Click here to see our progress map. Our current location is at the top of the list. The pink stick pin indicates that we have turned around and are now heading south.
We left Maine this morning and made our way to Gloucester, MA. We are going to move fairly fast to try to make up our 5 days lost in Port Clyde due to Hurricane Danielle and our 9 days in Portland because of Hurricane Earl. While we enjoyed both places, we just didn’t plan to spend so much time there!
We had such a blast in Maine. We both had lost some weight on the way up to Maine because the weather was just so darn hot neither of us was very interested in eating. However, after reaching Maine, that changed. We feel like we ate our way through Maine!! Lobsters, lobster rolls, lobster mac and cheese, lobster ravioli, lobster chowda…you get the idea. It was all great.
We forgot to blog about the time in Camden when we went to get the loaner car from the marina and it was already in use. One of the dock staff, George, said we could just use his truck. When we were all strapped in he said ‘Oh yeah, I’ve been having this problem where the car just shuts down…but don’t worry, just start it up again and it will be fine’! OK. Then Rick asked about the car keys because they were in the truck when we went to get it. He said ‘This is Maine, dude. No one is going to steal this car because up here we shoot ‘em’ !! Gotta love it.
We saw lots of seals, well, mostly just their heads sticking out of the water. We only saw one loon and no puffins. Lynnie saw the back of a whale, the blow hole, but it was only for like 3 seconds. We are hoping to see some along the Massachusetts coast line on the way home. We didn’t see any moose either but I guess you wouldn’t expect them in the harbors.
Another interesting thing that we noticed in Maine has to do with our navigation software. We plot a course every day from where we are currently to where we want to go. Then we follow the course on the PC screen. The software gives you the total length of your course. In Maine, however, the ‘real’ length of the course always was longer then what the software told us it would be. We finally figured out that this was due to the …LPF… or Lobster Pot Factor!! Having to zig-zag through all those pots added time and distance to our trip! They are everywhere !!
Another first was in the tiny harbor of Belfast on a mooring. About 6:00PM Lynnie was taking a shower and Rick was enjoying a glass of wine on the back deck … quiet and lovely as the sun set. All of a sudden he heard a nearby voice say “He’s drinking a glass of wine.” Rick turned around and all he saw was a big steel wall, which turned out to be the starboard side of a 200’ cruise ship backing down into the harbor to tie up at the dock. It was about 15’ from Rickshaw. Rick looked up and there were several people on their “balconies” looking down at him. So, he raised his glass in a toast and they all laughed as he asked them where in the heck had they come from.
We met several great new friends along the way and just had a ball. We hope to see them all again on the cruise south. As far as the weather, we were told many times that the weather this year is the best they have had in 10 years. Lucky us.
Tomorrow it is on to Plymouth, MA then on to RI where we will see Aunt Betty and other relatives again as well as Lynnie’s older brother Tom and his wife Carolyn who are up visiting for a few days from South Carolina.
