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
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