Friday, August 23, 2013

A friend suggested that our days up here sailing in Maine sound like one big cocktail party. Well, especially this week, that might appear to be the case. But, in fact, I think of cocktail party conversation as boring and superficial. In the social environment of cruising sailors, the conversation is usually not boring, nor are the people, who have sailed the world’s oceans. Many others might find the discussion on maintenance and repair boring, but we find we always have something valuable to learn from others. This is a group of self sufficient individuals. And, while there are people we meet whom we enjoy, but with whom we may not really connect, there are always a number we really want to get to know better and to see again, as well as the fun of reconnecting with those we have met before, either in Maine or the Chesapeake in the past few sailing seasons or other far flung ports around the world. And then there are those who have sailed to wonderful places we have not and it is interesting to hear of those experiences.

Nine for Dinner on DOVKA

So this past week of cruising in company with 20 other OCC boats, 5 of whom are British, was a lot of fun. Our weather was great starting with the wonderful lobster dinner at the Camden Yacht Club on Sunday afternoon. On Monday, we moseyed away from Camden to Kent Cove on the Fox Island Thoroughfare between North Haven and Vinylhaven Islands, which are south of Islesboro in the Penobscot Bay.

Sunset in Center Harbor

The festivities started with a raft-up of three larger boats tied together so the rest of us could bring appetizers and drinks and we could have a huge cocktail party! The next morning we toured a fascinating model sustainable farm on North Haven, bought gogeous produce at their farm store and then sailed to Cape Rosier to anchor off Holbrook Island, for a walk in a nature preserve the next morning. From there we motored a mile or two around to anchor opposite our home away from home in Maine, Castine, in large and lovely Smith Cove. A walking tour of charming Castine occupied the afternoon for many. And then yesterday dawned clear and blue again and we sailed south with lovely, gentle winds to Bow Cat Cove on the northern tip of Deer Isle. Our last formal get together was a potluck dinner at members’ lovely home overlooking the cove. We have at least three sets of house guests this fall, as a result!

Passing One Of The Many Windjammers In Maine

Now we sit quietly at anchor in Orcutt Cove, hiding from the hundred plus vessels that make up the New York Yacht Club summer Maine cruise. They are gathering in Bucks Harbor, right next door…we like our group of 20 as the optimum number of ‘best friends’ with whom to sail in company. We are reading and relaxing after all the socializing. But we are going to dinner on Fiscal Stray, the boat with whom we entered Maine on a day that seems so long ago. So many of the boats we have been with are already starting to head south. We will try to hang on a few more weeks….

Sunday, August 18, 2013

We have slowly moved southwesterly, sailing the northern part of the Penobscot Bay from Castine on the northeast, down the west side of Islesboro, which lies long and thin in the northern middle, to Camden Harbor. Camden has a small, narrow inner harbor, filled with floating platforms which are moored to the bottom and act as mooring docks for boats on either side. The fairways are straight and narrow paths, like roads, often crowded with various sized boats maneuvering. The inner harbor opens into a large cove filled with mooring balls, belonging either to Wayfarer Marine on the east side of the inner harbor or The Camden Yacht Club on the west side.

Rebecca atop Mt. Battie overlooking Camden & Penobscot Bay

Both Wayfarer and the Yacht Club operate a launch to take one from the boat to wherever one wants in the inner harbor. It is a lovely luxury for us, as are the showers, lounge, laundry and loaner car that Wayfarer provides for the price of a mooring ball. And Camden has much to offer for boaters, including a wonderful bakery. We settled in to this “urban” life on Thursday and will stay until the Ocean Cruising Club moves on out for its annual summer “Cruise in Company” tomorrow, Monday.

On Friday, we went ashore for a lovely luncheon with two women, each of whom is a good friend of good friends of ours, who are totally unrelated and unknown to each other. These friends of our friends, though, turned out to know each other, and so we all met at Lisa’s lovely farmhouse in Lincolnville, just north of Camden and had a delicious land-based afternoon.

