|
|
Friday, July 06, 2001 9:02 AM If our newsletters have themes, this one's must be visiting. Shipmates, friends and family, we have been meeting up with them in every port. It's completely different from the times where everything revolves around the boat, though the boat has had her way and demanded to set the schedule and pace a bit. We have looked forward to the small passages between stops to get back into our routine and rest up a bit. We made a few stops while heading up the Chesapeake to Baltimore. Once we gave up passage sailing instead of making the 100+ mile days we were down to 30-40 miles, and it took us a few stops to get up toward Baltimore. We were slowly working our way into civilization. We anchored up the Severn River and enjoyed the hospitality of some past shipmates of the Pride of Baltimore, Leroy Surosky and Joe McGeady. We spent 4 nights here, which was a nice period of slowing down the traveling rate, but kept up a good working/visiting rate. One of our big projects here was splicing up a new forestay, about 2 1/2 days of fun traditional boat work. Leslie got to top off some ships supplies, something she'll be busy doing till we cast our lines off for Ireland. For a few days the girls had new friends that came over to play after school; we were a kid boat again with climbing, swinging and swimming going on all over the place. The girls even got to have 3 friends over for a sleepover. In the evenings we had people coming out in all manner of craft to visit. With the headstay back together we headed off to Baltimore. We had arranged to sail in with the Pride of Baltimore II to the Inner Harbor and then tie up at Leroy's shop for a an evening get- together. It was great fun short tacking up the harbor with Pride. We always feel like a little puppy barking and biting at a statelier dog's heals trying to get them to come and play. It is a lot more work for them to get sailing and short tack up the harbor then for us. Though we had to put up a lot more sail to keep up with them, so we were kept busy too. As we were sailing in the phone rang, (we had been lent a cell phone) a strange sound to hear on Alcyone, Leslie answered it trying to explain that at the moment we had our hands full and to call later. The wind of course had been building and the fore-gaff top had been struck. When we were coming thru the next tack, we were hit by a gust that just knocked us side ways since we were not moving forward at the time. The people watching from shore saw a lot of our bottom showing. We quickly got sail off, since we were off Leroy's shop anyway. It took us awhile to clean everything up and then we headed to the dock. Pride had some trouble getting thru her tack and after she ran off with the wind back down the bay. They came back in afterwards and anchored up to join the party for a little bit. Unfortunately, there partying was cut short because a tug had sunk in the C&D Canal, a short cut between the Chesapeake and the Delaware. Pride was due in Philadelphia in a few days and now she had to travel 400+ miles instead of 100, so they got underway that evening. The party was great. It always amazes us how get-togethers can just sort of happen. Brooke and Leroy made this one just happen for us. There had to have been well over 50 people aboard Alcyone, crews from various trips we had sailed on, friends we had made from our stays in Baltimore, friends Bridget had made from her sailing days in Baltimore. Alcyone had quite the port list going as everyone congregated on that side. Darby, who was entertaining down below complained that she had to put up the lee cloth in the weather bunk! As the night went on the crowd thinned out. The older group gathered around the main salon drinking rum and telling tales of sailing trips aboard the first Pride (at least 20 old Pride crew were there), and the younger crowd squished up in the nav area telling their own tales. Our kids tried to go to bed but had a hard time of it. The next day we moved across the harbor and enjoyed the hospitality of the Living Class Rooms on their docks in the downtown area. We were right on the fringe of the bustling harbor activity, in a small oasis of traditional boats. Our plan when we scheduled our Baltimore stop was to be there for the memorial service for the Pride of Baltimore. May 14th was the 15th anniversary of the sinking of the Pride. We made up bouquets of flowers the night before and in the morning we launched the dories and rowed across the harbor to the memorial, while trying to explain to Darby what a memorial service was. The girls have grown up occasionally hearing the story of our sinking on the Pride. Alyce has heard it enough and doesn't like to hear or think about it, because the reality that boats can sink and people can die isn't a