The 61st annual Windjammer Days will take place Sunday, June 25 through Saturday, July 1, 2023. This year the Friends of Windjammer Days is celebrating our rich population of Maritime Explorers. Those featured have traveled extensively on different bodies of waters either for work, pleasure or both.

Captain John Albaum’s boating history began at an early age at the Lake Placid region of Florida and also here in the Boothbay region and progressed to a full time maritime career. Entering Maine Maritime in 2001, he graduated in 2005 with a 3rd Engineer’s License. During college he worked for the Boothbay Harbor Whale Watch.

His first job was right after college in the fall of 2005. John worked on an oil tanker in Alaska, shuttling from Kenai to Valdez with occasional trips to Washington and Hawaii. He was able to get his 100-ton Captain’s License which allowed him to run the Argo, Harbor Princess and the Bennie Alice during his time off from sea.

After working in Alaska, John was hired on with a general cargo company which mainly carried U.S. food aid to Africa. The cargo ship visited many ports on the east and west coast of Africa. He worked on this ship for roughly five years which included a six month stint working in the Far East out of Singapore.

John’s next career move involved working on a dynamically positioned oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. This job included the opportunity to work on a new build rig in South Korea which he then helped to deliver it back to the Gulf of Mexico. In 2021 John was hired on with a tugboat and salvage company out of New Jersey. He worked there for about a year and highlights included towing a barge from Pascagoula, Mississippi to Eastport, Maine and successfully pulling the Ever Forward out of the mud in Chesapeake Bay.

In the spring of 2022 John bought a small boat repair and storage yard from a friend. He is now home full time and is the owner of Wound Up Marine Services which is located in the Boothbay Industrial Park. He has the help of some very good friends to keep the business running smoothly.

Reflecting on his years at sea, John reports that he has crossed the equator multiple times, transited the Suez and Panama canals and tied up behind the Maersk Alabama in Djibouti, Africa right before she was boarded by pirates. His only maritime regret is that he never circumnavigated the globe, but a goal for the future is to work on a training course or two on Maine Maritime’s TS State of Maine.