First Contact, Lifetime Impact

I first sailed into Monhegan when I was 17. It was 1965. I saw a man walk out of a shelter made of driftwood followed by goats. I saw a white hotel on the other island and no one was there. I heard a car engine and then it stopped. It was a Jepp running the only lights on Monhegan. I was just out of reform school (Grand Theft Auto) and my dad was a recovering alcoholic with the shakes. I made black coffee for him as he steered into the harbor on our little chartered sailboat. In 1971, I left Monhegan at sunset on the schooner “Bowdoin” and sailed all night to Boston. I came back in 1972 as mate on the schooner “Adventure” with my new wife. For the past 39 years, I have gone out once a year to walk the cliffs with my wife and children to show them what I saw 46 years earlier. Much the same, much different. Now, I write about it to share with others who may never see it as I saw it.