comforting thought when you spend your time sailing around on a boat. Darby is all ears' still and trying to figure it all out. The gathering was small; we were trying to put names to faces from the past. The one thing that concerned the girls was a song that a fellow wrote and sang about the sinking of the old Pride and the building of the new. He took a bit of poetic license with the facts and we were lucky that Darby didn't stop him mid-song to set him straight. After that we spent a few more days in Baltimore at a quieter pace. All the passage crew had left by now, Bridget headed off for a break and Chris was not quite back. It was back to laundry, shopping and getting ready to move on. O400 hrs one morning, Baltimore was a glow in city lights and as we steamed up the bay it slowly got darker before the sun took over providing the soft light. Now it was our turn to use the C&D Canal, hoping that it was going to be open. We had made attempts at finding this out before we headed off, but hadn't quite. The canal was now closed because they were raising the sunken tug. Before it had been open to noncommercial traffic, now it had been closed since the previous afternoon and could be closed up to three days. The weather, which had been lovely since we had arrived in the Chesapeake, had begun to change. Gray, fog and rain replaced all the sunshine we had been seeing. Slowing down, anchoring for the night and getting a good night sleep sounded good to us. The next morning early, we heard a report on the radio that the canal was open again. We figured out the tides and headed out. The canal took us from the head of the Chesapeake through to the middle of the Delaware Bay. From there we were heading down the Delaware, up the Jersey coast and in to NY City. There wasn't much traffic in the canal; everyone was still heading out and around. The one interesting thing that we did see was a crowd of boats with flashing lights and a crane on the shore all around a 40ish foot new Bay Liner that had driven up and almost out of the canal. We were left wondering how they did it, a quick trip to the head, nodding off? We broke up the trip to New York with at stop in Atlantic City. Running with just three of us adult types, we thought a night's sleep would do us some good. Getting in and secured took a few hours longer than we had hoped because we found the bottom on the way in. Alcyone, with her 10 ft. of draft, is a bit deep for some of these areas. Lots of times we sound our way into areas with the inflatable out in front to avoid this sort of mistake. Luckily it was a soft spot and we kept ourselves busy putting dories on the hip and filling them with water, buckets of water hanging from the yard with care, and the boom prevented out with bodies, Leslie and Chris, sitting at the end. Slowly the tide came in and set us free; we gave the shoal a good sounding with BT before anchoring. Bridget found her way back to the boat the next morning and we spent the next night sailing along the Jersey coast to NY. It was a beautiful overnight sail, beam reach, not to cold, no fog and the lights of the Jersey shore lighting our way. Rounding Sandy Hook early in the morning we saw the Pride upping anchor and getting ready to sail into the City. We had a perfect sail in with the Pride past the Statue of Liberty and on into Manhattan. Then docked in Liberty Island Marina, right across from the World Trade Center. It was a rainy two days that found us being the best of tourists, the Statue of Liberty, a Broadway play, the UN, and Darby's favorite FAO Schwartz. Darby wanted it to be known that the next time we go on a vacation she would like to stay at the Plaza Hotel and play at FAO Schwartz. That is exactly what she did for two hours one rainy afternoon. She found a corner full of huge stuffed animals and made scenes. Nobody seemed to mind. Another old friend and ex-crew member that we ran into in NY was Richard Maier. Richard was our first teenage deckhand. We played a great part in training each other. Now he is co-skippering a schooner out of the marina at the World Trade Center. The prices they charge for things, docking(5$ a foot), day sails, boggles our minds. It was great getting a chance to hang out with him. He spent one night aboard Alcyone and the next morning we all headed aboard Pride for a rainy ride over to the Big Apple. It was hard to leave the hospitality and warmth of the Pride to head out in the big city, but we charged on and had a great time. The only trouble was getting up at 5AM the next morning to catch the tide through Hell's Gate and into Long Island Sound. The tide did a great job flushing us through into Long Island Sound, but then the east wind blowing down on us in the foggy rain slowed us right down. We set sail and started tacking our