Travel with Amateur Traveler · Saturday, August 1, 2026
Cruises on the Maine Windjammer fleet, including the Schooner Heritage, do not follow fixed itineraries. Captain Ben Wellenback explains that the route and destination are determined daily by factors like currents, wind, and weather forecasts. This allows for a dynamic and unpredictable sailing experience.
“And literally, and this was hard for me to get my head around, but I would talk to Ben, the captain, and say, where are we going today? What's the itinerary? And he didn't have one.”
“It really depended on what the current, what the wind, what the weather forecast, and that would determine what direction we headed.”
“And that's true on most, but not quite all of the cruises. I'll talk about the exceptions to that later.”