Sam and Sammy's excellent adventure
Dogfish Head Founder Sam Calagione is spreading a message all along the northeast – come see coastal Delaware.
Coinciding with the opening of the new Dogfish Inn in Lewes, Calagione and his 14-year-old son Sammy embarked on a 10-day journey that will take them from Lewes to Dogfish Head, Maine. Aboard a 19-foot Boston Whaler, the duo shoved off from the Lewes public dock June 23 en route to their first stop in Atlantic City, N.J. Hosting beer dinners along the way, Sam and son will make stops in New York City; Block Island, R.I.; Boston; and Portland, Maine; promoting coastal Delaware and raising $10,000 for The Nature Conservancy.
“One of the goals is to take a tiny boat to these major cities up north to show how accessible and easy it is to get to coastal Delaware, while armed with a bunch of great information,” he said.
He said he hopes to educate people about the water and air temperatures of the Cape Region during the shoulder season compared to other popular spots in Cape Cod and the Hamptons.
“The hope is that we can convince folks as we talk with media on the way up and the hundreds of people that have signed up for the sold-out beer dinners to come down here and see how beautiful our area is,” he said.
Through the New York City leg of the trip, the Calagiones will be flanked by Bob Hyberg and Steve and Jill Roberts, who agreed to tag along in their own vessels.
With his son entering high school in the fall, Sam also sees the excursion as a right-of-passage father-son trip.
“He cannot ignore me,” he joked. “There's nowhere to go and nowhere to hide.”
The duo will alternate deejaying duties, with a stipulation that they will only listen to entire albums along the way.
“The big rule is you can't change after one song,” he said. “It drives the millennials crazy. They don't want to listen to a whole album.”
When not hosting beer dinners or listening to each other's music, Sam said, they will use their paddleboards to check out the beautiful lands The Nature Conservancy is working to preserve. On Day 1 of the adventure, Sam and Sammy explored the 200-acre South Cape May Meadows Preserve. While Sam dropped his cell phone in the water, the scene was documented by his companions.
“Our missions are very similar in that we try to celebrate nature,” Sam said. “In their case, it's the beautiful lands they preserve, and in our case making everything we do, from soaps to beers, from all natural ingredients.”
The journey will be documented through a series of travelogues on www.dogfish.com and on social media sites with the hashtag #moveablefeast.
