I can see Canada from here.

After the famous statement of “I can see Russia from my house”, it has become one of Carole’s and my favorite descriptions.  By the way we have seen her house and you can’t even see Anchorage from her house.  Of course according to a couple of friends if you can look at her why would you want to look for Russia?  May be I need to get back to my original chain of thought.   Last night we were headed to get something to eat and there was a strange building off to our right at an intersection.  After a couple of more looks it was the US Customs entry point so we really could see Canada from here. 

One of our favorite pizza places is a Carpenetti’s in Moody.  The pizza place we ate at last night was just like it.  Papa was out taking to people while the rest of the family was back working.  He was visiting with the police chief when we arrived and we all became BFF’s immediately.  I will have to admit that none of us understood what the other person was saying, between their New York accents and our Southern accents.  It was a fun place and the pizza was very good. 

Our accommodations last night were a the Thomas Mott Inn, a B&B on the Lake Champlain.  We were the only people at the place.  It is a lovely place overlooking the lake; the couple running it are very nice.  If you are ever far enough north to see Canada, this is the place to stay.   

Hold my beverage whilst you observe this

This is just too good not to post.  There is a couple in our sailing class, he is from London.  We were talking about something a couple of days ago and I said that is one of those “hold my beer and watch this” moments.  He cracked up and thought it was the funniest thing he had heard in a while.  So every sailing move that got messed up he has call it a “hold my beer and watch this” move.  The funny part is his heavy English accent saying “hold my beer and watch this”.  It is quite the show!  I am thinking tomorrow I will have to try “hold my beverage whilst you observe this”.  

I had to come back and edit this.  The correct way to say it, according to Rob and Anne, is "I say old man, hold my pint whilst I butcher this".  Yea they had to explain it me.  You will just have to figure it out.

Worth the price of admission

What a day.  We were out sailing around with “ALL” the windjammers in Maine.  When I say all I literally mean every one of them.  The captain of our boat had been captain on several of them over the years.  So he filled us in on who built each one, who had owned it, how well it sailed and countless other details.  The wind was steady, skies were blue, and temperature was cool enough for Carole.  Life was good.

OK I will save you from having to look at all 86 photos but only because of the connection speed.  This is just a sample of what we saw.

Four out of five isn’t bad.

I have been an assistant to Geoff Kerr in building the Annapolis Wherry kit boats.  First of all let me tell you about Geoff.  I can’t give you a web site to go to but you can Google his name or Two Daughters Boat and find him.  He is my favorite instructor at the Wooden Boat School.  Of course that is similar to picking out your favorite out a box of chocolate candy.  I have had two previous courses with him where we built plywood glue lap strake boats.  So I have now taken four courses in lap strake construction, helping Geoff makes it five.  It has been very interesting to see how the instructors taught the same construction method.  After all of the courses I have found Geoff and I share the philosophy; you get it close, fill it full of glue and go sailing. 

I have found in my professional life, in boat building and furniture making; the true challenge comes in from figuring how to correct a mistake.  Nothing is ever done perfect.  I have always said if I could ever do a perfect job with absolutely no mistakes on my part, the contractor’s part or the subcontractors’ part I would claim victory and quit.  One of the more interesting things about attending classes at the Wooden Boat School is seeing how the instructors correct mistakes in the boats.  You can believe me that there people who take these courses that don’t know which end of a hammer to hold.  So this week Geoff taught 8 people how to build a boat and built a boat for one poor soul who didn’t have a clue.  This class was in interesting mix of people from all different walks of life.  We had a doctor, lawyer, hospital chief, Air Force General, along with the usual assortment of engineers, accounts and retired people.  One of my favorite people was an older (hell anyone older than me has to be damn old) retired mechanical engineer from Canada.  Mechanical engineers can be challenges at the Wooden Boat School because they like to work to the nearest thousandth of an inch.  Boat building is more about getting it close, saying it looks pretty and going on to the next phase.  So when you start trying to measure to .001” on material that changes dimension from the start of the day to end of the day it just drives them crazy.    This guy did not suffer from this addiction.  He had extremely good hand skills.  He had trouble with clamps because of arthritis in his hands, so I made it a point to be around to help him thru those stages.  His wife died a few years back and he spends most of his time working with a group in his church helping rework furniture for charity groups.  There are a lot of good underappreciated people in the world. 

