♪ Kiki and I are in Belfast, Maine, a coastal city of about 7,000 people.

We're here to meet one of its residents, Nicolle Littrell.

NICOLLE: I mean, I row year- round, so it doesn't stop me... WILLEM: Before most people are out of bed in the morning, Nicolle is busy on the waterfront.

[orrs thud] We're heading out to Belfast Bay.

[paws thud] NICOLLE: Here, baby.

Good girl!

WILLEM: How long you been here?

NICOLLE: I've been in Belfast since the spring of 2000.

WILLEM: Oh, wow.

You going to have a celebration next year 25 years?

NICOLLE: I guess I should.

Maybe I should have done it this year because I've been in Maine for 25 years.

WILLEM: Nicolle is from upstate New York.

She's the granddaughter of a dairy farmer far removed from any body of water large enough to float even the smallest craft.

NICOLLE: So, Willem, you want to row?

WILLEM: I can do that, I suspect.

NICOLLE: All right.

Why don't you get your orrs set up?

WILLEM: Okey-doke.

♪ [orrs spreading water] WILLEM: She now rows a dory.

More on the boat in a bit.

Nicolle might have lost her rowing club.

Now, how did you get into this business?

NICOLLE: Well, it was a total pandemic thing.

So, it was completely unplanned for.

WILLEM: Yeah?

NICOLLE: Yeah.

So, I was a recreational and competitive rower here in Belfast, rowing with an organization called Come Boating.

♪ And where I put my hands, Willem, are way down.

WILLEM: Yeah.

And then you just hover them, you know, one over the other.

It doesn't matter which one.

WILLEM: Okay.

NICOLLE: So, you can row any time you want.

♪ And I started rowing with them in 2012, and rowed with them basically until the pandemic.

And then the pandemic hit and that just changed everything.

The whole world shut down, basically, including their programs.

So, I thought I was going to lose my mind not rowing.

♪ [William chuckling] WILLEM: Nicolle might have lost her rowing club, but all she needed was a boat.

NICOLLE: And, you know, of course, we were in a time of confinement as well, you know?

So, a question emerged in my mind, Well, what if you got your own boat?

So, that's what I did.

This boat came to me this beautiful Swampscott dory and it was love at first sight.

And I used my stimulus check to pay for her.

[Willem chuckling] [orrs spreading water] WILLEM: Her name is Sorcière.

NICOLLE: So, when I was a little girl, I was definitely drawn to all things magical and mythical mythological.

And I remember reading books about witches and pretending I was a witch, and it just was fun.

And the way that this boat came to me, and the magic that I feel when I'm out there, her name just had to be Sorcière , which means witch.

♪ [orrs spreading water] WILLEM: With the help of a professional boat builder, Nicolle's nineteen-and-a-half- foot Swampscott dory was built by a group of middle school students.

♪ [water rippling] The dory is a heritage you know, is a heritage Maine boat.

It's a classic Maine boat, like the peapod, double-enders.

WILLEM: Well, Swampscott, MA, might choose to argue that.

NICOLLE: Well, yeah, but they found their way up here.

They found their way up here, didn't they?

[chuckling] WILLEM: Yeah, they did.

WILLEM: And, you know, Maine used to be part of Massachusetts.

WILLEM: Yeah.

NICOLLE: So, dories were as ubiquitous on the Maine coast and certainly down in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Connecticut all of New England as ubiquitous as a station wagon from Kittery to Lubec.

WILLEM: With a boat of her own, Nicolle was back on the water.

NICOLLE: Friends of mine started coming out of the woodwork in the fall and, you know, they were going crazy not rowing too.

And so, I started rowing with them, and I had six or seven people who I was rowing with.

I was rowing six times a week.

And we rowed, you know, into the fall, and people were like, Well, when are you going to take your boat out of the water?

And I just said, Well, let's go to the end of the month and see.

Before you know it, it was the end of the year and we just kept rowing through the winter, rowing into the spring, and the whole wellness aspect was really palatable.

And it just felt good to be out there and the companionship.

And I really enjoyed guiding people how to, you know, row this boat.

