>> RICHARD WIESE: New England is a region that celebrates its traditions.

In this episode of Weekends with Yankee... >> Together!

Heave away!

>> WIESE: ...we board the massive schooner the J&E Riggin for a windjammer cruise along the beautiful Maine coast.

>> If the boat wants to go over here, then I guess we're going over there.

So she tells me.

>> WIESE: Then we travel down to Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the Head of the Charles, the largest two-day rowing event in the world.

(people cheering) >> It's the Super Bowl of rowing.

>> WIESE: Lastly, we head up north to Vermont, where we find the Shelburne Museum, one of the country's most unique museums, home to a land-bound lighthouse, a steamboat docked in a grassy meadow, and four centuries of art and Americana.

>> One of the most extraordinary collections you've ever seen.

>> NARRATOR: So come along with us for a once-in-a-lifetime journey through New England as you've never experienced it before, a true insider's guide from the editors of Yankee Magazine.

Join explorer and adventurer Richard Wiese and Yankee senior food editor Amy Traverso for behind-the-scenes access to the unique attractions that define this region.

It's the ultimate travel guide from the people who know it best.

Weekends with Yankee.

>> Major funding provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> ANNOUNCER: The Vermont Country Store, purveyors of the practical and hard-to-find, a family-owned tradition since 1946.

Merchandise and products from around the block and around the world.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> ANNOUNCER: Family Tree Magazine-- articles, podcasts, online courses, and webinar resources for discovering, preserving, and celebrating family history.

>> ANNOUNCER: Massachusetts is home to a lot of firsts-- the first public park in America; the first fried clams; the first university in America; the first basketball game.

What's first for you?

>> WIESE: Rockland, Maine-- a small town nestled roughly in the middle of the breathtaking Maine coast.

The J&E Riggin calls this beautiful little town home.

The Riggin is a majestic old two-masted schooner that was built as an oystering ship in 1927, and was designated a national historic landmark in 1991.

Now Captain Jon Finger and his chef, wife, and co-captain Annie Mahle, offer sailing vacations with incredible food, a sort of B&B on the sea.

This is magnificent.

>> TRAVERSO: It's so beautiful.

>> WIESE: Yankee food editor Amy Traverso has heard about Annie's cooking for years.

I understand the food is very good on this.

>> TRAVERSO: The food is incredible.

It's like salt water, salt air, and wood.

She cooks on wood, which I'm really psyched about.

>> WIESE: So we decided to jump aboard.

>> TRAVERSO: Hey!

>> WIESE: Hi!

>> Hi, guys.

>> TRAVERSO: Hi, I'm Amy.

>> Welcome, I'm Annie.

>> TRAVERSO: So nice to meet you.

>> WIESE: And I'm Richard Wiese, nice to meet you.

>> Nice to meet you too.

>> Hi there, Captain Jon.

>> WIESE: This is beautiful, it looks like floating art.

>> Thank you.

>> Let's go sailing.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay, great.

>> WIESE: All right, terrific.

>> After you.

>> TRAVERSO: Thank you.

>> WIESE: Thank you very much.

>> My name is Captain Jon Finger.

I'm been sailing the Riggin for 19 years now.

I've been sailing professionally for 36 years.

>> I'm Annie Mahle, and my husband and I own the schooner J&E Riggin and we are on her deck right now in Rockland Harbor.

>> Security call, security call, schooner J&E Riggin departing our dock, windjammer wharf outbound.

Outbound to Rockland Harbor.

Let's ease her out a little bit.

Just a little.

We're going to head on over to the south end.

>> WIESE: So how far will you be powered out before you start sailing on your own?

>> Just far enough to clear the channel here.

>> WIESE: How many years have you had this vessel?

>> This is our 19th year owning the vessel, and the boat's going to turn 90 next year.

>> WIESE: 90?

Do you ever stand here looking out at the sea and say, "Man, I'm one lucky guy"?

>> Every day.

>> WIESE: Every day, huh?

>> Every day, yeah.

>> WIESE: There is something about, you know, seeing all these lines and the wood...

I don't know, I feel like I'm on Mutiny on the Bounty.

Maybe that's the wrong boat.

>> Don't say mutiny.

>> WIESE: Yeah, no mutiny.

Okay, that's... >> We... we don't need that.

Stand by your main halyards.

All right, get your lines ready to pull.

Are we ready on the peak?

>> Ready on the peak!

>> Are we ready on the throat?

>> Ready on the throat!

>> Together, heave away!

>> Heave away!

