Maine Maritime training cruise cleared to depart after lifeboat repair

Maine Maritime Academy’s students are cleared to set sail for the open ocean.

The Castine-based school’s 500-foot training ship, State of Maine, had to delay the beginning of its annual overseas cruise when a U.S. Coast Guard inspection found the crane used to lower one of its four lifeboats broke.

That required a new part to be shipped from Norway for the necessary repairs.

Well, those repairs have been completed, according to a Thursday post on the blog run by the midshipmen.

So the 202 students and 45 staff and crew are cleared to cast off.

The 74-day cruise was scheduled to take the State of Maine to Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Spain, Portugal, Portland and then back to Castine.

Since the State of Maine had to linger longer off the Maine coast, the Maine Maritime students won’t be stopping at St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, but rather sailing for New York before shipping off to Tenerife, Spain. They were scheduled to sail out from Castine at noon Friday.

It could be the last voyage for the State of Maine, which has been in use since 1997. A new training ship is being built in Philadelphia, and it is expected to be delivered to Castine in spring 2025.