Yes, it’s officially the third day of summer and we have been back at our cabin in Maine for a week and a week-end. B-r-r-r! Heavy jeans and hooded sweatshirts have replaced the shorts and airy tops of the past 41/2 months aboard “Summertime”. Hopefully when Erin, Emily and Bailey arrive from Atlanta on June 25, the lake will begin to warm up and the mosquitos will disappear. What’s the chance of that?
June 3-8. Myrtle Beach,SC to Bald Head Island,NC...with Whittier Family visits, a car buying spree, “The Rock Pile” and our 45th Wedding Anniversary in between!
My sister Valerie, husband Rick and all their children and grandchildren live in Myrtle Beach. The Grande Dunes Marina was a great place for us to call home and catch up on family visits and news. Having sold our 2004 PT Cruiser back in Largo, FL, we began our search for an affordable newer car that could seat six and also provide us with cargo space when needed. A 2014 Mazda 5 won hands down! Now we will have transportation to get to Maine after we tuck “Summertime” safely away “on the hard” at the Cape Fear Boat Works in Navassa up the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, NC in a week or so.
Val and Rick rave about cruising in their Silverton to Bald Head Island and spending a week-end, so what better place to choose for celebrating 45 years together. But first we had to negotiate the dreaded Rock Pile. This part of the ICW is formed from prehistoric fossilized stony material. Due to cost and time, a two-mile section was blasted only wide enough for one commercial vessel to pass through at a time. We had to announce on our radio that we were about to enter that narrow section, then wait to hear if any barge traffic was heading our way. Thankfully, it was very early in the morning and no reply was heard, so we cleared easily with no scrapes or rough groundings. As we headed from Southport out through the Sound to Bald Head Island, we met the two ferries Ranger and Patriot crossing paths as they kept their 30 minute schedules. The open water provided us with some of the biggest rollers we had experienced in our four months of cruising. After we were safely tied up to the end of a T-dock at the Bald Head Island Yacht Club, we took time to admire the elaborate summer “cottages” surrounding the Yacht Basin; nearby the oldest lighthouse in NC rose into the sky with 125 steps to the top. We made the climb and were rewarded with breath-taking vistas. To protect its natural beauty, only golf cart, bicycle and pedestrian traffic is allowed on Bald Head Island. We dined out on our anniversary and enjoyed both a great meal and a fabulous sunset....perhaps the best ever!
June 9-10. “Summertime” is about to reach her summer home at the Cape Fear Boat Works in Navassa, NC.
We returned to Southport and continued up the Cape Fear River to Wilmington, NC. It was about 25 miles...4 hours at trawler speed. We found ourselves buffeted by wind and rain as a fairly severe weather system made its way east. For five minutes or so we had no visibility, so we had to rely on our radar and GPS magenta line marking the deep water pathway...another first for us. We passed through downtown Wilmington with overseas cargo ships being loaded and unloaded at dockside. Just before reaching the Boat Works, a railroad bridge with a 9 ft. air clearance blocked our way. In all of our cruising experiences, low RR bridges, swing or lift, were usually open unless a train was passing through. Now what? Channels 9 or 13 are reserved for bridge conversations, so we tried one and announced ourselves and our intentions. Out popped the bridge tender, gave us a wave and up went the lift bridge. Home free! A TravelLift was waiting around the curve in the river. Wally steered “Summertime” into the two waiting straps and the gigantic wheeled dolly lifted us gently from the water. After being pressure washed, our Kadey Krogen Manatee was slowly rolled to her summer home and propped up securely, ready for the bottom painting that she will need before returning to the waterway in September. We prepared her for three hot summer months...it was already 96 degrees and 90% humidity... and bid her farewell.
June10-14. We overnighted in Rocky Mount, NC, Wilkes Barre, PA, Longmeadow, MA and Lincoln, ME before reaching our cabin on Bottle Lake. Wally’s sister and husband Mike treated us to a great lunch in central Maine on our way north. Our Mazda 5 is a joy to drive! We folded down the back four seats and loaded in items that we haven’t needed on the trawler, as well as the screen panels zipped off the Back Porch. They will need screen replacements and Wally is having a Sailrite Sewing Machine shipped to Bottle Lake to make the job more enjoyable. Erin is always in the midst of a sewing/stitching project in Atlanta, so she’ll probably have a go at our boat project, too.
June 15-23. Dad made the trip from Florida back to his Maine home by flying non-stop on Allegiant Air on June 6. With help from my brother Kevin and Cheryl and son Kyle, he was settled in. We spent most of Father’s Day doing activities with him. Late in the day we drove 40 minutes from Lincoln to East Millinocket and visited with Wally’s mother June at the Sweet Senior’s Guest House. She had been telling her fellow residents...6 men and 6 women... all about our adventures, so everyone welcomed us back with big smiles and hugs. Wally’s brother Jason and wife Martha kept our Harley and many of our tools for safe-keeping over the winter, so we made a trip over to the base of Mount Katahdin for a family visit and to retrieve our goods. August should be a great time for a motorcycle camping trip in nearby Quebec. Wow... a week has already passed. Our cabin up on the knoll and Dad’s camp next to the water’s edge wintered over well. Now both water systems are back in service and a lot of “honey do” projects have been completed. Whew! The local snowmobile club, spearheaded by Kevin and Cheryl, had a great turnout of 89, including us, for their Saturday Pancake/Waffle Breakfast yesterday. On Wednesday we will be bringing hot biscuits to share and eating at the Springfield Congregational Church Supper. Both events are important fund raisers for the local community and are great places to re-connect with our neighbors and family members. Darcy’s high school Class of 1965 have been getting together once a month for several years now and a June 25th luncheon is on the docket in Lincoln. Yes, I know... we already have a church supper at 5pm in Springfield and our Atlanta girls arrive at the Bangor International Airport at 10:28pm to begin their month in Maine with Nan and Pop. We’ll have to get back to the boat to get rested up! Up-date: just received news that our Riglet (Class C motorhome) and her new owners have crossed into Fairbanks, Alaska with three other rigs...all good friends of ours from the Arizona Saguaro RV Park. Our Big Rig (Genesis Coach) is about to take her new family on a camping trip to lakes around the Tucson area. Yippee!
