Postscript
**David Stookey of Duxbury, MA borrowed my Gunning Dory in 1991, and made a three day crossing from Maine to Nova Scotia. The boat (and David) stood the test well and these quotes are taken from his log of passage:
“My boat for this passage has been very kindly loaned to me by Roger Crawford who runs Crawford Boat Building in Marshfield and builds those lovely Melonseeds that we see gliding around Duxbury Harbor. Roger’s gunning dory is 15’ long with an absolutely flat bottom and a lovely sheer. In addition to being lovely it’s very fast, having won six or seven races last summer and finished first in the Oarmaster Trials last autumn. The gunning dory’s speed, compared to my old boat, will be a welcome blessing in a long passage.”
“I am rowing comfortably in the late afternoon and being set up the bay by the current for another two hours. I hardly notice the rowing. That’s probably good and may be due to the greater speed and more comfortable rowing position of the gunning dory over my old dory.”
There are also some wonderfully descriptive notes in the log:
“Thursday, 8 August 1991, 0200 hrs. Wind light NW’ly. 2.5 knots made good. I find it easier in the gunning dory to lie back for an excellent short rest. With the Milky Way over me, seals popping up here and there, flocks of sea birds sleeping on the water, I have a planetarium, aquarium, and natural history museum right here all in one.”
“0300. Pass Scotch Island @ 2.2 knots. Lots of shooting stars. I am steering by picking stars directly aft, but Polaris is slowly spinning my guide stars out to sea-and thereby throwing me slightly off course to the south. There is a weird pinkish aid to navigation ahead, what can it be? A few minutes later it reveals itself: the new moon rising! In this setting it’s a very exciting sight."
