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WINDJAMMING PLAIN AND FANCY
Story and pictures by Peter I. Rose*
There is something quite extraordinary about heading "down east" across Maine's Penobscot Bay with a full set of sails on a brilliant fall day. There is something equally special about sailing southwest in the Mediterranean, along the Cote d'Azur, the Balearic Islands, the Costa del Sol, and over to North Africa at the same time of year. My wife, Hedy, and I just experienced both this past autumn. The first trip was on an old wooden schooner called "Mercantile;" the second on a sleek sailing cruise ship, the "Wind Surf."
Both are windjammers. Windjammers are defined as big and fast sailing yachts that carry paying passengers (or "guests," as the boat owners prefer to call them) for fixed voyages either from point to point or on routes that start and end at the same place. The two vessels on which we sailed had such attributes, but that was about all they had in common.
Not only were their homes ports thousands of miles apart, most of their characteristics were light years from each other. They represent two ends of a nautical continuum.
The Mercantile is a 115-foot gaff-rigged coastal schooner, built on Deer Island, Maine in 1916 and long used as sailing freighter for hauling firewood, lumber, bricks, and other cargo. Converted to a passenger vessel after World War II, it was one of what would become a rather large fleet of resurrected boats - and a few new ones - based in and around the picturesque towns of Camden, Rockland, and Rockport, Maine. While the Mercantile had more than a cosmetic overhaul, she remains a traditional, wind powered, engineless classic.
The cook uses a wood stove, passengers use basins for cold water washing (the water obtained from a tank on deck), and the three toilets are marine heads requiring vigorous hand pumping. The 28 guests are housed in what are euphemistically called "cabins." In fact they are cubbies in which it is difficult for two people to stand at the same time. (The crew's quarters are even smaller). Although some of the boats in the Maine Windjammer Fleet are a bit more commodious and some have inboard engines, most are very much like the Mercantile, with the same basic features.
All but one, the three-masted Victory Chimes, have two masts and carry between 3000 and 5000 square feet of heavy canvas. Everything on the Mercantile is done by hand, mainly by the captain, his two mates, the cook and an assistant, but passengers are frequently called to duty, to help raise and furl sails, haul the anchor, wash the dishes, and sometimes to stand watch or sound the foghorn on misty days. 
Devoid of modern amenities, sailing on the Mercantile is an adventure in retrospection, a momentary excursion into sea life in the 19th century. In addition to enjoying the slow pace of another era, what is offered on the Mercantile and its sister schooners are steady breezes, fantastic vistas of pine covered rocky islands and still active light-houses, occasional shore visits to charming harbors and villages like Stonington, Vinalhaven, and Brooklin and resort towns such as Bar Harbor and Castine, wholesome food (including great fish chowders and fresh-trapped lobsters), a guitar-playing skipper, and plenty of gemutlichkeit.
Devotees of such participatory adventures, we thoroughly enjoyed our days back in Maine. We left the Mercantile with little thought of any other kind of windjamming.
But then, heading for France and Spain for other business, and having heard of the Wind Star fleet, we decided to do some comparison sailing on the Bahamian registered Wind Surf. We caught up with the constantly moving vessel on a Sunday evening in Marseille. When we saw her we were amazed. We had heard she was big but the contrast to the schooner we had left but a few weeks before was startling. 
One of three windjammers in the Holland America Lines' Windstar fleet, the Wind Surf, built in 1990, is a motor-sailing cruise ship, five times as long as the Mercantile. She has five masts and 27, 000 square feet of self-furling Dacron controlled from the bridge by a bank of computers.
She sails whenever the winds are fair but because her routes are fixed, much of the time she is propelled by four huge diesel electric engines or by both sail and motor power. We quickly learned that the Wind Surf differs even more dramatically from the Maine windjammers we knew so well. Instead of 20-28 passengers, she carries up to 308, has close to a 1:2 ratio of crew to guests, and seven decks, three of which are staterooms (in contrast to one on the Mercantile). Instead of a small, low ceiled galley where cooking, serving, and eating take place, and where passengers must duck to avoid hitting their heads on the structural beams, we had our choice of two restaurants, each of which offered gourmet meals prepared in one of several state-of-the-art kitchens. In addition, the ship has an elegant shop, a full-service business center, an infirmary, a fitness room, several bars, a huge lounge, and 150 double staterooms.
