Starting a New Blog for Victorious

Here's a quick update that I will post on our two blogs. For almost 8 years, we have had the Cruising with Rising Tide blog and the Anchors-Away! blog. Now we need to start a new story, as our last Rising Tide is headed to Vermont with it's new owner this coming weekend, via the Hudson River. We are back using anchors (after two winter seasons of camping in a travel trailer) and our new boat deserves a new blog. Interestingly enough, we have become part of an enormous on-line presence in the Lord Nelson Victory Tug owners organization. (www.lnvt.org); our boat VICTORIOUS is hull number #26. Check out the website and you will learn all you ever wanted to know about Victory Tugs and more! And we will be adding to the volume with our own angle. 

During this past winter we brought home almost all movable parts of VICTORIOUS, including 6 doors, and we have been refinishing bit-by-bit. When we bought the boat last May (2015) we had limited time to do cosmetic work, let alone the important behind-the-scenes items, so we mainly worked on removing several layers of varnish from the deck and bringing on our own favorite GPS system. Ken and the boatyard in Wilmington NC where the boat had been kept, got quite a few engine/prop shaft/bottom painting, etc tune-ups done. 

Other winter projects this year were to replace the tug's steady-sail mast, repair the boom, design and order a new swim ladder, make lists for spring refitting, and we also fit in a 4-week driving trip to Florida, staying for one week each in Palm Coast, Englewood, and Stuart. We have a new grandson born in October, Kenny, and we definitely made time to watch him grow into a now bouncing 8-month old.

We have not yet launched our tug for the season, as we have had a long list of must-haves and fixes. The teak deck needed to be re-grouted and many bungs replaced; we also have teak on the main cabin rooftop and the raised portion of the forward deck, and they needed the same treatment. We continue to strip red Awlgrip from portions of the teak trim around the doors and on the main sliding hatch. We may never get to the end of the painted teak! Ken and our sons added a thick bumper material all along the bilge guard outside of the boat; prior to that Ken and Heidi removed stainless steel strips that had been the "protection". We have a new alcohol cook stove and oven, replacing the electric stove that would have to run on shore power or generator. Ken is replacing the walls on the refrigeration compartments (they had started to rot) and added a new dual fuel filter for the engine. We replaced a leaky forward-cabin hatch with a better-fitting one. There are innumerable other projects but you get the idea. 

In July we will go from our mooring in Cohasset to Plymouth (5 towns away but somehow a long tug ride) for the Summer Northeast LNVT Rendezvous. We are hosting and have had a good number of boat owners respond so far. There may be 10 Victory Tugs at the dock at Brewers Plymouth Marina.

For the remainder of the summer, it would be nice to spend some time in Cohasset relaxing and reconnecting with old friends. But we won't rule out a cruise downeast, somewhat of a tradition. We hopefully will be ready to take VICTORIOUS south to the Intracoastal Waterway and Florida in the fall, and can stop in some of our favorite Vineyard and Buzzard Bay harbors on the way. We've had a productive season preparing the tug, so it seems we are on track for those plans.

The new blog is victoriousvacation.blogspot.com

New Boat in 2015! New Name: VICTORIOUS

 

Pictures: In the Wilmington boatyard; Ken Maitland working on the stuffing box problem; VICTORIOUS at the dock

We started the spring boating season early, with a trip to see a boat in Wilmington North Carolina in April. We had been to see the same boat, on the way home from spending the winter trailer-camping in Florida, in March. Now we are rethinking our choices and opinions from March and are pretty sure we want to buy the Wilmington boat. It is a 37' Lord Nelson Victory Tug, named PUFFIN.

To make a long story short, we did buy the Victory Tug, and spent a week in mid-May working to get it ready for a cruise north, to Massachusetts. We have picked the name VICTORIOUS, and brought with us the decal with new name and homeport. We were advised by the boat surveyor to have the propeller shaft's cutlass bearing replaced, and to recondition the propeller. There were many other tasks to attend to, and we prioritized. And the temps were in the low 90s all week! Unfortunately the boatyard, Bearing Marine at Wilmington Marine Center, was late getting the propeller back and reinstalled, and we were not launched until the end of the day on Friday May 22. The boatyard foreman disappeared for the next 3 days, Memorial Day Weekend, and left us to our own devices.

