Shear Madness

September 21, 2017

We are continuing to truly enjoy and appreciate our time in Maine. We have had phenomenal summer and fall weather here.  For the most part is has been perfect, with temps in the high 60’s to low 70’s during the day and dropping into 40/50’s at night.  Winds have been light and from friendly directions.

So what have we been up to:

1. Watched all three legs of the very famous three day wooden sailboat race from Castine to Camden to Woodlin (home of the Wooden Boat School). Bradley even got to crew on a boat in the Woodlin leg! He really enjoyed racing again. “Dodging lobster pots in the fog while racing was a completely new and exciting experience”
2. We have anchored at Rockland, Seal Bay, Il Au Haut, Orcutt and Buck’s Harbor, Northeast Harbor, Somes Sound and other amazing locations.
3. Visited and cruised with several old friends and some wonderful new friends/dreamers.
4. We are enjoying some fantastic hiking and biking in Acadia National Park. Kathy is hiking up to 15 miles on some trips and Bradley is riding up to 30 miles.  We are both trying to get in good shape for ski season, which we plan to spend in CO.
5. The sights are unbelievable! We have seen bunches of bald eagles, seals, dolphins, and sea birds.  So far have not seen any deer, or moose in the park, but still looking
6. On one of our visits back to Belfast Harbor we went to the Belfast Harbor Fest and watched the boat building competition (teams of two build an entire boat in 4 hours or less). It was very interesting to watch.  They also had a cardboard boat race, for the kids, and one of them did not quite make the entire course.  It was a hoot.
7. OMG – WE have Dodged a zillion or two lobster pots, often in heavy fog, which often means you barely see them in time. We are proud to say we believe we have only hit 2 pots so far.  There are stores of boats showing up at the docks with many (think 10+) pots being dragged on their boat.
8. Amazing Lobsters, very fresh. We eaten them in restaurants, at friend’s house, and purchased them directly from a lobster boat and cooked within hours of being caught.   We have had soft shell lobsters, which are lobsters just after shedding the shell and the new one in the process of hardening.  You cannot eat the shell like a softshell crab, but the lobster meat is noticeably sweeter.
9. Used our fog horn (a lot!). Thank goodness several years back we updated our Air Horn fog system with an auto controller.  Underway in the fog, its blows horn every 60 to 90 seconds depending on conditions.

Here’s a short video of our cruising and I’ll let the photos do the rest of the talking!

We also had a very difficult month of August, as Bradley’s best friend lost his 7+ year battle with prostate cancer.  A special tribute post to Alan Perkins will be posted soon.

Today is also the first day of the Jewish year, 5778.  Shanah Tovah all – Wishing you and your families “A good inscription and sealing [in the Book of Life].”