We're back on the boat now after an extended time with family here in New England. We put the boat on the mooring at Great Island Boatyard nearly two months ago, and we've only spent a few nights on it since that time. All that is now history, and we are beginning our cruising time on the coast of Maine for at least the next couple of weeks. We spent the first two days on the mooring and then moved only a short distance to Snow Island for another night. Most of our daytime was spent getting the boat ready for travel once again.
I've been for a short swim just to get the prop cleaned off after two months of no movement. It was a bit brisk but tolerable. The next cleaning job for me was to tackle to bottom of the dinghy after it sat at the dinghy dock for several weeks motionless – no anti-fouling paint. I dragged the boat up the launch ramp and flipped it over. There was a real forest of soft gelatinous growth all over it. Fortunately this stuff came off with little fuss. I was surprised to find no barnacles as I had in Marathon, but the soft stuff must have weighed at least five pounds.
While I was addressing these issues, Sandra was trying to bring some order to chaos inside after we unloaded all our clothes, sundries, and a huge grocery order to restock the boat once again. Since Jenn's time with us on the boat was over for this trip, some reorganization was required to set the boat up for two instead of three people.
That addressed the physical issues we dealt with as we returned to our home. We also had to adjust to having just each other for company. Over the past 2+ months, we first had Jenn with us for the trip north. Then we stayed with our other daughter Sam and her family which grew by one when our third grandson Ryan was born on July 21st. This made for lots of exciting times with all three of the boys while we tried to help Sam with the new member of the family.
While this was keeping us busy, we also managed to spend a good deal of time with Sandra's sisters and brother and caring for their mother who ultimately passed away on the 4th of August – the same day that Ryan was due to come into this world. How fortunate that he chose to come early.
So this was a full, joyous and sad time for us, making the adjustment back to two by ourselves away from family particularly challenging. How fortunate we are to be able to spend this time on the beautiful coast of Maine.
After spending a couple of nights at the marina getting water and some fuel as well as some of the clean-up chores completed, we moved to nearby Snow Island for a night. We're now spending two nights at another great anchorage called the Basin. It really is a pond or small lake that is open to the Bay via a narrow entrance. Once here, you would have no idea that it's not just a small body of fresh water near the coast. An eagle's nest is set on one of the trees on a small island in the Basin, but we've yet to see the eagle. We have kayaked around a bit to collect a little sea lavender along with some pretty quartz rocks and chips of mica that we also found here in prior visits more than 14 years ago.
In our short time here, I've already noticed a difference from our time down south in the winter. Whenever we anchored in the south, it seemed the boats around us were all from other places, mostly on the east coast, but few local boats. Up here in Casco Bay, most of the boats at anchor are local to Maine. Occasionally we see a boat from MA or CT, but that's about it with the exception of two boats, one Annapolis and the other from FL. I half expected to see many southern boats up here to avoid the heat and enjoy the beauty of Maine. Perhaps they have all gone further downeast or have already begun their trek back south. Perhaps I'll see a change as we move to other places here on the coast.
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