On May 23 we attended to last-minute tasks on the boat, returned our rental car, and on May 24 we motored out of the marina and into the Cape Fear River. Luckily Ken checked the bilge about 30 minutes down-river because we had a big leak! Ken tried to tighten the stuffing box, which seemed to not have been tightened properly after the shaft and cutlass bearing were reinstalled, with no luck, so we returned to Wilmington Marine Center, pumping the bilge all the way. The boatyard was closed for another two days so Ken worked on the stuffing box some more back in the marina, and did get it tightened.

Now it is Memorial Day, May 25: many boats, jet skis, and kayaks are out and about, and we had a glorious trip back down the river to the Intracoastal Waterway, continuing to the U.S. Marines' Camp Lejeune for our first anchorage of the trip. All day we were waved at, photographed and recipients of lots of smiles. Our new choice of boat is a "replica tug" with lots of character and a great, loud Kahlenberg whistle. Ken surprised me, and maybe himself, by enjoying the chances to send a whistle salute to many of the people we saw.

The rest of our trip was quite efficient, as we were able to travel every day, We had light winds, or days with a lee shore if there were heavier winds. We weren't in the mood to dawdle, and made good miles each day, even though going only 7-8 knots/hour. We spent one day at Rock Hall, Maryland, taking advantage of the $1/ride trolley there, and celebrated Ken's birthday by eating out in Cape May, New Jersey. We saw lots of birds, humpback whales, sunfish, dolphins and stingrays along the way.

Our final day of the trip was the leg from Onset, Mass., through the Cape Cod Canal to our mooring in Cohasset, Mass. It was 16 days and approximately 990 miles.

Ken continues to toot the whistle as much as possible, especially when passing the sandbar at the entrance to our harbor, where many families congregate in the summer, and we always get a big cheer in return!

Most of the rest of the month of June was spent showing VICTORIOUS off to friends, and getting to some of the many projects that come with a 30-year-old boat. We are stripping the decks down to bare teak, getting the generator running, making new curtains for the windows, constantly fiddling with the Xantrex Link 1000 battery monitor, finding and fixing some leaks in the cabin roof, making a temporary fix for the steadying sail mast (it is buckling) and getting the refrigerator doors to close properly.

Pictures: in New York Harbor passing the Staten Island Ferry; Sally Seymour, Bicky Howell and Heidi Maitland in Camden, Maine; four Victory Tugs at the dock in Camden; lobster bake steam on Warren Island; VICTORIOUS and MYSTICO in Red Brook Harbor

In July we traveled to Camden Maine to attend the gathering of Victory Tug owners and VICTORIOUS was on the dock at Wayfarer/Lyman Morse Co. with three other Victory Tugs. Camden is a favorite stop for us when we are in Maine, and the owners gathering was a lot of fun. We participated in a tug parade, taking several of the other owners with us, and traveled out to Warren Island for a lobster bake with all the boats and owners. There was a Tug Talk one morning, and a pot-luck dinner one evening. After the gathering, we traveled with two of the other tugs for a few days, to nearby islands, and finished up our Maine cruise by going to a few more favorite Maine towns: Castine (and Holbrook Harbor nearby), Buck's Harbor, Lincolnville (our friends' brewpub is at the beach there), Rockland, Vinalhaven (Carver's Harbor, Winter Harbor and Long Cove), North Haven (Pulpit Harbor), and  Southport (Ebencook Harbor).

We finished up our cruise by stopping in Yarmouth, Maine to see our friends the MacLeods, and their new boat. Then we headed home, with an overnight at the Isles of Shoals in New Hampshire, and a night in Marblehead on one of the harbormaster's moorings.

Besides enjoying our home harbor for the remainder of the summer, we took two short trips by boat to the south. We went in company with our son and daughter-in-law Pete and Eri. They were in their boat MYSTICO and we met them in Red Brook Harbor on Cape Cod. We had a fun four days there and in Vineyard Haven on Martha's Vineyard. In September we cruised to Bristol, Rhode Island to meet up with new friends Linn and Ray Clidence. Last winter in Florida they told us stories about their island summer home. Hog Island has mostly summer cottages, only cart paths, and is within view of the old estates in Bristol. We got a great walking tour of the island and had company celebrating our wedding anniversary at dinner in Bristol.

Pictures: VICTORIOUS passing Bug Light in Duxbury Harbor; and nearing a cargo ship in the Cape Cod Canal

Now we are concentrating on making even more updates and repairs to VICTORIOUS so it will be in good shape to travel the ICW next year. We are about to finalize the sale of our previous boat, a Mainship 34, which is a big relief to us. It looks as if we can continue to concentrate on our new "love" and keep us busy and happy throughout the cold weather months to come.

