Tag: Explore

We’re becoming a destination for cruise ships

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

As Bar Harbor, at the gateway to Acadia National Park, tries to limit the number of cruise ships coming to town, tiny Eastport has been reaping benefits.

For the past two autumns, as some of the ships have ventured our way, we’ve welcomed their arrival at our downtown Breakwater pier. As I’ve previously posted, they’ve extended our brief retailing season and brought delighted walkers to our byways, shops, eateries, and galleries.

Supporters point out that these guests and supporting staff don’t add traffic congestion to our narrow roadways, and their arrivals can be spaced to avoid times of busy events. The town is also limiting arrivals to one ship per day, unlike Bar Harbor or Portland.

It’s still early in the planning for the upcoming travel season, and things can change rapidly, but here’s what’s already slated.

At his point, we’re expecting ten ships to come calling, 23 arrivals in all and up to 55,000 day-visitors. A few are spread out over the summer, too.

  • Azamara Quest: 593-foot length / 702 passengers / October 2
  • Brilliant Lady: 908 / 2,800 / September 18 and 27, October 9
  • Le Boreal: 466 / 264 / October 17
  • Le Champlain: 431 / 184 / October 19
  • Majestic Princess: 1,082 / 4,450 / August 24
  • Norwegian Getaway: 1,068 / 4,028 / August 21 and 28, September 4, 11, and 25, October 16 and 23
  • Pearl Mist: 324 / 210 / November 2
  • Viking Neptune: 749 / 954 / April 27
  • Volendam: 780 / 1,432 / June 14, July 13, September 5 and 20, October 4
  • Zuiderdam: 936 / 1,916 / June 16, August 25

Three of them are too long to dock at the pier. Instead, they’ll anchor in the channel and relay passengers and crew to and from the dock.

The Zuiderdam, seen here in Rockland Harbor last year, will be making two visits. You can see one of its tenders in the water, conveying passengers to the town and back.

And do I have a deal for you!

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Today, for many Americans, is defined as After-Christmas Sales rife with “big savings.”

The one I’m opening to you is even free.

Smashword’s annual Year-End ebook bonanza is into its second – and final – week, and I’m offering you five of my novels at no cost. Pick one or all or something in-between. They’re all different.

It’s your chance to pick up these ebooks at no risk. If you like the stories, perhaps you’ll leave a brief review and five stars at the website, just to encourage other readers who come along in the future.

The titles are Daffodil Uprising, when youth across the country went freaky; Pit-a-Pat High Jinks, with lovers and friends setting forth in premature adulthood; Subway Visions, with wild rides through the Underground; What’s Left, as a bereft daughter tries to make sense of her bohemian parents and close-knit Greek family; and Yoga Bootcamp, where Asian spirituality sizzles in a back-to-the-earth funky farm not far from the Big Apple.

It’s still a good time to give yourself a present. This one carries my blessing. For details, go to Smashwords.com.

 

Accept my free token for an eye-opening ride

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Some things are timeless, and subway trains and their tunnels and elevated lines are that for me. They do get my imagination rolling.

That’s how I came to write Subway Visions, my surrealistic novel of adventurous rides through underground culture. Some of it even erupts into verbal graffiti.

The ebook is one of five novels I’m making available for FREE during Smashword’s annual end-of-the-year sale. You can obtain yours in the digital platform of your choice.

Think of this as my Christmas present to you. Now, get rolling and enjoy the trip!

For details, go to the book at Smashwords.com.

Along the tubes to nirvana

Ahoy, mates! It’s a small world, indeed

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been caught off-guard several times while wearing my gray Louis R. French historic schooner hoodie around Eastport. (Well, one of them. I now have three, but that’s another story.)

The first encounter was at the county courthouse in Machias while researching the deeds to our home. A registrar asked what I knew about the boat and I started replying with the history. She smiled and said, “My dad worked aboard it,” back when it was a sardine carrier based in Lubec, the town just south of Eastport. During that stretch, the masts were removed and the vessel was powered by an inboard motor.

The second time was when a friend, a legendary ship pilot, smiled and said he rode many times aboard it as a kid. Bob did correct me, saying the French wasn’t a sardine carrier but a freighter carrying cat food to Canada. (“Cat food to Canada?” Sounds like a title to me.) His family did own canneries in Lubec, Eastport, Portland, and a few other places. That’s yet another history to consider.

The next incident came while leaving my dentist’s office and his wife ( a.k.a. center of operations) Mary, blurted out, “Lewis R. French? That was my family’s boat.” For 50-some years, in fact, or the time it was based on our waters, when her Burpee and Vose families possessed the vessel. From her I learned that during the Prohibition, the French was an active rum-runner. Sardine carrier? Huh? The missions do get more interesting, no?

She also said something about ghosts. Well, if they could talk.

She does have the book published later, but I do suspect some of those details are missing.

The most recent account came while watching a big cruise ship come into Eastport. A woman standing nearby saw my hoodie and then told me she used to work in the office when the French belonged to Seaport Navigation. (She confirmed that my dentist’s wife’s families were among the owners). The headquarters was on the second floor of a waterfront building that she pointed to, one where friends of ours have their gallery and apartment, and said she never got tired of the view. She remembered typing up many documents regarding  deliveries of canned sardines to the railroad line in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. Shipping them from there rather than by truck from Maine was much cheaper. By this point, the French was Seaport’s backup ship.

So sardines were still part of the story.