way down the sound. We didn't get as far as we would of liked, but managed to find a nice anchorage. Sailing in we saw a schooner motoring out in the fog. It turned out to be the Mystic Whaler, which is owned and operated by another ex-pride crewmember we use to sail with, John "Jolly-man" Eggington. He was headed out for a youth sail, but we got to visit when he headed back in that evening. The next day the wind had died off and was blowing more out of the NE, so we were having a nice motor sail down The Sound. We were back in contact with the Pride; they had left NY early and were chasing us down. We had hopes of getting into Niantic, Sugar's old hometown and our destination for the Memorial weekend, that all changed suddenly when the engine died. It didn't rev up and die, or sputter and die, it just stopped cold. After checking the obvious, fuel, fuel filters, the Murphy switches, and the air we tried to restart the engine. There just wasn't any fuel getting to the injectors. We called the Pride and conferred with their engineer and came up with the same diagnoses. The manual said that " A complete failure of the injection pump is not likely unless the fuel system has been greatly mistreated; suspect everything else first", but the conclusion was that it was the fuel injector pump. That was something we weren't going to fix at sea. The next decision was deciding where to head to so we could sail in, anchor, and find a mechanic. We decided on Bridgeport, Conn. It was an easy sail in with plenty of depth and an anchorage just off the channel. So we said a final goodbye to Pride and headed back downwind to Bridgeport. The afternoon wind was picking up. We had a lovely sail back down, reefed both the main and fore, to slow us down, then headed close hauled up the entrance channel. There was one barge on a buoy in the anchorage, but it left plenty of room for us. We were happily settled with two anchors down in good feeling mud. Sugar went off to find a mechanic for the next day. When Sugar ran in to find a mechanic he went into a Portuguese fish shop and the fish marm called a Portuguese diesel mechanic. Arrangements were made for the next day for the mechanic to come out to the boat at 8AM. Sugar, being at a fish market, bought lobsters to cheer up the crew. Next he headed over to the local restaurant/bar, run by a Portuguese family, to make a phone call and then back out to the boat for a first of many lobster dinners. The next morning Sugar was ashore to pick up the mechanic, who never did show up and so he bummed a ride to the mechanics shop from Paulo, a Portuguese fisherman. Sugar asked him about the big Portuguese neighborhood and he said there wasn't one. Turns out there were only three families in this part of town and Sugar had met them all. That morning while Sugar was off trying to find the mechanic. A tug called that was going to bring in a 600' barge and needed us to move. Leslie explained that we were having engine problems and that the Captain was ashore picking up a mechanic. The Harbor Master came back that he would be able to move the Alcyone with his patrol boat. Leslie asked if we could wait until the Captain was back, so we could see if we could get the engine running. So we waited, and waited. It seemed that the mechanic was not fond of early mornings or he was fond of late nights and alcohol. A few hours later Sugar had run down the mechanic and had gotten him out to the boat. Yes, it was the fuel injector pump, new ones would be hard to find, rebuild would not happen until after the long weekend. We needed long-term moorage. So we called up the Harbor Master and let him know our situation. For those of you who don't know Bridgeport, it is the largest city in Connecticut and the one with the most urban problems. Later that weekend as we drove back and forth to Niantic to meet with family and friends everyone we met was amazed that we ended up in Bridgeport, no one goes to Bridgeport. Why did we pick Bridgeport! But like all the places that we have ended up that are little off the beaten path, the people of Bridgeport treated us really nicely. The Harbor Master towed us, for free, to a condemned dock, which was in the middle of a large area that had bulldozed down to make way for a new harbor front area. Unfortunately the city lost their builder, so all that had been done is bulldozing and new streets with fancy signs, all surrounded by chain link fence with razor wire on the top. But the dock didn't cost us a thing. Next door to us was a 100-year-old yacht club that had fought being condemned. They were hospitable to us too. They let us use their phone, showers, bar, invited us to all the weekend parties, and when Sugar was arranging for a rental car drove him to the agency. Of all the places for this breakdown