ROCKLAND HARBOR, and beyond — The breeze was out of the north, Friday afternoon, July 10, perfect for tacking back and forth by the Rockland Breakwater for the annual Windjammer Parade. There was just enough wind to make the smaller schooners, ketches and sloops heel so that sailors could slip feet over the gunwales and into the water, and to fill the sails of the larger vessels, like the three-masted Victory Chimes. 

The Parade of Sail draws members from the Maine Windjammer Association, as well as other windjammers from up and down the coast. It is a perfect opportunity for the wooden vessels to strut their stuff before an admiring crowd that assembled at the end of the Breakwater. Cameras were snapping on boats and on the granite slabs on the Breakwater while Capt. Jim Sharp, the repository of windjammer history, narrated each vessel’s story from a bullhorn on top of the old lighthouse.

The Windjammer Association members include:

AMERICAN EAGLE, Captain John Foss; Homeport: Rockland.