>> What I love about the sea most is the freedom that it provides.

(cheers, laughter) >> Heave!

>> The choices, the directions you can go-- every day is different.

>> Two, six.

>> That's well... hold that.

Tie your stopper and belay.

The wind, the weather's constantly changing.

>> Good job, gang!

Wait, high five.

>> There's an artist in me that loves the different lighting and I think traditionally Maine has drawn artists for generations for that reason.

>> All right, babe, we're going to go cook, unless you are going to set sails, or what are you doing?

What's going on?

>> I'm going to go anchor.

>> You're going to go anchor?

All right, then... >> You going to go cook?

>> We're going to go cook.

>> Okay, have fun.

>> TRAVERSO: To the galley.

>> So, welcome to my galley.

>> TRAVERSO: Wow, this is really beautiful.

>> I'm go glad to have you here.

>> TRAVERSO: So tell me about this stove.

This is really impressive.

>> So, this is Lucy.

And we got her two years ago, even though she's much older than that.

>> TRAVERSO: Yeah!

And I smell wood.

Is this wood burning?

>> It's a wood-burning stove.

The wood goes in up here.

My wood is down here.

And so we take advantage of all the flavors that wood gives to food.

>> TRAVERSO: So what are we working on right now?

>> So, I've got beets from a local farm, and those are going to be part of a veggie that we're having.

So roasted Brussels sprouts and beets.

What I love about what it is that we do is that not only are we nourishing bodies, but we're also nourishing souls.

So, to me, nourishing souls means that they can go back to their lives and greet whatever is there with grace, and equanimity, and laughter.

So then the next thing is salsa.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

>> So this is going to go with the pork.

So this one is just little diced bits.

And then we'll end up being the same size as the pineapple.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

How unusual is it to have a wood stove on a boat?

I mean, a lot of people would think you would never have a wood stove on a boat because it's fire on a wooden boat.

>> It's evocative.

>> TRAVERSO: Yeah.

>> The smell and the... it just kind of... and also the warmth.

There's warmth from this, so on the ends of the season when there's a nip in the air, to come down here and just be cozy is delightful.

>> TRAVERSO: Yeah.

>> And then, to take advantage of all of the flavor that comes from the wood, to me it's a no brainer.

>> TRAVERSO: Yeah, yeah.

>> My family does help on the boat.

Okay, so what one do you want to sing?

>> I don't care.

>> ♪ One morning, one morning ♪ (voiceover): We have two daughters, they're both teenagers now.

So Chloe just recently went away to college, and Ella still does work on the boat.

And they grew up on the boat.

And they are a part of our crew and they're a part of the experience for me.

♪ And come along with me.

♪ >> What brought me to Maine was mostly this wonderful fleet of authentic tall ships.

(Annie and Ella continue singing) What's different about Maine is that there are so many that you can actually still sail.

Let her go.

Would you like to help?

>> WIESE: Yeah.

>> Stand on that hatch opposite of Ella.

>> WIESE: Okay.

>> And we're just going to fold the sail back and forth as we lower it.

>> ♪ Will drink when you're dry.

♪ >> WIESE: Oh, you want it over here this way, okay.

>> ♪ When two became three.

♪ >> WIESE: Okay.

(Annie and Ella continue singing) >> Well, I can hear those sails coming down.

>> TRAVERSO: Yeah, and I'm hearing some hungry noises from people upstairs.

>> Oh, you hear their stomachs rumbling?

>> TRAVERSO: Well, yeah, and their mouths going.

So, let's see, we've got pork, we've got to plate the pork, the salsa, we've got three vegetables, right?

>> Right.

>> TRAVERSO: Bread... oh, my God, so I'm in heaven.

All right, everybody's ready to eat.

Let's go.

>> Off we go.

>> WIESE: Wow, look at this.

>> Whoa!

>> WIESE: This looks delicious.

>> Lovely.

>> WIESE: Love the presentation.

>> TRAVERSO: Fork and knife?

>> WIESE: Fork and knife, sure.

>> TRAVERSO: There you go.

>> WIESE: Thank you very much.

What do we have here?

>> So, this is guajillo and cocoa and espresso rubbed pork loin with a bunch of different roasted veggies from the farm and/or garden.

>> TRAVERSO: So when you're out at sea... >> Mmm-hmm.

>> TRAVERSO: And you serve this meal, you're just right on to the next one, right?

>> Oh, yeah.

>> WIESE: You know, there's many places in the world in which you could do this-- why Maine?

Why here?

