Abigail II and Victory Chimes

Rockland Maine
No LL

This is a story about the good and the bad.  First the good part.

Yesterday, as I walked through downtown Rockland, I was stunned to see a sign pointing to a ships berth that said Victory Chimes.   Seeing that made the memories well up.  You see fourty three years ago, Libby and I were in Boothbay Harbor Maine on our vacation.   While there, we saw the most beautiful ship in the world sail past the promentary where we were sitting.  That ship was The Victory Chimes.   She was the most beautiful and majestic thing we could imagine.   We learned that The Victory Chimes is a cruise ship that takes passengers on vacation cruises.   

 

The Victory Chimes

I am delighted to hear that 43 years later, The Victory Chimes is still sailing and still taking passengers.   We hope to get a glimpse of her while we are here in Maine.

Now for the bad news.   On Saturday, as we returned to Rockland from Islesboro, we heard a boat calling the Coast Guard on VHF asking for help.  The boat was named Abigail II.   She must have been close to us in Rockland because we could hear her clearly.   The captain explained to the Coast Guard that they had just chartered this boat, and that the steering was jammed and that they couldn't raise the sail.   That left them pretty helpless and in need of a tow.   We presumed that they tried calling the charter company first, and were calling the Coast Guard out of desparation.

It is our understanding that any reputable boat charter company thoroughly inspects the equipment before turning it over to the customer.  We chartered sailboats five times ourselves and this was always the case.   We've found faults on some of those boats, but nothing major and nothing obvious. In this case though, the poor customer had an entirely different, and bad experience.   If it were me, I'd be furious.   Getting towed in and getting the faults repaired eat time out of their vacation week.  Tsk tsk.

Ray and Pat

Rockland, Maine
No LL

Today our fine friends Ray and Pat from Reflection drove to Rockland just to visit us. They are the couple we met in the Dismal Swamp a year ago, and who shared our experiences in DC for the first two weeks in June this year.

Ray and Pat's are cruisers in the midst of the transition to become full time cruisers. After cruising for a year, they now returned to Maine to divest themselves of their house and car and personal belongings. It all brings back memories of 2005 when Libby and I went through the same transition. It was lots of hard work for us. I hope it goes well for Pat and Ray. 2008 is not the best time for selling a house in the USA.

Anyhow, Pat and Ray needed a break from that tedious work so they came to Rockland to hang out a little with their cruising buddies -- us. It worked out fine.

We had vague plans on going for a day sail with Ray and Pat, but there is zero wind today, so that damped our enthusiasm. Instead, we just walked around downtown Rockland and had lunch at the Rockland Cafe. Mm mm good. The Rockland Cafe is one of the best restaurants around with a great menu and very reasonable prices. I recommend it.

We also stopped in at the Puffin Project office to learn about puffins, and we watched a documentary film there. Libby is determined to see puffins while we are in Maine. Now, we know which places to go to for sightings.

Pat, Libby, Ray

Tomorrow, our grandson Nick is coming to join us for 3 or 4 weeks of cruising. That will be great. We'll have lots of fun. We're sure that Nick will love Maine.

Pictures From The Gam

Rockland, Maine
No LL

The raft up
The raft up
The raft up
The lawn crowd
Guest Speaker
Circumnavigators tell their tale
Another circumnavigator (may we all look as good as her after doing the things she's done)
The cruiser's boats anchored out
The raft up

The Islesboro Gam

Islesboro, Maine
N 44 16.9 W 68 55.9

Now I have the urge to do ocean crossings again. Going to these SSCA gams exposes us to numerous cruisers who go to all sorts of exotic places. It makes us think that we're too conservative and too timid. Why not sail around the world? We met a couple who just returned from a 10 year circumnavigation. They don't seem much different than us.

There were more than 70 boats registered for the gam. We all met today at the home of our hosts, Dave and Kathy on Endeavour. There were only four circumnavigators in the crowd (compared to one or two dozen at the Melbourne gam last November). They are the ultra elite of sailors. The host called for applause for the circumnavigators. Good.

We heard talks about Marine Maritime Academy, and about marine insurance, and about traversing the Panama Canal, and about that 10 year circumnavigation.

Top quote of the day: The circumnavigators took questions from the audience. One person asked, "Where was the best sailing?" The answer came quickly and played to the crowd, "Why the coast of Maine of course."

We met another couple who sailed to Panama and then to Alaska and back. That's what Libby and I wanted to do our first year. They said that British Columbia is like Maine on steroids, but also that British Columbia is nothing at all compared to the Alaskan cruising waters. Sigh.

I said it before and I'll say it again. Cruisers are the most physically fit group of people, considering their ages, than you can find anywhere else in the USA. It stands out every time we see a crowd of sailing cruisers. (There were only two power boat cruisers among the 70 boats at the gam. Consider fuel prices.)

We passed on regards to Dave and Kathy from Richard and Penny on Viking Rose. We all agreed that it is sad that Viking Rose is summering in New Bern rather than sailing in Maine.

Libby made chili for the pot luck lunch. That's the first time she made chili since the chili cookoff contest in Marathon. She's getting awfully good at it. When I tasted it, I wanted to keep it and not take it to the pot luck. No such luck. Then I hoped that there would be some left over to take back to the boat. After all, there was enough food there to feed an army. No such luck. The SSCA gang ate every last bite. (:

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.