Islesboro

Islesboro, Maine
N 44 16.753 W 068 55.930

We almost didn't come here today. The fog had rolled in again and our radar is still not fixed. Around noon though, I thought that it had lifted slightly. Libby didn't. I'm the captain so I won. We left Rockland and motored up the bay. We had no trouble. Minimum visibility was 1/4 mile, and after an hour it improved to one mile.

When we arrived at Islesboro to the place where the gam is supposed to be, we were treated to the sight of sixty or so other cruising boats, just like us already anchored there. The SSCA (Seven Seas Cruising Association) is very cool. It has around ten thousand members, of which about four thousand of them live full time aboard their boats like us. As you can imagine, all those people have a lot in common and they have no trouble striking up conversations with each other.

We went to a so-called dinghy raft up cocktail party. What the heck? I didn't know what to expect. It turned out to be literally true. We rowed over and found a group of about 50 dinghies in the middle of this cove all tied to each other to make a giant raft. As everyone jabbered, they also passes around bowls and dishes with snacks, chips and dips, cheese and whatever. Remarkably, nobody fell over board, and none of the dishes or spoons or cheese slicers fell in the water. Now that's direct
evidence that these people are experienced sailors.

I'll report more tomorrow night after the gam.