DATE: Sunday, April 20, 1997                TAG: 9704170042

SECTION: FLAVOR                  PAGE: F1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY RUTH FANTASIA, FLAVOR EDITOR 

DATELINE: ROCKLAND, MAINE                   LENGTH:   44 lines

EAT LIKE A KING WHILE FLOATING HAPPILY OFF THE COAST OF MAINE

IT'S 5 A.M. and I wake to the scent of wood burning. It's Molly Gentle, mess cook, firing up the stove. My bunk rocks from the wake of fishing boats leaving the harbor. Before long the smell of coffee calls me up on deck.

Fresh coffee, real cream. All day. It's a ritual on the J & E Riggin, one of the many two- or three-masted wooden schooners sailing passenger cruises along the Maine coastline. Locals here say that for food, the Riggin's one of the best boats to sail.

The secret is Sue Allen, the captain's wife and partner and the cook with the longest continuing record in the Maine Windjammer Fleet. This summer will be Sue's 23rd year cooking on a windjammer, 20 of them on the Riggin.

Unlike big cruise ships where the goal is to see how many fancy French entrees the chef can put on the buffet each day, Sue keeps it simple, hearty and filling. The smell of coffee gives way to blueberry pancakes, orange juice, sausage links and cereal. Lunch brings fish chowder with cornbread, fresh fruit, brownies, a make-your-own-sandwich board and lemonade. Dinner is turkey, gravy, salad, corn-on-the-cob, strawberry shortcake and more coffee. In between there is more fresh fruit, cookies or brownies to munch on.

The Riggin, being a wooden boat built in 1927 for oyster dredging, isn't equipped with a stainless-steel galley, food processors or electric mixers. Everything is cooked on an old wood stove with a smokestack jutting out of the cabin roof. Supplies are stored in big wooden coolers on deck. Fresh water is held in wooden barrels along the rails.

Molly and Sue spend their days walking up and down the stairs to the galley, hauling supplies out of the coolers and back. Ingredients are chopped by hand and batters are stirred with elbow grease. Sue knows which logs burn hotter (the birch or the oak) and how to estimate the temperature of the oven even though there's no dial with little numbers.

Every day for six days she churns out meals for the crew and passengers and, says Dave Allen, Sue's husband and the captain, ``people come back for the food.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

PAUL FANTASIA

Sue Allen, whose husband is the captain of the Riggin, has the

longest continuing record of any cook in the Maine Windjammer Fleet.

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