End of season cruise

It was great to have a good excuse to take another short cruise at the end of the summer.  Our friends Bill and Kati from Annapolis came to visit us and other friends of theirs.  They spent their first night in Maine at our house, and the next morning, Tuesday September 16, Bill and Jenny and I sailed  from Freeport to Boothbay Harbor-- well, really their friends’ cottage on Linekin Bay. Kati had a nice day of touring and drove to the cottage, while we sailed to meet her.  

We did not have much breeze, but it was still a nice trip.  It was about a 32 n. mile course, and we arrived well before dinner time.  The wind came up in the afternoon, so we sailed with the engine off for about an hour or so.  Then we motor-sailed the rest of the way. The route took us between Seguin Island and Ellingwood Rock, which made for a scenic diversion.

We arrived at the cottage of Bill’s friends Doug and Kristina in the late afternoon and took their mooring right off their dock.  

We did not provision very well but it was no problem since we came into the cottage every day to visit and see the sights.  Doug and Kristina were lovely hosts. We had take-out pizza and great hors d'oeuvres from our hosts the first night, and had fun doing tourist things the next few day, with some breakfasts and dinners out.  Jenny and I took a nice hike around the local lily pond.

On Thursday, Jenny and I sailed to Damariscove Island, while Bill and Kati came a little later in their friends’ center console boat.  The cove at Damariscove is small with a couple of moorings provided by the Conservation Trust that manages the Island.  The summer caretaker was gone for the season. The Island has a very interesting history that follows the story of European settlement of the New World. 

 

It was a hot day for our walk around the Island, then the fog came in, which made Bill and Kati’s trip back to Boothbay a bit adventurous.  Jenny and I had a delicious lobster one-pot mac ‘n cheese for dinner, with fresh broccoli we brought from our garden.

 

A mild cold front came through over night, so we had a beautiful day of sailing most of the way back to Freeport.  The wind got a little on the nose for the trip up Broad Sound, so that was a motor-sail. We arrived in the late afternoon, and put everything away efficiently, including the dinghy.

We have visited with Bill and Kati many times over the years, and they are good friends.  The last time they are mentioned in this blog is from 2017 when we visited and sailed with them in the Bahamas.

 

Summer 2025

This may be the one post of this year, and it's still summer!

Launched Magus on June 10.  Put the sails on, filled water tanks, motored from Yarmouth to Freeport the next day.  Did other little organization and clean-up projects, mostly. I went sailing one day in early July.

The last weekend of July, a crew of friends were in Portland and on Peaks Island.  On Sunday, July 27, a group of some of my oldest friends including Jenny motored out to Chebeague Island Inn, met another boat load of people, and we all had a great brunch.  I didn't take photos of that event, but some others did. The trip back to Freeport was in the rain.  My friend Mac was last mentioned in this blog when we saw him on his boat at Deltaville in Fall  2016.  

Made plans for a short cruise with Sophi and her fam, but it turned out that Jenny could not get away from her dog business obligations.  Anyway, on Monday, July 8, a lot of us left Freeport harbor, actually sailing for part of the short sail to the Goslings. We may have a sailed a little the next day, but we mostly motored to Seguin. That afternoon at 5 pm, Sophi had booked a water taxi to take her back to Bath so she could work a few days since she was taking the next week for a vacation on Peaks Island and had work to do.  

The water was cold at Seguin.

I had wanted to stay at Newagen Resort on Southport Island, but they said Magus was too long for their moorings.  So, we motored to Sebasco Resort on the New Meadows River.  On shore, it was hot, but we canoed (me) and paddle-boarded (everyone else), played shuffleboard and were disappointed that the pool was closed.  Travis took us all out for desert at the restaurant.

It almost rained the next day as we motored to Jewel Island, but we were able to hike to the towers and explore the Island a little bit.  The next day was a short trip to Peaks Island where we took a mooring belonging to my friend Ted Schmidt.  Nice location near Greenwood Gardens, and I found a good spot for the dinghy on the Army pier; (after some drama using the new Lobster Company pier the first night.)   

Echo and her family were staying in a cottage on the Island starting that Saturday, and Sophi and her family stayed there too.  Jenny and I went out several times.  We never quite scheduled a family sail, but we could have.  It was a busy week. 

I enjoyed sailing Magus back to Freeport the following Saturday, August 9; almost all sailing in the nice breeze; "wind south, over my shoulder, think I'll set a course and go...."

There will certainly be a few trips out to Magus for projects; so far, a little teak coating, work on the tachometer cable, and then a new electric hour-meter.  And also installed a new main halyard winch that I bought many years ago, and finally got it done. Apparently, it was not that important. 

May even get some more sailing in before the summer is over; time will tell.