May 2008

May 25 2008, time for Greg and Sean to leave they were impressed that we have jets in Maine. We are mighty proud to have so many wicked smart jet people in Maine.
Sunset off Popum beach. On our way into the Kennebeck River the port drive shaft broke. probably from over tensioning the drive belt. So we had to go outside and make our way to Casco bay wince the starboard throttle was unreliable. Seatow did a great job meeting us at 23:00 at half way rock and taking us to Walter Green's mooring on the Harraseeket river in South Freeport, 2 miles from L.L.Bean's. We were here for 6 weeks.
Greg at light near Kennnebec river.

Same lighthouse, Greg at the helm.
We left Penobscot bay and proceeded to the Kennebec river This is along the way.
Warm water needed for David to shower after the swim
Knife that was not needed to cut the line that was not wrapped
Local Color Brookline, Maine

David swimming to cut free the prop free that had no line wrapped on it: 55 degree water
Iroquois Indian lacrosse player with Greg as defense. Blue Hill, Maine
Sunset in Bucks harbor

Farm at Bucks harbor low tide.
May 19 Bucks harbor Maine Some say the best harbor. not much for facilities but great sailing and views. Had to get dinghy engine repaired. Sara Cox helped a lot.
Off Bass Head light
To The southest Cranberry islands
To the east Sommes Sound

Greg with the west behind. Penobscot bay and Bucks harbor
To the south, the Cranberry islands

Southwest Eggemogin Reach
South west harbor Maine where we spent the night. Great diner in a corner cafe. Red Sox won.

Whats Up Doc starting to drag.
Raven or crow? waiting for what? click to see
Whats Up Doc in Valley Cove - Sommes Sound- David on Board - click to see.
the entrance to Sommes sound

The view toward NE harbor

After a nice rocky anchor that did not hold ( OK because I stayed on the boat), Sean and Greg climbed Flying mountain and falcon nest mountain and back to the .

The Entrance to Sommes sound MT Desert Island. this is the largest fiord in the US. Cadillac Mt in the distance the first place the sun hits the US.
A site we all love to see. These lobster traps caused me to swim 3 times this summer. We wrapped 6 in all.

May 18 Sean McGowan near NE harbor Mt Desert island. May 18 We had a warm and gentle sail through the harbor under full main.

May 17th was not too pleasant. We ran out of power because the starter battery ran dead. The blower pulled 7.5 amps with the charger ran 5 amps. So we had the Bass Harbor harbor Master come out with a new battery and motored to the town dock. Greg and Sean took a walk and got a free lobster diner. David of Solar marine elecric came out and diagnosed the problem . We disconnected the blower, kept the cover off the engine room and all was ok but noisy for the rest of the trip.

MAY 16; We are about to leave Blue Hill Bay, an ideal harbor with church, store, restaurant, hospital, Golf, yatch club, boatyard, and cemetery all on the water of a small town and harbor .

Sept 2008

Leaving Kennebunkport Secret service gunboat zodiacs just out of view. I prefer a gunboat like this http://www.gunboat.com/safari.php ( check it out and be prepared to be blown away. )
A few days before this picture my daughter, Kysa, and I were here for a political rally then went over to 41's house.
Pretty tight anchorage . Only room for one row on one side. No space was available so we snuck onto a dock for the night. Then in the morning we made a dash for Portland in between squalls that we could see on the internet dopler radar that were sweeping up from the cape.
John Clayton about to take her out to sea. We coudl not make headway once outside against the surf so had to tack south to get enough seaway to gtack adn go north. Ergo no pic of 41's house.

Sept 25th Off the boat for the season is always a very sad day. Here Pat is taking her back to the Cousins Island mooring for the last time this year.
Sept 23rd. Andrea and Frank took us around Govenor's Island on Lake Winnipesaukee. Houses we thought were maga mansions in the 80's are small now.
Sept 5th. A tour on the Patomac River had lots of good sights.