to happen this was one of the easiest, we weren't in the Panama Canal needing to get towed through ($$$) or any other place were we would have to ship parts back and forth, we didn't have guests aboard, and we didn't have 1,000 miles to weather to nearest mechanic. Next door to Bridgeport there is Fairfield which has a top of the line injector rebuilding company. So when Sugar could drag the hungover mechanic out to the boat things got moving as quickly as possible and if it wasn't for the holiday it would have seemed pretty quick. So that Friday afternoon (The Memorial Weekend Friday Afternoon) after we got the injector out, the boat docked and the car rented, we headed up to Niantic to meet up with family. We left at 3Pm, dinner wasn't until 6:30PM; we were going to have time to stop at an old friend of Sugar's to visit, have showers, and clean up. Wrong. The current must have been against us, because we took over 3 hours to do that 1 hour drive. We made it though and had an enjoyable evening meeting with family, most of whom the girls had never met. There was Sugar's sister Lynn and her family, brother Rickie, and sister-in-law Pat, all who are from the Connecticut area. Then there was Sugar's brother Robert (a familiar face) who flew in from Cincinnati, and his Aunt Betty and Uncle Chick who drove down from New Hampshire. The girls were a bit overwhelmed by meeting so many new relatives. But by the end of the visit, with the brave driving down to visit in Bridgeport, us driving back up, and finally getting the boat up; we had a great visit with family and friends. We headed up to Niantic for the next weekend. Ricky joined us for the passage. The weather, which had been lovely for our stay in Bridgeport, was once again changing to the SE, and bringing in fog and rain. Exactly one week later than planned we sailed into Duck Island road and lured John Cane, one of Sugar's closest partners in crime, out to the boat and made plans for a get together the next night. We made it into Niantic Bay the next morning, anchored up in front of the Yacht Club, and visited with friends and old acquaintances of Sugar's. With the help of John Cane (I'll get even for the lobsters someday) we had a great evening lobster feed with lots of Sugar's old high school buddies. The next morning we were in our own foggy world. The plan was to head to Mystic that afternoon with Lynn's family and friends. Finally the morning fog burned away and we had a beautiful afternoon to sail up the Mystic River to Mystic Seaport. It was early evening by the time we sailed into Mystic Seaport, with the sun setting and the "town" deserted it was as if we were sailing back in time. We enjoyed the hospitality of the Mystic Seaport for 3 days. Yet again visiting with old shipmates and friends that lived in the area. The girls wandered around the Seaport, living in a nautical Disneyland. Darby enjoyed the horse pulled wagon ride and the children's museum. Alyce enjoyed the Morgan, life on a whaling ship. In the evenings, we had the Seaport to ourselves. Friends would come by for dinner and the girls would run around and explore. It was great. The Brilliant was in port, the Seaports 63' S&S schooner. We had raced with her in Antigua. Comparing trips up North, we had the better passage. Brilliant left a little later than we did and headed to Bermuda. After leaving Bermuda they ran into a weather system that took them a few days to get through. I'm sure that we could of spent more time in Mystic, but like always we were moving on. With Andrew, Sugar's nephew and Ricky still aboard we headed out. There were lots of places we would of liked to stop in the area, but our week in Bridgeport ate up some time. So our apologies to anyone we missed. We trimmed down our schedule and decided to stop at Block Island, New Bedford, Gloucester, and Isle of Shoals on our way to Portland, ME. Block Island gave us a nice day's sail, time for the girls to run on shore and see an area that "Pa" had grown up sailing in. The next day we had a gentle sail over to New Bedford. A hurricane wall with a closing gate protects the harbor. Once through the entrance the harbor opens up again. We arrived that afternoon following in the schooner Ernestina and were invited to raft up to them for the evening. Claire, Bridget's sister, was working on Ernestina, so they got to do some serious visiting and we got to meet yet another member of the Arbour family. [So far we had met Mary Catherine, whom sailed with us from Cuba to Puerto Rico; parents, Bob and Marie on vacation in the Caribbean; and brother Peter in Connecticut. (Here is an update on Mary Catherine, since everyone got to know her so well in the Cuba newsletter. She is now in Peru and is due back in the states by the end of July to get ready to start