Immersed in History
I am an expatriate New Englander living in Oklahoma City. One of my
greatest passions is sailing, and I was fortunate to have my own boat, and
to be a frequent guest helmsman on numerous schooners off the coast.
I was at the helm of the schooner Pisces, headed out the Piscataqua
River from Kittery,
Maine to the Isles of Shoals, some 12 miles out at sea. This part of the
world, particularly the coast and islands, has been frequented by Europeans
since before the Plymouth expedition, perhaps before Columbus.
The river is an important deep water port, and has a number of
fortifications dating from the
Revolutionary and Civil wars, as well as WWI and II. At least one of the
lighthouses was commissioned by George Washington and is still in use. As I
passed one of the forts, an intense feeling of deja vu passed over
me-through me, really. I sailed on, with this beautiful boat in my hands,
knowing that this particular scene was probably first experienced almost
two hundred years ago and it really hasn't changed much since then.
Don't go to New England without getting out on the ocean. Virtually every
major city on the New England coast, from Connecticut and Rhode Island, to
Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, hosts a
number of ferries and excursion boats, some powered by sail, like the
famous Windjammer Fleet in
Rockland, Maine.
The summer traffic may get thick, but once you've left the pier, things
begin to look a lot more like they did in Colonial times. CAVEAT: Bring a
windbreaker, sun screen and a sweater: It is often chilly off the New
England coast, which is a nice break from the heat, but that summer sun
will
toast your skin if you leave it bare and unprotected.
Dick
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