Cruising the Coast of Maine – Page 2

Yup, we’re still here…

Wow, it’s been four days since I last posted. That’s because of the poor to zero cell coverage areas we’ve been in. Last post, we were passing a rainy day in Pulpit Harbor. From there we went back to Tenants Harbor for Wednesday night. This was our last stop that would allow us to refill our water tanks, so we did a few loads of laundry again. We sprung the $30 mooring fee that also bought us the right to use their on-shore showers. Oh luxury! We now have 160 gallons of water to last the four of us 11 days. I’ll leave you to do the math on that one. (Dave says that’s a luxury for most boats, or as my Mom said a luxury in some countries. Perspective.)

From Tenants we went to Monhegan Island, meeting up with our cousins from Bremen who came in on their sailboat. Gorgeous! Amazing! Beautiful! Unexpected! I expected a rougher lobstering community, and what I found was a community of lobstering/artististry/summer folk, with a lot of pride in their history. They have a fabulous little museum that documents the thousands-year history of the island, and they had an art display in honor of the 50th anniversary of their art association (although artists have been coming to Monhegan for about 150 years). We walked around a bit, enjoying the phenomenal landscapes, stopping into the little shops and a couple of galleries. The guy who bought Dave’s old boat, Michael Brossard, owns the Island Inn there. He met us when we arrived, and spent some time talking with us about the island, island life, the inn, etc. We had dinner at the inn- splendid (and Michael covered our desserts)! We (minus me) spent Friday morning walking some more (I was not feeling well). We set out for our next stop around lunch time, having lunch underway.

Island Inn

Lobster Cove

Manana Island from the lighthouse/museum

Museum (formerly the lighthouse keeper’s house)

Town from the harbor

Town from Fish Beach

Friday night we pulled into Damariscove Island and even found a mooring. This is a popular, narrow cove, with dicey anchoring, so we got lucky with the mooring. I stopped counting at 8 boats in this little area. My folks and Dave went for a walk while I snoozed in the hammock, catching the breeze to help reduce my fever (that and ibuprofen did the trick). We all slept soundly last night, and here we are on Saturday morning, watching the sun try to break through the morning fog and start to dry out the heavy, rain-like dew that covered the boat last night.

Damariscove entrance

Damariscove toward the museum

A Joyous 4th of July!

We’ve been fortunate to spend several 4ths of July with our Maine cousins. This year we shared a big, yummy breakfast (homemade waffles!), attended the parade in Round Pond (always a hoot!), had a lobster and steamers feed at Round Pond Lobster afterward, shared a yummy dinner, and in the evening attended the fireworks in Damariscotta. A fun day (with perhaps a bit too much food!).

When traveling by boat, one is at the mercy of what transportation is available when one arrives someplace and needs to get additional provisions (this is often by foot, although in the States, taxis and Uber are often options). Fortunately, our cousins were willing to drive us into town for this, which is what we did this afternoon of July 5th. There was of course more socializing, some relaxing, and more food today as well!

Tonight we will say our goodbyes and head back out to Lady for the night and depart early in the morning for Tenant’s Harbor. It is unlikely I will be able to post tomorrow, but look for the next chapter of our adventure on Saturday sometime.

Now enjoy pictures from the celebrations!

Day 3- Cruising the Coast of Maine

I’m still a day off; yesterday was day 3.

Cruised comfortably from Sebasco Estates to Greenland Cove on Muscongus Bay. Little bit of a head sea, but we still made good time. Cool enough on the water for chamois shirts, until we got to the cove where we shed layers the closer we got to our cousins’ house. Picked up their mooring and went ashore for dinner and fabulous family time.

After a wonderful night’s sleep aboard (my first in 3 nights!), we’re ashore for breakfast. Then we’ll be heading to Round Pond for the 4th of July parade and a lobster feast.

More later today (or maybe tomorrow 😉).

Day 2- Cruising the Coast of Maine

Poor connectivity yesterday, so I’m posting yesterday’s entry the morning of day 3 of our cruise…

Dave & Dad started yesterday rubbing the ‘fur’ off the props, cages and hulls. That explains some of the poor performance the day before. Fortunately, the water was 67-degrees, although Dave was still shivering after an hour in the water (Dad was in half that time). So Lady performed a little better Monday, but there are still some bugs to work out of the system.

