Sights of Maine: food

The Farmers Markets here are overflowing with fresh organic produce. We went to the one in  Stonington last week and came home with all kinds of good stuff. Sweet carrots, garlicky pork sausage, fat blueberries, dense crisp cabbage and garlic strong enough to die for, if you're of the vampire persuasion.

     We stopped at the local Lobster Pound on the way back to the dinghy and got 10 fresh ones to go.
Ten fresh 1 1/4 lb lobsters were $53.

We spent a couple of hours steaming and picking the fresh lobsters. Yes, they do turn orange when they're cooked. Ten cooked lobsters yielded around 2 pounds of meat.

                  The fruits of our labor produced a stir fry worthy of Emeril,

                                    and enough blueberry muffins and pancakes for a week.

                                        It is true, sailors travel on their stomachs.

Sights of Maine: harbor seals

One of the great things about being out in the boonies of Maine is the wildlife. No moose so far, but we've seen eagles and osprey swooping in to fish, guillemots winging by with their inky black bodies and bright red feet, ducks by the hundreds, geese, and harbor seals.

I think the seals are my favorite because most of them are so shy. Their heads are hard to spot amid all the lobster bouys anyway, but at the slightest sound, they disappear beneath the water without even a ripple. They seem to be very social with each other, but they don't like humans. Up close they're bigger than you'd expect, up to 6 feet long and up to 300 lbs. They have such cute faces with their big dark eyes.

These guys were sunning themselves on the rocks behind us one morning. The 9 foot tide was rising so one by one they floated off for a day of fishing. I couldn't find any reason why they like to sit with their body arched up like they do, hind flippers and head in the air, it doesn't look comfortable.

                            A nice soft kelp bed. This one was watching me as I was watching it.

                    The rock is almost gone, but they'll hang out for all the sunlight they can get

Yes, the rumors are true

We've sold Celebration. This may come as a surprise to some of you, I haven't written anything for so long that I'm sure you assumed we were out doing our usual socializing, eating and drinking. And you'd be right. But in between all that... OK it's a long story, so I'll start at the beginning.

Last November at the SSCA Gam in Melborne FL, we met a nice couple, Anne and Jeff Posner, who were looking for crew to do the Blue Planet Odyssey with them on their boat Joyful. We were very interested but this is a 2 1/2 year commitment, so we took a lot of time to think about it. We thought through about how bad it could be, on a small boat, in the middle of the Pacific, with crazy people. But we also thought about how good it could be, on a small boat, getting to know some great people, seeing the world at a snails pace. So we did our usual and jumped in with both feet, well, in this case, four barefeet.

We had planned to put Celebration on the hard somewhere while we were gone, but after adding it all up: the costs of insurance, storage, and maintainence, and then the fixing of all the deterioration that happens to a boat who's neglected, we started  to have doubts about this plan. We moved on to thinking that maybe we should sell. We talked to a boat broker (they're like real estate agents, but for boats) and signed on with one at the end of June. The Plan was to come to Maine for the summer and laze about eating lobster, then take the boat back to Annapolis, move off and put her on the hard at the brokers office.

On the way to Maine we stopped, per usual, at our friends, Gary and Alex's house in Amesbury Mass.  Aside from being perfectly wonderful people, they have a mooring and dock on the Merrimack river behind their house, an awesome collection of friends, an awesome garden...the list of reasons to go there is long. We were there on the dock one afternoon, working away on projects small and large that we wanted to finish before we offered her up to be picked apart by prospective buyers, when a man walked down the ramp from the backyard and said "Hello, my name is Klaus and I used to own this boat".

As it turns out, Klaus' boat, Ludus amoris, was hull number 58 and Celebration is hull number 68. Klaus and his wife Maria circumnavigated twice and he's written a book about their travels (unfortunately for us, the book is in German, but is currently being translated to English). Klaus and Maria are from Germany, but their daughter lives near Amesbury so after they sold Ludus, they moved here. Anyway, on this particular day Klaus was driving on the bridge over the Merrimack about a block from where we were and saw us on the dock. He made a right turn and came to say hi.
(A funny story about that: Klaus knocked on the front door of the house, (no one ever uses the front door), he had a copy of his book in his hand, was nicely dressed and was driving an old VW camper van. Gary thought he was a Jehovias Witness and was reluctant to answer the door. Once Gary figured out Klaus's real purpose, he sent him down to see us.) Klaus came aboard to chat and look around. He mentioned that about a year ago he'd gotten an email from a friend in Bavaria asking if he, Klaus, still had his boat for sale. He didn't. Steve mentioned that Celebration happened to be for sale. Klaus looked around some more and then invited us over for dinner the next evening at his home. I knew he had been a real cruiser because when I asked what I should bring to dinner and he replied "your laundry".

