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.