Harry's Morning - 9/25
I banked big time brownie points today! Karma owes me at least for the rest of the day. So I'm taking the dog ashore here in Atlantic City. There's a beach under Harrah's. So I'm 30 ft from the beach and I hear screaming from the bridge nearby. I look up and there are a bunch of people waving at me...
Port Washington Land Day - 9/22
Rental car pickup was a bit further and more $ than expected but whatever. We played golf - 9 holes at the Executive course at Harbor Links in Port Washington. The course was in great condition and fun and an easy walk. Then drove all the way south across Long Island to the Atlantic side. Had a late...
Land Day on Block Island - 9/17
Right down the street from the Payne's dinghy dock is a little hut in a parking lot called Block Island Bike & Car Rental. The bikes were all gone for the season, but they rented old cars out. Harry picked up a 2007 Ford Edge with 140K miles on it for us for the day. This was a great decision. It wa...
9/13 - A Land Day!
We had gorgeous weather and some chores to get done so we stuck around in Provincetown. A little less than a mile walk thru cute side streets got us to the Stop n Shop supermarket and the laundromat. A thieving washing machine ate $1.00 worth of quarters, charging me $6.50 instead of the posted $5.5...
Cape Porpoise 9/9
We stayed in this harbor because the forecast called for rain all night and all day and big winds and waves. So we rearranged our Thursday and Friday plans accordingly. Well, it didn't rain until mid-afternoon. But we stayed anyway. Nice walk into the center of Cape Porpoise, about.7 miles from the...
9/7 - Daysail with Dawn!
Dawn joined us for a glorious day sail starting and ending at the Portland Yacht Club at Falmouth Foreside. Here's the 31 mile route: Sailed off our mooring... Spinnaker - Northeast toward the top of Casco Bay. Spinnaker - Southeast around the bottom of Harpswell Close-hauled w the big jib - South t...
Random Observations
Harry calculated that with all the non-Down East winds (not from the southwest as is usual) on our way up in June, July, and August, we probably sailed 20% and motored 80%. Not what was anticipated. Hopefully the way back down will switch around too. Southwest now would be on the nose on the way bac...
Waldo's Walkabout
Waldo was secured as usual. A steep knockdown, or 2 or 3, while we still had the main up caused him to go flying. We didn't realize until probably an hour later when Kati went below and saw the mayhem. Harry found him in the bottom of the box under the nav station, picked him up, and dropped him in...
Cutler! 8/28
Just another beautiful coastal Maine hike. The Western Head Preserve Trail was 2.5 miles and really lovely, though one rocky cliffs part had lots of biting flies. (Finally we encounter the Maine black flies...ugh).
Cutler! 8/27
We anchored outside the lobster fleet in Cutler. Dinghyed to the nice town wharf. We had identified 2 nice hikes to do...one in the afternoon 8/27 (Eastern Knubble Trail) and one to do in the morning (Western Head Preserve Trail). On the way to the Eastern Knubble trailhead, we spoke briefly with a...
RKYC Tower & SCC Burgee
We climbed up the spiral staircase in the RKYC clubhouse tower and saw the wall of visiting club burgees. In a prominent position, Harry found the Sailing Club of the Chesapeake (SCC) burgee left by his parents when the family stopped there in 1976. How cool is that?
Grand Harbor, 8/22
We stayed another day here on Grand Lake. After a short morning walk, we did a thorough boat cleaning. Harry scrubbed the decks and cockpit, I did the inside floors and settees. This was really needed, the last thorough one was at Point Judith Marina in Rhode Island. A lot of sand, dirt, and dog hai...
St Andrews, 8/16
We did a long walk today - 5.7 miles. From the wharf to the St Andrews Blockhouse historical site, to Ministers Island. We didn't enter Ministers Island because they wanted $15 each admission fee and we weren't going to do the trails anyway since we had walked there. It was just fun to walk across t...
St Andrews 8/15
Harbormaster, here known as a "wharfinger", placed us on a mooring close to the wharf and welcomed us to St Andrews. We dinghied to the wharf to explore the town. A bit along Water Street, then up King Street. Past All Saints Anglican Church, St Andrews Baptist Church, then St Andrews Catholic Churc...
