You might’ve figured this out already, but we didn’t actually leave the dock very often last summer.
To be precise, we left twice.
#dockrats
To be fair, the second time was to go explore the Penobscot and we didn’t come back for a month, but compared to our lofty “we’ll sail every weekend and go for evening jaunts on weekdays” goals, we failed pretty miserably.
We can explain this away with a myriad of excuses (Jon was working a ton; we tackled some enormous multi-weekend boat projects like re-bedding both toerails; I have a fear of hitting boats while docking; we have a fear of docking in general actually, etc), but the point stands: for so-called boat-lovers, we did a crap job of actually enjoying our boat.
So our NEW summer goal (because Maine sailing season pretty much = summer), is to just have more fun. Ideally fun that includes leaving the dock and going sailing, but we’re trying to set achievable goals here 😉
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Along this line, we left the dock last weekend, and it was amazing.
We practiced our tacking through the Hussey Channel… I was seriously rusty 😉
Anchored at Jewel, where we made our Maine landfall in 2014. We hadn’t been ashore together since my very first visit to Maine, in 2009 (!!!)
So we all went ashore to explore…
Found a tower with an inviting ladder…
So obviously I had to give it a go (I may be smiling, but my grip on that rail gives my real feelings away…)
Took the obligatory “from the top of the WWII tower” photos of Casco Bay…
As well as a re-enactment of 2009’s tower climbing shenanigans:
And beach selfies:
Apparently 7 years brought more wrinkles, less hair:
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As if a perfect sail and hike of the island wasn’t enough, our awesome friends from s/v Meredith met us at the island and we had a great beachfire… confirming that I have patience for burning hot dogs, but not actually cooking them 😉
And by Sunday afternoon we were back in our slip, and I even managed to get the hammock up for a quick afternoon nap…
(Complete with a fleece blanket, because it’s really not that warm out yet!!)
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And our lofty summer goals?
Well since the majority of the struggle seems to revolve around getting off the dock, we decided to just practice docking. What a novel concept, right? 😉
Plus now we’re one weekend in and we’ve officially left the dock 5 times this season. Mission accomplished.
– LMK