Lightning Strikes....

Tarwathie was hit by lightning (no human injuries; only electronic) during an intense storm this weekend. The blog updates will be limited for a while. Currently near Kittery, Maine and headed to Booth Bay.
Will check in again once we have an Internet connection!

Isle of Shoals

Gosport Harbor, Isle of Shoals, NH, N 42 58.742 W 70 36.808

Ah, yet another nice day in paradise. My sister Nancy and her daughter Lena met us in Marblehead this morning and the four of us sailed of the the harbor. We were a little reluctant to leave because that place was so nice, and the Marblehead Yacht Club people were so hospitable.

But before all that, the dockmaster really made my day. I was waiting around the dock around 8AM and he said, "I have to go fire the cannon." Every morning at 8AM and at sunset each of the yacht clubs in the harbor fires their cannons. They are really loud and the first time I heard them I was very startled. Anyhow, I said, "Cool. Let me come and watch." He replied, "Better than that, would you like to fire it?" Wow! I did fire it and it was enormous fun. My two sons who are both soldiers would appreciate the feeling.

As we sailed out of the harbor we encountered a nice but gentle breeze. We were also treated to the sight of a hundred or more single design sailing boats on a sailing race leaving the harbor beside us.

We offered Nancy a choice of destinations, and she said "How about an Island?" The Isle of Shoals is a group of four Islands near Portsmouth NH, and it made an ideal destination. The sail up here was delightful. Winds about 15 knots. The temperature about 75F (24C), the waves less than three feet. Tarwathie made between 4.5 and 6.5 knots of speed all the way up here. We passed Glouster Harbor (pronounced Glosta Haba) and waved to George Clooney as we went by.

Just now we are moored near Star Island. Nancy and Lena took the dinghy ashore to explore the island. I regret that I don't have a video of Lena attempting to row. Obviously she had never rowed a boat before nor seen anybody else doing it because she had no idea what to do. They just kept circling ineffectively with the tide carrying they away from the island and out to sea. Just when I was about to call for help on the radio to get someone to rescue them, Nancy took over from Lena. Nancy is hardly and expert rower but nevertheless in a few minutes she had them safely ashore.

From Guest Logger Lena,
The island was cool. There was a turning thing in the back that we went through (like one of those spinning doors, only outside, and it didn't go anywhere . . . ) There was a path through some bushes and when we followed those we came to some rocks with lots of seagulls. There were some brown birds which we assume were baby seagulls. They didn't seem like they could fly; they just hopped around or bobbed their heads up and down. Also there were blackberries growing along the path. We tried some. They were very sour. Not ripe. On our way back we were talking to an artist guy who was painting the rocks and water. And . . . that's about it . . . We got the dinghy and rowed back (Mom rowed this time . . . heheh . . . I am not too good at rowing ^_^;; ).

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Karin

Marblehead Yacht Clubhouse,

Today was special . We had a visit from Karin Nystrom. Karin is my sister's mother in law (what does that make her to me???). Anyhow, she's a very nice woman and we've always had fun with her around.

Karin loves Marblehead and she enjoyed the boat ride out and the leisurely lunch on the boat. I'll post pictures next opportunity.

After lunch I asked Karin for a favor. We needed to buy some things at Wall Mart so I asked her for a ride there. She said yes so off we went. It was a much longer trip than I expected through tough traffic. I feel bad for imposing on Karin's good will that much. She's a trooper (and a good looking one too.) Thank you Karin.

Tomorrow is more family. My sister Nancy and her daughter Lena area coming to sail with us. Nancy for one day and Lena for several days.

Coming up on the weekend is a reunion with several cousins and aunts in Portsmouth New Hampshire.

41 Years

Marblehead Public library,

Well today is our anniversary. We've been married for 41 years, and we get along so well that we're ready to sign up for another 41. I went out on a date with Libby when I was a senior in high school in 1961. That was only my second (and last) date ever. The rest is history.



I consider myself very lucky to have Libby and she would say the same about me. We also have three wonderful and happy children and a pile of wonderful grandkids. The support of a loving family is a tremendous advantage. Even with the strain of so much forced togetherness while living on the boat we still get along just fine. Most of the credit goes to Libby. She's really special.

We explored Marblehead on foot today. It really is charming. We love the old houses and the historic settings. They have the original painting of The Spirit of 76 hanging in the meeting room at the city hall. It's a splendidly beautiful day for walking around too.

I wanted to take Libby out to dinner tonight but she has plans to make Lasanga for me on the boat. It'll be a nice anniversary celebration.

Family Day

Buzzards Bay, Mass N 41 40.351 W 70 34.458

The tropical storm passed us by Friday morning. It did come ashore in Nantucket but where we were the wind was almost totally still. Even in Nantucket, it was milder than anticipated with maximum winds of 44 knots. As I said before, I wish that the weather report had given me less information.

Yesterday we took advantage of a day in the marina to wash a lot of things in fresh water. I also walked to town and bought parts for a project. Our project was to repair our washdown hose and to improve the installation. The problem was that the hose ran through the chain locker. It wound up on the floor under 90 kg of chain and got crushed. In one place it was crushed too badly to recover. To eliminate that problem we bought a piece of PVC pipe and routed the hose through that. The pipe served as a crush proof conduit. Then we cut out the spoiled pieces of hose and spliced the ends together. It works good now.

Today was special. My sister Nancy came with her family for a day sail. Nancy, her husband Karl and their daughters Lena and Alexandra came. It has been a long time, perhaps two years, since we saw them. The girls grew up a lot. Lena, now 15, is no longer a little girl but a young woman. The weather was problematical for a day sail. The morning was drizzly, and foggy.

We had to leave the dock by 1100 but we didn't want to sail out into the fog. Our compromise was to sail out only to the mouth of the cove and to anchor for a while. While waiting at anchor all of us except Libby had a nice swim. The water was a very nice temperature for swimming, and very clean and very very salty. It was fun. One of the girls lost a snorkel and mask, so her father Karl dove again and again and actually succeeded in finding it. Good work Karl.

Libby made a nice buffet lunch for us, and by the time lunch was done the fog had lifted and the wind started blowing 20 knots or more. Lena and Alex had been to sailing school so they weren't afraid. I raised all the sails and away we flew. We didn't get very far though before everyone noticed that Karl had turned white. He had a bad case of seasickness. We turned back and returned to the anchorage. Karl didn't feel much better there, so we reluctantly called an early end to the day and returned Nancy and her family to the dock. As it turned out, soon after we dropped them off it started to rain, so overall they didn't lose too much of a sailing day.

Weather aside, it was delightful to see Nancy and family again. Thank you for coming.

Early tomorrow morning we plan to traverse the Cape Cod Canal and to set sail for Salem Mass.

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