Update 10/10/08 - visiting The Villages and Hilton Head

Update 10/10/08


A more timely hello to all!

This is the third of three updates I’ve posted this weekend. Hopefully I can keep things more up to date from here on out. In this issue you may learn what a “chucker” is. Our first week at Hilton Head went by all too fast. We did a fair amount of cleaning on the boat and some basic shopping to reprovision the boat. In addition, we made good use of the pool and took two long walks down the beach to Coligny Circle where we had lunch and walked back. We also had a nice evening with Pat and Pat from Salty Dawg who are staying in another marina on Hilton Head. Its interesting the comparison of Hilton Head now versus when we were here in July. In July, the place was jumping but now there are a lot fewer people around and the weather is great. We heard that in addition to the usual seasonal factors part of the issue is the weather forecasting. When there is a hurricane offshore, the weather channel (and others) says that a hurricane is threatening “the Carolina’s”. However, the forecast is really calling for a hit on the North Carolina shore with the storm staying well away from Hilton Head. Regardless, lots of people hear this and cancel their reservations here. This area actually hasn’t had a hurricane in over 100 years. Part of the reason is that the gulf stream is well off shore here whereas it is very close to the southern North Carolina coast.

We decided that since we had time we would take a car trip and visit friends in Florida. Our first stop was the Villages where we visited Paul and Susan from Sweet Dreams. The Villages were one of the areas of Florida we wanted to see and it proved to be quite interesting. We learned to play “pickle ball” and played it all three days we were there. Pickle Ball is a game somewhat like tennis except its played on a smaller court (see picture), with a paddle that looks like a ping pong paddle but smoother and slightly larger, and a whiffle ball. I kept expecting the ball to bounce higher but it didn’t! In any event it was fun and good exercise. In case you are wondering, the game originated in Seattle and is named for someone’s dog!

We also took a tour of the Villages, attended a pot luck and went to a happy hour. The happy hour almost rivaled Sparky’s in Marathon with all you can eat wings, $5 pitchers of beer, good music and good company.

On Saturday, we also attended a polo match - a first for Jean and I (and most of the people we were with). We took the golf carts to the polo field. Golf carts are the preferred method travel in the Villages as there are cart paths to go everywhere. At the field, we set up for a tailgate party and waited for the match to start.
Up until now, if you asked me what a chucker was, I would have thought it had something to do with throwing something as a part of a game. However, a chucker is the equivelent of a period in hockey with a match consisting of six, ten minute chuckers with an extended half between the third and fourth chucker.
A team consists of 4 riders who might use up to eight different horses in the course of a match. The field is big, approximately 300 yards long and about 100 yards wide. This meant that the action was often a long ways away from us even with our centerfield position which made the tailgate activities even more enjoyable for all. After the match, we traveled to some friends of Paul’s and Susan’s for more party and a soak in the hot tub.

We left the Villages on Monday and had a leisurely drive through rural Florida (there really is such a thing) to Daytona to visit our friends Bruce and Ellie. Bruce and Ellie live in another interesting gated community as this one was a naval aviation training base at one time and the community has its own airport and many of the houses have their own hangers with taxiways running through portions of the community. We had a good visit them also. We took a golf cart tour of much of the complex, checking our some of the more interesting (and in some cases more extravagant) houses. We also saw several slide shows Bruce had compiled, including their trip to Alaska in June. After a nice dinner, we all sat up much too late and way too much on the edge of our seats watching the Red Sox beat the Angels to win their American League Divisional series. Next stop-Tampa Bay Rays.

Our drive back to Hilton Head was uneventful. The next day we watched as a technician from Caterpillar installed new injectors on the starboard engine. I ha intended to do this by myself but decided it was more complicated than I wanted to attempt. This turned out to be a very good decision as I learned what was really required and it was well beyond what I wanted to attempt. Sometimes discretion is definitely the greater part of valor!

The last few days have had on and off showers but we got in a trip to the beach as well as a few shopping expeditions. We are continuing to enjoy the warmer weather and the general ambiance of Hilton Head.


Steve and Jean
M/V Sun Cat
Hilton Head Island

Update 9/28/08 - End of summer boating in Maine

The summer and the month of September have just flown by!

We are back on Sun Cat in Hilton Head after a very busy (some would say crazy) month and a half, We spent much of August working on the house as it had not received much in the way of maintenance in the past 3 years. Among other things Jean washed over 400 windows and I fixed windows and doors and painted the porch. We also had a new roof installed, including all new lumber on the porch roof as the 100 year old boards had become very weak. The house looks great now.

Although we spent a lot of time on the house, we still got to do some sailing, mostly over long weekends. The weekend before labor day, we set out on Thursday, spending an evening in Harpswell harbor and then spending a day and evening visiting friends at Great Island Boat Yard. That Saturday we spent the day at the cottage of Bill & Valarie Sowles, a couple from Maine that we had met in the Bahamas this winter. We enjoyed a very nice dinner and breakfast the following morning with them.

