News: Land and Sea
August, 2023
Dear Readers,
Well, the new book, Death In The Wolf Moon is rolling out, and I want to thank all of you who have come to the website to purchase a copy as well as my readers who have visited me at events the past couple of weeks. I still have a few places that I will be before the year wraps up (see "Events" calendar), and I look forward to seeing you, my wonderful readers.
I've placed a link to my Amazon page below for anyone who would like to leave a review of the new book. Just scroll down on the page to where it says, "Review This Product." I am most thankful to all of you who take the time to review Death In The wolf Moon.
Fair Winds,
Jenifer
Jenifer’s list of some great reads by some great writers:
A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles
The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
The Light Between the Oceans by M. L. Stedman
The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham
Staggerford by Jon Hassler
The Love Hunter by Jon Hassler
All the Light You Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
Cold Comfort, Life at the Top of the Map by Barton Sutter (A collection of essays about life in and near Duluth)
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum
The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo (Great for adults and children)
Huck Finn by Mark Twain
Until they Bring the Streetcars Back by Stanley Gordon West
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson (Also the 2 other books in his trilogy)
Bad Weeds Never Die by Christopher Valen (The John Santana Series)
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, PhD
The Lobster Chronicles by Linda Greenlaw
The Heavens May Fall by Allen Eskens
The Leper by Steve Thayer
The Dry by Jane Harper
Embers: One Ojibwe’s Meditations by Richard Wagamese
To make you laugh:
Holiday Inn by Kevin Kling
The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float by Farley Mowat
The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be by Farley Mowat
Reviews
I’d like to encourage any of you who have read Death In The Blood Moon to take a few minutes and post a short review up on Amazon on their sale page for the book. Just scroll down and near the bottom of the page, below my bio, you will see "Review This Product."
Reviews are an author’s life blood since they encourage others who may not know my books to take a chance on them. And for you avid Facebook users, I hope you will let your friends know about the new book and the series. So, post away!
Voyage to Stellwagen Bank
I hope you’ll enjoy reading about my nine-day voyage aboard American Eagle, out of Rockland, Maine bound for Stellwagen Bank in search of adventure and humpback whales.
Stellwagen Bank is a marine sanctuary that covers 842 square miles of ocean and lies 28.5 miles north from Provincetown off the tip of Cape Cod and stretches 19 miles, north to south. The ocean depth off the western side of the bank is approximately 300 feet, and the top of the bank rises to within 100 feet of the surface. These shallows at the top of the bank are where the whales feed.
Called a bank because of the undersea formation that rises toward the surface, Stellwagen Bank is a wild ocean habitat that attracts massive whales, raucous seabirds, and plentiful fish. Humpback, finback, and minke whales return to the bank each summer to feed on schools of fish and Sand lance eels. The bank is also a graveyard of ships.
For more than 400 years, Stellwagen Bank has been a destination for fishermen and a major crossroads for maritime traffic, and so the sanctuary is home to numerous shipwrecks spanning centuries of American history.
Here’s a funny aside. The night I boarded American Eagle for the voyage I called my husband and told him about visiting the Maine Maritime Museum—a favorite haunt of mine in Bath, Maine—earlier that day. The museum had a wonderful video exhibit about Stellwagen Bank and all the ships that had sunk there, including the famous paddlewheel steamship, Portland. I was quite excited about the exhibit and told him that Stellwagen Bank is a graveyard of ships. There was silence at the other end of the line and finally he said, “I’m not sure how I’m supposed to feel about that.”
The Voyage:
We departed Rockland Harbor on Saturday, June 13 at 6:00 a.m. or 0600 and sailed through Mussel Ridge Channel, past Owl’s Head Light and White Head Light and south by east, passing Monhegan Island, Manana Island, and Sunken Duck Ledge and out into the Gulf of Maine. Our destination the first day was Cape Ann which forms the eastern side of Gloucester Harbor and marks the northern limit of Massachusetts Bay. We reached Cape Ann at around 1:00 a.m. (0100) and anchored for the remainder of the night.
Early the following morning—Sunday—we left Cape Ann and sailed for Stellwagen Bank, reaching the northern end of the bank by mid-morning. We sailed along the bank for several hours and midway through the afternoon, we found the majestic humpback whales, or maybe they found us.
As American Eagle galloped along under full sail, these huge creatures averaging 40 – 50 feet in length—half the length of our vessel—swam right up along our port side. We were treated to a chorus of grunts and explosive sounds of their blowing as they surfaced and dove and raced alongside the ship and under our bow. They were so close we could see the barnacles on their flukes when they dove. And I can tell you this; once you’ve seen the humpbacks, life will never be the same. I will carry that experience in my heart forever.
That night we anchored off the tip of Cape Cod in the waters just north of Provincetown. As we sailed to our anchorage, we passed the Spanish tall ship, Juan Sebastien de Elcano, laying at anchor. The vessel is a four-masted barkentine carrying one square-rigged mast and three additional masts with gaff-rigged sails. It is the sail-training vessel for their merchant marine. We fired a salute from our ship’s cannon. (See picture in photo gallery). I guess they couldn’t find their cannon because we got their ship’s horn as a return salute.
The next day-Monday-was drizzly and rainy, but we got underway soon after breakfast and sailed north along Stellwagen Bank. We were soon treated to breaching humpback whales. A breach is an acrobatic move in which the whale shoots straight up out of the water and rotates as if attempting to jump clear of the water. It is one of the most spectacular maneuvers seen in nature and seems to occur more frequently in rough seas. After a long rainy day underway, we anchored near Little Misery Island, a destination oddly appropriate to the day’s weather.
From there we made way for Gloucester Harbor where we rafted up with the historic schooner Adventure. “The 1926 schooner Adventure is one of the last of the famous Grand Banks fishing schooners of Gloucester, Massachusetts. She is one of only two knockabout fishing schooners surviving. Adventure was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1994.” -- Wikipedia
After touring Adventure, all the shipmates went ashore in Gloucester for the day, giving Andy, our cook, the night off. A bunch of us ate at the Topside Grill—lobster, clams, and oysters, what else? Wonderful food and super attentive and friendly service.
The following morning, we weighed anchor and sailed through the day and night on a great circle route that took us east by north around Monhegan and Matinicus Islands. By morning we had reached beautiful Isle au Haut Bay, back in Maine waters. We spent the next few days enjoying great wind and perfect spring sailing before heading for our homeport of Rockland, Maine. Anchorages along the way included Stonington and Babson Island where we went ashore for a lobster bake.
I hope you will enjoy photos of this and other voyages on my website at the photo gallery page.
Jenifer LeClair Attends Ramsey County
Sheriff’s Office Citizens Academy
In 2016, I completed the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Citizen Academy. The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office employees over 400 officers and employees and includes the City of St. Paul, the capitol city of Minnesota, in its jurisdiction, as well as seven townships and small cities that lie north of St. Paul.
Taking this course has given me a chance to learn in depth about all the divisions within a large sheriff’s office and about the responsibilites and myriad jobs each entails. The Ramsey Count Sheriff’s Office contains five divisions and 74 sudivisions. As a mystery and crime writer, it has been invaluable to get an insider’s look at what makes a major law enforcement agency tick and at the vast number of services that go into keeping the public safe.