July 8, 2021
Time for another update! We’ve been living aboard for a month now and are loving it all—the sunny days sailing in perfect wind, the rainy days hunkered down in the cabin, the cloudy days sailing when only the fishermen are out, the rows ashore to explore our current environs, and the long spells of time at anchor puttering, cooking, eating, reading, and sleeping. It’s a glorious life of mindless leisure being where we are interspersed with mindful activity getting from here to there.
Working backwards, last night we were in a little group of islands near Port Clyde—Caldwell, Teel, and Stone—where we had a wonderful row and were invited ashore by the owner of Stone for a hike around, accompanied by one of her dogs. After the previous night in Port Clyde, we rowed to the town dock for breakfast at the General Store, a walk to Marshall Point Light, and a stop at the Herring Gut Learning Center, started by Phyllis Wyeth, where we were given hydroponic lettuce and basil. We were about to leave Muscongus Bay when we learned about the hurricane marching up the coast, so we decided to stay put. Now we are in Maple Juice Cove, which is more protected and the Olson House is just up the hill, the site of Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World.
We had cousin Joanna and her dad, my uncle Roland aboard for a two day cruise after a huge family lobasta feed on the 4th in Round Pond, my old hailing port. We brought NIRVANA in to the dock and people came aboard for an “open boat,” including my mother, who is getting around using a rolator these days, and a 10-year-old boy named Julian, who is learning to sail at sailing camp. Our cruise took us to Harbor Island, an old favorite, Monhegan, where Will and I had a couple hours to explore the almost-too-precious famed artist community, and “Betsy’s World” in George’s Harbor, a narrow opening between two islands owned by Betsy Wyeth, Andrew’s wife.
Before our mini family cruise we anchored in Greenland Cove in Muscongus Bay and paid for our first mooring in Christmas Cove on the Bristol peninsula. We had a fantastic meal and our first hot shower ashore at Coveside, where for decades, passing sailors have left their tattered burgees. My friend Christine happened to be working a mile away, so we arranged to borrow her car to “go to town” (Damariscotta), my old home town, to do some provisioning and laundry. Quite a contrast to living aboard, going to the big city!
We set out for good the last week of June headed for South Freeport, where we ended up staying for three days on a friend’s mooring, taking advantage of the wonderful people at Brewer’s Marine, first to go up the mast to install a wind indicator and second to come aboard and check our engine after hearing a mysterious clanking noise. That day, we got intimate with our Yanmar as we tightened and then changed the alternator belt and learned a whole lot more than we knew before; it’s all good.
Setting out from South Freeport, we went to Snow Island in Quohog Bay, where we had a nice row around the islands and cocktails aboard Septemtrio with a couple from MD, just retired and out for the summer. They extolled the virtues of Maine, as do we as we, living and loving every minute.
installed by Will
Surrender to the Abundance 