Tuesday

I do not know where the day went. We finished up the ice box cleaning, made up a grocery list, and restocked for the next two weeks.

We still have lots of soup. I am beginning to wonder how much soup we have at home.

We did some laundry, and took lots of naps. For some reason it was a really nappy sort of day. I did go through the New England Cruising guides to find places where we can tie up to a dock, or have water taxi service. Without a dinghy that works for us, we will have to be careful where we go, or just plan to see the world from the mooring.

On Swimming

From Dave

“Swimming to me is staying alive when I’m in the water”
Paul Stookey

Many people think that, as a boater I probably love to play about in the water. This is not the case. In my view, the whole purpose of a boat is is to keep me OUT of the water. A dinghy or tender is a small auxiliary rowboat whose purpose is to convey the boater from boat to dock without having to get wet—at least that’s the idea.

We have an 8 foot pram for this purpose. On Saturday it failed to do its job. (In fairness to the dink, I am not the nimblest nor the most seamanlike of sailors and I’m sure this vessel would be just fine for a younger, abler and thinner man.)

NONETHELESS, I wound up clinging to the side of the dock with the dinghy totally filled with water. They always tell you to stay with the swamped boat. DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT. I’ll clutch the side of a dock any time. There’s at least SOME prospect of getting up on the dock.
Meanwhile, I’m looking at unsinkable inflatable dinghys.

Gleanings from Sunday and Monday

Spent the weekend cleaning the boat, removing everything from lockers and sorting things back where they belong. We are a lot more organized today, which I find a relief.

We are looking for a different dinghy. The one we have just does not work for us. We are looking at two different options - a 5 person aluminum hull "tin boat" w/ a small motor that we can tow behind us for use as a tender around the local area, and a collapsible inflatable that can stow aboard for taking with us to Europe.

Eating up the fresh food that will not keep so well in an ice box. The chicken became a cacciatore sort of a thing last night with onions and Italian stewed tomatoes, and the sausage is sitting in a jumbalaya awaiting our return to the boat for tonight. We had some of the blueberries for desssert last night. Sadly, the strawberries mostly went furry before we could get to them. I need to look at the cheeses to see what I can come up before they go bad. An icebox is just not as efficient as a refrigerator, and everything gets pretty wet, even with our efforts to keep things up out of the damp.

Weather report

Rain in the wee hours of the morning, brief sunshine off and on during the day, more rain this afternoon and gray on towards evening. Tomorrow promises to be more of the same, fog and drizzle. Wednesday should be better, but all week is forcast to be partly cloudy with chance of showers. Winds look good at south winds 10-15 mph.

Plant notes

It has settled into summer here with the passing of the solstice. Rockland holds a Summer Solstice celebration on the Saturday before as a kick-off to the season. We missed the whole thing being out to sea at the time.

The rowan tree has finished its bloom, with the white flowers passing and clumps of green berries forming in their place. The shrub roses bloom on, and the lupines are still hanging in there, although fading.

New Things We Learned at Sea

(from Dave)
Last time we went to sea (2005) we learned that 9 out of 10 problems with a diesel engine are caused by filters in general and fuel filters in particular. Having neglected to carry spare fuel filters last year, found ourselves with engine failure and nothing we could do about it. We learned how to change the filters and purge the lines of air at sea. We have also had the fuel tank cleaned, removed the old fuel and added stabilizer to the new fuel to prevent this happening again.

We also found that the pot clamps which hold the pots on the stove in bad weather were ineffective and so we have reshaped them to make the work as they were designed to do.

We have been reminded that sailing to windward is arduous. (I cannot recall the name of the famous sailor who once said “Gentlemen do not sail to windward!” but I think I agree.) That said, I believe that our best tactic should have been to hold the closest course we could hold on a starboard tack until we were far enough south and east of Bermuda to be sure we could be certain of fetching Saint George’s Harbour and then turned west.

