Early Summer 2020

Yes, Covid Summer. We didn’t go anywhere far, but we brought the boat into the Freeport town dock a few times to get M’Ocean, our German Shepard dog, somewhat comfortable on the boat.  Once we realized we could do things with reasonable precautions, in late July we decided to take a mini-vacation to Peaks Island for a few days, with the dogs. We tied up to the dock at Jones Landing, took long walks, went swimming, and ran into old friends.  Only a few photos, though.

 

 

In August, we were happy to loan Magus to daughter Sophi and her husband and their two kids and their dog for a few days of Casco Bay cruising.  I should note that Sophi and Travis are accomplished cruisers, but they were feeling a bit rusty. [In 2012, before kids, they sailed from Portland to Prince Edward Island on their Downeaster 32 that they no longer own.]  So, I don’t want to mention that after anchoring the third night, they were backing down on the anchor chain, and caught the dinghy painter, wrapping it enough to pull the inflatable under the hull and stalling the engine.  They had the wherewithal and initiative to spend over an hour diving in the cold water and unwrapping the line before giving me a call to confess.  Then they made a good start on patching the leaks and continued on their cruise.  Those things happen, and the one time I did it, the wrap was not so bad.  Jenny and I were completely happy that they could enjoy Magus and show their young kids a taste of the cruising life. They all had a great time, I understand, as documented on their many Facebook posts.

 

Since Magus didn’t come out of the water last winter, some attention to the bottom was needed. About the time I was thinking that, the timing was good on August 27 to dry the boat out against the bulkhead at the Freeport Town Wharf.  Meaning, a high tide early in the morning, low around noon, and high tide in the evening. After tying up to the bulkhead and the tide was receding, I realized that the boat was leaning away from the wharf.  I called my friend Carter, who came to the rescue with some empty bait barrels to fill with water and weight the wharf side of the boat, and a ratchet strap to pull Magus against the wharf to be extra safe.  There was a relatively relaxing wait for the tide to go down, then a frantic effort to get some work done before the tide came back up. Jenny helped a lot, and we got all of the most important things done: the bottom cleaned, bottom paint applied to the top 6-12” of the bottom below the boot stripe, the propeller cleaned and painted, and the zinc anode replaced on the propeller shaft.  Then, a relaxing wait for the tide to come back up, and Magus is ready for another year. When the tide was down, things were so busy we never got a photo, but this one shows the cleaned propeller and bottom.