K. Stephens's Blog, page 5

That's Well by Eva Murray

Earlier this month, I described what it was like to to spend a day on an 140-year-old schooner as it raced against another old girl.  I'm reposting this excellent article  by Maine writer Eva Murray, author of Well Out To Sea, as she describes with much more detail the exhilarating ride we all took.  In short: it was a blast!

Earlier this month I was fortunate to be invited along for an extraordinary boat ride. On a warm sunny day in mid-June the two oldest working schooners in Maine, and in America, undertook a friendly race from Camden to Rockland in honor of their 140th birthdays. The historic schooners Stephen Taber, based in Rockland, and Lewis R. French, of Camden had planned a birthday party.

A bunch of us piled into a shuttle van to Camden, including a few guys who work for the City of Rockland and a couple of friendly regular tourists who've sailed on the two vessels before. The wife of the captain of the French was providing some of the history of the schooners, how in their day they hauled "everything…Christmas trees, sardines, bricks, lime...."

As we boarded the Taber from the yawl boat that carried us from the Camden dock, Captain Ken Barnes, previous master of the Taber, stood on the deck and played his bagpipes. Soon, coffee and cake appeared from the galley.

Aboard were most of the living former captains of the Taber, including Orville Young, Jim Sharp of the Sail Power and Steam Museum in Rockland, Ken and Ellen Barnes, owners of the Captain Lindsey House Inn also in Rockland, and presumed future captain Oscar, age two, who is messing with the parallel rules. His grandmother Ellen shows him the chart.

I am close enough to overhear much of the talk on the marine radio between the captains of the two contestants. "I guess I'd better call Garth and ask him where the starting line is."

Captain Noah keys the mike: "Hey…so what's the starting line?" Oscar toddles up to him and asks, "Are we going to race?" On the VHF: "This is the Stephen Taber to the Racing Schooner Lewis R. French…" Both captains have their little boys aboard. Oscar announces to everybody that this is a fast boat.

A bit more of a work-boat person myself, I feel a tad self-conscious mixing with this sailboat crowd. I don't speak the language, wear the usual clothing or know how to work the gear. I will endeavor to stay out of the way. As the last boat load of guests is finally aboard the schooner and Captain Noah Barnes gives us the safety lecture, he tells us point blank, "You are all, as a rule, in the way. That's OK."

"By the way," he adds, "I might be firing a cannon from time to time…probably at the Lewis R. French…."

He pointed out the hot Charlie Noble smokestack sticking out of the deck, the chimney of the wood stove upon which our lunch will be cooked.

"That's hot! That will burn a hole in your $300 pata-gucci fleece shell in two seconds."

He showed his guests where the life vests are stowed.

"When should we put them on?" somebody asked. "If you see me putting one on," replied the captain. Later in the trip, a photographer wants to climb out on the bowsprit for a picture. "Should I put on a life jacket?" he wonders. "Uh…yeah."

At the helm, Noah Barnes and Jim Sharp and a couple of regulars joked about the several City of Rockland officials aboard. Some wag made observations on ancient maritime tradition: "They're ours. We can do what we want with them until we set them off on shore."

A woman quietly said something about, "There's probably a plank aboard here somewhere." A voice behind me suggested they might renegotiate their parking place.

Lunchtime was, of course, at the roughest point in the trip. Cook Anna, former owner Captain Ellen, and messmate Hanlon passed us all big cups of hot fish chowder. They offered delicious "Newfie rolls," which tasted to me like Anadama bread, but I guess you can't get away with such a thing with a cook named Anna. A man who had sailed on the Taber before mused, "I don't know how you do it in a kitchen that small," indicating the galley. Ellen Barnes just grins. She "wrote the book" on that!

There are lots of other historic schooners around; we see the Olad, of course, which is at the starting mark, and the Surprise, the Angelique, and later the Bowditch. I learned what the expression "head us off at the bow" really meant when the Lewis R. French did just that to the Taber. Aboard the French, a big-muscled crewman in a Dixie-cup sailor's hat and jumper does his best Popeye routine.

