Turkey Tracks:  August 1, 2016

Home Again From the J&E Riggin Sail

What a terrific six days!

The music, the music, the music!  Geoff Kauffman, who has forgotten more about sailing music and maritime history than most will every know, beguiled us once more.

The laughter–big old belly laughs at times–the kind where you get tears in your eyes.

The beauty.  The gorgeousness.

The food.  Fresh, local, varied, tantalizing.

The visits with passengers I’ve sailed with many times now and the meeting of passengers new to the Riggin.

I’ve already signed up for next year’s “music” sail:  July 24-29th.  And if you want to come, sign up now as the roster is getting full.

http://www.mainewindjammer.com/schedule2

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I decided early on that I did not want to spend the week taking pictures and involving myself with much technology–beyond the book I had downloaded on to my ipod touch.  After the election turmoil on tv, I just wanted a break away from everything.  I just wanted to read, nap, sew, lie in the sun, enjoy the sailing, and laugh.  But not to worry, one of my sailing companions was taking some pretty nice pictures, and she has promised to send me about 10 of her best, and I will post those when they come.

We boarded Sunday at 5 p.m.  This year I took a picnic supper and read until the light faded.  I was tired from all the organizing to leave the house for six days and an afternoon of heavy duty weeding, and it was so nice to just sit on the boat and rest.  Above, on the dock landing, an osprey nest contained two babies–about half grown.  Would they be there when we got back?

Monday morning was bustling as supplies for six days came aboard, including boxes of organic local veggies from my CSA, Hope’s Edge, delivered by Farmer Tom Griffin.  Captain Annie Mahle served us a huge breakfast.  Then we were off, sailing past the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse and through the Fox Island Thoroughfare.  We had great wind and made it all the way to what we call “Wooden Boat Harbor,” off Brooklin, where the Wooden Boat School is.  As soon as we anchored, our boat swimmers jumped into the water.

Tuesday night saw us anchoring at the mouth of Sommes Sound, up on Mt Desert Island (Acadia National Park) just off of Southwest Harbor.  I have not been up here in years in the boat.  But I had sleeping sickness and missed the trip up part of Sommes Sound (a natural fiord) and back.  

Wednesday, after folks went ashore at Southwest Harbor, had us anchoring off of one of the “Dark Islands”–there are several “Dark” islands–and having a lobster bake.  The water off the little white crescent beach was turquoise blue and crystal clear.  I found a whole cluster of Golden Chanterelle mushrooms in the woods, and Annie cooked them up Thursday night.  She took this picture.

Thursday we sailed through Eggemoggin Reach and under the bridge.  In the afternoon late, on the way to Belfast, storms threatened, so we all donned our foul weather gear.  That cured the problem, and dry, we sailed in to Belfast to anchor next to the Timberwind, moored dockside. The Timberwind is working as a day sailor out of Belfast.  The crew joined us for dinner, and after we did get some rain (the tarp was up by then), a music festival happened on the Riggin with visiting singers from the Belfast area.  It was a lively, fun time.  Everyone sang.  A lot.

Friday saw us enjoying a leisurely sail back down the coast toward Camden and a night in Pulpit Harbor, which I have never visited.  Pulpit sits just across from Camden and Rockland on North Haven Island.  It’s a beautiful little harbor.  Of course, there were lots of swimmers, as there have been every day.

Saturday‘s boat held a lot of nostalgic and sad folks.  We had had such a grand time.  Annie made her famous sweet rolls for us and, later, served a grand brunch to send us on our way.  And Geoff Kauffman did some last minute entertaining on the way back to Rockland.

I took this picture of the Victory Chimes with what was left of my phone battery.  The VC is on the Maine quarter (25 cents), and this straight-on shot of her is unusual.  She docks on the same wharf as the Riggin, and she is HUGE.

Here’s Captain Annie as we near Rockland Harbor:

Here’s Geoff teaching us about Appalachian music fun with a little wooden dancer and a flute:

Here, I was able to pan the deck so you can see the size of this boat.  The rear of the boat is straight ahead:

 

I did not knit this trip, but took two English Paper Piecing projects.  The quilt-let centers, and the one-inch pentagons to make spheres that will be stuffed with smelly plants, like lavender and balsam.

These centers are ready for the next step in the quilt-let project.

Ready to be stuffed:

In progress:

The osprey babies were still in the nest:

And when I got home, Linda McKinney had left me a bouquet of flowers from my very lush (and now weedy) garden: