Rain means working in the barn

When it rains, it pours  as the saying goes- actually records all over New England are being broken including the Portland Maine rainfall record from 1953 which was broken Tuesday night. And here in Rockland the weather has been no different wet, wet, windy and wet - this  means it’s time to work in the barn.
 
How oakum comes to us – even though the catalog says its spun already until we roll it, it’s not ready to use.

Now that all three crew members, Toni, Scott and Bo, are here rolling oakum took a third of the time this year!

Captain Jon’s to-do list in the shop.

Toni sands the captains wheel so a fresh coat of varnish can go on.

How many blocks does one 1927 Oyster Dredger turned fishing boat turned passenger vessel use?

Scott and Bo finish painting the rest of the blocks.

~Elizabeth~
Loving that the crew is here!

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At Home With Annie – March

This month Annie is focused on spring and digging in the garden.

Recipe include:
Spring- Harvested Parsnip Soup
Leg of Lamb with a Provencal Crust
Potato and Tomato Tian

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Riggin Rebuild Update

A few folks have been asking how the planning for the rebuild next winter is going so we thought we’d give you a quick update. We have made the decision to haul the schooner out at North End Shipyard for this project, keeping jobs local and supporting our local economy. It will be nice to have the long work day’s end with a quick trip home. We will also be able to document and keep you up to date with how the work is going – all of which you can read about here on Broad Reach.

A few weeks ago  Captain Jon drove down to Gloucester as he had a lead on wood that can be used for the new decking. Everything looked good – check to one more item on the list. He is slowing sourcing all the wood we will need for the project.

Speaking of documenting the project – we are very happy to share with you that former 1st mate Andy Seestedt, will be making a documentary of the Riggin Rebuild called ‘Windjammer’. He came up to start filming in February and has recently shared with us the first clip he has put together along with the website. He has given us permission to share them both with you. We love it and can’t wait to see what else Andy puts together. We warn you, if you have a love for wooden boats, the Riggin, and the Captains and girls – this will pull at your heartstrings. E was teary when she watched it for the first time (and well every time she watches it actually). At WindjammerFilm.com you will be able to watch the ‘style reel’ and read about the project. (The site just went live this past weekend so please excuse the bugs that are still being worked out.)

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Planning Your Meals For This Summer

Annie is planning now for when you arrive this summer. Just a few weeks ago she got out the greenhouses and started winter sowing seeds. In the garden she has been planting peas, carrots, and mesclun.” It’s only March!” “Are you crazy?” Are just a few of the comments we’ve heard, but in Maine the ground has been thawed for a while, we haven’t seen snow since early February and the crocus have already started to bloom. So why not start planting cool crops like peas and broccoli raab and greens like kale, radicchio, spinach and mesclun?

Over the winter Annie increased the number of hens here at the house so that more of the eggs we use on the boat this summer will be home grown. We are very excited that this summer joining the chickens and garden will be bees. That’s right BEES!!! By the end of the summer we should have fresh from the hive honey (we can’t begin to tell you how excited we are!!). Around the property Annie has been doing a major pruning job on the apple trees in hopes that the apples grown will be big enough and sweet enough to eat and make pies or good cider.

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NCIS Fan? The Results Are In!

Turns out 36% of you watch both new and repeat episodes and 25% of you watch it every time it airs on every channel it airs on! Love it! Only 3 of the poll takers do not watch NCIS….it’s okay, we like you anyway.

It wasn’t a surprise to see that it was a tie for favorite character between Abby and Gibbs (42% each), while no one likes Vance.

As far as a supporting character you enjoy – Mike Franks (Gibbs’ former boss), Caitlin Todd (Kate – killed off at the end of Season 2), Jenny Shepard (former, now deceased, NCIS director), and Jackson Gibbs (Jethro’s father). I was surprised to see no one mentioned Agent Tobias Fornell (now a friend of Gibbs and always a source of fun and awkwardness when he appears). It was fun to read everyone responses. Two actually stuck out to us….one is that one of our reader’s daughters is in the Navy and has been an extra on the show!! The other is that someone took the time to write in “I hope they all die”- the office got quite a chuckle out of that one!

Eighty-three percent of you who took part in the poll said you’d be interested in participating in other random polls. With that said – here is the next one!

What is in your freezer?