We have gained immeasurable reassurance in the performance of Fiddler in heavy weather. At no point did either of us feel uncertainty about the safety of the vessel or about the vessel’s ability to cope with large seas. She sailed like a dream. I do note that whereas on our earlier offshore sailing, when the seas were about 13-15 feet, my primary recollection was of being in a hole much of the time with waves looming above. On Fiddler, it seemed that we spent most of our time on the crests looking down into the holes. Don’t know if it was the area, or the boat but the contrast was striking.

This whole trip was in preparation for sailing to Britain next year. We are still planning to do so. For one thing, it should be a more downwind run. Offshore is not the really challenging part; it’s the returning to shore that is tricky. That’s when a mariner must be certain what he’s about. That’s what we’ll spend our remaining season practicing.

Dave

Our Plans for Now

Having had a few days to rest, recover and review our trip south, we will take the rest of our time here to visit some of the lovely little harbors here in Penobscot Bay. There are lots of places to visit, and things to see. One of the schooner captains tells us that some fellow who had sailed all over the world claimed that Maine was one of the two best places to sail in the world (and that he didn't quite know what the other best place was, but that he was looking for it.)

Fuel Polishing to correct the engine troubles - Friday

We found a local marina with the equipment to clean out our fuel tank and fuel system. This meant two to three hours sitting on a dock further south waiting. We had the tank flushed, and all the old fuel which had turned orange with age and sludge removed. The machine took about four ounces of gooey looking stuff out of our tank, looking at the dregs of the process. After a filter change, we took on a whole tank of new diesel. We will need to change the fuel filters again after 12 engine hours, and that should be the end of that problem.

Of course, the engine could come up with something else to make trouble. Which is why I am putting a diesel engine course at a local trade school on my to do list before next season. If I am expecting to deal with the gizmo, I ought to have a good idea how it is supposed to work so I have a hope of figuring out why it is not. (Maybe my "twin cousin" will have some ideas. He works on the big oil field diesels.)

A concert with Gordon Bok - Friday

We lucked out in our timing. We had not thought we would be in town for the concert last night, but here we are. A fund raiser for the Friends of the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse, folk music and sea songs. We had a grand time, and our friends from Rockport made it down, too. After the concert we wandered back north to the boat, and sat out in the cockpit eating our dinner. Cruising has its charms, too.

A visit to the American Eagle - Saturday

We stopped off for a few minutes to visit Captain John Foss and the American Eagle, in for their change over to the next cruise. Everyone scrubbing and washing things down to get the vessel ship shape. Nice to see John again, even for a few minutes. Something else I have added to our to do list is to take another trip on the American Eagle sometime soon. We may be able to take a short run next year as a way to get our sea legs before we head out.

"450 tins of corned beef"

Which refers to one of the long distance races where one of the boats had nothing for food but tins of corned beef (or was it corned beef hash?). The art of dealing with food aboard a sailboat is exactly that, an art. I am still working on it.


When provisioning for a voyage you have several things to consider - the number of people, the length of the trip, types of storage on the boat, ease of preparation and cleanup, ease of serving, and personal tastes. The general guideline for offshore runs is to estimate the length of the trip, then multiply by 2, plus a little for contingency. This results in three weeks worth of food for a run that should be 7-10 days if all goes well.


When I was stocking up for the run to Bermuda, I chose canned goods, mostly ready to eat soups. Since weight is not the issue (at least not in the same sense it would be if we were backpacking) and water is at something of premium, I thought meals we could just open and serve if need be would be a good choice. Now with the change in circumstances, we have enough soup to get us through our entire time here.

For offshore passages it can be important for the crew to have snacks between regular meals, and for many of us things that are sweet or crunchy become important. (After all, one can only eat so many soups.) A selection of crackers, individually wrapped chocolates, dried fruits and nuts help add a bit of variety to the day. The snack size zipper bag is a wonderful thing to have. I can pack up individual servings, which makes them readily available to eat, and also keeps down the chances that an entire box of crackers will get water soaked by being on deck.