Many Adventures in Summer 2014

Pictures: Mike and Lori Wilson and Tammy Maitland in Cohasset Harbor; Justin Maitland and Jamie Pope (seated ) at the wedding rehearsal dinner with her sister and mother; on Naushon Island at one of the residences with our crews and Sally's cousin and family; Ken and John Campbell at lunch on Martha's Vineyard; Jean F., Tom F., Sally C,. and Ken on BREWSTER in Lake Tashmoo; Heidi and Barb MacLeod have the same taste in bathing suits (in Maine); Marblehead members of Class of '63 at the Hazens--Ken, Andy, Judie, David Santry; wave-worn rocks on Buckle Island Maine; Ken with Henry and Leo Bernard in Biddeford Pool, Maine; Pete and Eri on their boat, rafted with us in Cohasset; Victory Tugs at the Howell's dock in Church Creek, Maryland

The summer of 2014 was a great one for us, both for boating and for other family activities. We started with a June 19 mini-cruise with guests Lori and Mike Wilson, and Tammy and her significant other, Mike Mangan. These guests were visiting from the west U.S. for our son Justin's wedding. We met up with our other son Peter in his new boat, motoring over from Hingham and rafting with us off of Black Rock Beach. We ended the trip with a light dinner onboard, at the dock in the cove, in Cohasset Harbor.
The wedding of Justin and Jamie Pope was on June 21 and it was a perfect day. Lots of friends and family, with dancing until after dark on the longest day of the year.
With all the excitement of a wedding at our house, we didn't get an extended cruise started until July 5th (Hurricane Arthur passed 100 miles east of Cohasset on July 4th). We motored up to Marblehead for a couple of days, visiting Scott Stephens and Linda Wallace. Justin and Jamie drove up from Boston for breakfast and a visit on our second day. We left the North Shore for a trip to Cape Cod, planning to meet our Hull friends the Chisolms and Fishers on their boats.
We stopped in Red Brook Harbor on the Cape for a night, then the next day went with the Chisolms (BREWSTER) to Hadley's Harbor in the Elizabeth Islands. Sally C. arranged a visit for the four of us ashore on Naushon Island, including a walking tour of the east end of the island with Sally's cousin. We have been to Hadley's Harbor about two dozen times, and have never been able to walk on this private island, so this was a very special treat!
Our next stop was the Lagoon near Vineyard Haven on Martha's Vineyard. We spent two days there, meeting up with John Campbell in Oaks Bluff for lunch, and doing a little bike-riding. On July 11 we were in Lake Tashmoo (the other side of Vineyard Haven) in company with BREWSTER again and with EDGECOMB, Tom and Jean Fisher's boat. There was a fishing trip this day, with most of the crews taking part. Heidi was the renegade, and took off on her bike to explore down-island, taking in an antiques fair in W. Tisbury and lunch at Chilmark General Store.
Fishing was successful, and a big fish buffet was on the menu for the evening. BREWSTER has the biggest cockpit, so hosted this event. Additional activities with the other crews were walking to have lunch in Vineyard Haven, and shopping at the weekly farmer's market.
We had four more days in Martha's Vineyard, but Ken had a bad cough developing, so after going to the MV Hospital Emergency Room, he mostly stayed close to the boat and tried to recuperate.
Feeling better on July 16, Ken was ready to head back to Hadley's Harbor to meet up with several Marblehead boats. The Chisolms and Fishers had left a day or so before to go to Waquoit. The Marblehead group included Scott and Linda, the Dales and the Colemans. We joined them in cruising to Cuttyhunk where we spent the next two days. This is a quiet island, but we took walks, bought ice cream on the dock, shared cocktail hour with the other boats and one night watched a big evening bonfire onshore.
Before we went back to Cohasset we met up with EDGECOMB and BREWSTER again in Red Brook Harbor. We had a dinner ashore at the Chart Room one night. This place is always crowded in the summer, but if you eat in the bar section, it is usually easier to get a table.
Our last stop on this trip was an afternoon and night in Plymouth Harbor. It was a Sunday and there was a lot going on. There were some rain showers, but we took in a music event, beer at our favorite bar New World Tavern, and another bike ride.
We saw Peter and Eri on their boat in Cohasset on August 2, and then we left for Maine on August 4. We got fuel in Gloucester and stopped for the night in York, Maine. We met up with our friends the MacLeods at Harbor Island in Muscongus Bay for lunch and a swim. The water was comfortable (68 degrees).
Our main event in Maine was to meet up with Andy and Judie Hazen, and David & Susanne Santry in Lincolnville at the new brewpub that Andy and Judie own. We had dinner there, tnen the next day we all had dinner at the Hazen's house. We attended the Rockland "Boats, Homes and Harbors Show" the next day. Then we left to go to some of the islands: North Haven (Pulpit Harbor), Buckle Island and Swans's Island, where we saw Ben and Belinda Doliber from Marblehead. We had a tour of the island and a great dinner with the Dolibers, with lobster, garden salad, garden snow peas and coffee ice cream/hot fudge sauce.
It would seem hard to top our Swan's Island experience but next we went to Bucks Harbor on the mainland; new to us, we found out that the yacht club there has two moorings available to visitors "complimentary". We spent a night there sheltered from a major storm. We watched eagles training their eaglet to fly from one cliff to another. We walked ashore and found a great general store, and were treated to a surprise visit (surprise to all of us) by old friend Phil Bennett who stopped at the store and found us sitting on the front porch. Back on RISING TIDE we met the couple on the boat next to ours, two UMass graduates who have friends in common with Heidi.
The last visit in Penobscot Bay was to Belfast, where we attended the Harborfest. There was special music, rowing events, and a boatbuilding challenge. Lots of fun. On our way back to Massachusetts we stopped in Biddeford Pool and called our niece Cathy who drove over with her two boys Henry and Leo. They are young (ages 3 and 1) and fun. We had great weather and a great visit with the Bernards!
At the end of the summer we took two short trips, August 27 to Hull for 2 days, where Ken went lobstering with Peter Mahoney for one of the days, and to Cape Cod on September 18 for a few days. We anchored in Red Brook Harbor, then got a mooring in Marion, then went back to Red Brook to meet up with our friends on BREWSTER who are leaving for Florida and the Bahamas for the winter. We had great weather on both of these trips.
We left RISING TIDE in Duxbury after the Cape trip, and it was hauled out on Sept. 24. The last boating adventure we had was to drive to Eastern Shore Maryland in early October to check out the Lord Nelson Victory Tug boats that we have been investigating as our next boat. There was a gathering of owners and interested parties in Church Creek. We had a fun weekend talking to the people attending the rendezvous, checking out the boats, and taking a cruise on the Choptank River. We had great food, a time for "Tug Talk" and even a flood -- high tide and wind holding up the rise in water.