>> We are now on the cutting edge of local, organic... the food scene in Maine and Portland and Rockland is just, like, bursting.

But then also from a sailing perspective... >> From a sailing perspective, this is still one of the greatest places to go sailing.

It's one of the best cruising grounds in the world, actually.

Here there are so many inlets, there are so many peninsulas, there are so many islands, you could spend a lifetime here and not see it all.

>> WIESE: I'd really like to thank you on behalf of us for taking us here because it's not just a cruise or a sail or a meal, it's really a trip to another part of the world or even a different time that you feel a transformation.

And this was wonderful.

I don't think I'll ever forget seeing your sails go up or seeing this wonderful meal come out, so thank you very much for having us.

>> Well, thank you for being here.

>> You're most welcome; come back and see us anytime.

>> TRAVERSO: I'm counting the days now.

(laughs) ♪ ♪ >> WIESE: From Maine we head south to Cambridge, Massachusetts, just across the river from Boston.

In addition to being a hub of education and innovation, Cambridge is home to the Head of the Charles, the largest two-day rowing event in the world, with 11,000 athletes and tens of thousands of spectators.

Today's challenge is the wind.

It's brutal, and this is already an incredibly tough three-mile course full of sharp curves and narrow bridges.

>> If you're ready, bow number one.

>> It's the Super Bowl of rowing.

>> As you know, this is a running start.

>> We have 800 clubs racing this year, from 40 states in the U.S. and 28 foreign countries.

>> UNC on the move.

>> You know, they're out in the boat, they're having fun, and it is a real coming together of the rowing community.

(cheering) It's an iconic, signature event, like the marathon.

You can have youth scullers competing with Olympians.

And we have 70 Olympians here this year, 30 of whom won medals in Rio.

So you can have the beginner and as good as you get on both ends of the spectrum.

>> And row.

>> WIESE: Today I met up with Olympic athlete and local Cambridge hero Gevvie Stone, who is rowing in two races: the women's championship singles, the same kind of race for which she won an Olympic silver medal in Rio, and the women's championship eight, which she does with the seven other best female scullers in the world.

What does Gevvie Stone represent to this sport, or at least to this race?

>> She's a rock star.

She really did it the hard way and proved that she's a Type-A person.

You know, most rowers are.

You don't get out of bed at 5:30 every morning to train unless you're really motivated.

A doctor who shelved her residency in order to compete in Rio, and, you know, kudos to her.

She and her family are just awesome.

>> WIESE: So, what a family event this is.

Your mom rowed too.

>> Yup.

And she's coaching now.

>> WIESE: And where did she row?

>> For the U.S. team.

>> WIESE: For the U.S. team, and what is it like to come to the Head of Charles every year for you?

>> My college friends come back and are staying with me, and my international rowing friends are here, and it's like a college reunion, but for rowers, every year.

And it's so fun.

>> And this is a festival of rowing.

So people come here and have fun and, sure, once they're on the water, they're pulling as hard as they can, but they didn't train for this race.

This is a longer piece.

There are curves.

There are headwinds, bridges, accidents along the way.

(crowd cheering) >> And people are on the bridges cheering for you the whole way down, and they can see kind of two sides.

They can see you coming into the bridge and leaving the bridge on some of them, and so, it's a fun vantage point.

(cheering) >> Notre Dame, you're approaching the line.

And row.

>> WIESE: This is where it all begins for the Head of the Charles.

Behind me, you see downtown Boston.

Over 11,000 participants start on this line.

Now, as much as it's supposed to be about fun, when you get to that starting position, there's a lot of nerves, and obviously a lot of anxiety since they know they're heading into a grueling three-mile race.

(crowd cheering) >> There we go, it's Gevvie Stone.

>> There's nobody else in sight.

>> WIESE: Soon after Gevvie left the starting line, she pulled ahead in the women's championship singles and left all her competition behind.

>> This is your Olympic silver medalist, Eliot Bridge.

Wake up and cheer, let's go.

>> WIESE: You won the singles race, congratulations.

>> Yup.

Thank you, thanks.

>> WIESE: You have the elite race this afternoon, so, what is the Champ Eight?

>> The Championship Eight is the name of the event for the fastest eights out there, so most of them are D-1 colleges, their varsity programs, and then some international crews, and then my crew, which is comprised of eight of the top single scullers from around the world.

So it's eight different countries.

We're all used to racing singles, used to holding two oars in our hands.

And we jump into an eight, holding one oar in our hands, and just have fun.

It's definitely a dream team.

We have six of the top seven rowers in Rio in the boat.