The wind came up just in time for the serious part of the race, to the extent any of it is serious. Small boats circled us, heavy laden with photographers. Should anybody be curious, there are probably 100,000 images of these two handsome vessels to be had somewhere. Aboard the Taber, the Code Enforcement Officer for the City of Rockland had a clever rig he'd built with two digital cameras mounted to a small board, a switch to hit both simultaneously, and a spirit level. "3-D photography," he smiled. I think he's the one who wanted to climb out on the bowsprit.

We heard the call of "Ready about!" whenever the captain needs his crew's attention. Gregory, Celia, and the other crew stopped answering passenger questions and turned to listen. When they had done what was needed – they hauled, hoisted, fastened or adjusted rigging, sails or anything else – to the extent the captain requires, he called, "That's well!"

I have never heard that expression anywhere else. I like it.

People from New York point and explain lobster buoys to each other. Crew member Celia advised Rockland mayor Brian Harden to duck clear of a swinging boom. Noah said, "It would be embarrassing if we killed to mayor." Harden sat with Captain Sharp and Representative Ed Mazurek. We all ate chocolate peanut-butter bars although the last few got sprinkled with salt spray (which does not hurt them one bit).The passenger list today is a bit heavy with writers, including K.Stephens, author of "The Ghost Trap," somebody doing a story for Classic Boat Magazine and another from Good Old Days Magazine. I am grateful that I am not a reporter, and not obliged to interview anybody on this beautiful day. With all this press aboard, the background and more facts about these two schooners and this race will not be hard to find.

After the Taber beat the French to the Rockland breakwater, out around the buoy, where I was pleased to hear the tones of two bells, and back into the harbor she slowly inched up to the wharf at the Pearl Restaurant. Nathan Lipfert, senior curator of the Maine Maritime Museum, spoke, as did Captain Sharp and others at a small awards ceremony, where the Maine Maritime Museum presented Captain Garth Wells of the Lewis R. French with the "Irish Pennant" award for "coming in second in a two-boat race"). There was a large cake, which I heard was baked by both cooks in the galley of the Lewis R French. Lipfert took us back to 1871, the year when the French and the Taber were launched: "There was a big fire in Chicago. Lewis Carroll published 'Through the Looking Glass.' The first shipment of bananas arrived in Boston from Kingston, Jamaica. The whole New Bedford whaling fleet was trapped in the Arctic ice. Stanley found Livingstone; 'Dr Livingstone, I presume.'"

Both schooners are National Historic Landmarks (I think, 'landmark?' A heck of a title for a boat). As Captain Ellen Barnes makes clear, "These boats have to be loved and held close, because they are treasures."

That's well.

This story originally appeared in The Herald Gazette on 6/29/2011

2011 Rockland Lobster Boat Races: A Floating Block Party

The Go Go Lobster Girls Blessed again this year with great weather and excellent spirits (both the human kind and the kind that fits in a cooler), the flotilla had the best seat in the house to watch the Lobster Boat Races in Rockland on Father's Day, June 19. This floating block party was all about friends getting together, water balloon fights, dancing and grilling out.

We only had two mishaps this year. It was so choppy on the water that the flotilla of lobster boats began to squeeze too tightly against one another and in trying to physically push them apart at one point, two of the windows got smashed on the total Total Eclipse.

As many followers of this blog know, Ryan Post's iconic lobster boat, The Instigator perished in a freak spring storm, tossed up on the rocks. His new boat, Tall Tails, replaced The Instigator as the starting boat this year. And the second "incident" was the water balloon fight. Okay, so some of us threw water balloons at Tall Tails as it passed by, but that DID NOT give them the right to swing by again and douse us head to toe with the boat's hose. Damn you Ryan!
Tall Tails before "the incident."

Ever see a schooner showdown in Maine?

