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Away

 8/31- Port Clyde, ME    I just couldn’t wait any longer and it came back to bite me. I was so anxious to get going this morning that I ignored the wind forecast. We managed to, barely, sail out of the harbor giving the folks at the lighthouse a photo opportunity. We put on the motor as the wind was coming on the nose to get us through the narrow part of Owls Head passage. I ran the sails out again and we sailed for about 20 minutes before the wind gave up. Back to Mr Perkins again. This time we motored through the Muscle Ridge passage. There was wind in here but I was not to be fooled again so we kept motoring until we cleared the last buoy near Whitehead. Out came the sails for another try. This time we actually sailed for about 40 minutes before it looked like we were headed backwards as the tide was against us. I gave up and dropped all the sails. Of course just then the wind picked up. If I had just waited another hour or so before leaving we would probably have had ...
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Fog

 8/28- Rockland ME    This morning we were treated to another spectacular display of fog. It wasn’t too bad when we arose but got worse as time marched on. We were unruffled as we walked up the hill to the North Haven Historical Society museum. I was pretty amazed at the collection of artifacts that they have here. The tool collection is impressive and interestingly I either own or have used about 95% of the tools they have displayed. It was a very interesting visit.      The other thing that I noticed today was the traffic on this island.  We walked about a mile and a half of road and there was a steady stream of traffic both ways the entire time.      After lunch the fog had abated a bit so we headed out. It was a nice sail in about 5-10 knots of wind with several miles of visibility. When we neared the Andrew’s ledge buoy the fog closed in around us. We were still sailing along at 6 knots with less than a quarter mile of visibility. N...
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Moon

 8/26- Pulpit Harbor, North Haven ME   We kind of got stuck in the Rockland fly trap again as we waited on weather one day and then the next day the fog rolled in and stayed. It was foggy almost the whole day. Then just as we were gearing up to head out friends called and said they were in Rockland.     These friends L and W were friends met down south on our trip. We went out for lunch and had a good time catching up. When we got back to our boat we looked around and decided it was a nice day still so let’s go sailing.      It was a great 10-12 breeze which shot us across the bay in record time. We were doing 7 knots consistently until we hit the thorofare. We still made into Carver Cove by 6 pm. It was unique sailing at this time of day as the light was very crisp.      In the morning we departed and headed east. Our goal was Pulpit Harbor so that tomorrow we could walk up and visit the historical society museum. We had heard abou...
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Grand

 8/24- Rockland ME    We did get a fine ride across the bay on Friday. The wind was NW and so we were able to sail all the way through the thoroughfare. We flew into Rockland and it was just in time. We were expecting our daughter and grand daughter for a visit.      They arrived Friday afternoon and we treated them to a seafood dinner at the famous Claws restaurant. Our granddaughter had not had seafood before so we had an assortment. She really liked the scallops only slightly less than the French fries. This was her first time on a sailboat so she was pretty excited even for the dinghy ride. Thankfully it was a dead calm night though she kept wanting the boat to rock.     The next morning we got out for a nice day sail as she got to experience sailing for the first time. We did see a large pod of porpoises as well as a couple of seals. It turns out she had never seen a lobster much less eaten one so we went to the local dock and bought a c...
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Farm

 8/21- Kent Cove, North Haven ME    We could see when we got up and everything on the boat was soaked. We literally spent the night inside a cloud. But now the sun was shining and the wind was on vacation. Looking across at the windmills not turning we knew there would be no air conditioning in Vinal Haven today.     As there was no wind scheduled for the rest of the day we motored up to the Fox Islands and into the thorofare. We pulled up to a mooring at the Turner Farms and went ashore. We have always wondered about this place. I have thought about eating here briefly. It costs $160 a plate so you can imagine how briefly I thought about it. Anyway it was a nice walk around their property and gardens.     They were expecting a bunch of boats for their event tonight so we picked up and motored a little ways east into Kent Cove where we anchored. Our friends G and A joined us and we had happy hour in the cockpit. There was lots of pelagic acti...
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Blinded

 8/19- Dix Island ME    We got caught in the Rockland fly trap again. We thought we would just provision and do a laundry and then head right back out. Alas the forecast called for rain and big wind on Monday so we thought we would just hang out. We walked over to the Sail, Steam and Power Museum for their Sunday afternoon jam which was nice.      Monday was not as bad weatherwise as predicted and our friend Jerome Rand had sailed into town. We did some boat chores and got some errands taken care of.     Tuesday turned out to be windless. The bay was so calm it was said that you could roll a marble all the way to Vinalhaven. It was not so bad as Murf got us some lobsters and we had a lobster cookout with the gang. We had us a bunch of lobsters and a pile of crab legs from some rock crabs that Murf caught in their traps.      So finally we managed to get out of town and we headed out on the bay. It was a nice 10-12 knot breeze a...
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What a Ride

 8/14- Rockland ME    The day dawned bright and early this morning. With the sun shining and the wind up we shoved off. The wind was northwest so we struggled a bit at first as it was directly behind us. It was gusty enough to get us around the corner without having to jibe. Once around the corner though the wind turned west and piped right up. We put a reef in around Lincolnville which settled the ride down a bit. We were now averaging 7 to 7.5 knots just flying down the bay. In the end over the 25 mile stretch we averaged 6.5 knots hitting 8.5 once. Wow , what a ride!!     We went to Camden to have a final dinner with all the participants of the cruise. It was a good time and we all got together to brag about our exploits on the trip down. It was another good cruise. 
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