We got to Castine on Thursday after a nice sail. We had heard, but not really thought about, that the Cruising Club of America was also going to be in Castine for part of their summer cruise in Maine. What that meant to us was that lots and lots of boats would be here all competing for mooring, docking, and anchoring space. We thought we had use of a friends’ mooring but when we found it we saw it wasn’t set up to be able to be used at all. There was no way to attach a boat to it. We crossed the harbor and anchored next to all the other boats. It turns out we were right next to a boat we had befriended at the SSCA Gam. When we were all settled we went over just to say hello and got invited aboard for drinks. They were here for the CCA Cruise. While there another cruiser, Evans Starzinger, came over and joined us too. We had met him at the SSCA Gam also. Evans is married to Beth Leonard, a well known cruising author. We have had Beth over for dinner at our house during an Annapolis Boat Show a few years ago.

Yesterday it poured all day. We hung on the boat, slept late, read and did a few boat projects. During a short lull in the rain we went over to Evans boat and toured their boat, Hawk. They have gone around the world in Hawk more than once, including around Cape Horn. We invited Evans to dinner on our boat since everyone else was going to a CCA dinner. He accepted but when it got close to dinner time the winds got much worse and he decided to take a rain check since he had another smaller boat rafted up to him.

This morning we went to town for breakfast. The place Bill had picked out wasn’t really a restaurant, more like a coffee shop, so we went elsewhere. I wasn’t that impressed. Like the woman from the couple we were sharing the table with said, it’s been a long time since I’ve had white bread toast! At least we had a very pleasant conversation during our meal. After breakfast we walked the town a bit. It’s where the Maine Maritime Academy is. The picture above is of the ship The State of Maine, the training ship from the Academy. You can also see the schooner Victory Chimes on the right hand side of the picture. Members of CCA who live too far to have come by their own boat are doing the cruise on that boat. We’ve seen them and heard them on the radio as we’ve been circling this area.

Today we are leaving to go back to Deer Isle. We are going to anchor off the house that our neighbors from when we lived in Philadelphia, Cliff & Sue, have just bought. It’s right on the water with a dock we can dinghy up to.