Safe & Preparing to head South

We arrived safely in Portsmouth, RI at the marina at NEB. We will do maintenance and prepare the boat for the trip down the Inland Waterway. The plan at present is to leave here te Monday after the Newport boatshow and head down through Long Island Sound through the City and on down through the Chesepeake Bay. We will update sporadically till then.

Ducking out of harms way.

This week we aggresively moved South toward home starting Tuesday after 2 delightful days in peaceful Jewell Island in Casco Bay , Me. we sailed directly to Pepperrell cove in kittery, Me. From there to Gloucester, MA and the next day to Onset, MA after an encounter with super thick fog on the West end of the Cape Cod Canal. Not knowing what the next few days will bring from hurricane Bill, we decided it will be best to hang here till Monday and then head home to Portsmouth, RI. We feel safe here and are with friends from another boat at our marina who have made the same decision. We'll let you know how it all works out.

End of East

We arrived in Boothbay harbor on Wednesday after two really peaceful days in the Goslings. The wonder of Maine sailing is that you can be one of one or two boats in a harbor by yourselves during the week. We were nestled in among ledges in a well protected mooring field and were fortunate that the weather that was forecasted did not develope in our area, because Packet does not like thunder and lightening.
Boothbay is one of our favorite harbors and we decided to extend our stay here and relax.
We are making this our furthest point East on this trip. We will be slowly heading back to RI to do preparations for our anticipated journey south for the winter. We plan to leave Boothbay on Sunday if the weather holds.

On to cruising

New Radar is working. Bill paid. Happy with service and personnel and facility at Brewer So Freeport, Me. Left in mid afternoon heading for the Goslings. Arrived and picked up mooring and will spend tonight and tomorrow on the mooring as rain and thunder/lightning is expected. Will finish up wiring and plan t sail to Boothbay Harbor on Wednesday.

lost in radar land

After a great visit with our grandsons and Craig and Kevin and Julie, we started on our radar problem. On Monday, August 3, we had the radar scanner taken down and found a broken wire. We called Raymarine,the manufacturer and we were told it would take 4 weeks to test it and repair it. We went to the marine shop at the marina and we were told they couldn't work on it for 2 weeks, but they had someone who would be at the marina and could look at it. So, we waited all day Monday and no one showed. We ordered a new digital radar scanner to be delivered to Brewers in So. Freeport which is where we are now. We left So. Portland about 4p.m. on Tuesday after waiting for the fog to lift, fog so thick the fishermen were staying in port.
On Wednesday on a mooring Lloyd, the expert from Brewer's worked all afternoon trying to put in the new cable, which was of course bigger than the old cable, down the mast. It kept getting stuck. He came out again on Thursday a.m. and had the same trouble. You see, with the new radar scanner there is new wire, can't use the old stuff. So we made the decision to have the mast pulled out. That took all Thursday afternoon. On Friday the new wire was put in and the new scanner was attached and the mast was put back in. Now all that had to be done was to wire it inside the boat, which Dave and I can do. Or at least Dave can do it, I could only help to pull the wire through and behind lockers. We thought we would be fininshed on Saturday, however Dave had cut his finger(small cut) and it had become infected. So off to the walk in minutes before they closed on Saturday. there was one advantage to this, though, we got to go to Dunkin Donuts for a ice coffee for me. We sure do miss the Coffee Grinder in Newport. I did meet a woman in the laundry here at the marina on Friday and she took me to the grocery store. Taxis are hard to come by and are expensive here. The marina loaned us a car to go to the walk in,I guess they felt sorry for us, or figured it was the least they could do with all the money we have spent. Dave and Peg Nelson, I would have called you for you cousin's name and number but phone cover is hit or miss, mostly miss. Actually, as I type this we are down the river about a 1/4 mile from the marina and I am getting better internet connection than we were dockside. We hope to leave tomorrow after finishing the wiring and will probably only go to some island close by to plan our next leg, hopefully it will be sailing and not repairing. We are both fine. Helen and Ray, we met Donna and Dennis last night, had a drink with them and actually felt for a while that we were cruising.

In Maine and this will catch us up

Monday July 27th we left Pepperrell cove to go to Potts Harbor in Casco Bay. But because of waiting for weather to clear we left later than expected and after motor sailing for a few hours decided that we better find a closer port to duck into. The best place appeared to be to anchor in Biddeford Pool so we headed in arriving late to get the dog ashore. We got anchored, but I managed to catch the dinghy towline in the prop. As I had got down to look at this the yacht club launch came by to tell us we should move as an extremely low tide was expected. After jogging the engine and cutting the line we were free to move. We moved reset the anchor, put the engine on the dinghy and I took the dog and headed for shore. As we went through the churning waters in the pool the engine stopped. Again another launch operator rescued us and I got the dog to shore and we were able to return on the reserve fuel in the tank. We watched the tide finish going out until about midnight then were finally able to sleep soundly till morning. The next day after taking the dog ashore and heading out to complete the trip to Potts harbor, after some miscommunication and misdirection and lobster pot minefields we were able to spend a restful night with a good meal ashore in Potts harbor. Then on to South Freeport for rest and relaxation for a couple of days with a side trip to L. L. Bean to do a little shopping. Next head to South Portland on Friday to meet family late Friday and to try to solve a problem with the radar scanner. Problems with telephone reception in South Freeport at the mooring made communicating with Raymarine difficult. We dodged fog and rain and waited patiently to cross to South Portland in limited visibility without the aid of the radar. Had an unexpectedly great meal at Joe's dockside restaurant while awaiting our son Craig's arrival with the three grandsons.
In the morning we all had breakfast while waiting for are son Kevin to arrive with his wife Julie.
We went for a day sail in splendid weather with great winds enjoyed by all. Dinner was at 3$ Dewey's in Portland in a real casual Brewpub style restaurant. Kev and Julie headed out for home and the rest of us went back to the boat. Sunday brought fog turning to Pea soup fog as we took a little trip to Portland Head light and the fort from the land side. Craig and children left after lunch and we caught up with laundry and rest. I got on line to do research into the possible options to solve our radar problems and to do some research on the voltage regulator and alternator. We will probably be in Portland surroundings until the Radar problem is solved.