June 20th, 2015

We arrived in Maine around June 20th and we are ready to start to work on Genevieve and get her launched. John turns 65 and we have a great room at The County Inn in Camden Maine. Near by a Mexican Restaurant Blue Sky Cantina serves good margarita’s and we have a very quiet happy birthday. We are waiting to get into Schooner Bay Motor Inn, half the price and a great spot.

June 21,2015

We are ready to start work on Genevieve it is pouring down rain and cold it never fails; we have to take the day off. We check in with Knight’s Marine re launch and the only time she can fit us in is Tuesday June 23rd. Two days time to get moving rain or not. The good news is high tide is after four PM so we have the extra time to work on her.

Dinner in Camden and we order oysters and mussels and view the schooners on the waterfront. The town has many historical buildings and is absolutely beautiful.

We contact Charles to let him know that we are in town and he is ready to lend a hand with Genevieve.

June 22,2015

On Monday we start to rip down the winter covers and wood frame that Charles and John built last year. The deck is filthy and again we are working in the rain.
Charlie dropped by the boat around noon and with his help, by 2:00 Moira and I dismantle the winter cover. The boat has wintered well and our structure has withstood the enormous amount of snow this area endured.

June 23,2015

As forecasted it pours rain all morning but with foul weather gear on, we set about our tasks. Not stepping the mast last fall has simplified the process and we are ready at Three o’clock. The rain has stopped and Genevieve was placed into Penobscot Bay without incident. Well that’s not true, the Auto bilge pump is not working but that is replaced the next day.

We realize that a lot of things can come off the boat so we organize starting with John’s cloths.

Genevieve is launched at 4PM with no problems at all.

Now that she is in the water John can move onto the boat.
Moira has made plans with Jeanie Myers, Corrie Bloom, Anthea Baxter Page, Shannon and Kristen Coull to go to Arizona for a week to have a late celebration for Kristen’s 40th. Moira flew out on June 25th. John had to drive me to the airport in Portland Maine. We have both been moving crazy fast.
My week is full of fond memories and laughter with my favorite people. We even got to play golf in 120 F degrees. It was hot.

Now for John his week isn’t quite as pleasant.
Genevieve is listing about 5% to starboard, pressed hard against the dock at
Knight’s Marina in Rockland Maine. There is a North Easterly blowing 30 knots and the rain is driving sideways. He is tucked inside with a heater running, listening to the ropes squeak.

It is cold and wet but John gets a lot of jobs done on the boat so that when I return on July 01st we will be ready to leave.

July 01, 2015

Happy Canada’s Day

John drives back to Portland to pick me up. I have been on an overnight flight that arrives at 10 AM. On the drive back we go into a number of antique shops and browse around the small Maine towns. The scenery is beautiful. We are in and around Penobscot Bay, toured Camden, Rockport and Belfast.

We enjoyed lunch at Le Garage Restaurant overlooking Wiscasset Harbour. On the Sheepscot River.

We bought two birdhouses that were made by the prisoners from the Maine Prison shop. Fun day but I need to sleep.

July 02,2015

We have totally moved on to Genevieve. We have provisioned the boat filled the diesel and the water tanks. Think we are ready to leave Rockland tomorrow.

First we have to go to Thomaston because there is an open mike. Charlie is up second and does a great job singing and playing the guitar. We stay and watch the rest of the entertainment. It’s a first but John did not get up and play the drums and sing Margaritaville.

July03, 2015

Wake up and discover that summer is here. It is a beautiful day. Our plan is to go to Camden as there is a schooner race and fireworks for the USA July 4th celebration. Charlie comes by to say farewell and John and him take our car to his driveway to park it for the summer. He thinks that Camden will be a nightmare because of all the boat traffic and people celebrating.

We get out on the water and find a nice point of sail we abort those plans for Camden hearing Charlie’s advice and head in another direction.

Just when things are looking great the Chart plotter quit for some reason. We have the Navionics on the IPAD as back up but we don’t feel comfortable. We do not have paper charts for this area. We have only gone 12 nautical miles and decide to look for an anchorage. We both needed to be on deck because of the many lobster traps
And it was very hard to read the IPAD and look out for these pesky little navigational traps.

We sail into Seal Cove and yes we see seals they are so curious they have to look up and see what’s going on.

John decides he is going to fix the Chart Plotter and has it all apart looking for loose wires. Nothing with the chart plotter but he realizes that only intermittent power is going to the unit so he traces the wires to a broken wire in the inline fuse and just happens to have a soldering tool on board and fixes the problem. We are back in business and will stay at anchor for the night. We will head toward Portsmouth tomorrow.