Cruising Maine
December 18, 2008
So if you haven’t seen her…here she is. Spartina! Spartina! We love you!
Now that we aren’t racing we are in cruising mode, and what a mode it is. So we are cruising through the most amazing sailing grounds in the Northeast. Of course we got the THICKEST fog I have ever sailed in. Thank goodness for radar and GPS. There were times when we couldn’t see more than 50 feet. Horns, bells, and the VHF got us through.
Out of the fog these HUGE boats would appear. Some of them would communicate with us and others were just rolling on. We’re on a a BIG boat, but what I was amazed by was that we saw only MUCH bigger boats.
At times we could sail, and it was wild to race through the fog, the sails drawing, the gurgle of the water around the hull, and the occasional fog horn or buoy gong. We sailed the Eggamogon Reach, and never saw more than 100 yards from the boat. Now I can say I’ve cruised Maine, but I’ll need a postcard to see what it looks like.
Tomorrow we’ll sail a long day, most of it in the ocean to make Portland. There I’ll hop a train for Newport, where I’ll be racing Melges 24′s. What a change that will be.
Reese put it perfectly, “This place is quite scenic, now if we could only see it.” But the fog did give us a great navigational challenge. Jim was working the electronic chart, watching the radar, 
and navigating our course. In between, we had some fun.
Tonight we are having dinner in Camden, ME. We are eating in a neat little place called Cappy’s. They’ve got great beer and a dynamite atmosphere. I’ll tell you about the food as soon as I have some. I saw a REAL Moose. I missed the shot though. But the last few shots will give you a sense of where we’ve been and where we are.
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I am the owner of Gale Force Sailing and write about all things related to coaching, instruction and team building. contact me>>
