Further Adventures Of SV Nutmeg

 7/23- Rockland ME   Well we have come full circle and are back where we started two years ago. We motored the whole way up from Tenants Harbor as the wind was too light. Of course the minute we got here it picked up nicely. Oh well!    We searched around for our mooring for a while until it finally revealed itself to us. We are borrowing a mooring from a friend for this season. It is much further out than we were before. This has both advantages and disadvantages. It takes longer to get to the dock and in bad weather it might be impossible. Being further away means less road noise and quicker to sailing. Anyway we are here for the season and we’ll see how we like it.     This is the land of lobster pots as the further north we got the thicker the pots became. It was practically impossible to use the autopilot because you would be constantly making adjustments. The lobster Fest is next weekend so maybe we’ll get to check out some of the fruits of their...

 7/22- Long Cove, Tenants Harbor ME    The morning started with no wind so we just sat in Boothbay until around 10am. The wind looked like it was ready to give us a push but sadly it was all just a tease. We motored out of the bay and ran up a jib for about a minute until we realized it was not going to happen. We motored for about an hour until Pemiquid Point.     I ran the sails up and we actually did move so we shut down Mr Perkins and sat back. We sailed for about two hours at 2.5 to 3 knots. It was a nice day so this was fine. About the time we got to Eastern Egg Rock the wind petered out so we sent a call out for Mr Perkins again. We didn’t see any puffins but I did see two of the biggest porpoises I’ve ever seen.     We left the motor on to get through to Marshall Point where the wind stepped up its game. From there we broad reached out to Two Bush and then a nice long tack all the way into Long Cove. We tied up to Nutmeg’s old storm m...

 7/21- Boothbay Harbor ME    Amazingly a northwest wind took ahold of us right from the get go. We pulled up the anchor and motored out into the bay and away we went. The sailing was certainly robust today.     After leaving Quahog Bay the wind was having trouble making up its mind as to whether it would blow directly behind us or on our beam. I had the jib out but it kept getting blanketed by the main so I finally took it in. We were doing close to 7 knots on the reefed main alone. It was also a lot more comfortable not having to deal with the jib.     Once we rounded Cape Small the wind was decidedly on our beam so I ran out the stay sail to help out. We had a great run sailing past the Kennebec and Sheepscot rivers. The waves were not not large but we managed to cover the boat with salt. Waves crashed repeatedly over the bow sending spray all over the boat and us.     We sailed right into Linekin Bay and were going to anchor...

7/20- Snow’s Island, Quahog Bay, Harpswell ME    We finally got out of Falmouth with a little bit of our money left. It was a nice place but it sure was expensive. We motor sailed across the bay and wound through a bunch of different islands. The thing about Casco Bay is you can’t get anywhere in a straight line.     First we had a broad reach then we went down wind only to have to turn upwind to get around the corner. Then more down wind until we turned to head almost straight into the wind. Here the tide was rushing out and the swells were rolling in making for some mighty big waves very close together. I had to use the motor to assist here. I’m pretty sure at one point we launched off a wave and my 10 ton boat actually went airborne. It sure came down with a big crash.      We turned downwind and rode the swells all the way into Quahog Bay. We anchored in a lovely spot just south of the island. It didn’t take long for the rains to catch up to u...

 7/19- Falmouth ME   I rode the bus over to the airport this morning and collected Alayne. Now that she is back on board hopefully we can head out of here. This was a pretty nice place to be all things considered but the $70 a day was starting to get old. I could probably have bought a mooring for the season for what I paid for 2 1/2 weeks.     The rest of the day was taken up by naps for Alayne. We did meet up with a friend from the area and went out for dinner.      I did see a couple of meteors last night. These were long burning ones. It reminds me of the time I saw one so close to me that I could see the flames coming off of it. We were on a hillside and looking out saw a bright light coming closer. Before we knew it it passed directly over head. It was so close all of us instinctively ducked. I read in the paper the next day that it had landed in a field about 20 miles away. This was the first of three meteors I have seen hit the earth....

 7/18- Falmouth ME    It is that time of year folks for your favorite heavenly light show, the Perseid meteor showers. It looks like tonight will be a nice clear night (at least here) so I should be able to see some fireworks.      Today was another in a string of do nothing days. I spent some time reading and napping but other than a walk in the preserve this morning I really did nothing. Hopefully we only have one more day here before we start moving on.      This was a good place to be as it has good access to the city and the airport. While with 50 transient moorings here they have a fair number of boats coming and going. The trouble is there is really no place where people can congregate so meeting other transient boaters is harder. I have met several and I’m hoping we can possibly meet up later in the summer.     It’s time to shut down this screen and let my eyes adjust to see some meteors.