It’s not for everyone. Some days it’s not even for me 🙂 But when you get off the dock and out into the world, exploring and sailing and waking up every morning with “what should we do today?”… well, then the boat life is pretty damn awesome.

It was a joint birthday-sail and “belated summer cruise”, so we’d been looking forward to this for a LONG time…

The weather gods decided to celebrate my birthday with me 🙂 We turned the corner out of Portland Harbor and into a beautiful broad-reaching breeze, sun shining, flying along at a solid 6-7 knots, tunes playing, foulies out, ocean to ourselves….

That feeling? The physical untying of lines and sailing off towards the horizon? It doesn’t get old.

It was chilly, but it was great.

Brio was pretty excited herself.

Have I mentioned how much this boat likes to sail?

Every time we start to seriously think about buying a bigger boat (ten-foot-itis is a real thing people!) we’re reminded of just how good we have it.

Yes, she’s small, and yes, I’d love another cabin, and yes, we have Brio II dreams, but this boat? She’s strong, fast, pretty, and OURS. I don’t know exactly what the future will bring, but the present has this boat, in this place, in this life, and for that I am thankful.

Since it was birthday girl’s pick, I chose the basin again. I love this place.

Fall sailing in Maine is definitely not tropical… *cue the chimney*… but there’s something extra cozy about having an anchorage to yourself, flat calm beauty under a starry night sky, and being WARM.

Muscongus Bay was a corner of the coast that we hadn’t explored, so the awesome Harbor Island was our destination.

I’m always impressed at how much the coast can change just a few miles down… from rocky ledge to smooth rolling granite to sandy beaches, to everything in between.

Jon picked me a pretty little bouquet for the bud vase. He’s a keeper 🙂

Jon was convinced that “sea peas” were a thing…

I took this picture just in case it killed him. For identification purposes 😉

Jon is an annoyingly excellent stone skipper.

Did I mention the weather was wonderfully cooperative? On the water we pretty much live and die by the weather, so blue skies and regular breezes are a serious dream.

We put my birthday present to *very* good use… I can now highly recommend grilled apple, zucchini, red onion and cantaloupe 🙂

I failed selfie-school:

Reading a book in the hammock while Jon fishes in the dinghy is my idea of a perfect afternoon…

*THIS* is why we do it. This is why we live in a tiny space, fight prop problems and forever maintenance and don’t ever want to live in a house. This is our little version of freedom, and it certainly feels like paradise to me…

 

Oh, and on the boat upgrade list? We’re getting fancy around here 🙂

We upgraded from having our “chartplotter” on our iPhones to having the app on an iPad. The addition of a fully adjustable iPad mount in the companionway means we’re pretty seriously electronically advanced now, AND we can navigate while still looking at where we’re going!

If you’ve ever wondered if there are a lot of lobster buoys in Maine…

I’m pretty much a fair-weather sailor who REALLY likes to go far away places. So when our forecast started including solid 20+ knot days, we opted to explore  Damariscotta rather than bash our way further downeast.

A highlight for me was lunch at the King Eider pub — where the regular keep their mugs on hooks in the ceiling. I could take up serious beer-drinking just to get my hands on one of those mugs!!

The actual Damariscotta River was equally beautiful…

Peep those leaves!

It was a great week 🙂