We were very surprised to get an email the next morning from Klaus's friends, Jurgen and Kathrin. They were looking for more information on the boat. We sent it and forgot about it. We had a great dinner with Klaus and Maria and got to see some wonderful pictures of their trip. The next thing we knew, J and K had booked tickets to come to Boston to see Klaus and Celebration. We did not get our hopes up. Besides, we already had a Plan. AND our daughter, Amanda, was coming for a rare visit and we didn't want anything to mess that up. It turned into a very fun, chaotic, wacky week. In short we went from "maybe we should sell the boat" to "holy cow, I think we sold the boat" in about 6 weeks.

The really weird part of all this is that when I called our broker to tell him all this and ask what we should do next, HE YELLED AT ME! Really. Yelled. He wouldn't listen to me at all and kept yelling and threatening to put a lien on the documentation, take us to court, etc. We never had any intention of not paying him (until then of course) but we did want to talk about a reduced fee since he had had to do NOTHING so far. Suffice to say, we settled, by dealing with his partner, and we no longer have a broker.

So the new Plan. We'll stay on the boat and deliver her to the Miami area in November. J and K hope to come back and take possession then. We can move to Joyful at the same time. For now, we're in Maine, socializing, eating and drinking.
Below is a picture of Amanda from our quick drive to BaHaBa, because every blog needs a picture.

On the northward migration

Our winter in Marathon sped by really fast. When we got there, our 5-6 month planned stay seemed to stretch endlessly before me, full of possibilities. Chances to learn to basket weave, to spend long, unhurried hours chatting with friends, to blog daily about all the interesting people we would be meeting, to get some of the long-put-off boat upgrades done. In 5 months we managed to get a lot of that done.
As with all boat projects, the new fiberglass dodger took much longer to build than we had planned. We spent so much time working on it in the project room at the marina that by the time we were done, we'd met everyone at the marina and just about everyone from the  mooring field. We met lots of people who would come through daily to check our progress and give advice, lots of advice. Lots and lots of advice. I tried the Tom Sawyer trick daily, trying to hand over my resin roller or paint brush, to get a demo from one of the advice givers but I never got a taker.  I think next time we have to do a big fiberglass 'something', I'm going to call it a class and charge for attendance. The end result is wonderful and we are loving the added protection off shore and the new hand holds for safety. The pictures show the new stuff, but if you really want to see how beautiful it is, you may just have to come and visit.
We left Marathon about a month ago, spent a fun week in Miami with friends Bill and Sarah on Moonlight Serenade, made our way up to St Augustine for another couple of weeks and are now back in Oriental NC. to see more good friends. This trip north and south takes longer each year as we meet more and more people along the way that we want to stop and see each time we go by. 



From this, old canvas dodger.

 

 







...to the new awesome hard dodger.

 

 

Oriental has a new free dock and we spent 2 nights there. It comes complete with 2 pair of beautiful white ducks. They wander freely around the Oriental Marina and Inn grounds, stopping to quuwack and flap at anyone who gets too close. They were very entertaining to watch, but they got up way too early.

 

                                                                       Fuel duck.



Looking north at the outer dinghy dock, Marathon City Marina from the water.

We've settled into our new winter home pretty quickly. The Marathon City Marina is a big place as far as mooring fields go. There are more than 200 moorings in Boot Key Harbor. The map below is courtesy of the city of Marathon. The picture above, is looking from the middle of the black dots, north to the circle with the Boot Key logo. The mooring field isn't full yet, but more and more boats are arriving daily. The cold weather up north is chasing the cruisers our way. We're on mooring K-1.




We picked Marathon for the winter because of it's facilities and the ease of getting around and getting supplies for all the projects we have on the list for the next 4 months. The marina has large project rooms where cruisers can spread out and do work that none of us have room to do on our boats. You want to fix a sail? There's a floor for that. You need to work on the dinghy motor? There are motor stands and workbench space for that. Fibreglass repair? Ditto. Free wifi? Yep. Laundry, yes. (But it makes me cringe to pay $6 for one load. When I think of all the washers and dryers I could have bought with just the money I've spent  in laundromats in the last 5 years. Definitely cringe-worthy.)