In addition to the soups, we still have lots of dried fruit, some crackers, a few tins of kippered herring (which I like for breakfast) and a whole stack of fresh food handed on to us by another boat. They were headed home for a couple of weeks and could not keep the refrigerator running while they were away, so I gladly accepted - one egg, two packages of frozen chicken (little pieces, all cut up and ready to cook) , some sausage and many types of cheese. With the strawberries, blueberries and cold cuts that I have, we should be fine for food.

Turned Around

Well, we turned around and did not make it to Bermuda. We do not have enough time to try again this year. The whole story follows:

14:30 Eastern Time - Left the dock at Rockland harbor bound for Bermuda. Three souls on board.

15:15 Made the "PB" bell, a bell buoy with PB written on it (PB for Penobscot Bay) turned south and followed the shipping channel.

16:05 Passed the "PA" buoy, turned southeast.

17:05 Passed the Morse A buoy, turned east. (buoy flashes in Morse code - letter A)

19:05 Made the "PBA" whistle, turned south east into the Gulf of Maine moving out of sight of land.

It took us about 5 hours to go from Rockland harbor to the beginnings of the open ocean. From there we tacked out into the Gulf facing a headwind from the south. Long tack out to our first position report - 43 24n 67 46w. Freezing at night, cold during the day.

We saw our first batch of "squeaky birds" in the morning watches on Saturday. Tacked back west for warmer water and better winds. Warmed up some, but the winds never came from a direction we needed.

By Sunday night wind was rising and the waves were uncomfortable (for us) so we moved into a heave to. Stayed there Sunday night. Monday morning weather router said a line of squalls was headed our way, with gusts up to 45-50 knots. Crew exhausted and our third hand was developing a double vision problem, so we turned around and headed for home.

We covered the distance it took us 60 hours to make fighting into a headwind in less than 12 hours. We made the PBA whistle again about 7 pm on Monday. Because the winds were not with us at this point, we decided to run on the engine. Engine died between the PBA and the MORSE A. We changed diesel fuel filters at sea, in the gathering dark and could not get the engine going again.

Finally gave up and called the Coast Guard. (Oh, the embarrasment of calling the Coast Guard to pull us in.) They sent a rescue vessel and towed us into the nearest safe harbor, on Vinylhaven at 12:45 Tuesday morning (according to the paperwork I have). We spent the night in Carvers Harbor, got the engine fixed at the shop there and motored home to Rockland by about 2 pm Tuesday. Our third hand grabbed his gear and headed for home. We have not heard from him.

Back in Rockland - details

Back in Rockland - details later

position

Position Sat am - 43 24n 67 46w

best regards

We are off!

All packed. Gear aboard and tied down. A little bit to get organized below decks, but the waves and wind should be easy for the afternoon. Course laid out. Three souls aboard. (We found our third hand for the crossing.)

Sunset is around 8:30 pm, so we have 6 hours of daylight for sailing out. Commander's Weather routing says we should have favorable winds and seas most of the way, with a little rain and such around Bermuda proper.

Our friends from Rockport brought homemade Irish soda bread fresh from the oven, and a number of other folks have stopped off to wish us well. We are well sent off.

As soon as I post this, I walk down to the dock to cast off. Next direct posting from me will be from Bermuda.

Fair winds.

Today's Adventures

Almost everything done on the boat! (We only had a very few things that were just taking forever.)

All we have left is a little varnish to seal a couple of spots on the handrail, connect all of the electrical leads on the main mast (radar leads, and various mast mounted lights) and finish provisioning and stowing all that stuff. Provisioning and stowing is my job.

Unless we hear otherwise from our Routing Service, we leave noon Friday, June 16. This will give us the slack of the high tide to get out of Rockland Harbor, and the falling tide to take us on out of Penobscot Bay. The winds are predicted to be from the correct direction and sufficient to move us along without creating adverse sailing conditions. We may have to be concerned about the winds being TOO light.