View from The Taber looking out at our "rival" The Lewis R. French as the cannon signaled the start of the race. As many of the readers of my novel know, schooners play a big part in the setting of The Ghost Trap and I've been lucky to know more than a few captains of windjammers in midcoast Maine. Luckier still, yesterday I'd been invited to hop aboard The Stephen Taber for a first-ever schooner showdown between The Taber and The Lewis R. French, two of America's oldest working wooden schooners, both which happen to be 140 years old.

The rivalry between both tall ships was purely friendly--each captain only wanted bragging rights. They were gunning as hard as they could against the brisk wind that cropped up at the start of the race as The French took the lead. Both ships took decidedly different courses, tacking in southerly wind, as the crew of The Taber constantly adjusted the foresails and searched for the best wind advantage--all the while chef Anna was cooking us a homemade fish chowder lunch with Newfie rolls, a mixed green salad topped with strawberries and peanut butter bars. (I was amazed they found the time to do this for the 25 or so passengers all aboard). After roughly four hours under a beautifully sunny sky, The Stephen Taber crossed the finish line first at The Rockland Breakwater as Capt. Ken Barnes broke out the bagpipes and serenaded the lighthouse.

Honestly, I always tell people who come to Maine: You haven't experienced anything until you've been on a day sail on a schooner--or better yet, on a longer trip when you can sleep in a cramped cabin.  This was such a remarkable way to spend a summer day.  Homemade coffeecake, coffee and tea as we get going A sunny view of the rigging Passing the Rockland Breakwater as the finish line, Capt. Barnes (Sr.) breaks out the bagpipes

GT Gets Four Shots of Espresso!

Reviewed by Booked In Chico -a blog about books and bookish events that happen in the Northstate of California. Written by a Master's student in Literature who graduates May 2011. Also enjoy her cliché memoir rants about grad school! Follow on Twitter @BookedinChico



I would first like to thank both Lori of TNBBC and LeapFrog PressThe Ghost Trap. Lori posted via Twitter a giveaway for Stephens' book, and I thought I should try to win a copy. I was finishing my thesis and was in a crisis mode as to what I would do with my life after my MA in English Literature. I, then, started to put together a book blog to keep me going through the remaining hardships of writing a thesis. So here I am, about to review my first book for my blog.

K . Stephens's The Ghost Trap places the reader immediately on a lobster boat in a bay of Maine's coast.  The novel takes us through the journey of a lobsterman, Jamie Eugley, which encapsulates the trial and tribulations—both of his job and of his life. Soon the reader realizes that there is a trap war between Jamie and other lobstermen. From the trap war to low numbers of lobsters, Jamie must balance it all. Alliances form out on the freezing and rocky water of Maine: the moral and family man Jamie and longtime friend Thongchai versus the immoral and scamming Fogerty family. The trap wars, however, are just one of his many issues, because at home he must affectionately support his live-in girlfriend, Anja, who is recovering from a massive brain injury. We meet Anja three years after her accident, where she is progressing but still in great need of assistance. Anja needs constant supervision and Post-its, which becomes rather draining on both Jamie and his supportive mother, Donna. Stephens wonderfully depicts Jamie's real-life tensions, which encourage the reader to keep turning the pages. I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Ghost Trap, and, at times, I couldn't put it down. Jamie's complicated life made me want to both judge and sympathize with him, which is an incredible feat for an author to accomplish. Some of Jamie's decisions, such as his newly formed friendship with seasonal pirate entertainer, Happy, made me extremely angry. I, literally, wanted to jump into the story and shake Jamie; his friendship irked me much like Max and Pammy in the United States of TaraSeason Three. Why would you form that kind of a relationship now after all of this time? But I kept with Jamie because he handles so much between Anja's needs and his financial hardships. I had to ask myself what would I do? This helped me to sympathize with Jamie's character. Stephens forces her readers to examine the whole picture as she complicates initial judgments. In the end, I absolutely loved Jamie's character; once I read the final chapter, I couldn't help but feel for him and Anja.