The Annapolis Wherry is a boat “kit” that comes for Chesapeake Light Craft.  www.clcboats.com  There were nine of them on the floor in boxes last Sunday night.  At noon on Saturday boats were loaded on the tops of cars, trailers and in shipping crates to go home with nine people.  Geoff told everyone the first day that they would finish their boat by the end of the week but they had to be finished with certain steps each day to be finished and we would stay until those steps were finished.  There was one night we went to 7:00 to stay on schedule.  Which Geoff had predicted for that day.  At the end of the week I felt like I had been doing two-a-days before football season.  I was basically helping anyone who was a little slower than the rest or helping speed things up by mixing epoxy so they didn’t have to stop to do that.  The boats everyone took home were not finished by any stretch of the imagination.  Yes you could take them out and they would float and you could paddle them around but they were pretty ugly boats.  They have to be finished at home.  So they need a lot of sanding and painting to become pretty boats. 

Four of the Five days of the class was a lot of fun.  On Thursday I spent about 2 hours mixing epoxy which you have to stir each batch for about five minutes.  On Friday morning I woke up with a sore finger and realized I had probably over done it in the mixing department.  Well about 10:00 I had developed a small blister, about 12:00 a large blister.  After draining the blister and a Band-Aid I kept going.  About 5:00 it is blue up to the first joint and hurting.  On Sunday morning it is bloody puss (gross) draining.  The three day rule kicks in and I headed to Blue Hill ER.  A quick look, twenty minutes of questions, fill out paper work, get insurance and identification information, I get a prescription for antibiotics and out the door.  I have designed a lot of ER departments as an engineer but this is the first one I have ever seen that had windows in the exam room. 

We are looking forward to our week of sailing next week.  The forecast is for upper 60’s and 10 to 15 knot winds.  Should be a good week.

PS.  The “Three Day Rule” is if you have something wrong with you and it isn’t better by the third day you need to go to a doctor.  About 90% if it isn’t better after three days it isn’t going to get any better without professional help.  If you haven’t adopted that rule you need to.  You never want to be too sick to go to the doctor.  

Catching up

Wow did I get behind.

You can really waste away the time in Maine.  Actually I was in class the week after Paul and Kittie were here.  The course was in Strip Plank Composite Construction.  I wonder if I took the cost of the course and the expense of being here off on my income tax would the IRS ever realize it had nothing to do with work.  The title certainly sounds like work, doesn’t it.  The course was a lot of fun, the people in the course were fun and the group really clicked together.  There was a guy named Robert from New York, after the first few minutes I told myself this guy is going to be a real pain in the lower anatomy.  First impressions can be so wrong.  He was a lot fun to be around.  On the other side there was Buddy from Arkansas who appeared to be more fun than a barrel of monkey and he was.  We had one girl in the class, a twenty something girl who works in a custom furniture shop in Canada.  That girl could really use hand tools.  She put most of us to shame.  I wanted to adopt her but she liked her dad and would only allow me to be her Uncle.  There is nothing wrong with a smart good looking girl.  I know because I married one 44 years ago last week.

Ok the course was about using 1/4”x3/4” wood strips bending them around forms, gluing the edges together and stapling them to the forms.  After you generate the shape then you sand the outside smooth (I was hearing Clint saying it needs a little more sanding in my sleep) and cover it with fiberglass.  I have never done any fiberglass work so I was very interested in how it would go.  Clint was a great instructor and showed us how to do it so it was easy.  www.clintchaseboatbuilder.com  Clint is about the same age as our boys.  He is officially the youngest instructor at the school.  After you do the outside then you flip it over take out the forms and SAND AGAIN.  I think I have been traumatized by sand paper.  Then you glass the inside.  Robert will be taking the boat home with him to finish out the inside.  He has promised us photos as he proceeds with the project.  Robert will be back with his trailer in a couple of weeks to pick up the boat and take Harry Bryan’s class on building your own hand tools.  Harry only does one class a year now and is somewhat of a legend in the wooden boat community. He was the instructor for my first class I had at the school eight years ago. 

Larry, Julie, Andy and Joann arrived last Friday.  We had a lot of fun days hanging out together.  We are in the F150 so Carole will have plenty of space to bring things home.  (We also have Kittie, Julie and Joann containers to bring home now.)  Anyway all of us wouldn’t fit in the F150.  Andy rented a Hyundai cross over that seated five, so one of us would crawl in the back for trips.  We looked like a bunch of high school kids crawling out of the vehicle, with us all laughing and having a good time.  These were not short trips.  One was to Liberty to look at used tools (guy side of the street) and tee shirts (girl side of the street).  The tee shirts are second and real bargains.  Everyone has a Maine tee shirt now.  Andy has one with half a sleeve.  Well they are seconds!  Andy and I made the trip to Bath to the museum.  It has been several years since I was there so I enjoyed seeing what I had forgotten about.  We also did a trip thru the Bath Iron Works where they are building destroyers for the Navy.  No cameras or cell phones allowed so you aren’t going to get any photo.  Andy and I tried to go sailing at the school but the winds were too strong.  We would have needed to reef down and the school won’t let you go out when reefs are required.  They are concerned that if you don’t do it correctly you can rip a hole in the sail.  They all left yesterday and Carole spent most of the day doing laundry.  Clean towels and sheets all around.  I got a chance to operate the vacuum.  We are geared up for the next group to arrive now.