The experienced captains have told us that our boat is a good sound design and will "take us any where in the world." One of the ferry captains stopped by this afternoon to admire our Fiddler.

Off to get things done.

Tuesday, June 13

The masts went on today. Main sail on. Compass on the mast.

Tonight we have been invited to dinner at some friends house. We met them the first summer we had Fiddler. They have been doing a lot of traveling and have stories, and are offering us a home cooked meal and some conversation. Nice change from restaurants or cold sandwiches.

For tomorrow , the plan is:
Before noon - stow everything in the lockers we have been leaving empty for access, put the mizzen sail on, finish stowing gear.
At around noon the rigger will be back to tune the rigging, give us some instruction on the storm jib, and other rigging matters. It may be that taking the boat out into the harbor is part of the process.

SPLASH! 13:21 local.

Today we put Fiddler in the water. Nothing in the hull leaks, although we still have a couple of deck leaks topside to sort out.

Unfortunately, we do not have masts on her yet. The masts are laying on two sawhorses, with all of the lines ready to go. The crane stands right next to the dock ready to go. And the end of the workday came, and the workers went home.

We have our third hand for the crossing. A retired Army major, with a wide range of experiences in the service, and several years sailing experience in coastal waters, but no offshore experience. We bought a whole lot of food, enough to cover the expected crossing plus some extra. Essentially three weeks worth of food, with some perishables to pick up the day we set out.

We spent all of yesterday and much of today going through all of the lockers in the boat, indentifying what is in each locker, and removing the things we no longer need. I found all sorts of space up and towards the hull that I had not realized I had access to. With a little more practice, I think I can get a fair stock of goods stashed aboard.

Waiting to hear from my mother that she landed safely in Bermuda. We will just have to compare notes when we get home.

Boat Names

I am fascinated by the names people give their boats. Some of them are cute (perhaps too cute), while others are fairly straight forward, and some have interesting history behind them. There are whole books about the naming of boats. (I wonder, is that anything like the naming of cats?)

One of the things I do when talking with people about their boats is ask about the name. When we were discussing the things we wanted in a boat, we talked about renaming our "new boat" after my father-in-law, who always wanted a boat and never got around to having one. We decided not to change the name after all, and instead named our dinghy after him.

People names are common on boats. One that I found interesting was the Abbie Burgess, the name of a Maine State Ferry. Abbie Burgess was the daughter of a lighthouse keeper, who eventually became a lighthouse keeper herself.

So far my favorite name for a lobster boat is Sea Reaper, which has a woman working the stern (at least when we saw it) and the grim reaper painted on the bow. For those of you who are Terry Pratchett fans, we have called this one "The Death of Lobsters".

More Rain

With the north east wind comes rain.

We have a break in the rain this afternoon after listening to it on the cabin top all night. The good thing is we get to discover if there are any leaks. The bad thing, we get to discover if there are any leaks.

We have three minor leaks which between them produced about two cups of water in the last 24 hours in this rain storm. The annoying thing is that two of the leaks let water into the shelves where I want to store the food. Cardboard boxes and the plastic bags most food comes in are no proof against water if it puddles up under things. Monday we will ask the yard guys to have a look, maybe rebed the one fitting, to see if we can get a better seal. I will also look at some things to manage in spite of the dampness.

We may have found our third hand for the crossing.

A Brief Break in the Weather

We are now 9 days behind our original target date.

Today dawned bright and cloudy. The sun peaking under the clouds woke me at 5:14 am and I could not get back to sleep. The cloud cover is low, broken and getting darker to the east as the day progresses. The second half of the storm is expected this weekend. I figured the weather was not really clear when I saw the schooners still tucked up against the shelter of the breakwater.

I got up at 5:30 am and starting washing down the masts. After a short break for breakfast at 7 am, I finally finished up both masts around noon. I spent the time working with a scotchbrite and dish soap getting the masts cleaned off - 39 feet of main mast plus 24 feet of mizzen, including sail tracks and jib furler. Adding up our main mast plus antenna, and then the distance from the bottom of the mast to the water line, we calculate we can clear under a bridge 45 feet from the water. I think I will want a few more feet if seas are high, to allow for waves.

