All you readers waiting for me to do something, anything; get out your John Mansfield and other romantic works about the sea and look up passages with phrases like, “loaded low”; “warped out into the stream”, etc. I’m too tired to write anything stirring. However, tomorrow, Strider puts to sea (or coast, as the case may be).
I must have schlepped up and down this long dock 20 times today loaded on half the trips with laundry, supplies, and gear. You would think a boat being lived aboard would be more ready but I am only a couple of days out of the annual yard period and a week in a motel.
The day started running in from the anchorage in pouring rain to spend almost an hour trying to get the boat fueled and pumped out in a marina where nothing was working right and the second attendant hadn’t arrived yet so no one could come down to the dock. Meanwhile, the fishermen figured that rain means a suspension of the “No Wake” zone.
Anyway, all preparations are complete. My son and his girlfriend arrive mid morning and we leave on a two day run to Rockland. Barbara is then going to drive their car up so they can continue on east camping and kayaking. She and I will also head east but in Strider. I’d like to get to Roque Island again but I’m determined to put all goals aside and do some real cruising. I want to enjoy Maine the way it should be with no time pressure or rush.
It feels like I have been here in Portland so long that this is almost as exciting as that first cruise of the year was back when I took shrink wrap off every spring.
I must have schlepped up and down this long dock 20 times today loaded on half the trips with laundry, supplies, and gear. You would think a boat being lived aboard would be more ready but I am only a couple of days out of the annual yard period and a week in a motel.
The day started running in from the anchorage in pouring rain to spend almost an hour trying to get the boat fueled and pumped out in a marina where nothing was working right and the second attendant hadn’t arrived yet so no one could come down to the dock. Meanwhile, the fishermen figured that rain means a suspension of the “No Wake” zone.
Anyway, all preparations are complete. My son and his girlfriend arrive mid morning and we leave on a two day run to Rockland. Barbara is then going to drive their car up so they can continue on east camping and kayaking. She and I will also head east but in Strider. I’d like to get to Roque Island again but I’m determined to put all goals aside and do some real cruising. I want to enjoy Maine the way it should be with no time pressure or rush.
It feels like I have been here in Portland so long that this is almost as exciting as that first cruise of the year was back when I took shrink wrap off every spring.