Saturday was another special land-based day. Our nephew is a gourmet chef and this evening we attended the second of his invitation only “Farm Dinners” at Saltwhistle Farm in Sedgewick, Maine, on Cape Rosier. Seventy percent of the food at this spectacular feast of flavors came from the farm and the rest from farms and facilities within 20 miles. The setting: sunset under a tent, on a beautiful farm, overlooking the water. The food: beyond perfection with subtle taste treats and artistic presentation.

We spent the night ashore, once again, in Castine and headed back, in our borrowed car, to Camden this morning, stopping for a big shop(since we had a car!), en route. This afternoon the OCC festivities begin with a bash at the Camden Yacht Club. The social whirl is just revving up…

Monday, August 12, 2013

We have had an eventful past 12 days, some glorious weather, some very soggy weather and a little blip in our plans, just lately. We sailed from Castine, as planned, to gather with over 40 other boats for the 23rd annual Seven Seas Sailing Association “Gam” held at the lovely home of SSCA and OCC members, Dick and Kathy, who live off Gilkey Harbor on Islesboro. . Boats began arriving several days prior to the Saturday gathering. We reconnected with a boat we had not seen since we met them anchored in an unused Venetian Canal; saw friends we had been missing as we crisscrossed paths from the Chesapeake to Maine; and met new and interesting folk. Dinghies zoomed around the harbor to hang off various transoms and talk, stop for coffee or climb aboard for drinks.

On Sunday, four boats joined our friends on GLIDE and motored a mile around the harbor to anchor off their island, Birch Point. The guys joined forces and helped Denis with his porch construction project.

Island Cabin Construction

I took the time and beautiful weather, do some delayed fiberglass cleaning and waxing on DOVKA. We all gathered ashore for another potluck dinner: ten people cozy in the little cabin. A fun end to a good four day social whirlwind for us.

Our next commitment was the Sweet Chariot Music Festival on Swan’s Island, south of Mt Desert Island.

We had a delightful interlude en route in Burnt Cove Harbor on Deer Isle, with folks we know from home who were vacationing there. Then we wended our way through the most magnificent green, pine laden rocky islets called Merchants Row to Burnt Coat Harbor (one has to be careful with names around here) on Swan’s Island. Our nephew Tom and wife Amy joined us at the Odd-fellows Hall for this 25th year of an eclectic group of musicians, from all over the country, coming together for a week, to make music and perform three concerts. It was great fun, but…

The BUT is that I, Rebecca, began to feel sick on Tuesday in Deer Isle, and got progressively more feverish as the week wore on. We sailed back to Castine on a glorious Saturday and that evening, Amy and the girls drove us to The Blue Hill Hospital where I was diagnosed with acute Lyme Disease. So, we have been ashore in Castine as I wait for the antibiotics to take effect, which they are doing nicely, 48 hours later.

We return to DOVKA on her mooring tonight and begin to wend our way to Camden for the next set of festivities.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

We love to go ashore and have luxuriously unlimited hot water showers, launder all needed items and restock our larder in good supermarkets. We even enjoy a night ashore in a real bed every now and then. But, we always feel a sense of relief when we return to our home on DOVKA. We are at home now, at anchor in narrow, shallow and very quiet Hatch Cove, off the rushing Bagaduce River which runs in front of the storybook village of Castine, where our nephew and his wife and two wonderful 10 and 14 year old daughters live.

Solitude in Hatch Cove

Tom got us a mooring yesterday, but the town is filling up with classic wooden yachts as Castine hosts it annual Classic Boat Symposium, this year featuring the magnificent Concordia yawls, on their 75th anniversary. So we moved off the borrowed mooring to this spot which is spitting distance from Tom’s float, behind their house. Yesterday we visited with them all ashore and stayed over. Shortly we shall reciprocate with a picnic dinner aboard DOVKA quietly at anchor.

Syra, Hanna & Amy Arriving at DOVKA

Castine is jumping and the harbor is filled with magnificent wooden yachts. Tomorrow they will race from Castine to Camden. It will be a lovely sight. And they should have good weather.