Somewhere in there the boat moved out into the yard, with some help I am certain, but it might as well have gotten up on its jackstands and stalked off into the boatyard because it was suddenly nested on the north side of the yard, up against a 10 foot wall. Fiddler should be protected from the storm there. I think Dave got pictures.

The masts should be stepped early this afternoon, provided that the ragged edge on the halyard separator gets fixed first. I don't want a sharp edge near my main sail halyard. It is bad for boat, sail and sailor for the main to suddenly drop to the deck. It may have to wait until Monday. High tide Monday is around noon, so we should be able to launch if the weather is anything decent.

My mother, who had planned to meet us in Bermuda, is going ahead with her vacation. We are running into the Newport to Bermuda Race with 300 boats registered this year. Between the boats, their crews and various spectators and other support accomodations are pretty tight. Bermuda also has a policy of requiring confirmed accomodation reservations and firm return travel arrangements for all visitors. If you are going to Bermuda to visit, you have to present a letter confirming your accomodations, indicating you will be staying with them from Day 1 to Day End and tickets for your return trip before you will be granted entry to the country. (When we went to Bermuda for our Offshore Passagemaking course, we carried letters from the school indicating our return trip was to be aboard the school boat.) This makes short turn around arrangements a bit difficult.

The Race was a major factor in our original scheduling. We wanted to go late enough to miss the ice coming down from the north (this will be more important when we cross the North Atlantic to Europe) and early enough to miss both the Newport - Bermuda race and the hurricane season. So far, we have been delayed into the Race time frame.

We have a routing service who keeps an eye on the weather and things like the Gulf Current Eddys, and gives us a best window for leaving. We have rented a satellite phone for the trip so we can check in with the router once a day with our position and weather observations. The service will give us their best estimate of most efficient route, and anything we need to avoid.

Plant Notes

I found a nice patch of thyme outside the little sandwich shop we frequent. Watching as the flowers carpet the green in lavender. The "Blooming Wolves" (lupines) continue to thrive and window boxes are filling in.

Nor'easter

The sun has gone away again. We are sitting out a Nor'easter that is expected to give us four days of rain and winds up to 50 mph. Good thing the boat is still put away. (Trying to stay cheerful) The library is open late tonight, and the gas fireplace is going. Dave is sitting in a comfortable chair in front of the fireplace looking quite contented.

We worked on the masts. I expect to spend about another hour washing them down with soap. Both masts have minor oxidation in spots all over them from a
combination of sea salt and lime from the boat yard. Before it was a boatyard, this was a place where lime was brought to heat in a kiln. The coal for the fires to heat it came in on barges that docked in what is now the launch slip. (I have got to get pictures. So much easier to explain.)

The sun returns

A beautiful day dawned with light fog that cleared off to a bright sunny day and a lovely breeze. The plan as I understand it is to move the boat out, put the masts up and have her in the water tomorrow about noon. So a very busy Wednesday.

We are down to just a few items on the to do list. The saltwater for the galley is done (drilled through hull, installed fitting, valve, hoses, faucet, and strainer on outside to keep seaweed etc. from blocking intake.) The instrumentation is all installed/reinstalled (GPS, radar and chartplotter.)

Lots of little things done. We have spent a couple of evenings cleaning. Some is cleanup from the work done (sanding dust, drilling curls and the like) and some is just the necessary maintenance. We have a few new tips for keeping the boat in good shape for next year, most of which are ways to deal with the buildup of humidity and associated mold growth, which is a cause of bad smells on boats. Fuels (diesel, kerosene, alcohol), varnish and paint thinner and food (stuff left to go bad) are also contributors. We remove all the food when we put the boat away for the year, even the canned goods. No point in giving mice or other vermin any encouragement to come aboard.

