Camden, Maine 44:13N 69:04W
Millybrown
Mark Hillmann
Sat 4 Oct 2008 16:43
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Murrel and Miles (my sister and brother) came
aboard at Castine. I was lent a proper American four wheel drive pick-up
truck by the yard there, where we are proposing to leave the boat for the
winter. The US has no public transport and Castine does not even have hire
cars. The drive through to Bangor airport was worthwhile with the leaves
starting to turn and the smaller timber houses in the towns we went
through, not the mansions with a sea view that you see all along the
coast.
We sailed up the river and found a quiet mooring
for the night and then sailed out of Castine the following morning.
We had a vigorous beat out to Camden, ending in a
heavy squall with driving rain as we got there.
 It then came out a fine evening and we had
coffee and then a lobster supper ashore. Camden is an attractive little
town with some very elegant yachts in the harbour. Clearly a holiday
area.
 This yacht, tied up close to where we
berthed, had beautiful shiny varnishwork. At sunset one of the crew
came out to lower the ensign. I cheekily asked if he was paid
crew. He said yes, there were six paid crew aboard. I said I
was pleased to sail without the cost of six crew. He replied
that he sailed and was paid.
That was the captain
speaking.
This is one of the unpaid
crew. Murrel and I joined the Milly Brown at the beautiful small Maine
port of Castine (the last British stronghold to fall in the War of Independence
and now a naval training centre) as replacements for the succession of unpaid
crews that have been seduced with promises of idyllic days at sea or pressganged
onto the Milly Brown.
Those of you who have been following this blog may
be asking how come two Estonians joined Mark in Iceland and what happened
to them? Who was the mysterious Israeli that joined in Greenland and has he been
sighted since? Was it that, after a succession of unpaid crews from Colin
(Maryport to Oban) the two Martins (Oban to Stornoway), Guy and Ann ( Hebrides
to Faroes), Adam (Iceland Husavik to Isafjordur ) and Lorna (around
Iceland) and with nobody to jump to his command or cook his meals, Mark
would search for other ways of crewing his boat free of
charge?
Those of you reading the blog who have not been on
Milly Brown perhaps will not be surprised to know that the bookshelves are
full of books about seafarers. However I can divulge that many of these
books are about pirates (including Sir Francis Drake) who developed methods of
visiting harbours, getting acquaintances drunk and enticing them onto the ship.
Once at sea they were captive and worked like slaves with threats of
keel hauling or worse. However to avoid needing to pay them they were
unfortunately lost at sea (if they had not previously died of scurvy) or
they were abandoned on some uninhabited island.
Could it be that Mark had learned the lesson from
these pirates? To avoid my having to notify Interpol of my suspicions, I
would urge Helgur and Sigrit from Estonia or Assaf from Israel to contact
me on mileshillmann {CHANGE TO AT} hotmail {DOT} com to, in
confidence, inform me of their safety and how much Mark owes them in
backpay. If they have survived the harsh rule on Milly Brown and lived to
tell the tale, I shall then get in touch with Lorna, who I know, despite
the credit crunch, will remortgage the house again (as she keeps having to do to
indulge Mark in his excursions) and pay them their dues.
As you can see I am looking forward to normal
sailing conditions with Mark down the East coast of Maine - but no
pay.
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