, running down wind with the sail off to port. Small yellow dinghy in tow, about 5 feet off the stern. Blue sky, blue water, hillside with leafy trees starting to turn for the fall.

Great Auk leaving Northeast Harbor.
Photo credit: Suzanne Jean


Great Auk is still sailing. Not so much in 2024 – launched on August 24, hauled on September 23. 2024 was a tricky year, but it was absolutely wonderful to get that time on the water. The biggest highlight was sailing to Haycock Harbor, down the coast toward Canada, about 5 miles after Cutler. As hoped, and studied on google earth, it did indeed have the perfect spot for drying out on the mud in a very protected inner side cove. It was special, to have made it there.

Small cove with trees on either side, blue green water. Lower right corner shows that the camera is on the boat looking out, with the bulwark just visible.

Haycock Harbor, northeast of Cutler, with the tide about halfway up.
Photo credit: Shemaya Laurel

The same small cove as the picture above, but low tide and everything is a mud flat with trees on either side. Yellow dinghy sitting on the mud in the lower right part of the picture.

Haycock Harbor side cove when the tide had gone out.

The boat got a new sail that year, and motor wiring upgraded to accommodate a Torqeedo 6.0. One of the original Torqeedo 4.0 motors developed problems, and they were no longer available to replace. Hence the upgrade to the 6.0. That was not so simple, but in the end the motor worked much better than the old one so it felt very worthwhile.

2025 saw more sailing. Launched toward the end of June, hauled on October 24, with much sailing in between. East to Roque island, early, home for three days, and then west toward Penobscot Bay. A bit of back-and-forth, and then a special trip west to Casco Bay, over by Portland. That was a bit of a stretch, nowadays, but a great adventure inspired by visiting with my Aunt Patsy who moved over there last year, from where we used to visit in Penobscot Bay.

Yellow dinghy near sandy shore with person sitting in it with black brimmed felt hat, smiling. Yellow house boat in background about 100 feet away. Blue sky, blue water, famous Cribstone Bridge slightly visible in the distance.

In Casco Bay, by the famous Cribstone Bridge between Bailey and Orrs Island. Yours truly in the dinghy.
Photo credit: Bill Beazley

Two women sitting inside boat cabin smiling

My Aunt Patsy, and my cousin Alison, at the dock in South Freeport. What a wonderful visit!
Photo credit: Shemaya Laurel

Perfectly flat mirror water, trees, and sky. Boat lines on a post and a small American flag.

There were also beautiful harbors. This one is up the Passagassawakeag River, that feeds into Belfast Harbor
Photo credit: Shemaya Laurel

Elder man playing hammer and woman playing Celtic harp, both sitting in plastic deck chairs on the open foredeck of the sailing barge Great Auk

And there was music! Arlen and Meta brought the greatest gift in the world, the sound of them playing. This was in Belfast Harbor.
Photo credit: Shemaya Laurel


One of the reasons there have been so few blog posts, and none for such a long time, is that WordPress changed their system, and it just felt too hard to figure out. Adding photographs was a world of frustration (clearly working better now!), and I’m still upset that the format of previous posts is pretty much useless compared to how it used to be: no longer titles with a sentence or two, so people could easily choose what they wanted to read. Having to scroll through all the posts in their entirety is ridiculous. If anybody knows how to fix that, I am all ears.

But! In the effort to deal with keeping the payments current, I discovered that it seems to have consented to let me sign in. That’s another wordpress mystery, but I’m not complaining. In the process, come to find out that they have a little box in the dashboard that says something about writing a quick post. So this one right here is a test. I hope it works, and perhaps I can figure out how to add a couple of photographs. If not, at least there will be this update. Check out the Junk Rig Association magazine for other news (that does involve subscribing, but it’s very low cost) or have a look at this magazine article which my neighbor down the road did an amazing job of putting together:
https://maineboats.com/print/issue-193/junk-journeys

So that’s the tiny update… I have missed being in touch, and send good wishes to all.

Sailboat with dark sail in the distance, rugged Maine shoreline with the tide low in the foreground, trees up the slope in the distance.

Smith Cove, near Castine.
Photo credit: Craig Pursell, twowildgeese.com