And then, another question emerged, Well, what if you started a business doing this?

♪ WILLEM: Nicolle became a licensed Maine Guide and created DoryWoman Rowing.

NICOLLE: And I did that and did all the things that I needed to do and I launched my business in August of 2021, and I've been rowing ever since, bringing people out for lessons and tours.

♪ NICOLLE: I have never seen the eagles like this so close.

WILLEM: Nicolle has a deep passion for rowing and the places where it takes her.

NICOLLE: Right behind you!

[women gasp] NICOLLE: Oh my gosh, I love you.

WOMAN: So cute!

NICOLLE: I love you.

Hi, friend!

Hi!

WILLEM: It's a bit contagious, and that's the point.

She wants other people to feel as she does.

[laughing] NICOLLE: Happy winter!

You’re doing great.

I really am very passionate about what I do and about getting people out in the water.

[providing instructions] And it can be as simple as just a few hours out in the water, but some people row with me that are wanting to have their own boat their own dory.

I'm working with a couple of women in Milbridge, up the coast a bit, that come down once a month to row with me.

They're in their 70s and they want to get their own Dory.

WILLEM: Tell them it's time.

NICOLLE: Oh, they’re going to do it.

They're going to do it.

So, yeah.

You know, it's an opportunity to, like I said, get out in the water for just a couple of hours and have a great time or build some skills; build some confidence.

It's very empowering.

You know, I get both men and women in my boat, but I do get a lot of women who used to row as girls rowed out at camp.

You know, I get breast cancer survivors in my boat.

I also had an almost-90 year-old man not you that came out in my boat a month ago, and it meant the world to him to be out here because people said, You can't do that.

You can't row.

WILLEM: Did he survive?

NICOLLE: He did.

[Willem laughing] [Willem laughing] And he left a good tip!

He sent me a note after and he said, I didn't think I could row.

And he said, With you, I could.

WILLEM: Voilà.

That’s your tip right there.

NICOLLE: That's right.

♪ WILEM: Belfast, Maine, is where Nicolle lives.

♪ NICOLLE: I row year-round, so it's a really unique opportunity to experience all four seasons out in the water.

And, right now, we're in the fall, and to see the foliage reflected in the water is like, you know, it's like a painting.

It's just like a painting.

♪ In the winter, to be able to row in the snow, to be able to row up onto the ice and to hear that sound of the flat bottom of the boat sliding up on the ice is pretty special.

[water rippling] [bottom of boat scraping ice] [Nicolle laughing] [bottom of boat scraping ice] It is often a jaw-dropping experience to be out there, and my overarching mission with DoryWoman Rowing is really to get people to care about place and to know that they belong in that place, that they're part of that place, and that they can also bring that caring back to where they come from, and perhaps even turn that into some form of stewardship.

♪ [chatter] This is a very low-impact way of experiencing the natural world this dory: very low impact.

Or you could even say it's slow tourism, right?

Because there's nothing slower than rowing a dory in a big body of water.

Rowing a little boat in a big body of water.

But it's a particular feeling that I know that you know and that you appreciate and enjoy as a rower yourself.

♪ WILLEM: Nicolle is right.

I have rowed most of my life.

The feeling and sounds of gliding a hull across the water never leaves you.

♪ [water rippling] NICOLE: To be able to ply a boat with your body alone and your wits through the water is a pretty amazing, pretty satisfying feeling.

WILLEM: And you’ve answered one major question of mine: How can I see where I'm going?

I love that.

NICOLLE: Everybody asks me about that.

They're just as interested in that as the boat.

And so, people will say, Oh, I see you got a rear-view mirror!

And I say, No, no, no, no.

It's a front-view mirror.

Because, as rowers, we're facing the back of the boat we're looking where we came from and the mirror shows where we're going.

NICOLLE: So, it's front front-view.

♪ WILLEM: The day ends where it began... back in Belfast, Maine.

It's been fun, and my back is glad it's over!

♪ [water rippling] NICOLLE: The question is: Is he ever going to leave the boat?

Not without help.

That's for sure!

Are you really okay, Willem?

Because I can come back and help you.

♪