We decided Belfast was going to be the northernmost point on our this years trip. So as we pulled out of the harbor, we pointed Northfork south to begin our way to warmer waters. After fighting the winds all the way north, we were pleased to have strong winds coming out of the north west, 15-20mph, with gusts to 25mph. We put out all of our sails and Northfork took off going at times 10 knots, but usually maintaining a steady 7-8 knots. This was some of our most exciting sailing so far, as the strongs winds were mostly coming off our beam.

We came into Portsmouth, NH, the next morning, having slowed down a bit toward the end in order to not get in too early in the morning. The wind had died down and we were motoring the last bit. We came into the harbor while Mark attempted to locate a mooring or slip for the Northfork. We came pretty far in to the Memorial Bridge (a vertical lift bridge) where a marina said they had a spot for us. As we approached, two things happened. The harbormaster started saying how there was alot of current and we had follow his directions _very_ carefully to get into the slip. Second, the bridge started lifting and we saw a big freighter barrelling down the river, coming with the current. Given that we had just repaired the bow thruster and were not entirely confident it would not give us problems, we decided going into a trick slip did not make sense. So we turned around and headed down the river as quickly as we could, in order to get ahead of the freighter. The issue was that current was quite strong and there wasn't much space outside of the shipping channel that we could let the freighter pass us by in, especially as there were tug boats on either side of the freighter to help it get down the river.

We ultimately got to a place where the river widened somewhat on the outside of a turn and Mark cranked the Northfork around hard on the outside and came back up the river going toward the freighter, which at that point had almost caught us. The thinking was that we could keep up full speed and pass the freighter pretty quickly at the wide point. Unfortunately, the freighter came pretty far outside the turn as we passed it, leaving only several hundread feet of space. We were safe enough, but it felt a bit closer than we would have liked. The lesson was that in confined anchorages, you need to plan further ahead for dangerous situations like this.

After the freighter passed by, we turned around again and started calling more marinas. We found that the Portsmouth Yacht Club kept moorings that they leased to transients like us (that are not members of other clubs) and we went to their field and tied up to a mooring. It had been a long night and Mark took 3 tries to get the approach to the mooring correct, accounting for some nearby boats and the current which was still strong.

During this whole process, we had a running discussion about how to reference our proud ship. Dana was calling us "The Northfork", as in "Portsmouth Yacht Club, this is The Northfork". Mark preferred removing the The and saying "This is Northfork". Even after the discussion, there is still some disagreement about which is preferrable. We are eager to hear others views on this.

Later that day, Barbara came over to the PYC and picked us up. They were finishing up their stay at their condo in Maine before going home to CA for the winter. Bart couldn't join us, as he was packing up for the drive back the next day, so it was just Barbara. She came out to visit the Northfork so she could take some pictures and report back to Mark's mother on its status. We then had a nice lunch in downtown Portsmouth after running through the bike race course that was on that afternoon. Barbara left us in downtown Portsmouth and we walked back to PYC later that night.

The next day we dinghied the bikes ashore and rode into town for some errands. We saw the submarine that they have on show as a museum and Dana and Mark split up, with Mark going to West Marine for some parts and Dana to JoAnne fabrics. For dinner, Mark's friend from high school, Dave met us for dinner and some drinks.

Portsmouth was a fairly cute town that made a good stop, especially as we had some friends in the area.