What we did over our 2025~2026 “Winter Vacation”

Winter vacation, what winter vacation? In the fall of 2025, on October 15th, we again began our long-serving ‘winter’ commuter ferry to the Cranberry Isles with a 5:45 AM departure from Northeast Harbor & a 5 pm return to the islands. The ferry Miss Lizzie ran the winter commuter until late fall when the run was taken over by the ferry ‘Seneca’, fresh off her Eastport-Lubec summer ferry run. Miss Lizzie then went over to Dysart’s in Southwest Harbor for some wintertime refurbishment & TLC. Over the winter, Miss Lizzie had much of her upperworks & upper deck reworked, her interior cabin overhead was opened up for ventilation & repainted, and the classic ferry was rewired from a 32-volt system to a 12-volt system, with much new lighting installed.

The schooner Margaret Todd was scheduled for a fall haul out down in Belfast but was delayed due to the shipyard schedule. Then Mother Nature stepped in, delivering a series of gales & storms that ultimately postponed the schooner’s haul-out until early spring. Meanwhile, staff made some progress on the 3-masted schooner Emma Todd at the Hinkley yard in her pathway to complete her USCG certification as a passenger vessel by removing some machinery & systems that were intended for a world cruise but are not needed for the schooner’s new role as a day sail passenger schooner. Also, in the shop, work was done on our numerous smaller working vessels & gear. Later, in the fall, the process to move forward with switching all of the 4-masted schooner Margaret Todd’s spars from spruce to aluminum began, and all the rest of the gaffs and booms were fabricated. Later, oak was milled at the ‘Viking Lumber’ sawmill in Belfast to make all new gaff jaws and boom jaws for the new aluminum spars.

Margaret Todd Engine Swap

Margaret Todd Ready to Launch!

The winter of 2025/2026 turned out to be a ‘REAL’ Maine winter – with numerous gales & storms and the extreme cold temperatures. The staff on the winter commuter ferry: Capt. Mandy, Capt. Spiff & crew Jarris had their hands full with extremely difficult conditions serving the Cranberry Isles ‘year-round residents. In the middle of the winter, we came across an opportunity to acquire a late model ‘John Deere’ diesel engine for the 54-masted schooner Margaret Todd that had been taken in trade at the local diesel shop, ‘Downeast Diesel’. This, along with Downeast Diesel being available to perform the new installation, made the decision to move forward easy. But how do we address the fact that we won’t be using a shipyard to remove the old engine & lower the new one in? Using a local dock-building crane barge, ‘Charles Bradley’, the engine room cabin top was removed, and the old Cummins 855 NTA engine was removed and brought over to Downeast Diesel’s property on the opposite side of the harbor. Then the Twin Disc 5114 transmission & reduction gear was removed and brought to the diesel shop for an overhaul before being reinstalled on the late-model John Deere diesel. While the engine was out, Joseph got in the bilge under the engine and cleaned it all out before ‘rust bustin’ and putting new protective coatings on the steel under the engine. Afterward, the ‘new to us’ John Deere engine was set down on the engine beds, and a new exhaust system was custom-built. The new engine installation was shaken up enough for the schooner to run down on a Sunday to Belfast & hauled out at Safe Harbor Front Street shipyard, where the vessel underwent a US Coast Guard hull inspection, bottom & hull painting as well as new zincs installed & the stuffing box overhauled & repacked before launching on Friday morning and steaming back to Southwest Harbor.

Seneca on Ice!

Navigating in the snow!

Winter – Rise and Shine!

While all this work was going on, we came across a ferry on the Chesapeake Bay that was for sale. The Capt. Jason II was a 42′ Bruno & Still man lobster boat hull built in New Hampshire and designed by the famous Maine lobster boat designer and builder, Royal Lowell. Built for ferry service out to Smith Island off the lower Eastern Shore, Capt. Jason II had served Smith Island for over 4 decades. Although the ferry was rough around the edges, she had a strong hull designed for Maine waters, a John Deere diesel engine, and a USCG passenger certification. The 42; Bruno and Stillman was trucked up to Miane in March by 5 Star Yacht Services of Trenton, Maine, with the height of the vessel clearing the legal limit by 1 inch! Blocked up alongside our shop at Manset at the Town of Cranberry Isles facility, we began a major overhaul of the ferry, including upgrading and improving many of the ferry’s systems. The ferry has been renamed ‘First Light,’ which is very appropriate, as she will often be used on the Cranberry Isles commuter ferry runs and is one of the first vessels to see the sun rise in the winter. ‘First Light’ has had much of her wiring renewed, a new, larger transmission oil cooler, and a new sea valve replaced. In addition, the ferry has had its entire hull & cabin surfaces prepped and is being entirely repainted. After launching this spring and new US Coast Guard inspections, it is anticipated that the ‘First Light’ will be operating as the ‘summer’ commuter ferry, a new operation for us ( we have done the ‘winter’ commuter ferry for about 15 years), along with our long-running Cranberry Cove Ferry from Southwest Harbor out to the Cranberry Isles.

Capt. Jason II becoming our First Light!

Over the winter, the historic, 52-foot century-old centerboard ketch ‘Carib II’ had her entire interior scraped and repainted by Jarris. The Carib II is the last surviving original ‘Presto’ style shoal-draft vessel designed by the famous boat designer Commodore Ralph Munroe, and almost all of her interior is still original from her 1924 build. As we have progressed into spring, our regular spring outfitting is occurring with prepping and repainting the schooner Joshua, Miss Lizzie ferry, along with USCG hull inspection, repainting of Eider, our 37-foot Osmond Beal lobster boat, and deck, interior, and hull painting on the schooner Margaret Todd.

Last but not least, we were contacted in early March to charter a vessel for a California film company’s drone contractor. Capt. Mandy chartered Miss Lizzie and spent an afternoon out to sea with the drone crew as they captured aerial views for their mystery film, now in production. A very exciting and very chilly time was had by all.

Drone Launch off the Miss Lizzie in March