Our beloved 115-year-old Essex-built, schooner Ernestina ex-Effie M. Morrissey is returning to New Bedford via Gloucester and Boston next week from Maine! We were up there last week and she looks fabulous! The attached PDF has the Gloucester schedule of events. Please forward this email to any and all who are or would be interested in her return.

Weather and sea conditions permitting, she is scheduled to depart Boothbay using her engine and Jumbo sail next Tuesday, and arrive in Gloucester at Noon on Wednesday. She will be berthed at the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center on Harbor Loop Road. She will depart Gloucester Thursday at 9 a.m. and arrive at Rowes Wharf in Boston at Noon. She will get underway on Friday at 6 a.m. and transit the Cape Cod Canal between 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. and anchor off the South Coast that night. She will arrive at the New Bedford State Pier at Noon on Saturday, May 9th. Please consult www.sailernestina.org for any changes to the schedule.

Our Friends have arranged a number of fundraising venues as outlined in the attached PDF at each stop along the way including the Schooner Thomas E. Lannon going out from Gloucester to escort her in as well as the Cuttyhunk Ferry doing likewise in New Bedford. There will, of course, be music, tours, and a great deal of fun in general. Many thanks to Chuck Smiler, in particular, for doing an incredible job in helping pull all this together!

As an aside, the Schooner Adventure in Gloucester is having an open house this Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. They are up for a preservation grant and you can vote on-line to help. Visit www.schooner-adventure.org. It’s a small community and we are all in this together.

Next week I will be in the office Monday and Tuesday but be on the road throughout her return and won’t have much access to email if any. We still have a great deal of work to do but we have just made one giant step forward and I am looking forward to you all seeing our old girl. Thank you for your support and encouragement.