RISING TIDE’S Summer Trips, 2013

Before leaving for Martha's Vineyard, Ken brought the "girls" (from left to right, Tammy, Jamie, Eri) of our family to Brown's Island in Marblehead.

Gay Head cliffs in Martha's Vineyard (notice the red sand in the water)

Nina (with the water), Harry, Tom, Sally, Jean, Ken waiting for the bus on the Vineyard

My favorite picture, in Aquinnah looking down from a steep hill, to the shoreline and the crystal clear water about 100 yards from us

Tyler and Joel with ice creams and purchases getting ready to board the ferry for the mainland

I made stuffed quahogs from the ones Tyler gathered in Cape Poque

Our Hull boating friends (Harry, Sally, Jean and Tom) got us motivated to head out to Martha’s Vineyard in July. They are on the boats BREWSTER and EDGECOMB, and got a head-start on us. The pictures they were sending were of the great numbers of fish they were catching in Vineyard Sound! Ken wasn’t about to let a little rough weather divert him from our goal, to anchor in Lake Tashmoo outside of Vineyard Haven. After one night in Onset on the way, we ducked into Hadley’s Harbor for lunch when the weather blew up. Ken is usually very happy to stay in Hadley’s for multiple days, but after lunch he determined that the wind had lessened and we were off for Tashmoo, only about another 90 minutes when the current in Wood’s Hole and Vineyard Sound is cooperating.

The Hull boaters were still using up their fish bounty so shared it with us that night. The next day we all headed for the farmer’s market and Blueberry Festival on the island. We sat in the shade and each had a bowl of blueberry cobbler. I should comment that the weather in the Vineyard, and everywhere in the Northeast, had been, and continued to be, sweltering hot. It didn’t matter if we were on an island or on a boat. Most people coped by standing in the water, covered up to waist-deep or more, and sheltering with a broad-brimmed hat or by finding good shade and a breeze. But it still was HOT! It turned out that the buses that run all over the Vineyard are another somewhat cooler way to go. They are not air-conditioned, but with the windows open and the bus moving, the fresh air was welcome. We took buses around the island the day of the Blueberry Festival and almost every day after that.