All rooms have ocean views and queen size beds or twins, writing desks, closed circuit LCD flat screen color TVs, DVD/CD players, and en suite bathrooms with showers. (This impressed us the most because there was no need to pump the toilet to flush.) As a ship that plies the Mediterranean from late spring to late fall, then crosses the Atlantic, Wind Surf's port excursions are a bit more varied than those on the Mercantile. For example, on Wind Surf trip we sailed the leg from Marseille to Sete in France, then to Barcelona, the islands of Ibiza and Palma de Mallorca, and on down to Ceuta in Spanish Morocco, directly across from the Rock of Gibraltar. From there we re-crossed from Africa to Europe and disembarked in Malaga.
We hated to have to leave and wished that we could have stayed on board with some of our fellow travelers who, joined by others, would be heading for at least another week on a voyage that would take them to Cadiz, Casablanca, Tenerife, and Lisbon. A few would even be continuing from there on across the Atlantic to Barbados. Once there the Wind Surf would join other windjammers, the somewhat smaller Wind Spirit and Wind Star of the Holland America Windstar Line, and a number much smaller ones, some old, wooden schooners down from Maine, to spend the winter season windjamming around the islands and along the coast of Central America.
Throughout our week on the Wind Surf, we couldn't help but continue to make comparisons. For example, we noted that on the Mercantile there is no heat for when its cold nor AC when its hot; on the Wind Surf such luxuries are standard, as is professional entertainment and a dance band. On the Mercantile if the wind doesn't blow, you don't go anywhere - or, at least, anywhere very fast because to move at all, the boat must be pushed or towed by a smaller motorized yawl boat. On the Wind Surf, if the wind blows - at least 15 knots, she is still able to keep to her schedule either by motoring or motor-sailing. (The fact is that the Wind Surf goes fastest when on a broad reach under full sail in a heavy wind. At such times, she really feels like the gargantuan schooner that she is.)
All three skippers in the Wind Star Fleet do try to get under sail as often as possible. Wind Surf Captain Mark Boylin told me that on average he sails about 1/3 of the time, spends about 1/3 motor/sailing, and the rest completely dependent upon the giant engines. However, this overall ratio varies markedly according to the routing and the time of year. (Winds are much steadier in the Caribbean in winter than in the Med in summer.) Whenever under sail, the Wind Surf is controlled by an array of computers operated by the skipper on the bridge.
The Maine Windjammer Cruises advertise their sailing trips as being "Adventures of a Lifetime," and Holland America promise journeys that are "180 degrees from ordinary." While a bit of PR hyperbole, there is little question that what one experiences on both vessels is very special, most memorable, and different.
All the time we were on the luxurious Wind Surf, we kept thinking of the Mercantile. We missed the remarkable sound of the wind beating on the sails, the splash of water hitting the bows, occasional rains pelting hapless but intrepid sailors, the camaraderie with fellow "guests" (some of it doubtlessly the result of forced proximity in very tight quarters), the constant presence of the tiny crew, and lasting impressions of the spectacular beauty of the islands of coastal Maine, charming villages, and long days of easy-paced cruising.
Once ashore in Malaga, we started reflecting on our week of the Wind Surf. There were different images, but they were equally satisfying. We kept thinking of the fact that we were on the Mediterranean and visiting some places we'd never been to, including the Straits of Gibraltar.
And, truth to tell, despite the fact that neither of us are purists - or puritans, who take pride in shunning creature comforts, it still boggled our minds that we were on a sailing vessel with all the amenities and none of the stuffiness of a five star hotel. The captain and hotel manager (yes, that's his title), chefs, stewards, bar tenders, musicians, and hardly visible engineers, were all there to move, house, feed, and entertain us, assist in shore excursions, and cater to every whim. Compared to bare-boned, back-to-nature Maine-style windjamming, cruising on the Wind Surf was downright sybaritic - and otherworldly. 
Maine Schooners and Windstar Motor-Sailing Cruise Ships, two ends of that windjamming continuum. One quite plain, the other quite fancy. I heartily recommend both. *Peter Rose is a sociologist, writer, photographer, and inveterate sailor (mainly on other peoples' boats). His latest books are Guest Appearances and Other Travels in Time and Space"(2003), The Dispossessed (2005), and They and We (2006).
For further information:
Maine Windjammer Association PO Box 1144 Blue Hill, ME 04514 1-800-807-WIND www.sailmainecoast.com
Windstar Cruises Holland America Line 300 Elliott Avenue West Seattle, Washington 98119 1-206-301-5445 www.windstarcruises.com
