It took some time but we eventually received our launch date. May 28th. Which just worked out to be Memorial Day Weekend in the US. There were some pandemic remnants that were a bit frustrating the first being the impossibility of renting a car in Portland Maine and returning it in New Hampshire. So we ended up taking the train down, then took an Uber to the rental place, and rented a car and eventually sailed back to Maine.
The launch was fairly uneventful and the team from Universal Boat Haulers in Eliot Maine were simply amazing. The most professional team I’ve ever seen. They stepped and launched four boats in that many hours!
One of the challenges that weekend was of course the way weather can change everything. The forecast changed from an ideal sailing day on Saturday to a 10ft seas hell scape on the water. So we ended up spending a few very cold days at Wentworth By the Sea Marina in New Castle New Hampshire.
Very cold days. Crazy unseasonably cold weather had all three of us huddled in the vberth for warmth. But the weather did give us an opportunity to make several runs with the rental car back and forth between Portland and New Castle to move everything we wanted to take on the boat. Including our amazing cat Apollo who’s been quite the champ.
By Tuesday the following week we were on our way to Spring Point Marina in South Portland Maine where we’d spend the next three weeks trying to get as much done boat wise as possible so we could then move to anchor.
With our Portland Pudgy dingy backed up at the factory we ended up needing to purchase an inflatable in order to make our check out date, make countless trips to West Marine and Home Depot to pick up things and overall spend way too much money.
In the end we were able to get a cheap bimini up, our lettering done, get the galley plumbing done, and get some storage items on the boat sorted out. And most importantly we upgraded the anchor to a 44 pound Rocna since we want to spend as much time at anchor as possible over the next few years.
There is however a lot of work still to do. But we were able to get everything done that absolutely needed to happen before we left the marina and yesterday we were able to make the short trip over to Jewell Island in Casco Bay Maine.
Our first night at anchor was great. No worries of dragging and only a bit of worry as we learned how the currents flowed in and out of the cove and how the boat would move.
I had kept an old iPhone with the intention of using it as an anchor alarm and it’s worked like a champ. It’s very comforting to be able to watch the monitor and see our anchor tracks and to see the patterns. It will be very easy to notice if something falls out of the pattern.
The island is fantastic and I will be sure to share about our adventure here. Even if the amazing spot is also filled with my day job on the computer and tons of boat repairs.
But I’ve decided to lay off the boat repairs for the next few days. They can all wait. The list for July is impressive though including:
- Repairing the Macerator Pump
- Finish Plumbing the Deck Shower
- Finish Plumbing the Head Sink
- Install New Cabin Lighting
- Install THREE 100W solar Panels and their respective charge controllers.
The plan is to all of that ourselves with the exception of the Macerator Pump. I figured that would be good to hire out for a couple of reasons. The biggest being that it’s such an important part of the boat and of our long term plans for being able to really go exploring. And of course the consequences of making a mistake can be long smelt.
With this weekend we make it to our first month aboard. Lots of boat work, lots of learning how to live on board, and luckily lots of excellent food on board.
From The Galley 