Other activities we got involved in were hiking in Felix Neck Sanctuary (the women) and more fishing (the men). I made chowder from the last of the fish caught earlier in the week and distributed a container of it to each boat. We walked to Vineyard Haven and dinghied to the beach at the opening from the Lake to Vineyard Sound. After the Hull boaters moved on, we contacted Bill and Marilyn Adams, friends from Cohasset, and had dinner with them at their Edgartown house. Later in the week we had a chance to see Bill and Marilyn again at a boathouse/guest house with dock that they watch for their friends. It was one of the coolest afternoons of the week, sitting near the water, in the shade, talking (although in the sun it was still in the mid-90s).

Our nephew Tyler Wilson, who just graduated from a university in Washington State, was in the area after completing a month-long solo bike trip from Toronto to Durham, NH. Our niece in Durham drove him down to Massachusetts and he connected up with my brother Joel and the two of them came out to the Vineyard on an early ferry one day. By this time we had moved our boat to Lagoon Pond, on the other side of Vineyard Haven, and we met the ferry and had breakfast at the Black Dog Bakery. Our plans for the day included a boat trip to Cape Pogue, outside of Edgartown, some shopping in Vineyard Haven, and dinner for all of us at the Offshore Ale brewery in Oaks Bluff. Pretty much a perfect Vineyard day! Joel and Tyler departed on a ferry at about 8 pm, and Tyler was on a plane back home to Oregon two days later.

After 10 days on Martha’s Vineyard we left to start heading home. We stopped in Pocasset, and anchored off of Bassett Island and our friends Barry and Susan from Mattapoisett joined us in their boat. We had one additional night in Pocasset and had dinner at the Chart Room. On our last night we jogged (in our boat) over to Marion and my brother Jon and his wife Debbie drove over, picked up pizza from the Wave and we all ate in RISING TIDE’s cockpit. Jon and I went to Rochester for “game night” with our mom that night. The heat and humidity finally abated as we headed back to Cohasset.

Houseboat in an otherwise vacant end of Perry's Creek on Vinalhaven Island

Rainbow over Goat Island Light at Cape Porpoise (the rainbow seemed to go right into the water in front of our boat) 

RISING TIDE at anchor in Perry's Creek

We played with the self-timer on our camera until we got a picture that was aimed right and had us both smiling!

We met this person on Islesboro, and he was gathering wild berries and flowers to sell to local restaurants. Lincolnville is in the background.

At Crocker Park in Marblehead, I noticed that Ken and Justin had complementary t-shirts.

About 10 days later, with awesome weather predicted, we left for Maine, with a stop first in Marblehead. We always like to take a walk in Marblehead, then while dinghing back we found Ken’s brother Pete and sister-in-law Barb on a Nordic Tug they were visiting in the harbor. We joined the group for a boat tour and cocktail hour.

We bought groceries the next morning in Old Town before we left, as Crosby’s Market is close to the dock. We did a full day of motoring and got to Cape Porpoise (part of Kennebunkport) after 8 hours. The next day we stopped in Portland for an appointment to see a Zodiac rep (our dinghy has a warranty issue) and then continued on to our friends’ mooring area in Falmouth. We had a nice boat-meal with them on RISING TIDE. That night the temps sunk to the 50s. We scrambled to find some more blankets!

The next day we were surprised to find our friends Lynda and Frank on their boat when we pulled into Tenant’s Harbor. They had time for an hour of catching up and we agreed to see them later in the trip. Our next destination was a planned meet-up with Ken’s high school friend Scott who is traveling by boat with Linda on their first cruise to Maine.  We spent two nights in Perry’s Creek, part of Vinalhaven Island. I always dig some mussels while in Maine, and Perry’s Creek has tons of them. But since Scott and Linda are not mussel-eaters, we had a pot-luck dinner of veggies, grilled pork, and a rice dish. Our second day in Perry’s Creek was wet, our first rain of either of our boat trips this summer. It wasn’t too bad so I took a hike on the Fox Rocks Trail and picked some berries (huckleberries?). That night we had our steamed mussels, and the last of our fried green tomatoes from home. Another Marblehead highschool friend is in the Creek, Barry, on a classic Crocker-designed wooden cutter.

We had one more wet day so spent it traveling to Rockland and getting ready for a fun day at the Boats, Homes and Harbors Show there. Show day was dry and beautiful, and we enjoyed the exhibits. We got to talk for quite a while with Phil Bennett (a co-worker of mine when I worked at Hood Sailmakers in the late 70s) and his wife Dorothy. Phil was on the Hinckley boat at the show. Then later that day we got picked up by more Marblehead highschool friends, Judie and Andy, and taken to their house in Lincolnville for dinner.

