Beginning of day 2 was delightful. Weather report was good, but gust were expected, there was a small craft advisory for Casco Bay. Before we headed out of Biddeford Pool Captain put a reef in the main sail. We can easily take it out later on, but it is not something you want to put in while the wind is blowing and you are bouncing around on the sea. I also made us sandwiches BEFORE we left the mooring.
Off we go, back through the narrow opening from Biddeford Pool to the open Atlantic. No problems. Sails up.
I feel great. No signs of sea sickness today, but just to be sure I have the Sea Bands on and have taken 2 Dramamine. captain has also taken Dramamine as the gusty winds that are predicted have put us on alert. Today we will be sailing out a bit further from shore and we may experience even more swells.
(I did an awesome job of taking this picture of me and Captain! I'll try again next time).
But a las, no trouble. Fairly uneventful! We are making fantastic time as the winds are in our favor. I am glad Captain put the reef in the main as we are really moving along and the gust are big at times. We tend to experience a shift in wind direction up here in Maine and we did indeed experience it more than once on this day. We made fantastic time for the first 3 hours, sailing 5 knots or so consistently. But at the end of hour 3, the wind shifts and we need to motor a bit to keep us on our course. Sails are still up and occasionally we get a good bit of wind to push us along.
Lots to look at. We had left early so we enjoyed watching many lobster men hauling their traps. Other sailboats about our size were out enjoying the wind.
(You can see the coast, very far away).
Once we crossed over from Saco Bay into Casco Bay, I kind-of sighed a breath of relief. Casco Bay is what we know. This was going to be easy. We pointed out the landmarks we could see from our distance and watched the familiar ports slide by. Casco Bay has many many islands. We navigated past the large islands, and pointed out the smaller ones. Wind did pick up in Casco Bay, but it was not consistent as the island tend to block some of the wind. We know that once we get just about past an island, here comes the wind again.
There are several times during this trip that I did take the wheel. Captain needs a break every now and then. The restroom, to put on a sweatshirt, fix something on deck. He could (and sometimes does) put on the auto pilot, but I can sail to ya know. And auto pilot doesn't see lobster buoys, or another boat. I sailed quite a bit as we approached our harbor.
(Me, behind the wheel in Casco Bay).
Sails came down during our approach to our harbor in Freeport. It was extremely gusty. There were racing sailboats out in the harbor and a small craft advisory had been reported on the radio reports. We were glad that we were coming in. We watched with open mouths as a sailboat ahead of us, heeled over with the rails int he water, kept heeling over and dipped it's sails in the water. It bounced right back up and quickly they took their sails down.
I wondered out loud if anyone from our old boat club would be on their boats today and see us sail by with the new boat. And wouldn't you know, Norm was there to wave hello! We motored on by and up the river and I scrambled on deck to grab the mooring pennant. We were home.
(Pound Of Tea Island. Which, by the way, is called that because it was purchased from the Indians for a pound of tea)!
(Our familiar harbor in Freeport).
(One of the many local lobster boats. This one named Go Gettah)!
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