The view from above the tiki hut, looking south. Celebration is just right of center.

The inner dinghy dock, with the shower/laundry building and project rooms on the right.

After our very fun, event filled summer, getting back to the boat yard and going to work on Celebration was a definite let down! It's a good thing we met some really fun, party loving fellow sailors, who were also in the midst of boat repairs or overhauls. You know who you are Billy, Bill, Lori, Edgar, Hela, Wendy... the list is long. Thanks for making our yard time go by so quickly.
We splashed Celebration on a very rainy day, in the middle of a very rainy week, that unfortunately  happened to be in the middle of a very rainy month. We didn't see the sun for the next 3 weeks.
We headed south on Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk and then into the ICW system of rivers and canals that takes boaters inside of Cape Hatteras. It's beautiful back country of swamp grass and marsh but it was still raining.

                                        Norfolk Navy Yard, grey ships on a grey day.

Air craft carrier in dry dock, they're so big on top, it's a surprise to see how little is under water.

                                 A kettle of anhingas, wondering where the sun went.

As is usual on our way south, we ended up in Oriental, NC, for a visit with Beth and Jim on Wild Haggis. We lucked out and got onto the free town dock for two nights and we even managed to be there for a pig-pickin at Dick and Jackies. The weather was improving as we made our way south and we were very ready to be back in shorts and flip-flops.

          Carolina Beach, NC, even the geese were heading south, they passed  us daily.
We left Carolina Beach and did a 5 day sail all the way to Marathon. It was a great trip, pretty good wind, pretty calm seas and we managed to average more than 5knots an hour.

 

                                               Our new morning-coffee view, over Boot Key.

 

We've settled into our home for the winter, the mooring field at Boot Key Harbor in Marathon FL. We've spent s lot of time in Florida, but haven't really explored any of it and I'm excited to get to check out all of the Keys.

 



Just a shot of the inside of the boat after our 5 days off shore to Marathon, the sea berth on the left with lots of pillows to keep us from rolling and our piles of cold weather clothing we shed as we got south.

They say that time flies when you're having fun





 And we're having a lot of fun, so the days are slipping through my fingers at a scary fast rate. How can it be that 2 months have gone by since we put the boat up on the hard? Didn't Hannah tell us just yesterday that she was getting married? And more importantly, where has all the rum gone? This summer was a whirlwind 8000 roadtripping miles of family, fun, good friends, and amazing scenery. Once again we started in Virginia, headed to Minnesota and North Dakota to see our families, turned left and made our way to New Mexico, where there was a big party with a small wedding in the middle.

Our family grew by many as we welcomed not only our new son-in-law, Cameron, but his entire family into the fold. It was a very beautiful Hannah/Cameron/New Mexico wedding: a beautiful clear blue sky, a gorgeous estate, green and cool, a beautiful bride and her handsome groom, family and friends dressed in the very best of elegant picnic attire, a Dia de los Muertos bride and groom piñata, fish tacos, rum bar (courtesy of the bride's parents), sack races, wild flowers bouquets and dancing outside on the grass under the twinkling lights and stars. We, of the older generation went home by midnight, but the party went on into the wee hours and, from what I understand, continued the next day. As my dad said, after watching his first grandchild get married, "The bar has been set pretty high for the rest of the grandkids." 

  

After the wedding we continued our "wear out our welcome" tour of our families. We headed to Phoenix for a bit and then back to Albuquerque and on to northern New Mexico where we spent some time looking at land. We'd like to find somewhere to build a cabin and eventually do 6 months on the boat and 6 months off.
In between family visits, we were camping again. We usually stay at the KOA campgrounds, having a fondness for bathrooms and showers and such. Most of the KOA's have some kind of a gift shop with local kitsch for sale. It actually might be a requirement: the dusty forgotten gift shop to the left of the check-in. I've never bought anything but, I always look, I just never know what to expect. In the KOA in Tucumcari NM, I found a treasure, the new mug I've been looking for. It's bright sunshine yellow with a big red Zia sun on it. I love it!

Currently, we're back on the boat, but still in the yard. The picture above is the view from the cockpit, looking around the yard. There are lots of people here, working on boats in varying states of seaworthiness.  We'd planned a quick bottom paint job and then back in the water, BUT as with all things boat, the plans changed. It goes like this. We have a new anchor, it's bigger than the last one and it doesn't fit on the bow as well as it should. The anchor roller needed to be removed and moved back and re welded, so the anchor could fit properly.  Enter our friend, Billy, who has a shop with a TIG welder. Off came the bow spirit. It'll be another week.
The picture below is of Celebration on the hard, minus the bow spirit.