Their daughter Emily was there and their two dogs, one a new growing puppy. Andy sent us home with some beer from his brewery, of course.

We followed up Rockland with a few days on anchor at Islesboro Island and a side trip to Belfast. There were opportunities for walking and bike-riding on Islesboro, and we also spent lots of time bird-watching and watching the comings and goings of cruising boats and ferries. In Belfast we shopped at the Coop there and met up with Andy, Judie and Emily again for a dinner out.

When it was time to start heading home we made sure to pass by Eastern Egg Rock in Muscongus Bay and we were rewarded by seeing a dozen puffins, not on the Rock but swimming in the water. On this trip we have seen puffins twice, both times near the Rock, and this is the first year we have ever found them, after visiting this re-settlement area for probably 15 years. We also stopped in Damariscotta, about 13 miles from our coastal route, up the Damariscotta River. There’s a nice village here, lots of thriving shops, and it was a good meeting place for us to have dinner out with Lynda and Frank (who we had only gotten a quick visit with earlier in this trip).

To finish up our cruise, we called my niece Cathy who lives in S. Portland and she was able to meet up with us, along with Brandon and toddler Henry for dinner on our boat in Cape Porpoise. It was a beautiful day, one of the best, and we all had a good time. There were just two more stops, in Gloucester (we hadn’t been ashore here for years so had fun revisiting some favorite spots while we took a long walk) and Marblehead, and then we were back at our home mooring in Cohasset.

Recharging our Batteries with Some Boats and Beaches

Pictures: Dinner Key in Coconut Grove, in front of the marina and anchorages; banyan-lined avenue to the Hobe Sound Beach; decorations at Sawgrass Mills Mall near Weston; one of the gardens at Vizcaya in Coconut Grove; view from boardwalk in Murrell's inlet; Jacksonville waterfront on the St. John's River; Ken relaxing on our private patio in South Daytona Beach where we spent one night (beach on the other side of the blue umbrellas); walking our bikes over the ICW in Hobe Sound; one of the sharks caught during the Blacktip Challenge on Hobe Sound Beach

Our drive down the eastern seaboard in mid-January successfully got us away from cold weather and blizzards. It brought us to several delightful stays where we could go on long beach walks, explore marinas, and meet up with some cruising friends from earlier travels.  

We broke up our trip by stopping first at Surfside Beach, South Carolina. We spent a week there and did get the edge of a northern cold front for the middle of the week, but the beginning and end were warm. We entertained ourselves by going to a vineyard and taking the tour with the owner (in the off-season you get individual attention), walked several times along the “marsh walk” in Murrell’s Inlet where you can watch waterbirds, workboats coming and going, and find a good pub or two, and also we walked the beach at Surfside, only a 15 minute bicycle ride from our resort. At the end of the week, on our way down to Georgia, we stopped in Charleston and met up with Cohasset friends Susan and Jamie Ross. We coincidently were all in the city on the same day so went out to lunch with them and with their son (and his girlfriend) who lives there.

In Brunswick, Georgia we looked up Peggy and Jack, friends we first met in the Bahamas. It is fun to follow them, as they are now on their third (or fourth?) adventure since selling their sailboat, each time with a different power boat. On this visit they now have a Mainship 34 like ours, and are staying in a nice marina for a few months, but who knows what we will find next time we see them!

In Florida we finally got to a brewpub (River City Brewing) we’ve had on our radar for a while, in Jacksonville. It had been off the direct route of the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) quite a way when we went by in our boat several times. We got there for lunch on a beautiful early afternoon and really enjoyed the upscale feel, good food and brews and good prices.

Our next stop was in Hobe Sound, a town near Jupiter that we are familiar with since the ICW goes through there. We had a studio apartment in a private home for five days, arranged through “AirBnB”.  This area was easy to walk through, had a great bike ride along a banyan-lined road to the beach, and the beach was always full of fishermen, beachcombers, and curious visitors like us. We met a group of young men who were taking part in a blacktip shark “challenge” which involved catching, measuring, tagging and releasing the sharks, with the biggest catch of the weekend getting a prize. They gave us a good show on two consecutive days catching large sharks from the beach. Guess this isn’t such a great place for swimming!

We had a great time visiting with Susan and Barry Perkins who have a winter place nearby on Hutchinson Island. And we also spent time with Chris and Kevin Buckley in Rio, near Jensen Beach. Kevin took us for a sail on APRES SKI, their Hunter 34. We had two home-cooked meals with these four friends, who are all cruisers we know from our earlier boat trips south.