>> WIESE: In an eight, is there a feeling that you're sort of all in sync?

>> Oh, yeah.

>> WIESE: That you say, "Wow, we all feel very much in sync right now"?

>> That's what you aim for, absolutely.

You aim for being in the s... "having swing" is one of the rowing terms.

And rhythm, and being in the zone together.

>> WIESE: How are you going to approach this race?

>> Uh, ask the coach.

(laughs) >> WIESE: Yeah, coach, how is she approaching this?

>> Well, we think the wind will taper down a little bit before, but there won't be really much room to warm up, so we're going to try to warm up before they get on the water, and then we're going to think, you know, I've already talked to the coxswain about how we approach the bridges, because you want to get the boat turned before the bridge so you're not in a wind tunnel, trying to turn the boat during the bridge.

And then the game will be to take advantage of the good water, so when they've got good water between these gusts, you know, they make a move.

They make sure the cadence is there and the rhythm's right.

When they get the gust, they just want to make sure they're burying the oars and keeping the boat moving.

(crowd cheering) >> WIESE: Just behind me is the finish line.

Now, Gevvie took off just a few minutes ago, and, like everyone else, we're waiting to see how she does.

(crowd cheering) >> In a winning time of 16:30, Cambridge Boat Club.

(cheers and applause) >> WIESE: So, what are the future goals?

>> That's a really good question.

Obviously, in the short term, to get into a residency program, to start residency.

I do want to go into sports medicine and to be a team doctor, hopefully one of the U.S. rowing team doctors and stay involved with the sport that way.

Rowing is a small community and that makes it a special community.

I think it's a very fun sport to be pushing your limits all the time, but it's definitely a brutal sport, and that creates a bond among the athletes who do it, and it's something that you share for life.

>> WIESE: From Massachusetts, we head north to Shelburne, Vermont, a small town just outside of Burlington.

It's a real jewel of New England, but it's a place I hadn't discovered before.

This town is the home of the Shelburne Museum, which is truly unique in the country, with its collection of over 100,000 art objects, including a barn, a lighthouse, and a 220-foot boat.

It's called a collection of collections, and it's a museum like nothing I have ever seen.

>> The museum is extremely eclectic.

We were founded in 1947 by Electra Havemeyer Webb.

The Havemeyer family controlled the sugar monopoly in the United States, and the Webbs were Vanderbilts, so she had tremendous resources, and very little boundaries to her collecting, so she bought in a very ecumenical way.

She never bought one of anything.

If a painting was good to have, then you wanted to have five paintings by that artist.

Rather than just purchase paintings of boats, she purchased a boat.

So she had a very broad vision of 18th and 19th century Americana, which she brought home here to Shelburne Museum.

>> WIESE: Did people in her time think, "Wow, she's crazy"?

>> Not only did people think she was crazy, her mother thought she was crazy.

Her mother, Louisine Havemeyer, and her father were the great collectors of French impressionism in this country.

In the very early years of the 20th century, Electra Webb purchased a cigar store Indian in Stamford, Connecticut, brought it home, showed it to her mother, and her mother said, "Oh, Electra, what have you done?"

So, she was shocked that her daughter was out purchasing what she called junk Americana, and that turned into this collection of 100,000 objects at Shelburne Museum.

Electra Webb, every year, brought the circus to this community for the children of Burlington.

And she was an avid fan of the circus.

She collected circus posters.

She collected carousel animals, memorabilia from the circus.

So, right, actually, at the end of her life, she created a horseshoe-shaped circus building to house one of the most extraordinary collections you've ever seen.

>> WIESE: I guess you're the either ringmaster or curator of this.

>> I am, I'm the lucky curator who's in charge of our circus collection.

>> WIESE: And what an, kind of an unusual long shape.

It goes in a big horseshoe.

>> It was specifically designed to accommodate Roy Arnold's circus parade.

>> WIESE: Wow.

I'd love to see it.

>> Perfect.

Let me show you.

>> WIESE: Okay.

Holy moly.

Look at this.

>> This is an extraordinary toy that was made by a man named Edgar Decker Kirk.

He worked on the railroad, and during his down time, he would carve these little figurines for his children to play with.

He spent 30, 40 years of his life working on this, and actually died with it incomplete.

>> WIESE: My gosh, I mean, each one of these hand-carved by a single person.

>> By a single person.

>> WIESE: Amazing.

>> And not one of them is alike.

This is Roy Arnold's miniature circus parade, and this is the whole reason this building was built.

