Where’ve ya been?

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I’ve been under the radar or at least without internet for the past week. We left Salem, MA 9/3 and sailed out through the Annisquam Canal to Massachusetts Bay.  We had a couple of short sailing days, to Plum Island and Harmon Harbor, NH, the home of the Seabrook nuclear plant, the narrowest bascule bridge with rip currents and power boats only.

 

From there we’ve enjoyed reunions with old friends.  We sailed to Isles of Shoals, which is in both NH and Maine and picked up a mooring for a night.  We met up with Malcolm and Carl, who were heading south after their sail in Maine.  We walked around Appledore and enjoyed the garden of Celia Thaxter, which has been recreated.  Star Island has a large facility for religous retreats and we had dinner there.  Isles of Shoals is about 9 miles out of Portsmouth, NH and there have been some grizzly events there over the years.  One is retold in Weight of Water.

 

Weather was forecasted to get rough so we only stayed one night and then headed back to last year’s lighthouse, Seguin Island, ME, 57 miles away.  It was wonderful to head to the lighthouse from the water with that marking our destination.  We saw whales and dolphins along the way.  We could see the island from about 16 miles out.  We spent a rocky night in the cove and walked the island.  Tim thought it looked smaller than last year, kind of like seeing the bathrooms in your old elementary school.  But it was great to be back there.  We needed to provision and headed into Casco Bay to Sebasco Harbor.  We picked up a mooring and took advantage of all the shore amenities, laundry, shower, internet, restaurants.  Shirley tried to jump ship when we were at the dock,  She jumped onto the dock but quickly returned to the boat.  We even went for a bicycle ride and were greeted by an old friend, Ethan, who knew it could only be us on our goofy fold up bikes.  We returned to Seguin and met the Friends of Seguin there because it was lighthouse day in Maine and then they were closing up the island.  We reconnected with Cyndy, Connie, Dave and Linda and Jim. 

 

We toured the lighthouse and marvelled at the wonder of the fresnel lens.  We had a delicious lobster dinner and each ate 2 lobsters!   It was foggy so we got to hear the foghorn and see the umbrella effect of the light.  We hiked the trails and picked up the trail markers.  There was even a bald eagle on the rocks.  Our experience was complete.  The next day we put away furniture and boarded up the house.

 

Yesterday we had a great sail to Squirrel Island.  We went ashore and ran and hiked around the island.  We are taking advantage of good internet connection this am while we charge our batteries with the generator and then we are sailing off to Damariscove Island.  

 

Photos to follow

Moving Day

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We are moving for a change.  We finished all this year’s projects and winterized and stormproofed the house.  Then we hauled our stuff down to the beach in wheelbarrows and took several dinghy trips out to the Boston Whaler.  We moved everything onto the S/V Water Lily and ran lots of errands in town getting her in shape for the trip.  It was more tiring than any day doing work on the island- the running around part.
We spent a night on the mooring in the harbor.  When we finally untied our mooring lines for good, it was 6:30 pm.  We headed back to familiar territory and spent a night offshore.  It was a full moon and we got to see it rise over the house.
It was a very exciting day for me because I got to speak to my favorite knitting podcaster, Kelley Petkun from Knit Picks.   It was like talking to an old friend.  It made me realize how much fun it is to talk to other knitters.  Tim always expresses interest when I show him my lated lace stitch or spun yarn swatch …but it’s just not the same.  I look forward to hearing it.  It was more exciting for me than when I was on TV or the radio related to my medical practice.
We had a great sail today.  It was a glorious fall day, although the wind was fairly gentle–did I just say that!!  I hope it doesn’t come to get me while we sail in Maine this fall.  Most of the stuff is stowed on the boat, under everything.  Once again I stopped storing things when I could no longer use my head to hold up covers to storage compartments.  We are at a lovely anchorage now, surrounded by wetlands and apparently all the seagulls land on only one boat.
Whaler loaded with our stuff

Rising Moon

Parting Shot

No time for time out

Seagull shuffle

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New Arrival

The New Order

We are wrapping up our projects, putting up storm windows, fixing the rock wall, caulking, mowing – well actually Tim is doing all of that –  I am sorting through my huge bag of fleece.  My goal is to get most of it cleaned and to store it in the car.  I’ll get a chance to spin it when I travel to Long island later this month.I read the Sunday Times yesterday and was happy to see a story about my favorite spot for italian ice in Oyster Bay, NY.
It looks like a crisp fall day today.  We’ll be wearing our wool again when we move back aboard the boat this week.   Maybe I’ll get a lemon ice.

Invasion of the tree swallows

We are over run by tree swallows that arrived about a week ago.  I can’t possibly capture how many are flying overhead.  All the specks in this photo are birds. Are there enough insects for them all to eat?

Swallow swarm

The question of mermaid cycles…resolved

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We have a topical storm passing by, the wind is howling tonight, and we walked along the beach this afternoon.  We found items washed ashore.  Apparently the storm wasn’t good for the shellfish, because there were lots of dismembered body parts washed ashore.

Washed up claw

Seaweed flowers

I continue to work with the raw fleece.  Yesterday I cleaned some more to the cat’s delight and today I test knitted some spun yarn.  It’s amazing how nice the yarn looks.

Raw fleece

Picked and washed, sunbathing fleece

Curious cats

Snuggled fleece

Spun

swatched

Water Lily on papa bear’s mooring

We jockeyed the boat around some more.  The marina told us yesterday that they had moved us to a mooring that was bigger than we needed and they wanted us to move again..  I got to play in the whaler again.  Hopefully she is just right now.