medical school at Harvard. So we weren't able to visit with her on this leg.)] New Bedford seemed like it is ready and waiting of its waterfront revival. All the old brick buildings and cobble stone streets are ready and waiting for a new life. Other reason's we wanted to stop was to visit the New Bedford Whaling Museum and the Seaman's Bethel. There is a plaque in the Seaman's Bethel for the crew that was lost on the Pride, and we wanted to stop by to see it. The chapel is very simple with the prow of a ship for the pulpit and plaques on the wall for fisherman and sailors that had been lost at sea. The one for the Pride was very simple with a picture of the boat and of the crewmembers who were lost. Darby was very intrigued by the pictures of the crew. She could finally put faces to the names. That evening the crew of the Ernestina was showing a movie on their foresail. Our necks were a bit stiff, but we had great seats for watching Captain Blood. Eventually it got so late they stopped the movie before it was over and the last we saw of Captain Blood he was in chains rowing on a Spanish galleon. I don't think we will find it in DVD to find out the ending. The next morning we said goodbye to Ricky and Andrew, who had to get back to their lives; by afternoon we were bidding goodbye to the crew of the Ernestina. They were heading south to Long Island Sound and we were heading up through the Cape Cod Canal and on to Gloucester. We had a quiet motor over night to Gloucester and anchored out in the outer harbor early in the morning. Sugar motored in in the inflatable to have a look around to see where we could dock. He met the captain of the Thomas E. Lannon, a 65' schooner that was recently built in Essex Mass., who offered to let us raft up to him except that he had 4 day sails planned in the next 2 days. Our best bet was anchoring in the inner harbor. Sugar headed back out and told us that we should clean up our act because there was a new fairly bristol looking schooner in the harbor. The sails were all refurled, hull washed and brass polished. Then it was decided we would set the course and raffee and sail the mile into the inner harbor, a proper way to enter Gloucester Harbor on a Gloucester like fishing schooner. About this time the Thomas E. Lannon was sailing out on her first day sail. We up anchored sailed off with the course and raffee and headed into the harbor with them. Then they were a bit ahead of us, so we set the main and main-gaff topsail. Then it looked like the wind might be a bit close for carrying the squares into the harbor, so we set the heads'l and fore, struck the course and raffee, and set the stays'l. By then we were in the inner harbor so we struck sail, rounded up, anchored, and refurled the sails. Our time in Gloucester was spent visiting with friends and exploring. Saturday evening found Chris playing music with a bunch of folks on the schooner Adventure and Sunday morning saw us enjoying their hospitality once again for breakfast. Adventure was the greatest moneymaker of the fishing fleet. In 1954 she entered into the Maine windjammer fleet, being the queen of the fleet until she retired in 1988. Now she has been given to the City of Gloucester in hopes that money can be raised and she can be rebuilt. She is a huge impressive ship. After having played with Pride, tied up next to Ernestina and explored Adventurer, we are always glad we have a nice little schooner. We left early the next morning for the Isle of Shoals. They are about 8 miles off Portsmouth, NH. They are a group of 9 small islands. Our destination was Star Island. Our friend and ex-crew member Ben Klompus and his girlfriend, soon wife, Erin are working there for the summer. Earlier in the plan of things we were due into Isle of Shoals the week before for a wedding. But sanity prevailed, so instead of trying to squeeze a graduation, Ben's from Harvard, moving, the opening of a summer camp and a wedding into one week; they opted to have the wedding in October at a more leisurely pace. We are sad to be missing the wedding, but had a great time visiting with all the folks on Star Island. Early on in history, the 1600, the islands became famous for there cod fishing. Then in the 1800 high-class summer resorts were developed on the island. On Star Island there is still a huge old hotel called the Oceanic House. A non-profit corporation now owns it and uses it as a group conference/retreat location. Erin's family had been going to camp there for years and now her mother and father are running the island. The islands are spectacularly scenic, full of sea life with an isolated feeling. Only the staff were on the island, so we enjoyed exploring and playing in this big resort. The old stately hotel reminded us of big old schooners: general up keep and