Latitude 38 cover

I am trying to get pictures of Whats Up Doc on to this site. If you have one please send it to me. This is the cover of a funky California sailing magazine http://www.latitude38.com/ . It was taken in Fiji in 1998-9. Whats Up Doc participate in one of its rally's, The Baja Haha, in 2001. It was a blast, well worth doing if your on the west coast. http://www.baja-haha.com/

In 2005 I did the around Islesboro race coming in second. These links have pictures of the race. I am next to the mast in pic 26 of the first set. They were taken by Wavelength Studios a guy who flys around the country and takes pics of sailing races. If you see the skiff hail him over for a few pics. Hard to get good ones of your own boat. Check out his site. He has some great pics of lots of boats.

http://sims.myphotos.cc/~wave16/2005/cam_cas05/source/cam_cas05_026.htm

http://sims.myphotos.cc/~wave16/2005/around_isleboro05/index5.htm

pics 56-60

http://sims.myphotos.cc/~wave16/2005/around_isleboro05/index13.htm

pics 155-6

http://sims.myphotos.cc/~wave16/2005/around_isleboro05/index28.htm

pic 328

August Cruise 7 days

August 24th, 19:28 2008
This is a sunset at the north entrance to Casco bay We anchored at Haskel Island. This was the beginning of my boating experience in 1956. I was 8. Henry Chaplan owned the Island. I was allowed to use his rowboat but I could not untie from the dock. So I would row as fast as possible to the end of the line and try to snap it. Never did, but I tried for hours. The Chaplans' were impressed with my persistence. It was foggy on this trip and the anchorage was tight. The next morning we circled the island with very many lobster pots. No wraps this time. The lobster boats were concerned because we were not in the channel but with sonar and good GPS electronic charts we had no trouble finding our way to Cousins Island where we started this trip.August 24 12:39 2008 We left Booth Bay around 11 am and ended the day at Haskel Island around 9pm. Very light winds 3-7 knots all afternoon. This light is leaving Booth Bay. August 22 09:02 2008This is an Squirrel Island leaving Booth Bay. Lots of very large new houses but not very many that are beautiful. They seem to value size and not quality on this island. Not like Newport, Islesboro, York, Kennebunk, Mt Dessert. We motor-sailed most of the way.
.

August 22nd, 2008

The above sunrise may be from our overnighter. We left the Shoals at 10:00 again but did not make it to and an entry point by nightfall so we decided to stay offshore. We did not make it in because of a delay when we brought the spinnaker down. It caught the water at 5-7 knots, stopped the boat very fast, ripped the chute to shreds, and broke the boatsprit! By the time we recovered it was dark so we drifted for a few hours. We were 10 miles off Sequin island and then sailed at 3 knots on triple reef in 5 knots wind so that we did not get into the pots until daylight. Slow sail into Booth Bay.

August 21, 2008
We had a slow windless motor around the isles getting the autopilot working for the first time since installation in 2006. It worked well the rest of the trip.

This is a shoal 100 yds from the boat and we are 150 from the shore at the light. I had to swim again to free a prop from a pot! 64 degrees.
August 21,2008 10:17 The light at Isle of Shoals August 20 18:39 2008 At anchor at the break water at Smutty nose with Appledore in the distance. Like a lake yet 15- 20 knots of wind made it very bouncy night for the boats on the other side of the breakwater with the moorings at Star Island. August 20 12:27 2008 We have passed in front and turned to Isle of Shoals. I think they were heading to the Cape or a wide birth to cape Anne.August 20 12L21 2008 David Damiecki, from NYC firnds tallships as nice as tall buildings.
August 20 12: 19 Frank Bourn, my brother in law finds the experince on Whats Up Doc unlike on his Prindle on Lake Winnipesaukee

August 30 23:17 approaching Friendship of Salem

We had a great downwind sail in 15-20 knots to the Ilse of Shoals on the Maine New Hampshire boarder. 10 miles off Portsmouth. We averaged 15.5 knots and had peaks of 19. But did not break 20 even with the full main and screecher. We passed the Friendship of Salem along the way

We had a rough start at Cousins Island in Casco bay. The Dinghy came undone and drifted to shore. This lead to motoring the boat closer to shore so my swim ( 66 degree water) was not too far. I rescued the dinghy only to get back and have not one but two prop wraps on lines in the water . One was a lobster trap and was easily unwrapped . the other twas a hard to see 2X4 as a buoy connected to a large mushroom anchor. I would not unwrap it and had to cut the line. By the time I had the prop free and I was back on board we had drifted on to the shore. However, Frank and David were doing a good job keeping Whats Up Doc off the rocks by using the awning poles. We were lucky the wind was light as it increased to 20-25 knots within 30 minutes after we gotinto the clear. This was a lee shore. Anyway we were underway around 11 am, not the 6 am as we had planned. The first delay was to get water which we got from an outside faucet at a camp on the island. Not easy as the dinghy row is 200-300 yards. At least it was not windy like the arrival the afternoon before. With whitecaps, the dinghy got mildly swamped, soaking some of David's cloths and suitcase (don't bring suitcases on a boat).