We have seen animals in the rocks along the docks. They may be some sort of water mammal, but they look a lot like a rat to me. The only sign of critters I have seen opening the boat in the spring is a single dead bee. Aside from the mosquitoes

We made a trip to the boat parts store as part of a loop through town. Unlike last year and the year before when we were making one and sometimes two trips a day to the parts store. I think we have only been down three times this holiday for something.

Our loop included a stop at the Lighthouse Museum and Visitors Center to see how the Lobster Festival kiosk turned out. The Museum has space for several associated non-profits in the lobby. The Lobster Festival kiosk is one of the exhibits. Looks pretty sharp all set up. It was difficult to tell how it would be when we only saw pieces in the wood shop while it was under construction.

Plant Notes

With the progression of days the dandelions have made an appearance and produced their little tufts of fluff. We noticed another yellow flower in the library lawn. I had to go investigate because it did not look like a dandelion, but more like a buttercup. Turned out to be a creeping cinquefoil. Large areas of the lawn are dotted with dime sized yellow flowers.

We also heard from other folks that up Camden way the weekend storms downed a large maple tree right across Highway 1, crunching a pickup truck in the process. Several people have said that the rains are unusual this year.

Touring Delayed

We looked at the state of the seas yesterday and decided that we did not feel up to a ferry ride and subsequent walk around Vinalhaven in our foul weather gear. It was quite wet over the weekend and windy.

Yesterday we awoke to the sound of a commotion in the yard to find the fire department, the yard crew and the environmental containment department all working on a boat that had blown over in the night. Damage appears to be limited to the stantions on the one side, and no damage to any other vessels in the yard. The boat that tipped did not have masts on it, so there was no damage either to the masts or from masts striking other boats. Also, the dinghy was one of those inflatable affairs and it caught between the boats, which helped cushion things.

When a boat is up on land, it is parked on top of a series of jackstands, three legged stands with a flat plate that rests up against the hull, except for one that is up against the front of the keel, hich has a v shaped holder on top. Some of the smaller boats have a frame with the jacks attached, but the larger vessels have several, usually 5, sometimes more.

A boat yard with boats in storage is an interesting sight. All the boats up on stilts (jackstands) on the land look quite different when you see them from a keel view instead of the usual in the water on their lines veiw.

I will try to get pictures posted at some point, to give folks an idea.

Storms

from Dave:
Sooner or later, every sailor gets asked what they thought of the film “The Perfect Storm”. I personally haven’t seen it. Tanya Aebi, one of the youngest women ever to solo circumnavigate, wrote of her views on the picture in an article for Latitudes & Attitudes magazine a while back. She was not impressed. She didn’t like the background music.

There is a sound wind makes passing through wire rigging, a sort of yowl you never forget if you’ve ever heard it. This is the sound of a storm to a sailor, not some ominous orchestral music. You listen for that sound. You listen to it. It tells you a lot about what’s happening and what’s about to happen.

Storms at sea are noisy affairs. There is the yowl of wind on wire, the sound of lines and cables banging against things, the creaking of the hull and deck flexing (yes, flexing; a boat is not designed to be rigid. It flexes and gives with the sea.), the hiss and bang of water passing or striking the hull.

Then there are the sounds of the things in the boat shifting about. When we first bought Fiddler, we wondered about the many half-clothespins lying about. Then we put the boat in the water and discovered that they were there to wedge the sliding locker doors to keep them from rattling and keeping us up all night.

You find yourself noticing every unidentified noise and poking around until you can identify it. Most are harmless enough, but it could be the sound of an anchor beginning to work loose or maybe a sail needing attention. Boats in heavy weather are noisy affairs.

We have a low passing us by right now. When we got up, the wind was from the East Northeast at about 25 knots with low clouds and rain. This had been forecast, so we elected to leave the boat inside and load our gear from there rather than track mud all through her in the yard. There is still a bit to do yet, but she’s coming along nicely.

