Well, here we are, as far north as we have ever journeyed with Options: South Freeport, Maine, latitude 43 degrees, 50 minutes North. From here, we're southbound.

We've been Options for a week now. Some things are the same: Our maintenance woes continue, but we've come to expect, to embrace, to welcome with open arms the multitudinous chances to work on the boat! Yeah, right. Just about every day this week, we've had an old problem return or a new problem emerge. I won't bore you with the details. The good news is that maintenance has "only" occupied about three hours a day.

But there is one major difference: We are now going where we want to go when we want to go with just enough advance planning to have reservations where we need them. Our two (count 'em, two!) voyages this week have each been about 7 hours. That means, in spite of the maintenance demands, we still have time to sightsee, to ride our bikes, to go shopping (tie me down and hold me back!) and to just relax. Brooke is very surprised. I think she almost likes this. But she does miss her children, grandchild, and pups!

We arrived in South Freeport late Saturday afternoon, tied up to a mooring and dinghied ashore to check in and get the lay of the land. We wound up taking a cab to Freeport, which is a good three miles from the marina. Freeport is a nice little town if you like to shop. Within a few square blocks, you have shopping galore, with the centerpiece being L.L. Bean's store that never closes. We ate dinner, shopped, and got back to the boat just before the rain hit.

This morning, we slept in and then moved from a mooring to the marina itself. We tied up just before the rain hit. That put a damper on things for a couple of hours. Then, the rain lifted, Brooke went shopping, and I did some boat maintenance (big surprise, I know). I worked in some guitar playing when no one was watching.

Late afternoon, we had a great bike ride--about 10 miles along scenic roads, most of them with a little lane on the right for bikes. We even did some shopping along the way, including some "guy shopping" (hardware store).

As I'm writing this, the fog is rolling in. It's been a very humid day (90%+ humidity all day), so with temps in the 70s and the boat's ability to add 5 degrees to the outside temperature, we've actually been running the air conditioning.

It's now Monday morning, August 13. We woke up in a fog, but as our heads cleared, so did the air. We can actually see the sun now! Time for a walk, then off to Portland.

David

P.S. The picture is of boats in the adjacent mooring field last evening.