Our last week was spent in Weston, west of Ft. Lauderdale. It is a timeshare-trade resort with a large pool and nice accommodations. We had another perfect weather week, and mostly hung out at the pool, reading and sunning. We took part in Aquafit classes and used the hot tub several times. If it sounds like typical senior citizen activities, it is! But very relaxing! We also had two days trips, one to Dinner Key at Coconut Grove where we had spent a few weeks on our boat last winter, the other to Dania Beach (south of Ft. Lauderdale) and Harbortown Marina, also boat stops from last year.  In Coconut Grove we took the tour of Vizcaya, a very large estate with beautiful grounds and an interesting 1915-era mansion.

Our time was up on February 10, and we had spent our vacation budget, so we started back for Massachusetts, although the news was not good on the homefront. A blizzard hit Duxbury and all of the area on February 8-9, and our son Justin reported that our power was out and our road not yet plowed.  We continued to get reports on our drive north, and since there was no improvement by February 12 we stopped in Connecticut, in Groton, for one more night rather than continue the last 110 miles to home. This area had a lot of snow too, but the Groton Inn was a great place to stay, with it’s own restaurant and large rooms. We had our Valentine’s dinner here and when we got to our house the next day things had pretty much returned to normal (thanks, Justin, for all the shoveling you did!).

LOTS OF DAYS ON THE WATER, SUMMER 2012

Pictures: This is Duxbury at low tide on the day we stopped there on the way to the Cape-- one reason we still keep our boat in Cohasset!; Tom, Heidi, Sally, Jean, Ken and Harry after our "fishing tournament" in Vineyard Sound; several of us had musical instruments -- Heidi (banjo), Jean (mountain dulcimer), Harry (guitar), Tom (guitar); Nina can delicately step into the kayak for a trip to shore or a ride around the harbor with Sally; our grand-nephew Henry and his mom Cathy in Maine; one of the fairy houses near Perry's Creek -- look closely at all the details; Heidi is looking for the least sandy mussels, also in Perry's Creek; Harry and Ken on the Cliff Island north-facing beach with Brewster and Rising Tide behind them on a very blue day!

When the hot weather hit early and often, we packed up and left Duxbury on RISING TIDE for two weeks in the Cape and Islands area, then two weeks in Maine (we had a break in-between).  Our boat is low maintenance, doesn’t need much prep work to get going, and doesn’t even need particularly good weather. All it asks for is a full tank of diesel. We have been fueling up on Wednesdays when a tanker truck comes to the harbormaster’s dock in Cohasset. This service is primarily for the lobster boats, but we can get in line when they are done.

On July 6 we left to transit the Cape Cod Canal. It’s pretty close to us on the South Shore. You just want to time your passage for when the current is with you. We had taken a quick boat trip north, to Hull and then Marblehead for the 4^th of July. We have already seen fireworks several times this week, and before the week is over we will have had about 6 nights of fireworks! Our first destination south of the Canal is Marion; we always stop here at least once on a trip to the Cape. As we passed the Converse Point property formerly owned by my Aunt, and before that my Grandparents, we see with binoculars that a big pile of excavated sand has replaced the family cottage. Sad.

For the rest of the first week we will join with two boats from Hull, EDGECOMB and BREWSTER. Most of the time we spend anchored in Lake Tashmoo on Martha’s Vineyard. From here you can walk to Vineyard Haven and also to one of the roads west of town and from there it’s only a bus ride to other parts of the Island. Days pass pleasantly with Tom, Jean, Harry and Sally as we go fishing, exploring (at the Vineyard Playhouse Ampitheater-in-the-Woods they are rehearsing a Shakespeare play and some kind of Gregorian chant reaches you as you hike through the area), and visiting (we finally have a long morning’s chat with Ed and Cathy on FREYJA after seeing them briefly once in the Bahamas and then another time, again briefly, on Cuttyhunk). The highlight of the week is the fish banquet after our do-or-die fishing “tournament” aboard BREWSTER. We got lucky and caught about 10 keeper fish. Ken and Harry cleaned them and at dinner that night we all got to try the four different types of fish caught.

