Still Loving Maine

 

I've always felt like I march to a different drummer and this trip to one of the northernmost points of the lower 48 states just confirms that.

Normally during travel and upon the first day or so at our destination, I experience a small feeling of nostalgia for 'home'. When we landed here in Maine I felt no such thing. Actually I felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

I'm loving it here and walking along the shore makes me feel very Ghost and Mrs. Muirish. Now, I realize there's no snow on the ground (I mean it's only the middle of May!) but I can't get enough of the tangy and clear cold air. For the last two days, I've walked around downtown Bah Hahbah (Bar Harbor for those who don't get my humor) for hours and never once broke a sweat (even though I was wearing a hoody), my hair didn't stick to my neck, and the sun wasn't boring a hole through my hide. Since moving to Florida nearly three years ago, this kind of experience has become a totally alien to me. I'm not kidding when I say that, in Florida, I go get ice, and dump our garbage based on how sweaty I do or don't want to get. And we're talking about something like a tenth of a mile walk. A trip to Home Depot or West Marine even in an air conditioned vehicle? Once again, it just depends on the heat and humidity of that day. Last week I realized that I hadn't been to the beach in months so I went. But not before I slathered on tons of sunscreen and put on a long sleeved shirt that's supposed to protect you against the sun. I arrived home a hot mess and it isn't even summer yet.

This is the sandbar to Bar Island (in the background). It's accessible during low tide only which gives you about 4 hours to explore. Otherwise you have to wait for the next low tide to get back. No one will go there to get you if you're stupid enough to get stuck.

At the entrance to the sand bar during low tide.

And now during high tide.

Why I love cemeteries, I'll never know, but I find them to be very peaceful. Poor Elmer here died at the age of 15. However, I was very surprised to discover a few plots where the decedents lived well into their 80's. And this was back in the 1800's. Incredible.

 

Captain Hans will always be a little kid at heart. I still remember the time he drove the Ducky Boat in Pittsburgh.

 

 

What a bonus! Every night I open our balcony door for the fresh air and so I can hear the 'tree peeps' . Then I turn on the fireplace. I'm really gonna miss this.

 

 

Finding this made our trip complete.

And finally; a few years ago Wilbur made an attempt to show us how smart he was by spelling DOG or maybe GOD with our Scrabble tiles. He managed to nibble the D and the G tiles before we caught him and somewhere along the way an N disappeared. Yesterday I happened upon a quilt fabric store and low and behold they happened to have a bin of letters.

So this trip was obviously a complete success and very worth the purchase of a 55 cent Scrabble tile.

 

 

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Observations I'd prefer not to hear (or say) while on a boat.

Things like:

What's that smell (and smoke is a tiny bit more important than the head)?

Where the hell is all that water coming from?

Why is all that smoke pouring out of the exhaust (or in our case two exhausts)?

Why are my feet wet?

Why does the bilge pump keep going off?

Hey! What happened to the water pressure (especially bad if one has a head full of shampoo lather)?

Have you seen the dog (or cat)?

Did you feel that bump?

These comments are bad enough to hear in a slip but while at anchor they become a lot more ominous.

So anyway, this past weekend we headed out into the Gulf where we hoped to do some fishing and sailing. We put up the main and the jib, threw out two fishing lines, sat back ... and watched all the wind die.  We were literally sailing at 0 knots and our fishing lines sank to the bottom.  So we started up the port engine in order to create a little of our own wind and contemplated calling it a day when all of a sudden the wind kicked in and we actually ended up sailing very nicely for a couple of hours.
We didn't catch any fish but, you can't have everything.

We decided to anchor in Gulfport for the night.  However, we ended up at the far end of the anchorage where we normally don't go and within close sight of a sunken sailboat with its mast sticking out of the water at a drunken angle. Hans dropped the anchor and while sitting at the helm I could feel it dig in.  After backing down on it and seeing that we were going nowhere we settled in for the night.
It was around eleven PM while we were playing Scrabble when I heard a weird sound.

"What was that noise (yet one more scary observation you don't want to hear at anchor)?"  I asked Hans.  "It sounded like a 'twang'."

We then went through a ritual that we seem to always go through while at anchor.  Hans went into the cockpit and declared he was sure we were closer to another boat than we should be. I continued to review my Scrabble letters in an attempt to come up with yet one more brilliant move that involved the letter Q, so in addition to my staying put I assured him the Knotty Cat was too.  A couple of more of his,  "I think we're closer comments," made me heave myself up off my butt to take a look for myself.
"We're fine,"  I said just as we whizzed past a well lit trawler.