Val and Rick rave about cruising in their Silverton to Bald Head Island and spending a week-end, so what better place to choose for celebrating 45 years together. But first we had to negotiate the dreaded Rock Pile. This part of the ICW is formed from prehistoric fossilized stony material. Due to cost and time, a two-mile section was blasted only wide enough for one commercial vessel to pass through at a time. We had to announce on our radio that we were about to enter that narrow section, then wait to hear if any barge traffic was heading our way. Thankfully, it was very early in the morning and no reply was heard, so we cleared easily with no scrapes or rough groundings. As we headed from Southport out through the Sound to Bald Head Island, we met the two ferries Ranger and Patriot crossing paths as they kept their 30 minute schedules. The open water provided us with some of the biggest rollers we had experienced in our four months of cruising. After we were safely tied up to the end of a T-dock at the Bald Head Island Yacht Club, we took time to admire the elaborate summer “cottages” surrounding the Yacht Basin; nearby the oldest lighthouse in NC rose into the sky with 125 steps to the top. We made the climb and were rewarded with breath-taking vistas. To protect its natural beauty, only golf cart, bicycle and pedestrian traffic is allowed on Bald Head Island. We dined out on our anniversary and enjoyed both a great meal and a fabulous sunset....perhaps the best ever!
June 9-10. “Summertime” is about to reach her summer home at the Cape Fear Boat Works in Navassa, NC.
We returned to Southport and continued up the Cape Fear River to Wilmington, NC. It was about 25 miles...4 hours at trawler speed. We found ourselves buffeted by wind and rain as a fairly severe weather system made its way east. For five minutes or so we had no visibility, so we had to rely on our radar and GPS magenta line marking the deep water pathway...another first for us. We passed through downtown Wilmington with overseas cargo ships being loaded and unloaded at dockside. Just before reaching the Boat Works, a railroad bridge with a 9 ft. air clearance blocked our way. In all of our cruising experiences, low RR bridges, swing or lift, were usually open unless a train was passing through. Now what? Channels 9 or 13 are reserved for bridge conversations, so we tried one and announced ourselves and our intentions. Out popped the bridge tender, gave us a wave and up went the lift bridge. Home free! A TravelLift was waiting around the curve in the river. Wally steered “Summertime” into the two waiting straps and the gigantic wheeled dolly lifted us gently from the water. After being pressure washed, our Kadey Krogen Manatee was slowly rolled to her summer home and propped up securely, ready for the bottom painting that she will need before returning to the waterway in September. We prepared her for three hot summer months...it was already 96 degrees and 90% humidity... and bid her farewell.
June10-14. We overnighted in Rocky Mount, NC, Wilkes Barre, PA, Longmeadow, MA and Lincoln, ME before reaching our cabin on Bottle Lake. Wally’s sister and husband Mike treated us to a great lunch in central Maine on our way north. Our Mazda 5 is a joy to drive! We folded down the back four seats and loaded in items that we haven’t needed on the trawler, as well as the screen panels zipped off the Back Porch. They will need screen replacements and Wally is having a Sailrite Sewing Machine shipped to Bottle Lake to make the job more enjoyable. Erin is always in the midst of a sewing/stitching project in Atlanta, so she’ll probably have a go at our boat project, too.
June 15-23. Dad made the trip from Florida back to his Maine home by flying non-stop on Allegiant Air on June 6. With help from my brother Kevin and Cheryl and son Kyle, he was settled in. We spent most of Father’s Day doing activities with him. Late in the day we drove 40 minutes from Lincoln to East Millinocket and visited with Wally’s mother June at the Sweet Senior’s Guest House. She had been telling her fellow residents...6 men and 6 women... all about our adventures, so everyone welcomed us back with big smiles and hugs. Wally’s brother Jason and wife Martha kept our Harley and many of our tools for safe-keeping over the winter, so we made a trip over to the base of Mount Katahdin for a family visit and to retrieve our goods. August should be a great time for a motorcycle camping trip in nearby Quebec. Wow... a week has already passed. Our cabin up on the knoll and Dad’s camp next to the water’s edge wintered over well. Now both water systems are back in service and a lot of “honey do” projects have been completed. Whew! The local snowmobile club, spearheaded by Kevin and Cheryl, had a great turnout of 89, including us, for their Saturday Pancake/Waffle Breakfast yesterday. On Wednesday we will be bringing hot biscuits to share and eating at the Springfield Congregational Church Supper. Both events are important fund raisers for the local community and are great places to re-connect with our neighbors and family members. Darcy’s high school Class of 1965 have been getting together once a month for several years now and a June 25th luncheon is on the docket in Lincoln. Yes, I know... we already have a church supper at 5pm in Springfield and our Atlanta girls arrive at the Bangor International Airport at 10:28pm to begin their month in Maine with Nan and Pop. We’ll have to get back to the boat to get rested up! Up-date: just received news that our Riglet (Class C motorhome) and her new owners have crossed into Fairbanks, Alaska with three other rigs...all good friends of ours from the Arizona Saguaro RV Park. Our Big Rig (Genesis Coach) is about to take her new family on a camping trip to lakes around the Tucson area. Yippee!