maintenance is overwhelming, but it is all well worth the fight. The fog had filled in the evening before we left for Portland, ME. It was still hanging on in the morning, but felt like it was starting to burn off. After we left Isle of Shoals, we saw nothing until we got into the harbor at Portland. The reasons we had decided on Portland as a crew pick up spot was that it was easy transportation wise and we had a friend we wanted to visit there. We had been trying to get in touch with our friend Kim while we were on our way up to Portland, but hadn't got through or gotten the local knowledge we wanted. We were arriving a bit blind, and were glad that the fog had at last cleared. Our first attempts at finding a spot made us feel a bit uncomfortable about how it was all going to work out, to expensive, no anchoring, to big, then finally some one suggested that we call Portland Marine Supply. Sugar decided to motor over that way before we called hoping that if they saw us we might get an old wood schooner discount. So we called them up and asked if they had room and their rates. The rates were OK for a few days, but could we anchor off or grab a mooring part of the time? They said to come in and we would work something out. After we got settled the gentleman who owned the establishment, Finn, came over and offered us a tour around. So off Leslie and Sugar went for a quick tour. The facility includes these huge brick buildings that are used for indoor winter boat storage, and maintenance, another building that housed an antique narrow gauge railroad museum, plus sail-loft, rigging loft and mechanic shops. Then there was the corner where Fin was building a 65' Alden schooner. 2 hours later we arrived back, still not knowing what we were going to work out about out dock rates. But it all worked out fine, he charged us 1/5 the price of the dock down the way and we spent the week there. Fin said that Portland was a great liberty port and it was for us. Our first evening ashore we found a great toy store (not surprisingly the 'big kids' were just as pleased as Alyce and Darby) and enjoyed a lovely dinner ashore. The Irish Pub next door was having a celtic music night, so Chris got his violin and enjoyed an evening of music. Bridget's brother Mathew lives in Portland (the only one left to meet is in Korea, we might miss him), so she got in some more family visiting and her dad flew out to join them for the weekend. Chris's mother and a friend flew in from California to see Chris and his Grandmother happened to be in the area. Then there was Kim, who we finally reconnected with. Karen, our good friend from San Francisco, was out on the east coast so she came by to visit and lend a helping hand. Sugar's Aunt Betty and Uncle Koop drove out again and were finally able to see the boat. The weekend found us docked in the middle of a small, hands on, boat festival. It was the first annual festival so not many people knew about it, but there were lots of different ways to get out and go play on the water. Alyce enjoyed kayaking and going out in an Alden rowing shell with a moving seat. We had a very laid back weekend with lots of visiting. The girls made a friend on the docks, Mattie. Her parents had us all over for dinner on Saturday night. Her dad, Lincoln Paine, had been involved with ASTA (the American Sail Training Association); we found that we knew a lot of the same people and enjoyed an evening visiting. Tue, 17 Jul 2001 We left Halifax three days ago, a beautiful clear day with a following breeze. It was a nice way to start out. Now it is 3AM and we are motoring along, wind forecast to be light for today and going easterly tomorrow (wrong direction guys). But the forecast hasn't stayed the same from one broadcast to the next, so we will give it another chance. The first few days out are always a period of adjustment, getting sea legs, getting sleep, and figuring out routines; everyone is doing OK. That first rocking, rolling night spent listening to every creak and moan the boat makes, one wonders if one will ever get any sleep. But sleep does come and so do the sea legs; challenges will come up that we have to rise to but otherwise the personalities onboard will set the routine. Hopefully, this portion of the newsletter will get out via the radio waves, introducing the new crew and following our cruise from Portland, Maine to Halifax. This leg of the trip was our first to book up. Hearty souls, none of this tropical sailing for them; but then maybe Alcyone is made for this type of passage, with the big diesel stove in her glory. The heartiest soul award has to go to Holly. Holly is a friend and local sail maker from Port Townsend. To win the heartiest soul award, she swam around Harbor Island in Bucks harbor. Holly likes to get up and do something