Commander’s Weather, our routing service (see the link on the sidebar) called us this morning to report a big low which may come into the Gulf of Maine around Wednesday and wanting to know our plans. Depending on how bad it looks, we may keep Fiddler on land until it passes and then launch, test and sail as soon as we can after it passes. The thing about sailing is that you have to keep your plans loose to account for the weather.

As Gordon Bok wrote,

“The ways of man are passing strange,
He buys his freedom and he counts his change.
Then he lets the wind his days arrange
And he calls the tide his master.”

Whitecaps in the Harbor

Wind from the North North East and lots of rain. At least it seems like lots of rain to us. We dug out the heavy weather coats from the hanging locker in the boat, figuring we might as well get some use out them. Unless we want to purchase a rain poncho somewhere, the foul weather gear is as close to rain gear as we have. They are pretty distinctive with the bright yellow color and wide reflective tape strips. We have had a couple of people notice that these are sailing gear. It does make an easy conversation starter.

Returning items to the library. We are working our way through the Maigret mystery series. Interesting British series about a chief investigator in Paris. French settings (signs, etc.) with British accents. One way to spend our evenings.

We had some items on our schedule today - a garage sale at the Apprentice Shop in the morning and a mini-Renaissance Fair in the middle of the day. We figured with the rain much of it got cancelled. I see why they have in ocean in Maine, all that water falling from the sky has to go somewhere!

Another day in Maine

We arrived in Rockland two weeks ago yesterday. Boat still in the shop. *sigh* We have put things on hold for later, either over the winter or next season, and are going through the list of things we must finish. At least we are down to only 10 or twelve items now.

The plan as it stands this afternoon is out in the yard on Monday, put the masts up, and have the rigger over to fine tune the rigging and add some things. I should have a complete list of details after Monday.

Lovely sunny afternoon, after showers late morning. Just kicking back and relaxing.

New Friends

By Dave:

We’ve been meeting a LOT of nice folks in the boatyard, some working on their own boats and others helping them.

There’s Gib Philbrick, the former owner of the Schooner Nathaniel S. Bowditch who has been sailing longer than I’ve been living and who has given us scads of good advice for sailing offshore. Gordon Bok sings a song about an ancestor of his, Job “Threeboot” Philbrick.

There’s Joe, who is working on a Chesapeake Bay Skipjack here and who has sailed to Saint Georges Harbour, Bermuda who gave us a wealth of information about where to dock when we get there and where to find a place to dock in Boston when we get back.

There’s the crew of the Schooner Lazyjack (pictured at right) which sails out of Boothbay who gave us a lot of tips for sailing along the New England Coast and at least three local folks who have even offered to let is use a spare car if we need to.

So much for taciturn, unfriendly unhelpful New England residents; these folks are great!

We’re still hoping that we can find a third hand to sail with us to Bermuda and back. We keep hearing about experienced sailor s who would like some additional sea time. We keep hoping.

We had hoped to use our camera-phones to add pictures to the blog, but until we get to somewhere with image support for our cellphones, that won’t be possible. We may be able to find a way from Bermuda and almost certainly from Glouchester, MA.

Rain again, more waiting

A bit of rain this afternoon, after a morning of sun and light cloud.

Sea Dog launched today. A little day sailer, the new owners also have a friendship sloop sitting in their yard at home. The sloop needs work, so they have Sea Dog for sailing in the meantime.

Fiddler is almost ready to go out in the yard, and we hope to have masts on and be in the water by the end of the day tomorrow. It would speed things up if we did not keep finding things that need to be done. We spend our evenings quietly at home, working our way through the collections of the local library.

Thank you to everyone who is following along.

It is good to know that I am not writing just for my own amusement. I admit that the daily trip to the library for updates is a major event in our lives right now. We are looking at a ferry trip over to Vinalhaven Island for an afternoon visit. While we have sailed all around North Haven and through the Fox Island Passage, we have never set foot on the islands themselves. We have been told that Vinalhaven has nice little shops and a good restaurant or two, so we will go play tourist for an afternoon.