Labor day weekend we started very early, setting out on Wednesday to meet up with son Steve who was traveling down from Penobscot Bay. We got a late start so we spent the first evening at Cliff Island where we walked around a bit and visited with some of Jean’s relatives there. The next day we traveled all the way to Teal Island where we met up with Steve. Teal is at the eastern end of Muscongus Bay and we were able to pick up a mooring there for the evening that looked like it would hold a big ship. The sunset was gorgeous (see picture). After that we went to Seal Cove, a pretty anchorage up the Damariscotta River above East Bootbay. The following day we stopped at Seguis Island and climbed to the lighthouse. Seguin has a “first order” Freznel lens and we were able to go up into the lighthouse to see it. We then went to the Basin where we met up with our friends Larry and Cathy on Moondance. The next day the three boats went to Sebasco where we spent a nice afternoon enjoying the pool and then walked around the golf course and climbed Robinson’s Rock the next morning. Robinson’s Rock is interesting. During the Revolutionary War, the colonists would hold up 2 large white boards in a cross pattern to signal the colonists in Portland that there was a British ship in the area. Portland is approximately 20 miles from this spot!

After a (car) trip to Cape Cod to visit my mother and brother , we enjoyed a weekend with Bill and Steph, taking a day trip to Jewell Island . It was nice to get in a visit with them

After that, we were off in the sailboat again for one more trip, this time to meet up with some of our looper friends, including Allan and; Susan on Kaos, Rich and Sue on Lionheart and Russ and Molly on Total Return. Kaos and Lionheart had been traveling together for most of the summer doing the “Downeast Loop” which takes one up through NY State, out the St. Lawrence, around nova Scotia dn then down the Maine coast, eventually arriving back in New York. We had planned to meet up in Boothbay but they wound up ahead of schedule so we met up in the basin instead. We had a quiet evening at the basin and a great happy hour on Kaos. A picture of the three trawlers anchored is included in this update

The following day we all stopped at the Dolphin Marina for their lobster stew and blueberry muffin lunch and then went to Jewell Island for the evening. At Jewell we tried an interesting raft, with Lionheart and Total return anchored facing one direction and Kaos and Trader facing the opposite with the sterns tied together. This might be a good time to explain that Trader at 35 feet is considerably smaller than the others. The other three are trawlers with Kaos being 46 feet, Lionheart being 54 feet and Total return being 57 feet.
This rafting arrangement was intended to hold everyone in the middle of the harbor no matter which way the wind came from.

We had intended to tour the island the next day but it didn’t work out. The wind came up very strong and when we put out an extra anchor the raft appeared to move even though it looked like the two windward boats (now Trader and Kaos) did not seem to be moving. In any event we broke up the raft, Total Return headed for Boston, Kaos and Lionheart anchored in Chandler’s cove to sort out dock reservations in Portland, and we headed for the yacht club. The following evening (Friday)we had a nice dinner at our house with the crews of Kaos and Lionheart.

After that it became a mad scramble to get ready to return to Sun Cat on the following Wednesday. With the help of Steve and a lot of friends, we took Trader’s mast down on Saturday, then got a call from my bother that my mother had gone to the hospital and we needed to be there on Sunday and Monday. After a fun dinner at the house on Saturday night with our friends Doug and Maggie, we set out early on Sunday and spent 2 days on Cape Cod helping Mom. Tuesday was spent packing and doing last minute errands and then we had a good flight (starting at 0545) to Savannah. By 1430 we were back on Sun Cat and pleased to find it in good shape.

It’s good to be back on Sun Cat in warm weather!

Steve and Jean

Update 8/11/08 - Our downeast trip on Trader

Hello to All

We are back in South Portland after a rather soggy trip downeast. I can’t remember a summer when there has been so little sun and so much rain!

In any event, we had a fair trip. From McGlatherty, we sailed up to Northeast Harbor on Mt Desert Island. Northeast is one of our favorites because there is a lot to do there and the (free) bus service will take you all over the island. We went to the farmer’s market and bought some steaks and then did a little shopping in NE Harbor and took the bus over to Bar Harbor to play tourist with the tourists for an afternoon. We also took the bus over to Southwest Harbor to visit the West Marine store there, only to discover that there was now a West Marine at NE as well! We had a very wet walk in the rain in SW Harbor but did find the part I wanted. Unfortunately it didn’t solve the problem so its going back eventually.

We then went up Somes Sound. For those not familiar with Maine, Somes Sound is a natural fiord with mountains around it and very deep water. Its absolutely gorgeous (when there is no fog so you can see it). We picked up our favorite mooring off Man-O-War brook and spent two days there, largely doing boat projects, working on organizing some of my loop pictures and playing cards.

The following day we motored up Eggemoggin reach to Buck’s Harbor. The wind was very light but it visibility was good and we enjoyed a trip through another lovely part of Penobscot Bay. The next morning we went to the farmer’s market in South Brooksville, and then set out on a nice sail all the way down to Rockland. It turned out to be one of the best sailing days of the trip. The following two days were spent in Rockland, walking around town and dodging raindrops. From there we went to Tenants Harbor and then had a very wet trip to Boothbay the following day. Our reward for that soggy trip was a nice dinner ashore with Greg and Barbara Franklin on Gonecruzin who were doing the Downeast loop.

The next day was spent in Boothbay playning tourist and then we went to Sebasco resort where we spent an afternoon enjoying the pool and the sunshine. We’d planned on a walk the next morning but the weather was threatening again so we headed back to Portland and just beat the bad weather as the rain started as we rode the launch in.

The pictures in this update are from our anchorage in Somes Sound showing Man-O-War brook and the mountains surrounding the cove we were in, Valley Cove. Also included is a picture of Buck’s Harbor.


Enjoy,

Steve & Jean