What We've Been Up To
Greetings from Maine,
where, after enjoying a
cruise north from
Portsmouth, VA, Ty and
Suzanne have been
enjoying the beautiful
coastline, the stunning
islands with their rocky
shores and wooded trails,
and some great sailing.
This is our third time to
cruise Maine waters, and
there's a good reason we
keep coming back.
This is our first season to
cruise with our new AIS
transceiver which Ty installed
by himself. Here you see the
display as we motored
toward New England on the
East River. This is Hell's Gate,
just off Manhattan, and as
you can see, the tidal
current is pushing us along at
a snappy 10.3 knots (it
topped out at 11.1!) We love
the AIS system. In this photo
there's a tug just ahead of us
and you can see his symbol.
Now, when we hail ships on
the VHF, we call them by
name and they actually
answer back!
We spent a full month early
in the season on
Narragansett Bay. In the six
years since we started
cruising, this is the first time
we've actually slowed down
and spent more than a few
days in each port. We've also
shortened the distance of our
underway days, sometimes
only going 12 miles in one
day, and we love the slower
pace. It was great spending
time in the Newport area
where both Ty and Suzanne
served with the Navy. There
was never a shortage of
company on the water ...
Look very closely ... all those
spots in the distance are
lobster pot floats. Yes, once
we arrived back in Maine, we
reverted to hand-steering
(vs. autopilot) most of the
time due to the many floats.
Sailing at night was out of
the question, as it would
have been very bad ju-ju to
wrap one of those lines
around the prop. We did,
however, indulge in several
wonderful lobster dinners.
When in Maine ...
Look even more closely and
you'll see what a bad day
one lobsterman had this
summer ... Ty was holing up
in Pulpit Harbor to avoid the
effects of Hurricane Bill while
Suzanne visited her mother in
Florida. He witnessed this
tragedy in the making. He
watched as the boat was
pulled off the rocks, only to
sink within minutes. As for
the hurricane, it was a
non-event, except for the
poor souls swept off the
rocks at Acadia National Park
just a few miles away.
This year for the first time
we attended the annual
SSCA gam (gathering) in
Islesboro Maine. Sixty-six
boats enjoyed three days
of socializing, including
some fun dinghy raft-up
parties like this one, that's
just getting started.
Couples bobbed in their
BYOB boats and passed
plates of hors d'oevres from
dinghy to dinghy. All were
lashed together with one
"mother ship" keeping the
whole raft from drifting to
sea. Fun!
While visiting the island of Isle
au Haut in Penobscot Bay,
Suzanne and Ty paid a visit on
best-selling author Linda
Greenlaw, author of The
Hungry Ocean, The Lobster
Chronicles, and several others.
Linda took a break from writing
the epilogue to her latest book
to meet with us, so Suzanne
gave Linda a copy of HER
latest book, The Priest and
the Medium.
Gretchen and Rudy are
none the worse for the
wear being on Liberty
full-time. They curl up
and go to sleep whenever
we get underway, but are
always rarin' to go
whenever it's time for a
little shore leave. Being
sailing wiener dogs is
great, because they get
to enjoy new scents in
every port.
Here's the whole crew of Liberty enjoying the
view of Penobscot Bay, Maine, from Mt. Battie
above Camden.
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