Maine Windjammer, Schooner, Sailboat Excursions

True seafarers say the best way to see Maine is from the sea. We agree. Once you have watched a golden Maine sunrise from the deck of a windjammer, surrounded by the blue Atlantic waters, you will never forget that magical moment.

Tacking around pine tree islands under full sail on a three-masted schooner at sunset, watching the bright orange sun disappear over Maine’s rocky coastline, now that is living.

Maine schooners and windjammer tours explore the coast from the best vantage, by boat. Maine’s jutting coastline is over 3,500 miles long with dramatic rocky peninsulas and hidden coves and inlets. There are numerous Maine sailing charter companies, you can choose from a day sail aboard a schooner from Kennebunkport or Camden Harbor, where the boat’s captain and crew set sails and serve you an onboard picnic.

Sailing excursions range from a day trip to week long adventures touring beautiful Maine harbors and the dramatic coastline, spotting Maine seal and Maine sea birds or helping the crew hoist sails into the wind.

Most Maine sailing companies are very accommodating and can charter a Maine cruise to your favorite island or just a cruise to nowhere so you and your yachting guest can enjoy the scenery and the Maine wildlife. A Sunset cruises aboard a Maine schooner out of Kennebunkport or Boothbay Harbor is a splendid way to end the day in the fresh salt air. A sailboat charter with a catered party is a most memorable way to celebrate a special event or anniversary, or for a sailboat wedding proposal - who could say no to that?

For a real Maine sailing trip, Maine Windjammers charter 2, 3, 5 and 7 day Maine Coast cruises. Imagine a week long sailing vacation on an historic tall ship, sleeping to the calming sound of the waves and the mast swaying, and waking to sunrise over the Atlantic and fresh breakfast prepared by your yacht’s crew.

Sailing in Casco Bay, or a charter in Penobscot Bay from Camden or Rockport, are great places to start your Maine windjammer excursion. There are so many islands to visit. Your captain might drop the hook, and anchor off the shores of Vinalhaven – home to lobster fisherman and fishing author Linda Greenlaw who wrote about the Perfect Storm in her book “The Hungry Ocean.”

Bar Harbor, and nearby Southwest Harbor on Mount Desert Island, are boatbuilding and sailing capitals of Maine. You can take a sailboat tour out of Bar Harbor, or a wooden schooner charter from Southwest Harbor near Acadia National Park.

Maine Windjammer sailing vacations are generally all-inclusive packages – your yacht lodging, three homemade meals a day, and sailing instructions are all part of your sailing charter package. Of course, the spectacular Maine scenery is always included in your schooner charter.

You won’t be asked to swab the decks or walk the plank, but you might learn to sail a windjammer, and raise the mainsail, when spending a week onboard a ship. Any windjammer trip will surely involve plenty of seafaring legends of shipwrecks and ghost boats while you cruise.

You never know what you’ll discover during your Downeast sailing adventure on the Maine Coast; dolphins, seal, puffins, a whale or a mega yacht. If you are in the right place (Maine) at the right time, you might watch an entire windjammer fleet sail by or a glorious parade of Tall ships under sail.