Adventures Ashore + The Sailor's Toolbox

Saco, Maine
No LL

We met up with our friend Gerry today. Gerry and Phyllis come to this area every year on vacation. It just happened to be a happy coincidence that we met up this year. The unlucky part is that Phyllis was under the weather and didn't join us.

Gerry knows a lot about this area, so he gave us a tour by land. We drove up to South Portland and saw Portland Head Light. Then we drove to Portland to go to the Portland Public Market. Alas, the Portland Public Market doesn't exist any more. We went to the farmer's market instead.

Then we drove down the coast, South Portland, Saco, Kennebunkport and all the way to Kittery. It made for a fun day.

On the weather front, Hanna is expected to pass over us tonight, but maximum winds should be no more than 35 knots here. No problem. We spoke to Ray and Pat aboard Reflection today. They fled up the Chesapeake away from Hanna and were holed up in Baltimore's inner harbor. That sounds safe. June and Chris on Albion were still in Marathon in the Florida Keys as far as we know. Haven't been able to raise them by cell phone today. Perhaps that means that they evacuated before Ike arrives.

This is proving to be quite a year for storms.

The other day, as I pulled out my tool box to fix something, I realized that I can't remember a day ever on Tarwathie when I haven't reached for a tool. No doubt there were such days that I don't remember. Nevertheless, the point remains. If you want to be a cruising sailor, you better choose your tools carefully and be ready to use them often. If you have to pay other people to fix things for you, the cost is ruinous. And believe me, things break all the time on a cruising sailboat. It
has nothing to do with age. It is because we own very few things and we use them so intensively. That means those things wear out and break on an accelerated schedule. Some day I'll write a blog about what tools and spare parts I have on board.