Our Whaler thought it was a dinghy

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Well we’ve been found out at the marina.  We were getting away with sneaking the whaler onto the dinghy dock while we ran errands in town.  Today it learned that it can’t play with the dinghies anymore and has to hang out with the big boats.  Ah well.  We will see how much of a big boat it is because there is another tropical storm heading this way this weekend.

Today we did some work on the sailboat after Tim mowed the lawn.  We actually got to take a boat ride, well I stayed in the big boat whaler, and Tim moved Water Lily to a larger mooring in preparation for the weekend’s storm.  I have tomatoes on hand so no more ketchup meat sauce.

When we went ashore, Shirley the cat came down to the beach and once again she waited there until we got back.  We have stooped to whispering when we leave so she doesn’t hear us.

Stormy Skies

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Coast Guard Buoy Rescue

Spider sky

Kelp beach

The reason I stayed home

Imagine a Pier in the Background

Clouds over the whistle house

Dark skies

Red sky

Dark and stormy night

Starlings on the catwalk

Starling with attitude

The fleece made it ashore

Picked fleece

Washed

Dried

Fluffy

Crime scene

Room for rodents

Malcolm, Phil and Moonshine

Tim and ENHC staff

Hurricane Bill and the fleece

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Tim and I left the island for the weekend to go to Bill and Nancy’s wedding.  We left before Hurricane Bill got close- notice the same names-  and had a wonderful weekend.  On the way home, we stopped at Pam and Gary’s farm, Terhune Orchards, to pick up a fleece they had put aside for me from their sheep shearing.  We picked out a huge bag of fleece, put it in the car – a hatchback – and sneezed the whole way home.  The car smelled like a barn yard!! I plan to clean, card, spin and knit it into some sweaters for the youngest generation.

As we approached the marina, the sky darkened and it started pouring.   We had been following weather reports and the seas didn’t seem too bad.  We waited for the rain to pass and headed out.  The water was no rougher than usual until we got close.  We saw breakers over ledges where we had never seen them before and there were waves breaking on the beach.  We considered going back to town, but it didn’t look too bad.  The problem was we only could do one trip and we had to leave the big bag of fleece in the boat.  We made it safely ashore, by timing it well and surfing in the last 10 yards.  We both got drenched and were glad we only had a few bags to bring ashore.  The beach was totally remodeled and included a part of a pier that had washed ashore.

We had decided to skip dinner in town because I said we had enough on the island to make dinner.  Well, we had most of evertthing we needed for the pasta and meat sauce.  I had to improvise with some ketchup and tomato paste in the sauce and couldn’t figure out why Tim felt a little nauseous at dinner – must have been the seas.

The next day the surf was crashing on the beach.  I think we had a point break and waves were approaching from 2 sides and adding together for 5 foot waves.  We cancelled our shopping trip and completely emptied the pantry, even the condensed milk.  I could see the big bag of fleece bobbing in the boston whaler but we couldn’t get to it.

I’m sad to say someone vandalized one of my projects when we were away.  I had repaired a door to the oil house where bulk items have been stored and put a lock on it.   Someone, it had to be a person not an animal, smashed in the upper part of the door in an attempt to get in.  I’m ready to call in the cavalry but we’ll see what the boss says tomorrow.  And to think we were stuck on the island with the villain!

Crowing seagull

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I’ve been taking some time to enjoy nature, even the seagulls.  Notice how nice they keep the roof.  Another bird that has been following me around when I mow the lawn is the Eastern Kingbird At first I thought I might have been interfering with its nest when I mowed the lawn but it chased me over 2 acres of mowing.  I think I was stirring up its dinner.  This bee apparently travels with its pollen in sacs on its legs.  Looks like a good haul.

Bee with baggage

Excitement for the day, aside from sanding floors, caulking gutters and painting was the large tanker leaving the harbor.  It never slowed down but we saw the pilot boat leave its stern.

Pilot boat

Local traffic

On another front, I’ve been knitting like crazy with some self imposed deadlines.  Here are my 2 finished projects since I moved onto the boat in May.

Pair of shawls

Print of the waves

Messing about in boats

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We had a problem with the Tide and the Whaler the other day.  We were supposed to meet a marine mechanic because it wasn’t starting easily.  After several clicks, Tim decided to pull start it.  We went to get the cord out of the cooler and the Tide detergent we had so smartly stored there had leaked and gotten into everything.  I mean into everything.  The tool kit was soaked. I tried to rinse off a wrench so it wouldn’t fly out of Tim’s hands when he used it.  Then I tried to rinse all the tools.  The owner’s manual was drenched.  I tipped the cooler to let the detergent drip out and the fire extinguisher went out with the Tide with a splash. No hope of recovery.  To make matters worse, the entire deck of the boat was covered in blue soap so it was slippery as anything.  And we were running late to our appointment with the marine mechanic to fix the motor because  it wouldn’t start.   Tim finally got a grip on the starter cord and got the engine started and we were on our merry way.  The whaler is a workhorse.  The other day we loaded it with lumber and building supplies.

Sky or sea?

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Often the grayest days end with the most beautiful sunsets and last night was one of them.  It was gray and rainy during the morning, then the wind kicked up and blew away the mist.  We stayed in town for dinner and came back with groceries around sunset.  Sun predicted for the next few days so we’ll get the batteries and our computers charged.

I took a break and went blackberry picking and found a few residual raspberries that became a crisp for dessert.  Actually DH was so hungry he ate his dessert before and after dinner.