A trip on the Schooner J & E Riggin is a magical event.

To hoist the sails of a historic two masted schooner and catch the winds that whip creamy crests on an ultramarine bay is the essence of adventure of our childhood dreams.

The experience is as fascinating to watch and ultimately to become a part of.

The perfect way to steep oneself in the wonder of living history and now presence, reaching back to days when human interaction meant more than the beeping pocket monsters that chain us to busy non-events. In a world of priorities that place things over people, a ride on the Schooner J & E Riggin is a refreshing taste of putting people before things and making it fun as you go.


Captains Jon Finger and Annie Mahle are at the helm of the Riggin.

From garden row to chicken coop, from stern to masts to bow and all points of sail and management in between, these two have a knack for providing a personally engaging experience that thrills the heart with childlike wonder, refreshes the eye with new vistas to behold and warms the spirit with an effervescence of the joys of sailing.

The alchemy begins with a combination of 22 strangers and 4 crew, each from unique places, differing backgrounds and valued experiences. Place them for a week of close but comfortable quarters, guide them in making conscious choices in the use of resources, and provide opportunities for both warmth and laughter shared in the summer sun and on rainy days near the galley woodstove.

Sail along deep ultramarine and confetti lobster float scattered waters of Maine’s Penobscot Bay. Allow their eyes to alight on islands of towering emerald Christmas trees that reach out viridian fingers to boulder laden beaches laden with periwinkles and bright mussel shells. Invite tastebuds to sample the wonder of fresh, locally harvested comfort food cooked in a woodstove within a love and song filled galley which is appropriately absent of modern conveniences.


Tempt them with wild caught, succulent lobster, baked in a tub with corn and covered with furry green kelp from the sea, dripping with butter. Encourage toe dipping (and whatever else can withstand it) into the icey pure waters of the bay, to feel the brisk salt spray breeze of the sea and the fog laden drizzle-damp of a Maine rainy day.


Provide a place where fun is made as we go and experienced in the right now, where working together to hoist sails and haul anchor is a team effort with an instant reward of seeing the beauty of canvas filled with wind, and to hear the water lap on the hull as the schooner rocks along gently upon the waves. Take them to every lighthouse that isn't visible from the road, so they can feel what it was like to be in search of one as sailors of long ago did.

Do all this, and the end result is so much more than a vacation could ever aspire to be. It’s a delightful knitting of close friendships and sharing, of becoming the extended family of our hearts choosing, an experience that is nearly impossible to repeat again because it happens anew with each sail.

And yet, they do. With a 63% passenger return rate, Captains Jon and Annie have more extended family of passengers than can ever be counted. Some marry on the vessel and return for anniversary celebration. Others are grandfathered in, having sailed so many times and years that the counting of them is futile. Even the crew are former apprentices whose initial exposure on the vessel was a vacation aboard.