 

A really cool thing

One of the really cool things we've done lately, is sail through New York City. Not just to the city but through it. The East River runs 14 miles from the Throgs Neck bridge on the west end of Long Island Sound to the Battery on the southern tip of Manhattan. Steve did LOTS of planning for this passage. Currents on the river can reach 5 knots and we certainly didn't want to be going against them. At the midway point of the trip, where the East and Harlem rivers meet, the current can be so strong, the area is called Hell Gate. It didn't give these newbies warm and fuzzy feelings. The key was to time the currents so we could go through the city and continue on our way down the New Jersey coast.
Steve timed it perfectly and it was an amazing day.

We entered the East river, going under the Throgs Neck bridge, it was our first view of Manhattan.

                                              Sailing school, just past the bridge.

 

 

There were beautiful, expensive homes all along the river. Yes, that is a float plane in the garage.

We went under the bridge and past La Guardia airport and Rikers Island prison. Just across the river from Rikers was a maximum security barge. It had curling razor tape everywhere and a tunnel of the stuff leading to the barge. The upper left corner was a basketball court/outdoor area, also heavily razor wired.  I nicknamed it the 'party barge'. It made me claustrophobic just going by.

 

 

 



 

                  Another barge, this one looks like a residence with indoor and outdoor space.

 

 



 

   As we came around Rikers Island, we got our first good view of Manhattan. Hell Gate bridge is to the left.

 

There were so many beautiful old buildings and apartments. The rooftop gardens were everywhere.

Going through Hell Gate.

                                            The UN and the Chrysler building.

More beautiful apartments.

               River traffic, my captains course didn't cover right of way issues with planes.

                                                  Old and abandoned looking Domino Sugar mill.

                      Around another corner and our first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty.

The detail on the undersides of the bridges was ornate and beautiful. They don't build 'em like that anymore.

                            Brooklyn Bridge at the bottom of Manhattan.

 

 

One final corner and we were in busy New York harbor. The Statue of Liberty straight ahead. Tugs, ferries, planes, helicopters, sailboats, barges, and any and every other kind of conveyance in between.

It was a 2 hour trip through the city and one I'd really like to do again.

 

 

Tidbit: Throgs don't really have necks. The area around the bridge was name after the Rev. John Throggmorton who settled there in 1642 and it eventually was shortened to Throg.

 

Tidbit #2: The East river and the Harlem rivers are said to be the only rivers in the world with two mouths and no source.

 

 

I've gotten a little flack lately for not updating the blog. OK, I've gotten LOTS of flack and even a few hand grenades. but we were having so much fun at Gary and Alex's dock, time flew. We've been back in the US for about 6 weeks after our winter season in the VI's.  It's been great to use the phone and internet whenever I want, go to the grocery and find all the things on my list. Whaa hooo! It's the little things in life that are the most fun!

So we got pretty spoiled staying at a dock for a month. A dock with great friends and their great neighbors, unlimited access to a fabulous garden, gluten free bagel Sundays and use of a car. It was hard to leave. We actually stayed longer than planned because I needed a rather extensive physical and had the chance to do it all while we were there. Again, Alex, thanks a million for the use of your car.
We've been reacquainting ourselves with sailing in this part of the world. As Florida sailors we rarely had to deal with currents, tides were less than 2 feet and we seldom had fog. In New England the currents can run 4 knots, the tides rise and fall 8-10 feet twice a day (thus creating the current) and the fog just hangs around whenever it bloody well feels like it. It makes entering and exiting ports and canals a challenge: trying to figure out if we should go into a river with the current but against the wind, or against the current and with the wind, or wait for slack and motor like crazy.

Celebration on the dock behind Gary and Alex's house. We started out on a mooring ball, but the currents in the river were so strong and squirly, that we were doing wild loopdie loops around the ball. I think some of the neighbors complained that it was making them seasick to watch us, so we moved to the dock. The tide here is about 8 feet and combined with the strong river flow it makes for some serious eddies. This picture is at high tide, you can see the bridge to the dock is level.

                                                      Low tide and we all but disappeared.

           Fog in the Cape Cod canal, odd to be going under a bridge and not really be able to see it.