Here's my favorite song from Fogelberg:

The Reach

It's Maine, and it's Autumn, the birches have just begun turning
It's life and it's dying
The lobstermen's boats come returning with the catch of the day in their holds
And the young boy is cold and complaining
The fog meets the beaches and out on the Reach it is raining.

It's father and son, it's the way it's been done since the old days
It's hauling by hand ten miles out from the land where their chow waits
And the days are all lonely and long and the seas grow so stormy and strong but...
The Reach will sing welcome as homeward they hurry along.

Chorus:

And the morning will blow away as the waves crash and fall
And the Reach like a siren sings as she beckons and calls
As the coastline recedes from view and the seas swell and roll
I will take from the Reach all that she has to teach to the depths of my soul.

The wind brings a chill, there's a frost on the sill in the morning
It creeps through the door
On the edge of the shore ice is forming
Soon the northers will bluster and blow
And the woods will be whitened with snowfall
And the Reach will lie frozen for the lost and unchosen to row.

(Chorus)


Notes:

The most famous Reach off the Maine coast is Eggemoggin Reach. This reach of water runs between Deer Isle and the mainland. Mariners favored this 15-mile-long passage because it trends northwest-southeast. In the prevailing southwesterly winds of summer, a heavily laden sailing vessel would have the wind off her beam sailing in either direction. This point of sail is known as a reach and it is the most favorable point of sail because you achieve your greatest speed (and comfort) when the wind is on your beam (i.e. amidships).

Philip Conkling, President
Island Institute, November, 2002

Cheerily,
Charley Noble