Schooner Chase

American Eagle to the left
Stephen Taber to the right
(Note Taber's Fab New Sails)

American Eagle at Anchor

Windjamming Greatest Hits 2006 #2

More American Eagle

Windjamming Greatest Hits 2006

American Eagle

American Eagle's Canada Visit

Read about Captain Foss's annual trip north into the Bay of Fundy.

Not many people get to sail by West Quoddy Head Light.

June Specialty Cruises: American Eagle

Long range two week cruise to Mystic, Ct. : (from Eagle Web Site)

"SEA MUSIC FESTIVAL CRUISE TO MYSTIC SEAPORT Two weeks of cruising to southern New England, a weekend as part of the festival at museum and a good sail home! New ports, old friends.
Board Sunday, June 3, after 6 pm.
Return Saturday, June 16, by 11 am."

Good Morning

Good Morning

Captain Foss

Good Night

Schooner American Eagle
Off Pond Island
May 31, 2006

Windjammer Wildlife Sails

Wildlife is a big feature of all schooner vacations. You generally see many creatures of many types over the course of even a short sail in Maine.

Animals along the Maine coast are a little shy compared to say, the Pacific Northwest, but I saw plenty of our living cousins especially when not expecting to. Last year's highlight was an otter popping up on the rocks of Crotch Island less than 5 feet from me.

Nature isn't choreographed for us, but some windjammers have special wildlife cruises on which they actively seek out wildlife spotting chances. These sails generally head farther offshore. Some have naturalist guides aboard as hosts.

• Windjammer Angelique leads the fleet in wildlife cruises. Five this season.
• Schooner Mary Day has two dedicated sailings.
• Lewis R. French offers a bird watching cruise.
• Isaac H. Evans has a whale watching sail that is scheduled during the Perseid Meteor Shower. (Hurry though, it's almost filled)

All the schooners headed to Boothbay on the last week of June stand a great chance of spotting offshore wildlife. I'll be on Nathaniel Bowditch. But see also French, Eagle, Heritage.

American Eagle is nearly certain to see plenty of offshore wildlife on her long range sails.

All the ships are linked on the right side bar.

Long Distance Windjamming

For those who might like to explore more distant ports, Schooner American Eagle offers a few extended sails this year. In addition to his usual 10 day Canadian Maritime cruise (July this season) , Captain Foss is sailing to Mystic Conn. in early June for a two week round trip. Eagle completes her long distance itinerary with the six day annual cruise to her original home, Gloucester Mass., for the yearly Schooner Race.


These trips are more expensive but offer the only long range sailing vacations in the Maine fleet. Naturally, one must be ready for some offshore conditions. American Eagle Schedule Link

Good Night

Quiet Galley of Schooner American Eagle

Good Night and Stay by the Stove

Galley of Schooner American Eagle on the evening of June 2. 2006

Good Morning

Breakfast begins on American Eagle in Buck's Harbor. May 31, 2006

Captain John Foss

From Windjammer Association Newsletter:

Meet Captain John Foss of the Schooner American Eagle

Anyone who knows Captain John Foss will surely remark on his most recognizable trait: his sense of humor, which fellow captains and loyal passengers call “dry,” is infamous among the fleet. But to spend time with John Foss is to know why passengers come back to the American Eagle year after year, and the wisdom he possesses makes him a most respected sailor.

Captain Foss spent winters in New York City until he was twelve, although his Maine roots run deep. His ancestors settled here in the seventeenth-century, and he is named for his great uncle who was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg while serving in the 20th Maine under Joshua Chamberlain. A tall man with a wry wit and an easy grin, Captain Foss spent summers and school vacations in Maine working in boatyards and on schooners. After graduating from Bowdoin College (where he majored in art history) and serving a “surrealistic” stint as a deck officer in the Coast Guard, Captain Foss bought the Lewis R. French and in 1973 set up the North End Shipyard in Rockland with Captains Douglas and Linda Lee. In the years since, most of the windjammer fleet have come to look upon the shipyard as a resource where schooners are rebuilt and repaired to keep them in service.

In 1984 he purchased the American Eagle, the last fishing schooner built in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The American Eagle is the second vessel that Captain Foss has rebuilt to be designated a National Historic Landmark. The schooner has now run voyages for 21 seasons with cruises from Lunenburg Nova Scotia to New York and Boston for tall ship events as well as hundreds of cruises in mid-coast Maine.

Unique among Maine windjammers, the American Eagle holds an international certificate and most seasons sails to Canada, “where it seems every year some nice Canadian rows out from shore to bring us fish – a schooner is a rarity there.” A cruise aboard the Eagle is a good balance between adventure and relaxation; and is also a platform of opportunity to observe nature and to sail a big vessel. The ship’s library has hundreds of books, mostly on how these schooners were used: the captain can quote from most of them The American Eagle sails to her old home port of Gloucester, Massachusetts, every year to take part in the annual Gloucester Schooner Race. She's won seven times.

Captain Foss has great respect for his many repeat passengers, who make up half of his passenger manifests. “We’re a business because of the people who come sailing with us and for no other reason. That’s who pays the bills, and that’s who’s preserving these vessels.” His favorite time aboard the schooner – “When we leave the dock” – can only be bested by “the dynamic of people from all over the country, all sorts of lifestyles, coming together – there’s nothing like it.”

In the off-season, Captain Foss spends time with his wife Kathy who is a school librarian and their two children, now in college. Besides restoring a 1935 wooden tug boat, he is active in coastal conservation groups. Also, thanks to his 500-ton ocean license, he works two weeks a year as an officer aboard the Elissa, an 1877 iron barque out of Galveston, Texas, with two other Maine Windjammer Association captains, Kip Files of the Victory Chimes and Barry King of the Mary Day. “We’re a very close group,” he says of the Maine Windjammer Association captains, noting that his daughter recently went to the prom with another captain’s son. “And despite the uncertainty and frustrations that sometimes arise from caring for a 19th century vessel in the 21st century, it’s certainly better than being ashore.”

To find out more about the American Eagle, call 1-800-648-4544 or visit their website.