The Ghost Trap is the first book that has ever made me tear up—not because of it being sappy but its closeness to reality. Stephens writes fiction that goes beyond the pages and ventures into exploring life's ailments with both passion and reality. And thus, I recommend this book to everyone with one minor warning—that missing shot of espresso. Stephens, for the most part, uses her style and tone to extend the images she describes using physical and visceral language; however, there are moments sprinkled throughout where Stephens's lyrical language detracts from the novel. These moments forced me out of the novel to decipher the meaning—not out of confusion but out of visual space. I mean that some of the visceral description talking about a character's hands will quickly jump to the character's eyebrows where the language becomes much more lyrical. These quick movements from one space to another are at times jarring for the reader. Though lyrical language is usually praised by peers, in say a creative writing class; a novel that maintains a particular language throughout makes it much more compelling and engaging to read. That being said, I give K. Stephens' The Ghost Trap 4 shots of espresso. The Ghost Trap is a rather promising Red Eye novel!

Arrgh! The Boat's Scuttled..a Total Loss!

(Photo by: Steven L. Waterman) My friend Ryan was dealt an incredible blow this week. His iconic boat, The Instigator, ripped from its mooring during the April 17 storm in 50-60 mile winds and "was chewed to death on granite teeth" up on the rocks.

The boat is a total loss. According to Ryan, "No boat that has gone onto those jagged pieces of granite has ever floated again."

This is nor ordinary fishing vessel. It represents his brand "Maine Buggin" and is the face of the Midcoast Lobster Races. True to his optimistic nature, however, he is not upset--and is already in talks with procuring another vessel in North Carolina.

"I'm going to make a positive out of a negative," he said. "That's all you can do."

As per custom, any boat he purchases can never be renamed "Instigator"--it's bad luck.

Story originally reported by Lynda Clancy, Village Soup.

Want to Be a Guest Judge During The Maine Lobster Races?

Let me tell you: one of the most thrilling events of the summer are the Maine Lobster Boat Races held up and down the coast--that is, if happen to be watching from the vantage point of  the lobster boats themselves. See my post on what a day in that life is like. But if you don't have lobstering friends who can invite you aboard, here's another way--to be a judge on a Coast Guard Boat.

story and photo courtesy of Village Soup's The Herald Gazette

Maine Lobster Boat Racing is sharing the excitement of lobster boat racing with their fans by raffling the experience to be a race judge. The winning judge will be on the Coast Guard boat at the finish line of the races in Searsport on July 9.

The winning judge will be awarded an "Officials T-Shirt" and certificate from Maine Lobster Boat Racing, admission for a family to Penobscot Marine Museum, lodging at the Carriage Inn of Searsport, and dinner at Ocean's Edge Restaurant in Belfast. The drawing will take place Saturday, April 30, at 2 p.m. at the seasonal opening of Maine Coast Welcome Center on Route 1 in Belfast.

Enter the drawing online at Maine-Coast-Welcome-Center.com/LobsterBoatRaceContest.html.

Last year, Travis Otis of Maine Lobster Racing offered Patti and Jim LeClair of the Maine Coast Welcome Center the opportunity to be guest judges at a lobster boat race. Otis took the LeClairs out to the Coast Guard boat at the finish line, where they judged the outcome by watching closely as the lobster boats raced by — some in excess of 60 mph.

The race is great time and the camaraderie of this industry was fascinating, said the LeClairs. During the week, lobstermen compete for lobsters, and on weekends they race together.

This year, Otis came up with the idea of sharing the experience with fans and the first Maine Lobster Boat Racing Contest was born. The contest is designed to share with summer visitors the 10 coastal Maine towns that celebrate the heritage of Maine lobstering.