Fog Lifting in Castine Harbor

We seem to be having two or so days of fog and rain and then two or so days of exquisitely sunny and dry and clear weather, not atypical for this part of the world. We move on the sunny days and relax on the foggy ones, if we can. We broke loose from Camden when we were stocked up, had clean clothes and the weather was glorious, moving to anchor off of Birch Point Island (off Islesboro), owned by our friends – 3 acres at high tide, 800+ at low tide. Sid spent a day helping Denis staple singles into the new (to be screened to protect from the mossies) porch he is building onto the little cabin he has been building for the past 4 years. I made a hearty beef and vegetable soup to share ashore. Going ashore takes timing with the tide and several various types of boats from kayak to dingy as well as reefwalkers – water shoes for the mud. The next night it seemed easier to have dinner aboard DOVKA and so we did. And then Tuesday dawned clear and crisp and we took off again to come to see the family!

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Another lazy, lay day in rain and thick fog, on a mooring in Tenant’s Harbor, Maine.

FOG in Tennant’s Harbor

But it is cool and lovely and we are thrilled to be here. We sailed in with sunshine and crisp air: it not only looked like Maine, it felt and smelled like Maine.

We left Marion, on the 16th, sailing for Martha’s Vineyard. We visited with friends who took us touring around the island and to swim in their host’s pool. We took them for a day sail touring the island from the sea and had a lovely few days there with them.

We sailed for Scituate, MA on the 18th as the weather was too unsettled to start for Maine. Scituate is a perfect cruisers’ harbor. It is well protected, with launch service from the moorings and shower facilities and all stores one could need in close proximity. J&J’s uncle Frank came to help us with our Ham radio rig and my cousin and her husband who run The Beachhouse B&B in Plymouth(look it up – it is charming) took pity on us and brought us back to stay with them until the storms passed through. The storms brought cooler weather and we returned to DOVKA Sunday noon and were underway by 1300.

Entrance to Burnt Cove Harbor, Swans Island, Maine

It was lovely visiting with Frank and Merrilee, J&J’s aunt and uncle, and with my cousin and her husband, having an indoor hot shower and sleeping in a big bed and just as lovely to return to our floating home, raise the main, slip the mooring line and sail out. Especially since it was one of those rare, perfect sails with 10-15 knots on the beam and a full moon. We left in company with another Ocean Cruising Club boat from the Chesapeake Bay, FISCAL STRAY and they arrived in Tenant’s Harbor in our wake, yesterday morning. We arrived shortly after another OCC boat from Marion, whom we had seen sailing ahead of us on the same course in the middle of the night. We all had dinner on DOVKA last night, sharing sea stories and our strange and wonderful way of life.

Monday, July 15, 2013

A week ago we closed the door of our land home, climbed into our neighbor’s van and drove to DOVKA in Annapolis. For more or less 18 years we have been straddling lifestyles between shore and sea, but the stress of organizing to leave the house and to move to the boat still gets to me. I was ready to be gone! This first leg of the trip we were taking our neighbors’ 18 year old daughter and 21 year old son along for their first offshore sailing experience. Once on DOVKA, the parents had a tour of the boat, perishables were stowed, and we settled down to sleep in the very protected, very hot and still atmosphere of our cove. Jack and Julia slept on deck and we slept with the fan running all night.

Jack & Julia Reading on Passage

Now I am at the chart table typing with a fan on me as we sit on a mooring in Marion, Massachusetts across from the Beverly Yacht Club. We had a lovely passage: hot to begin with, but with a good sail down the Delaware Bay (the first time ever on this dismal body of water) and into the Atlantic, where we had good winds and following seas most of the way north. Dolphins came to play in our bow wave in the middle of the night: phosphorescence glowingly silhouetting their bodies and sparkling off their blow holes. It was a magical sight.

J and J experienced all points of sail, wind, rain and fog. We sailed into the Great Salt Pond early Friday morning under a sunny sky, after 51 hours at sea. Down comforters covered us that first night in Block Island, as rain and fog moved in. We motored out in a downpour, but Jack and Julia’s last day with us, sailing from Cuttyhunk (the southwestern most of the Elizabeth Island Chain which makes the southern landmass of Buzzards Bay) to Marion, MA on the northern shore, was a perfect New England summer day with blue sky, puffy clouds and a great southwest breeze blowing up.

Their aunt and uncle met us ashore and we are now alone, missing our crew, but enjoying a hot, but lazy lay day before we continue our voyaging.