in the morning; so we were use to her going for a run or a row. And she, Pat, Bridget and Darby had gone for other plunging swims. We did have unseasonably warm, beautiful, sunny weather in Maine, when it wasn't foggy; but the water hadn't warmed up that much. One morning we woke to find Holly had headed off for a swim; Pat was off rowing in a dory so he kept her company. The most Alyce and Leslie could manage was a morning plunge. We will see what exercise routine Holly sets up for us on the passage. Pat, who partakes in morning exercise and cold-water swimming to a lesser degree, is a friend of Holly's and crews on Adventuress. He is new to the Alcyone scene, and is taking in the new experiences. The sailing is probably the easiest to adjust to; living with a group of people in close quarters might be the hardest. In the last day's rush of getting things done in Halifax, Alyce and Darby were looking for someone to do something with; all their regulars were busy. They ask Pat if he would go to the Discovery Museum. Pat took it in stride as part of new challenges and they all had a good time. Frank Townsend is another Port Townsendite. He was transplanted from Maine, so has proved to be a wealth of local knowledge. He enjoyed sharing the Bert and I jokes, was quick to identify the local schooners and provided us with required local reading. We ended up in SW harbor, were Frank had worked as a shipwright some twenty years ago and he enjoyed wandering around running into old friends. Franks been messing around with boats for his whole life but had not had a chance to do a long ocean passage yet so signed up quick when the opportunity came his way. Tom Estlow rounds off the crew. Tom has a long history of sailing on the Alcyone. His first trip was in 1990; this is his fifth trip with us. Tom is comfortable on the boat and we are comfortable with him. We were reminiscing about all the changes that have happened to Alcyone and her crew since his first trip, and wondering what will come next. Things use to be more yachty, now there is less varnish, more green brass, roof racks, 110 volt power, computers and DVD's, two children and more gray hair. Who knows what changes will come next? With the crew gathered, we were ready to be off. Talking with another yacht that was heading to Ireland and looking at the iceberg reports, we decided to give ST John's Newfoundland a miss and leave from Halifax. The ice at this point was still south; locals had said it had been a very cold winter and the ice was thicker than normal. That decision made, we could slow up some and enjoy cruising Maine at a bit more leisurely pace. We left in a Maine heat wave; all the locals were a grumble. Alcyone dockside was uncomfortably warm, without any breeze it was hot and humid. We were late getting underway, waiting for a machine shop to come with a bracket for the windless. It was a relief to get away from the dock and have the air moving a bit. Our goal was to go visit Eagle Island, the summer home of Admiral Perry. We ended up anchoring for the night in a nearby cove and enjoying a visit to Eagle Island the next morning. It was nice to wander around the groomed grounds and enjoy exploring the house that was simple and left just as it had been in Perry's time. It gave us the feeling of a typical summer home on an island in Maine. Like Robert McCloskey children's books about Maine, the lovely low islands with summer homes, lobster boats anchored in the bay, and peapods in the cove (we weren't there the right time of year for the blueberries), they were all there for us to experience. We divided our time between civilization and secluded coves. We went to visit friends, track down the Maine schooners, and revisit old haunts. Our first stop was East Boothbay, then we went out to Monhegan Island, into Rockland for the weekend to see the schooners, to Buck Bay and then thru Eggemoggin Reach to visit the Woodenboat Magazine and school, to Frenchborough Harbor and finally ended up at SW Harbor in Mount Desert Island. In East Boothbay, we visited with Nat Wilson. Nat is a traditional sail maker that Leslie and Sugar got to know when they were working on the Pride. We sailed in and anchored up in front of Nat's house just before dinner. Some crew headed ashore, other brave souls went for a quick swim. Sugar ran into Nat and invited he and his wife out for breakfast. We had a great time visiting over breakfast and after went for a tour of the sail loft. Then we were off to a 4 star destination in the guidebook, Monhegan Island. We all enjoyed a wander around the island, getting treats at the local store, playing with puppies, and hiking up to the lighthouse to have a better look at the fog. Sugar, Alyce and Darby finished up the afternoon fishing off the pier with some