09.07.2008, Moored off Peaks Island
We have had a busy two weeks in Maine so far - mostly with family and friends. We have delayed and delayed hauling Namani out and instead spent our time doing short, fun harbor sails with cousins, guests, nieces, nephews, uncles from age 4 to 72. Portland harbor is a beautiful place with stone 1800's forts, and the near islands of Casco Bay are our home waters, the place where I learned to sail. My father loved sailing (and dreamed of doing a trip like we have just completed) and it always fell to him to sail Portland harbor and the islands with his cousins, nieces, or guests on board. Now we have the boat, we host the rides, and we coach the little ones as they take their turn at the wheel. So in a way the torch has been passed. It is sad that my father (who died 24 years ago without fulfilling his biggest sailing dreams) can't join us on Namani, but he was aboard in my thoughts throughout our trip and a major inspiration to go, and go now.
When we first came to Maine two weeks ago, we had more or less completed our planned route, but we were eager for one last mini cruise to the northern end of Casco Bay. "Aren't you dying to get off your boat?" asked one person, incredulous. Well, no, actually; I am dying NOT to get off my boat! The other question we hear a lot of is "How was your trip?" 10,000 miles at about 5 knots makes for many varied impressions. The quick answer we all settle for is "Good" or "Great!" I suppose reading the entries to this blog would provide the longer, more thorough answer to that question. Malta, Arearea, Gibraltar, Sea Bright, the Grenadines, US East Coast - where to begin? We have been lucky to have this fantastic year, and, may I say, smart to have done it. I don't think we will regret the fact that we might never own a house or that our retirement savings didn't grow over the past year. What we do own is precious experiences, what did grow were our family bonds.
Tomorrow we will sail Namani to Yarmouth and ready her for storage until we are ready for our next trip, which I hope is sooner rather than later. We will write our last blogs (for the moment!) from there soon.
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25.06.2008, Anchored off Snow Island, Casco Bay - 43-49N 069-54W
After two days on Peaks Island we used the nice weather today for a sail a little further north and are now anchored off Snow Island in Casco Bay. It's very beautiful and quiet up here - definitely among the the nicest places we have dropped the hook in. There is a group of 12 seals hanging out on a rock that's awash at low tide about 30 meters from our boat.
This spot is also said to have the warmest water in Casco Bay (at 15-16�C that's a very relative statement...) so Nicky and Papa even braved a swim... Unfortunately, the weather is expected to get worse again before summer finally arrives so we may just head back to Peaks tomorrow and start to get the boat ready for haul-out next week. Stay tuned...
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23.06.2008, Portland, Maine
We rounded Portland Head light at about 1600 yesterday afternoon and tied up in Portland shortly after that. The fog stayed with us for most of the day and around 1400 the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of SW Maine. Luckily, the band of thunderstorms kept moving NE just ahead of us and we just got some peripheral rain and wind. So we did get our picture in front of Portland Head light in the end - maybe in more "Maine-like" weather than we had hoped for...
We celebrated the completion of our year-long journey with a nice dinner at the Seabago Brewing Company (they do an excellent wheat beer which they even name "Hefe-Weizen"!) before turning in under piles of blankets...
Ralf had to catch a train back to Boston early this morning and we will probably move to a mooring off Peaks Island and sit out another day or so of fog and rain before we can hopefully do a few days of coastal cruising around the Casco Bay area. It will take a few days to mentally catch up with finally "having arrived"... stay tuned and thanks to everyone who has followed us via this blog!
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