"Oh my God, we're dragging!"

Before we knew it, we had both engines going and with Hans at the bow and me at the helm we got the anchor up lickety split, moved away from the sunken hulk, and re-anchored. It wasn't until we were down below again that we realized how well we had worked together considering the circumstances and tried not to think about what would have happened had we been asleep. Hopefully one of us would have awakened at the twanging noise I heard but you never know.

Now, Gulfport is a great anchorage but I have a funny feeling we were maybe hooked up to some debris from the sunken boat and after swinging on the hook in some pretty steady wind we finally broke free. We've never had a 'drag' alarm that so many people have talked about because we'd heard that they go off if you swing around a lot, but I understand there is an App available that takes that into consideration so I'm going to check it out.

As for the Scrabble game, just as we were going to bed I tossed my lap blanket towards the settee and it hit the game board instead and sent all our tiles flying. I think everyone in the marina should be grateful they didn't have to 'hear' me because you see, I was ahead in the game and I never did get to use that damn letter Q.

Happy Halloween from the Knotty Cat

This is the first year we haven't dressed up for Halloween so I'll post last years picture. I made our costumes and I'm glad Hans is such a good sport.

He became Helga the German Barmaid and was quite a hit.










I've decided to start calling ourselves Dumb and Dumber. We jumped into the Intracoastal yesterday and never really gave a lot of thought to the bridges and I didn't even realize we had a lock to negotiate.


Like I said; Dumb and Dumber.


Luckily the lock only dropped 8 inches which was a relief because we went through a lock in Pittsburgh (while on a friend's motor boat) and it had about an 8-10 foot drop. I was just worried that our dock lines wouldn't be long enough to reach up and back down.

Since the bridges stop operating at 7 PM we realized we'd better figure out where we were going to stop for the night as you don't just drop anchor in the middle on the waterway. We lucked out and found one spot available just before the Great Bridge and with the help of the captains of the boats we'd be squeezing in between, Hans did his usual good job of parallel parking.


I know people raft up in these areas if they have to but I'm not a 'rafting up' kind of person.


One couple is from England and they've sailed all over the world and have also been up and down the Intracoastal several times. I'm very glad we talked to them because they warned us not to cross Albemarle Sound if the forecast isn't favorable. I looked in our Cruising Guide and it says that the Albemarle can really beat you up and not to enter it if the winds are over 20 knots. I could feel my chest constrict and was almost in tears and I told Hans I couldn't take another trip like we had the other night and to not even think about sailing in it if the conditions aren't right.

Just in case you think we're wimps, we've heard all kinds of talk about how awful the Chesapeake was the other night and the Englishman said he too was surprised at the 3-5 foot seas.

I left my camera charger at the apartment (Dumb!) and now have to rely on Hans' Blackberry. It actually takes pretty nice pictures.

This isn't the best shot but anyway you can see us as we all follow each other.

I feel just like a pioneer on a wagon train but instead of heading west and slapping at Indians with my sunbonnet, we're heading south where you fight off today's savages by throwing packs of cigarettes at them.

I don't expect to be running into any pirates though even though some people, whom we've talked to about our trip, think that every body of water is teeming with them.

After tying up at the Great Bridge we walked to a local bar for a beer. We like to support the local economy.

Wilbur may not be with us but he did leave us a reminder from the last trip so we wouldn't forget him.

We decided to play Scrabble last night (with no shore power we have to conserve our batteries so we turn on one light and pile on the blankets), and when I dug out the tiles I found these.

At first we thought they had a weak spot and just split but each one has been nibbled and there are tiny little Wilbur teeth marks on them. We don't have mice or the box would have shown signs of them.

But honestly! Notice that he chewed the D and G! There are tons of E's, A's, T's, etc... so how did he happen to pick such uncommon letters? Because he's smart that's why, and I'm sure he was zeroing in on the O when he was interrupted.

Hans was mesmerized by the Aircraft Carriers in Norfolk and he took this picture.

He'll be happy to see that I've posted it for him.

We left the Great Bridge at 8 AM this morning and will finish in Coinjock this afternoon. Coinjock is the last stop before the Albemarle and so far it appears the weather for tomorrow should be favorable for us to cross.

We'll see.