Downeast Windjammers, Bar Harbor

we were excited to go onto a 4 mast sailboat , paid $64.00 for 2, we sailed out into the harbor, and helped with the sails , that was good, instead of turning away from land, the captain turned inland into the bay area, the wind died into a slight breeze, and he had the wind behind us, so the sails floopped into the wind for a while, what a discourageing sail, it was so bad he had to put the motor on, so we went back out of the harbor, i thought he might want to give us a sail ride, were the wind was still going 10-15 knots open water, captian moby dick turned in and the sail was over, check your forcast for wind advisery, i owned a person 23' sailboat for 8 yrs, as a sailor, what a dissapointment from moby dick the captan

I was really excited about this because I'd never been on a schooner before. The boat was even more beautiful (and larger) than I expected, but I was a little disappointed in the ride. The 1st 20 - 30 minutes was great because we were looking around, listening to them talk about the boat, and they had a group (including children) help raise the sails. And they talked about the sights while we were on the way out. What disappointed me is that we rode out of the harbor and then just kind of floated around a bit in the middle of the water until it was time to go back in. I was expecting to cruise along the shore and for it to be more of a sightseeing tour. For what we did, the tour could have been about half of what it was. I'm glad I got to ride on the boat, but I would have rather been touring the park or wandering around Bar Harbor than just passing the time to add up to the total tour time. Like I said though, the boat was beautiful and the crew was very nice. All of that said, this might have been better had we gone on the morning cruise...we probably would have seen wildlife (there was none on the afternoon cruise). Someone mentioned that they had a nature guide on their cruise; we did not have one of those. I imagine children would find the whole thing pretty exciting.

We rode the Margaret Todd, the four-masted scooner that my kids kept watching in the Bay around Bar Harbor. It was a very relaxing ride. I thought it was smoother than the lobster boat ride that we took. This may be the only time I will ever help raise the mast on a scooner! We had some problems buying the tickets (the cash register wasn't working). We thought it was a little expensive. It was very cold! Make sure you bundle up and wear a hat. Everyone moved to the sunny side of the boat as the masts moved. If the boat were more crowed this would have been a problem. We saw eagles and seals. There was a nature guide on the boat who explained about the islands and animal life. She was good. I would recommed this trip. It was less than an hour and very relaxing and my kids loved it! Jo