It was a bit cooler on the water Monday, and mostly overcast. The boys drove the boat, but it required layers, including windbreakers! We spent the evening on a mooring at Sebasco Estates in Phippsburg, ME. It was warmer on land and with the sun out, was delightful. We took advantage of the location and went ashore for a brief walk, and discovered a little ice cream hut on the premises. Yum! Mom & Dad treated us to drinks at the pub, along with an appetizer of mussels simmered in garlic, butter, and white wine- a perfect appetizer to our stir-fried gingered scallop dinner back aboard Lady. We then sat in the tramps and enjoyed the fireworks display Sebasco Estates was doing. A pleasant surprise, as we had no idea they were happening! Today we are heading for Greenland Cove in Muscongus Bay to visit with cousins for a few days.

Chilly Captain

Chilly Dad

Enjoying drinks at the pub

Sebasco Estates from Lady

Day 1 Cruisin’ up the Coast of ME

Mom & Dad came aboard last night and we celebrated with filet mignon (actually a Christmas gift we owed my folks from 2 years ago!).

Dropped me and mom off onshore this morning to bring the car to Pepperell Cove, where Dave and dad met us with Indigo Lady. After hosing her down (for a clean start 😉), and topping off her water tanks, we set off at 10:30am for our first stop at the Saco River.

It was a smooth run, but we had some shakedown issues involving false system readings and some reprogramming. To be expected, thus one reason for this cruise.

Dad saw one smallish whale briefly. Dave sighted one porpoise briefly. There was a flotilla of Canada geese to see us off from Pepperell 🙂.

We are now sitting comfortably on a town mooring in the Saco River enjoying a round of our signature boat drinks (pirated from a lovely gentleman with an awesome cabana bar in the Virgin Islands where we bought Lady, and perfected over the 2300 miles sailing her home).

Lime in Da Coconut (aka- Indigo Ladies): 1/2 C each Cruzan rum, pineapple rum, coconut rum, lime juice, and cream of coconut, blended with ice. Serves four.

Final loading

Last load brought aboard today. Everything unpacked and stowed. A brief clean, then we reaped the benefits of the beautiful breeze at our mooring in our hammocks. Got Mom & Dad aboard. We head out tomorrow morning!

Provisioning for a month

That’s what about 2/3 of the provisions for four for a month aboard looks like, well, 2.5-3 weeks anyway.

Mom and I did the big provisioning run Wednesday for groceries, minus fresh produce, which Dave & I will pick up on the way to the boat Saturday. It’s not like we’ll be in the boondocks, so we don’t have to worry about provisioning everything for the entire month. We stocked up on a bunch of non-perishable foods, and meat for a significant number of meals, which Dave portioned, vacuum sealed and put in our deep freezer at home. He’s hoping to catch some fish along the way, and there will be some meals ashore.

The mess of food pictured above has since been sorted and bagged, and is sitting on our living room floor waiting to go aboard Friday, along with the meats, since our onboard freezer is now down to temperature. Of course, the pile has grown since yesterday, as we continue to add things, and more will be added before we head over tomorrow morning. Then we have to make space for it all!

Wednesday night

Thursday night

Preparing for the Shakedown Cruise

Those of you who know me well, already know about our plan to live aboard our solar electric catamaran, Indigo Lady, in the Caribbean, starting the spring of 2019. For those of you who know me less well, or who have just stumbled upon this new blog, I’ll provide some back story in future posts this summer. In order keep those of you already “in the know” apprised of our progress, and to get this blog up and running before our shake down cruise starts this coming weekend, I’m starting this blog in real time.

We plan on spending the entire month of July cruising up the coast of Maine into Penobscot Bay as far as Vinal Haven and North Haven to dub around and explore that area. This trip serves a couple of functions. It’s part vacation, part shakedown cruise for Indigo Lady’s new solar electric systems, and a trial for living aboard for an extended period of time. Our maximum time aboard to date has been only 12 days, and we plan to more than double that this time, weather permitting of course.

Our preparations are twofold- a month aboard this summer, and looking to the future when we live aboard her in the Caribbean for several months at a time, starting next spring. So it’s kind of like moving into a new house- we need to buy a lot of stuff that we actually like to replace the cheap stuff she came with when we bought her out of the charter business. So the past couple of weeks have involved a lot of online research (what’s the best…”x”?) and shopping, both online and in real stores. Shout out to my MMSA peeps who presented me with a Bed Bath & Beyond gift card when I retired earlier this month- it made a huge dent, THANKS!!!

So our house pretty much has stuff on every surface, as evidenced by the photos, waiting to be taken to the boat. Not to mention all the stuff that has already been moved aboard. And every time we check something off the to-do list, two more items get added. Last night we talked with my folks about places we want to visit (did I mention my folks are joining us on this July excursion?), so it’s getting exciting! Mom & I do the grocery run in a couple of days . That will likely be the topic of my next post later this week. What do provisions for four for a month look like? Stay tuned…..