Way back when, before the sailing life ever started, we lived in Corvallis, a small town in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. We spent most weekends while living there surfing on the nearby coast, and that’s how we first met Chris Speakman.
While Chris lived and surfed in Hawaii, and traveled and surfed many other places on the planet, he originally grew up on Little Cranberrry Island, one of the small islands that dot the Maine coast south of the more famous Mt Desert Island, which is home to most of Acadia National Park. So when Madrone found her way to Little Cranberry, we sent Chris a quick message letting him know.
There are only 60 or so year-round residents, so it turns out that everyone on Little Cranberry knows the Speakmans, and Chris’ brother Jay still has a summer home on the island. Chris made calls to a couple of his friends, and we were welcomed like royalty.
Jack, a local lobster fisherman and multi-generation islander, and his wife Erica picked us up at the town dock and toured us around, pointing out various spots on the island where he and Chris got into trouble growing up. After the tour, he presented us a with a pair of lobsters from that day’s catch.
The next day, Chris’ friend Mark, another local lobster fisherman and sixth-generation islander, picked us up at Madrone in his small powerboat. With three bikes aboard, we zipped across to Seal Harbor for a fifteen mile bike ride on the famous carriage trails of Acadia. After the ride, he gifted us another pair of lobsters from his day’s catch.
It’s a small world when an old friend from one small town on the west coast connects us with new friends on the east coast.