I meet this really interesting and cute couple who live in Florida via Seattle and Maine.  Their goal is to build a boat and go sailing.  Here is a link to her blog.  http://www.isoldmypearlstodoit.com/  I plan on following her blog to see how it goes.  She is a good writer and writes interesting blogs with far better use of English than my blog.

PS  I was several days late posting this because of connection speeds.  This was written last week and it took about an hour to load the photos.  You just have to love 60k internet connections.  

Fame and Fortune

My picture is on the wall!  We went to Brooklin Inn for dinner last night with Paul and Kittie.  Paul was reading things that were framed on the walls and saw my photo.  It is from a New York Times article that was done in 2009 about Brooklin and the boat school.  I told the hostess she needed to take good care of me because I was famous and she had my photo on the wall.  In a few minutes all of the staff had come by to comment on my photo.  They told me to be sure and come back to see the inn keeper.  That is no problem.  There are only two restaurants in town. Ms. Carole isn't going to cook that much.  

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/travel/escapes/21Amer.html?pagewanted=all&_moc.semityn.levart#

Don't get in the big boat contest

This boat came into the harbor yesterday.  It has 5 spreaders on the mast, our 47 has 2.  The boats in the foreground and background are 40 footers.  Anytime you get to feeling very good about having a nice boat, someone come rolling in put you down bad.  

The photo says it all

Once the fog cleared this is the view we have off the back porch.  I don’t think is necessary to add a lot of description, the photo says it all.

Paul and Kittie Messer arrived on Monday.  A little later than planned.  Seems like someone (it is still being debated who) didn’t remember that Chattanooga was on Eastern Time.  We have spent the last couple of days catching up, eating lobsters, and discussing solutions to all the worlds problems.  Today we are off to explore the coast today and find the “best” fried clams on the coast.  

It isn’t often you get to meet a living legend.  I met Dick Pulsifer today; he has been building Pulsifer Hampton Boats in Maine for more than 30 years.  Google the boats and check it out.  He is very friendly and great person to talk with.  I may have to take a trip by his shop and check it out.  If you decide you want a great boat and have an extra $50,000 give him a call.  It is one of those boats you can probably sell in 20 years for what you paid for it.

We finally saw Gene and Christina today.  They were able to get toot-toot the local water taxi to pick them up.  They were running out of food after 3 days of being fogged in on the boat.  I think they were both getting a little stir crazy.  We let them take our vehicle and go buy groceries while we went back to the show.  I don’t know what Maine did before Carole showed up to improve the economy.  Fair warning if you get a present from her over the next year it will probably be from Maine. 

After lunch it was on to Searsport and Hamilton Marine so Carole could get a new foul weather jacket.  After three days of fog looks like it may become standard gear.  She talked the lady into a 40% discount.  Kaye Cole would be so proud of her.

The “cottage” is almost perfect.  It is just what you dream of a cottage on the Maine shore.  Great view (we think, only fog so far) off to distance islands.  It is unbelievable quite her.  Not a noise anywhere.  The photos give you a flavor of the place.  The only issue is the connect speed here is slower than sorghum syrup on December morning at the camp house.  Because of that I will only put in one or two photos up at a time.

The fog was so thick this morning our friend Gene couldn’t find the bow of his boat.  We got wet just walking down the street to the show.  An umbrella did no good.

The boat show is more than just boats there was a lot of really nice furniture, art, jewelry and other stuff to spend money one.  The selection of boats was pretty limited when you compare it to St Pete, Miami or Annapolis.  Sabre Yachts had a big presence.  It is nice to check out a million dollar yacht but I don’t see one in my immediate future.  It even had power windows!  Thos. Moser wasn’t at the show.  That was somewhat of a disappointment.  There were a lot of furniture makers I had not heard of before who had some really beautiful stuff.  Carole says they have plenty of time to work on their craft up here because the days are so short and the winters so cold.  There is no laying out by the pool to work on your tan.  I think part of it is they can be more productive in the summer with the cool temperatures and longer days.  It is just damn hard to work when it is 98 degrees in the shade. 

We never met up with Gene and Christine.  They were socked-in with fog all day.  Gene dropped the dink in the water to head to shore.  When he did the fog moved in and he had a hard time getting back to the boat.  It finally lifted about 5:00 today but that was too late for them to do anything in town or the show.  Looks like heavy rain tomorrow so they may be stranded again. 

The photo on the right is the B&B we are staying in.  Nice room and a great breakfast this morning.

Tomorrow it is on to Brooklin, the wood boat building capital of the world.  

