I am embarrassed to say my partner and I stumbled upon the fantastic Atlantic Cup happening in Portland this week. Ever curious wharf-rats, we were wharf crawling to find out what tall ship's yards we were seeing when we discovered not just El Galeon, but the strong fleet of Open 40s in Portland for the end of the fifth running of the Atlantic Cup. As an avid reader of and writer for the nautical press, as well as double- and single-hander and fan of all things with small boats racing offshore, I should have known this incredible fleet was in town. Admittedly this is the first year the fleet has come to Maine and Casco Bay, but boy did we wish we had made plans to volunteer in the race village and do all we could to promote this event.

We caught the fleet between the end of Leg 2 and the in-port races (happening Friday, and Saturday, June 11 off the Eastern Prom), a day devoted to educating school children. And we liked what we saw: first graders from local schools hopping aboard the sleek racers, hearing racers talk of the camping like food they ate ("my favorite is lasagne, but we have to add a lot of water to it" from one of the Oakcliff Racing crew). We heard first graders being asked what they wanted to be when they grew up ('fisherman," construction worker") and the young Open 40 racer replying, "When I was young I wanted to be a sailor, and here I am—the point being you can be anything you want to be."

Not much of this kind of racing makes it to Maine. Today's inshore race was met with bit mixed feelings from the fleet: currents, rocks, uncertain wind—many of them are used to the inshore races they have had in Narragansett Bay. Biased as we are, we hope they love racing here in Casco Bay, and that they come back on a yearly basis. Check out their website (atlanticup.org) and follow this race. They're are focused on education and awareness of the ocean ecosystem—passing along a love of the sea and the concurrent stewardship, as well as love of sailing. Other race organizers take note of how the organizers are balancing these values—it is a worthy model.

If the Atlantic Cup makes it back to Maine, we will certainly makes ourselves available to help in the race village. Who knows, maybe we'll even get a chance to sail on one of them.