Knitting for a cause

There’s always a reason to pick up knitting needles and delicious yarn, and now we have a very good reason to do just that. From now until March 26th, as a fundraiser for the Ashwood Waldorf School, we will be knitting as many 8” squares as we can and gathering pledges & sponsors per square as we can.

Want to help out? You can sign up to knit your own squares and gather pledges for them or you could sponsor our squares. At the conclusion of the fundraiser one special blanket will be auctioned off, and a trip for two aboard your choice of the J&E Riggin’s knitting cruises (3 days in June or 6 days in September) will be raffled off. All knitters and sponsors will be eligible for entry in the raffle! You will have until March 26th to knit and collect pledges.

As an added bonus Hope Spinnery (a wind powered spinnery making yarn from local sheep) has offered up to 50% off their yarn selection to anyone knitting for Ashwood. (Just mention you are knitting for the Ashwood Knit-A-Thon).

If you’d like to sign up to knit or sponsor us in knitting squares, please send us an email or give us a call.

Here’s how to participate:

To pledge Annie, Chloe & Ella’s squares email us at info@mainewindjammer.com. If you’d like to knit and gather pledges print out the pledge form and start gathering pledges for your knitted squares. Then start knitting.

If you are knitting here’s what you need to know. 

Knitting Instructions:

8-inch square
#9 US needles
Cast on 30 stitches
Knit each row until you have a square*
Bind off
**weave in ends**
* to see if you have a square, lay your knitting on a flat surface with the needle holding the working yarn at the top. Take the bottom, left corner and fold it diagonally up to the top, right of the knitting. This will form a triangle. If you have two, even triangles on top of each other – or if the top and right edges line up with no extra peeking out – then you have a square.

8-inch square
Larger needles and/or larger yarn
Use the same pattern but cast on fewer stitches
Smaller needles or smaller yarn
Use the same pattern but cast on more stitches

- Use only natural fiber yarn
- you are welcome to knit patterns into your squares
- your squares do not have to match each other
- worsted weight to bulky weight is better than really thin or really thick yarn 

We hope that you help make this a successful fundraiser for the school.

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The Boys are back in town

The boys are back in town and we couldn’t be more excited.  It’s early March and the first of our 2010 crew has arrived.

Scott (you may remember him as Scooter or Scoot)  is back for his second season! He left Texas a little while back and drove his way across country visiting people and places along his way including his music mentor and  former (and sometimes current) crew member Andy in New York. He also took some time and visitied some very unsual and intersting places like the Country Doctor Museum in Bailey North Carolina, and in Hugo Oklohoma, Mt. Olivet Cemetery, also known as Showman’s Rest and Bull Rider’s Reprieve, the final resting place of numerous cirucs performers and bull riders. Needless to say his journey back to Maine was quite interesting.

This weekend Alan (Mouse as we all know him) arrived and  is here for a week to help out. We missed have Mouse here as an apprentice last summer, but hope he’ll be able to come join us for crew vacations this summer.

Today the boys are on the boat working as its forcasted to get up to 53 degrees in Maine. You’ll never guess what they are doing ….okay maybe you will….. let the sanding begin!

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The Galley Chef

One of the many projects we’ve been working on this winter has been with a talented Maine-based film crew, putting together a television show focused on Annie’s food, the Riggin and local produce abundantly found in Maine. We’re now at a point where a major network could snatch it up. Though we don’t know where this project will take us, we are having so much fun on the journey. Click on over to The Galley Chef website and take a look. We’d love to hear what you think and if you would tune in to watch on your television.

Paella on The Galley Chef

Photo by Greg Roscoe

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At Home with Annie – February

This month Annie is thinking about going slower in the kitchen with certain dishes is well worth the time.

Recipes include:
Beef Bourguignon with Leeks and Porcini Mushrooms
Polenta with Fresh Thyme
Mixed Berry and Apple Gallette

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Just for fun

While brainstorming for this months newsletter we thought we’d do something fun.

How many of you are NCIS fans? We know, completely random and having nothing to do with the boat, but all of us here in the Riggin office are huge fans. So just for fun we’ve set up this poll to see how many of you are NCIS fans, like we are are.

The short poll will record the first 100 answers and well let you know the results in an upcoming blog post. If we find that there are a lot of you out there, we may have to start a group in the Riggin Online community so we can all discuss!

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