After leaving our fishing friends, we anchored outside of Edgartown for a night, and met up with John Campbell, his friend Mike and his brother David for dinner (plus we saw Bill and Marilyn Adams after dinner). Then we headed for Osterville on the Cape. We used to spend some time here almost every summer at the annual Cat Boat Assoc. Rendezvous, but this is probably the first time we’ve been back in 20 years. The next day we went into Waquoit Bay, which we had avoided when we had a sailboat. We enjoyed watching the professional quahoggers, checking out the State Park here (access only by boat), discovering a bocci game being played on the beach.  For our last day on the Cape we anchored in Pocasset, just south of the Canal, and had dinner at the Chart Room with our son Justin (he rode down by motorcycle to join us) and with Tom and Jean who have ended up here as well.

Our Maine trip started on August 3 with a side trip to Provincetown for the Hull Yacht Club Cruise and Lobster Lunch. We were invited by the same Tom, Jean, Harry and Sally that were our traveling companions in July. The lunch on the beach was great; we ordered two lobsters apiece and pigged out, plus there were lots of side dishes brought by the attendees (about 30 boats). We discovered that you can walk from Long Pt., where we were anchored, along the beach, then a mile-long dike, and then through the West End to P-Town center in less than an hour.  Or it’s about a mile by dinghy.

After two nights in P-Town we left in company with BREWSTER for the Isles of Shoals, at the N.H./Maine border. We passed through Stellwagon Bank which is known for its great fishing and for sighting whales. We saw one large fin whale and a few smaller whales, plus we stopped to examine a large, bloated leatherback turtle (4 or 5 feet long) floating dead about 8 miles south of Isles of Shoals.

We had a variety pack of weather while in Maine—lots of sun, some afternoon thundershowers for about 6 days in a row, some morning fog (not always clearing by noon) for about 4 days. Some of our stops were: Cliff Island in Casco Bay, Witch Island near South Bristol, Tenant’s Harbor, Rockland, Perry’s Creek on Vinalhaven Island, Belfast and Camden. Sally and Harry have a well-behaved Chesapeake Retriever named Nina.  Because Nina gets to go ashore quite often, we were encouraged to go ashore and walk more than usual. Our best walk was a trail up to Fox Rocks off of Perry Creek. Even though we had drizzle and fog that day it was a lot of fun, and we got to see several fairy houses along the trail, evidently inspired by local fairies (and made by local residents and visitors).

We had a chance to gather mussels at a few of our stops and had shared dinners the nights that we cooked them. We found we had missed the blueberry season or the animals and birds had gotten to them first, but we could buy wild blueberries in the local stores. We also made a point to get lobsters to cook on board as the price this summer is very low. It has something to do with a glut of lobsters and with processing plants in Canada not taking the overflow from Maine this year.

We met Maine friends for dinner: the Cassidys from Union we saw in Rockland, the Hazens from Lincolnville we got together with in Camden. We were first-time visitors to Belfast and wanted to catch the brewery/restaurant at Marshall Wharf but we arrived on their day off. However Belfast is a great town with lots to see and do within a short walk of the docks, including a large food co-op with bakery/café. We rented a float for both our boats from First Street Shipyard and enjoyed the amenities of showers and laundry there.

Sally, Harry and Nina left for home two days before we did, to attend a weekend wedding. On our way back home we stopped at Port Clyde, got fuel, and shopped at the General Store, an authentic on-the-pier local gathering place. We had two more nights in small harbors, then stopped in South Portland to get our niece Cathy, her husband Brandon, and baby Henry onboard for lunch and an afternoon cruise around Great Diamond Island and some others nearby.  That night we anchored off of Cousin’s Island near Falmouth and the next morning we visited with our friends the MacLeods at their dock at Prince’s Point—they brought breakfast!

Our last two nights and days were spent back in the Isles of Shoals and then at our mooring in Marblehead, passing through the Annisquam Canal on Cape Ann on our way to Marblehead. We saw the last of our seals and harbor porpoises on the way to Isles of Shoals, and started to see Northern gannets north of Cape Ann (you only see these large birds at sea, not on land, and only when they are migrating, to and from Canada). 

We got back to Cohasset early on August 20. RISING TIDE behaved very well on these trips and except for Ken having to change a water pump impellor in Maine, did not require much attention. We had used our kayak quite often on both trips but not our bicycles, so in Cohasset we got them out and took a long ride around town and out to Forest Ave. by our old house. We had missed Nina and our daily walks on these past few days. No new boat trips are in our future; we are traveling in September by plane, out to the west coast for two weddings and some tourist destinations in the Seattle area, Corvallis (Oregon) and San Francisco. We will pass on taking the long Intracoastal Waterway route to Florida in the winter and will probably drive down for a few weeks. Ken has signed RISING TIDE up for a haul-out in Duxbury, probably in late October.