local kids. Our first few days were spent in the fog. The next day we traversed an area, highly recommended for it's scenic beauty, with no visibility and headed into Rockland Harbor. Luckily the fog had cleared a little once we were in the harbor. There were people on shore waiting our arrival in Rockland. Mostly they were awaiting Bridget's and Chris's arrival. Chris had a friend Caroline, whom he had seen briefly in Portland on the Westward. She had a few days off and had come to Rockland for a visit. There was another friend working on the Appledore in Camden. Then Bridget had a friend aboard the Lettie G. Howard, we rafted up to them for a pleasant evenings visit. Bridget had another friend in town that loaned us a car for a day so we were able to visit the schooners in Camden and look in at the building of the topsail schooner Lynx in Rockport. We were in Schoonerville. The girls and Leslie enjoyed the close proximity of a movie theater and saw two movies; the girls weren't really interested in more schooners. Leslie had to explain this to a skipper who was treated rather coldly by the girls when he offered to give them a tour of his boat. Now if there had been a dog or cat or other kid aboard, that would have been interesting. The fog hung around for our visit but cleared as we sailed out Monday morning with all the Rockland schooners heading out on their charters. For the rest of our visit in Maine we enjoyed beautiful early summer weather. We stopped at the Woodenboat Magazine facility on a beautiful day. It is a lovely setting, especially on a lovely day. After that we headed out to some secluded bays and quiet anchorages (spying and identifying other schooners as we went), to do some rowing and exploring in pure cruising mode. Our last port in Maine was SW Harbor. It was a crowded bay full of activity. The Hinckley yacht yard is there, so there are a lot of upscale boats. The town reminded us a lot of Port Townsend, a quaint town with a local population and lots of outside money. Sugar and the girls went to rent bicycles and the women who rented them the bikes had lived near Port Townsend in Blyn. She was still getting use to Maine. We spent two days doing some hiking and exploring, showering and laundry before we were ready to head off across the Gulf of Maine to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Our crossing to Lunenburg gave everyone a little test of his or her sea legs. It was a fast passage with a following breeze in the beginning. Flying along at 9knts, with no visibility was interesting. Our excitement came when we caught an open ocean fishing trap of some sort that took our speed from 7knts to 2knts. It took us a while to figure out how to untangle ourselves from the mess without cutting the trap. Things eased up some by evening and we had a nice sail in the next day. Lunenburg is a very picturesque city; all the buildings are painted bright blues and reds. We sailed in on Canada Day, so lots of the ships in port were dressed and things were looking festive. It was another great liberty port; we spent two days exploring the museum, foundry, boat yards and the great ice cream shop. There was another schooner in with two girls on board, so Alyce and Darby were busy arranging their social schedule. We left reluctantly one evening for an over night passage to Halifax. We arrived in Halifax early the next morning and got settled in near the Maritime Museum. Theodore the Tugboat was in and doing tours, so the girls were off after breakfast for a tour. We had seen Theodore before in the Chesapeake, but were not able to get a tour then. It is always fun to be right downtown in cities. A visitors center was at the head of the dock, we were all set. Everyone went every which way, and miles were covered on foot and by bus. The girls explored museums and found a great swimming pool. Tom got the scoop on the Halifax Tattoo, a military vaudeville show?. Tom, Sugar and the girls went to see the show, there was a bit of everything in it, piping, marching, drumming, gymnastics, trampolining and a boot camp like obstacle course. Leslie spent her time shopping. We waited until Saturday morning to head out across the pond. Now we are eight days out. It took us awhile to get off the on ramp and on to the freeway. We got stuck in a trough in the middle of all sorts of weather; we had gales, developing gales and Lows surrounding us and we were motor-sailing in not much wind, fog, rain and big seas for the first few days. Now the fog has cleared, sun is shinning and the wind is steady from the WSW; we've been rolling along comfortably for the last 5 days. The water has even warmed up to a comfortable bath taking temperature of 68 degrees. All is well aboard. We are closing in on our halfway point. The crew of the Alcyone |