Mrs. Webb acquired it in the 1950s.

It's on a one-inch to one-foot scale, and if this was life-size this entire circus parade would stretch more than two miles long.

He was inspired by actual performers in the circus in the 1920s and he based each wagon on a real wagon that was used by different circuses.

>> WIESE: And this is all hand-carved.

>> Absolutely.

>> WIESE: This is fantastic.

You know, I didn't know what to think when I came in here.

I've never seen anything like this.

>> Mr. Arnold wanted to capture this moment in time for generations to enjoy long after they went extinct.

You see people come in, of all ages, and they all leave with a smile on their face.

♪ ♪ >> WIESE: The Ticonderoga, was that on Lake Champlain?

>> It was on Lake Champlain, and it was the last one to ply the waters of Lake Champlain.

The lake actually had three other steamers running at the time that the Ti was launched.

>> The Ticonderoga was purchased in 1950 by Electra Webb.

She actually ran it on the lake for about five years.

It was launched in 1906 and had an active life as a sidewheeler on Lake Champlain.

By 1955, it was obvious that it wasn't going to be viable as a ship any more, so she literally constructed a railroad for three miles from Lake Champlain and dragged it over land in the winter of 1955 to bring it here to Shelburne Museum.

>> The exhibit on the boat is 1923, largely in part due to the fact that we have a lot of information from that year.

>> WIESE: So is this what the dining room would've looked like back then?

>> Yup, we are fortunate to have a historic photograph from 1923 showing the way the dining room was set up.

I imagine there were some people that actually just took a daily excursion on the boat.

They spent the day on the boat on the lake.

But, principally, the tide just brought folks from one shoreline to another.

I'm a woodworker, I'm a boatbuilder, and when we were doing the restoration in the '90s, being able to take pieces apart that nobody had seen the backside of except for the workmen that put it together in 1906, and, you know, this is also just a great example of American maritime heritage, and the craftsmanship that went into sort of this era of construction.

You don't see this any more.

>> WIESE: I'd love to see some of the top deck of this.

>> Let's go on up through the grand staircase.

We're going to go right up to the hurricane deck, the top deck.

>> WIESE: Sure.

The hurricane deck, okay.

Why do I feel like I'm on the Titanic?

>> So, here we are on the hurricane deck.

>> WIESE: I imagine, on a summer day, this would've been the place to be.

>> It definitely...

There are some photographs of the Ti on the lake.

And this was crowded.

They had a lot of deck chairs up here, and it was literally packed.

They could handle almost 1,100 passengers.

>> WIESE: You know, with the wind sort of blowing right now, I can really imagine standing on this deck, enjoying the magnificence of Lake Champlain, and the fall foliage, and... >> And we're just so fortunate to be able to have this vessel still in existence.

What you're standing on, what you're walking through, the interior, its original construction, it hasn't been altered.

And that's the other remarkable thing about the Ti, is that it bridged two eras, the steamboat era and the internal combustion engine, which had a big impact on all of the navigational vessels on the water, but the Ti held over, and it continued as a steamboat.

It bridged that change, that transition.

There were a lot of folks that didn't want to see it go.

And that's why we probably have the Ti today.

>> WIESE: Thank you so much.

>> You're welcome.

>> WIESE: This has really been a treat.

>> NARRATOR: For exclusive video, recipes, travel ideas, tips from the editors, and access to the Weekends With Yankee digital magazine, go to weekendswithyankee.com and follow us on social media, @yankeemagazine.

Yankee magazine, the inspiration for the television series, provides recipes, feature articles, and the best of New England from the people who know it best.

Six issues for $10.

Call 1-800-221-8154. Credit cards accepted.

>> ANNOUNCER: Major funding provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> ANNOUNCER: The Vermont Country Store, purveyors of the practical and hard-to-find, a family-owned tradition since 1946.

Merchandise and products from around the block and around the world.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> ANNOUNCER: Family Tree magazine-- articles, podcasts, online courses, and webinar resources for discovering, preserving, and celebrating family history.

>> ANNOUNCER: Massachusetts is home to a lot of firsts-- the first public park in America; the first fried clams; the first university in America; the first basketball game.

What's first for you?

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Lighthouse over here... and there's an inbound ferry.

You ready to take the wheel?

>> WIESE: Oh, yeah, sure, especially the inbound ferry.

>> There you go.

>> WIESE: Absolutely.

I almost feel like my voice should get deeper now.

>> All right, I'm going to go take a nap.

>> WIESE: Oh right, with the ferry coming!