Streets Made of Gold

I remember hearing in Sunday School when I was a kid about “streets paved with gold”.  I could never figure out why someone would want to do that, it just didn’t make sense to me.  I guess I was born an engineer.  Well today I found a street paved with gold.  I-95 in New Hampshire has to be that road.  It is 15 miles long, eight lanes wide, bumper to bumper and everyone pays $2.00 to be on it.  It has to be a major source of income for the state. That 15 mile section has to pay for itself every year with the fees they collect.  I don’t think there are but 3 interchanges on it in the state but they get their $2.00 from everyone traveling between Boston and Maine.  Not only that but they have liquor stores in the median and the whiskey is cheaper than in Massachusetts and Maine.   So everyone stops buys booze and takes it out to their car in grocery carts full of bottles.  OK maybe it isn't biblical but it is a cash cow generating millions of dollars in income every year. 

We arrive in Rockland late this afternoon.  The B&B is right downtown across from the ferry terminal.  We had a nice walk thru town checking out shops.  You know how much I like to go into shops and find good buys on ear rings and things for the house.  Thank heaven for husband benches and traffic to watch, otherwise suicide was in my future. 

Talked to our friend Gene this afternoon they arrived by boat after a long delay for fog this morning.  I think he was very glad for all the electronics on board.  He was able to stay safe and miss other boats with radar and chart plotters but lobster pots only show up about ten feet before they wrap around your prop.  We will be wondering around with them at the boat show tomorrow.  They have a lot of big tents set up.  There are of course boats but also boat toys, furniture, art, crafts and other “Maine” things.  It should be fun.  We have a two day pass so if we don’t see it all tomorrow, we will have Saturday to finish up. 

By the way the temperature here is 70 deg.  Might be time to dig out the jackets tomorrow.  

Corn, corn and more corn

We covered a bunch of states today.  Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut.   

Corn, corn and more corn.  There are just fields and fields as far as the eye can see.  The southern part of the trip was mostly looking at corn fields and BIG barns.  I don’t know why gas prices are going up.  ($3.95 for regular here)  There is enough corn on I81 to fill all the gas tanks in New England.  We followed I81 north and then hit I84 East to miss the Big Apple.  I didn’t want to spend a couple of hours in bumper to bumper traffic in New York City.  I spent one hour on the George Washington Bridge in 1976 and swore I would never do that again. 

I81 takes you in to the mountains north of New York.  It is a nice drive with lots of scenic vistas over some very nice valleys.  Of course you get to look at a lot of trees at 65 mph.  Yea they don’t drive as fast as we do.  Of course it would have been good to maintain 65.  Every few miles all along the path there were construction zones with double fines and speeds down to 45 mph.  Traffic really built up north of New York and drivers got more aggressive.

Danbury, Ct is a nice area.  Traffic is not conducive to cruising around town.  Tomorrow it will be on to Rockland to the Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors Show.  I am looking forward to the show.  Our story is going to be we have been sailing our 55 ft boat (well if you add the davits and the anchor off the front you can almost get there) and we are thinking about changing to a boat to do the inland water ways.  That should get us a good tour of the Hinckley’s, Morris’s and Saber’s.  I working on some intelligent questions to ask so they will think I know what I am talking about.  In case you don’t know “how many miles per gallon” isn’t a question that will get you on board the boat.  A few years ago I went to a boat show and was really interested in a $1,200,000 boat; I offered the guy $850,000 cash if he could have it ready to go in two weeks.  You should have seen the expression; he was looking for a contract.  Actually my boat neighbor has me on a mission to find him a good Saber in the mid 40 foot range to bring back to Pensacola. 

We have a couple of boat buddies from Pensacola that are going to meet us in Rockland on their boats.  It will be good to see them and share a meal.  Hopefully we will get to do a little sailing with them while we are up here.  

Funeral Ready

So another adventure again. Before it can begin, the house has to be funeral ready. Carole won’t leave until the house is presentable. She wouldn’t want something to happen to her and strangers go in the house and find the bed unmade. We had to put on clean sheets and make up the beds before we headed out this morning. I was so glad we are headed north today.
 We saw three south bound backups that went on for miles. If we had been on our side it would have taken an extra three hours to get here. Sometimes you are just lucky.
We are in Staunton, Virginia tonight. It was picked as a place to stop because it was, like halfway between two points, convenient to the interstate, and had places to eat close by. Boy what a find. This place was settled in 1747! It is the home of Woodrow Wilson with his library here. It is a very cool old town. Lots of history, very vibrant downtown area, large beautiful churches and a courthouse square. I wish we had planned some time here. We make take a couple of extra hours tomorrow morning to look around before we hit the interstate. Virginia is such a great state with so much history and varied topography. I keep telling myself we need to spend more time here. That damn bucket list just keeps getting longer.