Can you be clearer on how the term “down east” came into use.
I had a wonderful romance in our New Jersey High School with a girl who preferred ‘Going Down Maine” to me. She is still in Maine, I am in Florida, happy but still wondering!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_East
Claims that it is because sailing from Boston to Maine, one traveled down wind.
I had read (and accepted) that it was because older navigational charts were oriented with west up (as opposed to north). Wikipedia offers some more plausible possibilities here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Cod#.22Upper.22_and_.22Lower.22