Hiking Great Wass - 8/8
A large part of Great Wass Island is owned by the Nature Conservancy. There are a set of trails that connect together to make a 4.5 mile loop. The loop includes pine forests, freshwater streams, granite balds, blueberry patches, rocky shorelines with amazing views, and rocky, sandy, and marshy beach...
York, ME
We got directions and walked to the Wiggly Bridge ("world's smallest suspension bridge", or so the locals claim), Fisherman's Walk, and York Village. A lovely walk, though a bit longer than expected since we took a few wrong turns. York is super - beautiful houses, historic buildings, old cemetery,...
Isles of Shoals
Picked up a mooring ball in the Gosport Harbor. One other sailboat was in here - Santosha from Norfolk, VA - a Hylas 46. On the way back from taking Bruce ashore on rocky Malaga Island, we stopped by and met Eric & Danelle. They're headed to ME too so maybe we'll catch up with them again. Malaga was...
Manchester-by-the-Sea - 7/16
We finally got around to playing golf! We had carried our clubs with us but not had a chance to until now. We wanted to play at Cape Ann Golf, which was close by and 9 holes, but they were closed for a private function. So we ended up at Old Salem Golf. This was the hilliest, most difficult 9 hole c...
Rockport & Gloucester - 7/15
The Starkey's gave us a car to use - a really cute VW Rabbit - with plenty of dog hair in the back seat so we didn't feel bad about putting Bruce in there. We set out to explore Rockport and Gloucester and pick up some groceries and a prescription for Kati. Rockport was very cute, especially the lit...
Manchester-by-the-Sea - 7/14
Once we were well into the outer harbor of Manchester-by-the-Sea, we called the Manchester Yacht Club. We picked up a mooring reserved for us by our host, Jim Starkey, Harry's friend from the Sabre community. We took a stroll to look at the beautiful houses and mansions overlooking the outer harbor....
Plymouth Yacht Club
The PYC launch was included in the mooring fee and we took full advantage of it. At 3:30, after the rain stopped, we took ourselves, Bruce, and our laundry to shore. We started the laundry at PYC, then timed our activities to work between loads. First walked to Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower II. Th...
Nantucket - 7/10
Kati tried to find a pet-sitter yesterday so we could do some island exploration on bikes today. The pet-sitter found on Google suggested that we take Bruce along in a pet trailer. Bikes, one with a trailer, were reserved on-line. This morning, we moved off the mooring (didn't want to pay another $8...
Nantucket - 7/9
Harry prepared the boat last night for Tropical Storm Elsa which was expected to start in around 9 AM and last thru the day. Rain, winds steady at 30 gusting to near 60 expected. We took down the bimini and connector, all the cockpit cushions, and Harry secured the jibs and main. Little rain overnig...
Vineyard Haven, Oak Bluffs, Edgartown - 7/7
Today we bought all-day bus passes and took the VTA bus from Vineyard Haven to Oak Bluffs. Dogs are allowed on the busses so no problem bringing Bruce. Oak Bluffs is the neatest little town. A perfect beach town with a big park with a bandstand across the street from a nice beach. Funky little shops...
Vineyard Haven - 7/6
Lots of beautiful boats in this harbor plus big ferries from Woods Hole, the Black Dog tall ship (Shenandoah) and schooner (Alabama), and an American Cruise Lines ship. Overcast skies of the morning cleared to bright sun but the winds stayed strong. Walked around town in the afternoon after getting...
7/4 in Cuttyhunk
Weather cleared slowly over the morning. We walked to the WWII bunkers off Tower Hill overlooking the west end of the island. At noon, there was a golf cart parade (decorated and full of kids with water balloons and super-soakers). The parade went up one street, turned at the dock, then came down th...
7/3 in Cuttyhunk
Cold and rainy with a few dry periods so we could walk around Cuttyhunk. Walked to the east end and up to the houses overlooking the harbor. Past the Cuttyhunk Yacht Club, a small building out of which they teach sailing on Lasers and 420s. Winds up to 25, rain, but the harbor was snug and calm. And...
7/2 in Cuttyhunk
5 minute dinghy to town dock. Short stop in the rain, so we walked up to Tower Hill via the road, then back thru trails. Along the Tower Hill Road are the one-room Historical Society, Town Hall, Library, and Elementary School buildings as well as a little church that does Episcopal and Catholic serv...