ROCKLAND – It was a beautiful late spring morning. The sun was strong. The waters of Penobscot Bay were calm. A light breeze caused flags to flap ever so slightly. A vacationer couldn’t have asked for a better day on the Maine coast.

But not all was as perfect as it seemed this recent morning.

The sight of gas prices inching toward $4 a gallon on a trip down Route 1 from the Bangor area – gas now has surpassed that price in many places around the state – and the knowledge that rising gas prices have forced food costs to go up, too, is enough to make anyone think twice about taking a vacation this year.

After all, most vacations are all about gasoline, especially when plane tickets and a rental car are involved.

Anne Mahle and Jon Finger think they have a solution for taking some of the sting out of a pricey trip.

The couple, who own and operate the schooner J. & E. Riggin, are offering a “Desperately Seeking a Vacation” cruise, a June 12-14 trip that requires only as much gas as a vacationer needs for a round-trip drive to Rockland Harbor Park, where the Riggin is based.

Wind is enough to make the Riggin go. It doesn’t have a motor, so the only gas Mahle and Finger use is enough for a small yawl boat to push the Riggin in case the wind dies down.

“We were hearing from people who said they just didn’t have the resources to go on vacation this year,” said Mahle, a Michigan native who met Finger, a Pennsylvania native, while they were working on the Rockland-based schooner Stephen Tabor, and were married 15 years ago.

“But people need a vacation with all the pressure of [rising prices],” she added. “Maine is such a beautiful place and it’s so easy to feel like you’re away here. There’s a rejuvenating feeling of being on the sea.”

Mahle hatched the idea for the cruise with Riggin office manager Elizabeth Poisson.

The cost of the trip, $550 per person, includes three meals a day prepared by author and food writer Mahle, plus a basket of Maine food items, a copy of Mahle’s cookbook, a copy of a novel by a Maine writer such as Linda Greenlaw or Tess Gerritsen, tickets to Rockland-area museums, and, if vacationers book a trip for two or more people, a gas card worth $100.

Maine residents also get 10 percent off the price of the trip.

The ship sleeps 24 and Poisson said this week there was still plenty of room for passengers.

The Riggin, built as an oystering schooner in 1927, is one of nine schooners in Maine designated as national historic landmarks, Mahle and Finger said.

There’s no set itinerary for the trip, Finger said, although the Riggin generally stays in a range from Bar Harbor in the north and east, to Boothbay Harbor in the south. The boat travels around 25 miles a day and is under way for about eight hours each day.

“The choices are endless,” he said. “In Maine, you can go in just about any direction because of all the islands. There’s so much to see.”

Mahle does all of her cooking on a cast-iron wood-burning stove, which is another way the Riggin’s captains conserve gas.

And she turns out some delectable-sounding dishes. On a recent cruise, Mahle concocted a recipe for lamb loin rubbed with Dijon mustard, sage and red wine vinegar, then seared in a cast-iron skillet.

“It was so good,” Mahle said. “I love to play.”

If a recipe earns passengers’ approval, there’s a good chance it could end up in Mahle’s next cookbook or on her Web site. She fine-tunes her recipes during the winter months when the Riggin doesn’t sail.

Mahle and Finger share an interest in the environment. For Mahle, saving gas is a matter of frugality and not being wasteful. Finger’s interest stems from all the time he has spent outdoors and on the ocean.

“It used to be standard practice for vessels offshore to throw their trash overboard,” he said. “I knew there had to be a better way than polluting our oceans.”

There’s one more benefit that’s specific to the Riggin’s almost gas-free operations.

Even though there’s no motor, the schooner is still fairly speedy for its size, a point of pride for its owners.

“It’s awfully fun to pass the small, expensive plastic yachts,” Finger said with a smile. “They think we’re motoring, and we don’t have an engine at all.”

To book a trip, call 800-869-0604 or 594-1875, or go to www.mainewindjammer.com.

jbloch@bangordailynews.net

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