Crustacean Liberation Day!

photo: Shlomit Auciello While some of us are celebrating with green beer today, others are celebrating a timely release from their long-suffering prisons made from galvanized wire. Yes--it's Crustacean Liberation Day for hundreds of lobsters in Maine!  As the Coast Guard's "Ghost Gear Cleanup" Project is underway early reports show lobsters wriggling out of traps that have long remained on the bottom of the ocean floor. 
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Lobstermen, marine patrol join Coast Guard in 'ghost gear' cleanup
By Shlomit Auciello | Mar 17, 2011

Penobscot Bay — Owls Head lobstermen Scott Herrick, Donald Williams and Rob McMahan joined Maine Marine Patrol officers Brian Tolman and Matt Sinclair aboard the Coast Guard Buoy Tender Abbie Burgess Monday, March 14 as part of an ongoing effort to retrieve large clusters of lobster gear from the bottom of the sea off the coast of Maine. So-called "ghost gear" can be a hazard to navigation, and often collects in areas that would be otherwise productive lobster bottom.

The combined team hauled and sorted 80 lobster traps that had gathered into a series of knotted bunches that Chief Warrant Officer Paul Dupuis, commander of the Abbie Burgess, referred to as a "gaggle." The traps were located at two spots at the bottom of Penobscot Bay between Fisherman Island and Vinalhaven. A third group of sunken traps was not located due to the height of the tide.

The collected traps, many of which were on the bottom of Penobscot Bay for at least three years, were identified by their owner's trap tag number and name. The lobstermen planned to take the traps to the Ship to Shore parking lot in Owls Head, where they were to be picked up by their original owners.

Tolman said the traps found belonged to Jay Ross, Mike Rogers, Dick Carver, Tim Lindahl, Maynard Curtis, F. J. O'Hara, Rob McMahan, Vance McMahan, Jeff Woodman, Justin Philbrook, Shane Hatch, Jeff Edwards and Matt Mills.

Dupuis, referred to the event as "crustacean liberation" day. Lobsters ranging in size from those appearing to weigh as much as three pounds to much smaller examples that some refer to as Matinicus shrimp were all sent back to the bottom of the bay, along with a variety of starfish, crabs and other marine life.

Shortly before the Abbie Burgess departed from its wharf, Coast Guard personnel received word that the No. 11 buoy off Monroe Island was no longer showing a beacon. When the Abbie Burgess

Coast Guard personnel replaced the beacon and made plans to return later to replace the bell and conduct routine maintenance.

For more information about ghost gear recovery efforts, contact the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation at gomlf.org or call 985-8088.

The Herald Gazette Reporter Shlomit Auciello can be reached at 207-236-8511 or by e-mail at sauciello@villagesoup.com.

A Record Haul In 2011

photo: Christian Science Monitor An estimated 4,260 lobster fishermen in Maine caught a record number of lobsters this year, (93 million pounds, up from 81 million in 2009) worth $308.7 million. Not since the late 1990s and early 2000s has the state seen this kind of boon.

Scientists are crediting unusually warm water, which allowed lobsters to molt earlier--for an earlier catch in July--a month sooner than usual. An easing of state rules combined with a long-coming lobster population growth also factored in.

What lobstermen are saying everywhere, "I had a pretty good year." After recent years, that's fantastic to hear.

source: New York Times 

The Deadly World of Lobstering

If this article tells you anything, lobstering is right up there with Alaskan crab fishing as one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. 155 people died in the last decade. Vessel disasters and crew members falling overboard were the leading causes of fatalities in this latest report. And at the end of this year, we just lost another one of our own Maine lobstermen when he got entangled in lobster line and was pulled overboard.

Maybe what I'm saying is patently obvious, but for so many people who came up this summer to specifically have their Maine lobster, I continue to post stories like these to show you exactly what goes into that steamed crustacean on that plate. It is a backbreaking, perilous profession and the men and women who are born into this life, work at it every day and put their lives at risk for this status symbol dish deserve a little attention for their efforts now and then.

Lobster hash with poached eggs

Great idea for the holidays! This Chef's Kitchen video shows you how to do up some extra steamed lobster from the night before into a breakfast hash topped with poached eggs.

Watch the video