And awayyy we go!!!

 9/5-After many days of preparation we are finally ready to head out. We had several tasks that needed to wait until after the Labor Day holiday. After finally getting the last task done we headed out of Rockland. As there was no wind at all we motored all the way into Long Cove in Tenants Harbor and tied up to the Nutmeg mooring. As it was blazingly hot I went swimming but as the water was chilly I didn't last long. Still it felt good. I have always liked this spot as it was where we first met Anne and Les  ( the previous owners of our boat). It made a good if short first day as we now try to get back into the rhythm of this cruising lifestyle. Tomorrow we hope to get into Boothbay. 

    The thing that has always amazed me about this harbor is the sounds. Sound travels incredibly well over the water. I can hear conversations over a mile away. Of course that also means that I can really reach quite the audience when I start singing with my ukulele. The other sound that gets me is here you can hear the waves crashing on the rocks on the other side of the island. It used to be that was a nice relaxing sound but now it is just plain terrifying. From my sailboat it means rocks, and danger, are close. It's hard to sleep hearing that all night.


9/6- We took off from Long Cove around 8:30am as the seas were flat and the tide was still falling so we would have a favorable current for most of the day. We ended up motoring the whole way. The seas were flat and it was kind of hazy. We got into LinkedIn Bay around 2:30 and got the anchor down. There are many more moorings in here from the last time we were here. We just hung out on the boat and napped. Napping is one of my new favorite activities. 

   The wind has been very light lately and I have not even taken the sail cover off yet.  This is not totally unexpected as we are going against the prevailing winds heading west. Even if the wind blew we would most likely have to beat into it which means traveling twice as far. We are hoping for some north or northwest winds one of these days but southwest is the prevailing wind direction all the way down the coast and through Long Island sound so we just have to suck it up and rely on Mr. Perkins to get us there. 


9/7- We left Linekin Bay fairly early as once we are up and moving there doesn't seem to be anything else to do. A lot of the time the wind picks up more in the afternoon. If we could wait a while in the morning we might get more wind. Alas that doesn't seem to be our MO. 

   As the wind was pretty much non-existent we motored again. Around the mouth of the Sheepscot river we ran into some fog which disappated as we kept on up the coast. It was interesting here as the tidal currents and the outflow of the river made the waters very choppy. At one point we hit a favorable current and it was like being shot out of a canon. We went from 5.7 knots to 7.3 knots in the blink of an eye. Of course it didn't last more than 20 minutes. Eventually we hit calmer water and slowed right back down. 

   We got into Portland around 2:30pm and found the mooring a fellow CD owner had lent us. It is in Willard Beach which is a nice sandy beach area. It's kind of bouncy here from all the boat traffic going by. It's something we're not used to as this is much busier than we've seen in a while. I guess we'll be rocked to sleep tonight.

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