We departed "Chicky's" in Kennebunkport at 8:00 sharp this morning with a destination of Gloucester, which we reached uneventfully. We are currently tucked behind the breakwater at Eastern Point in a little anchorage recommended to us yesterday by Cabot Lyman. Cabot owns Lyman-Morse Boatbuilding and is the man largely responsible for creating Thistle some 28 years ago. Kennebunkport is essentially a narrow tidal river with only two transient moorings. Both were available during our two day stay but would have planted our keel firmly in the mud at low tide. We opted for Chicky's dock, pricey though it was, instead. Cabot reeled off a list of free anchorages that can basically take us from here to the Chesapeake Bay. This appeals to Grinnell's frugality.

Yesterday there was some discussion about AIS, which stands for Automatic Identification System. An AIS unit is basically a digital radio transceiver connected to a GPS that allows a boat's navigation system to "see" other boats that have AIS and to broadcast it's own position to other AIS equipped boats. Shore stations can also monitor AIS transmissions and some of these are connected to web pages that update the comings and going of marine traffic. When there are gaps in the shore station network our position will not be updated. Larger harbors will likely have shore stations but smaller ones, such as Kennebunkport, will probably not. We'll leave the AIS on most of the time, so if the AIS tracking site(s) don't see us it's probably due to gaps in shore station coverage. Linda says no one will care about this. Is that true?

Time to walk the dog...