June 2004, as seen from my phone...

Sat. 12

The big thing this month was my trip with Clara to Maine to go sailing with her parents on their boat.

We flew in to Boston to visit some friends, and it turned out the Gay Pride Day celebrations were going on...

Boston is a nice city

Cheers!

But alas we had to leave....

Sun. 13

In Rockland, Maine ; friend of Clara' folks has a nice looking car...

Clara, on the ramp to the boat ; Sunday night is "Meet & Greet" night for the passengers.

After seeing the boat, went around the area to check out some of the sights... These are from one of the many, *many* lighthouses around the area. This one is Owl's Head Light(house).

Nothing particularly special, my first encounter w/ Atlantic water in 6 months. As expected, it was much colder than Florida :-/

Atop Mount Battie




Some odd looking people <heh>

Painting of all the local schooners in the local Wal-Mart

Rockland Port / Harbor Break-water

Clara in her room, playing with her sailing toys (she swears that is not a stake for killing vampires, but a tool called a fidfor splicing ropes... right ;-)

Mon. 14

Getting ready for sailing

The most important room on the boat - the galley (aka kitchen). Clara's mom is watering the (yes, live) plants.

The other important room on the boat - my bunk - cabin #15 - all cabins have a sink & running cold & hot water. (for those wondering where that is, see the deckplan of the boat from here ... it is right in the middle of the boat, with the galley stairs right behind me [kinda unfortunate since the galley crew gets up @ 5:30 AM! EST! I am not usually up until 9AM PST! I usually go to sleep around 2AM PST, or about when the cook wakes up ;-] and the main mast going right *through* the front corner of my cabin!)

And off we go!

The cool thing about this week of sailing on the schooner is that it is "Schooner Gam" week. Many of the local schooners meet up at some designated spot and try to anchor & tie up together side by side and you can walk from one boat to another. Here are some of the neighbor boat crew hanging out...

And here is a pic of some boats anchored a ways away before more boats filled in and managed to all tie together

The Heritage from the neighboring boat.

A barrel on one of the boats... wonder what is in it ;-)

Captain Ken Barnes of the Stephen Taber, oddly happens to be an uncle of a friend dmv from Transient. It's a small world.



Some of the other boats in the line up: J & E Riggin:

American Eagle

Mercantile

Heritage(of course)

Isaac H. Evans (boat that the Lee's rebuilt & sailed previously to building the Heritage from scratch)

Nathaniel Bowditch

Angelique


Victory Chimes (the ship/sailboat on the Maine quarter! though the boat was actually built in Bath, MD)



Ellida

A view of the Summertime pulling up

Someone going up the main mast on the Heritage

Whole lotta masts & sails!

Mr. Barnes playing the bagpipe.

Lights out not much after 10pm!

Tue. 15

Finally hopped on the Summertime

Whole lotta masts & sails!

One of the boats that never joined up with the other 11

Climbing up the main mast!

View from 70 feet up! You can see at least 3 boats tied up on each side of the Heritage (the 2nd largest vessel there after the Chimes)




View of the Taber's flag from a bird's eye view

The foggy weather from Monday cleared up throughout the day and Tuesday night we had a gorgeous sunset, and some of us also made a shore-trip excursion in the row boat Archie.

Wed. 16

The great weather continued on Wednesday, so the captains decided to have a lobster bake today. Here is Clara at the bow of the yawl boat Clark Kent (the only motorized boat with us ; the Heritage is solely sail powered) heading to Stonington w/ lobster crates to buy fresh Maine lobster.

Pix of the hundreds of little islands scattered around Penobscot Bay
...as we chase the Heritage which is still sailing around while we are on the short shore-trip excursion to buy lobsters









We finally catch up with them after at least half an hour of going at a good clip in Clark

Our main shore-trip transportation, the row boat Archie, and our destination in the background, Round Island

On Round Island, fire ablaze, view of Heritage

What 60 pounds of lobster looks like after 30 people devour it

Clara's mom Linda doing the "Elmo knows" dance (someone gave her a dancing ' singing Elmo doll ;-)

Thu. 17

Nice morning

Fri. 18

Dinner in the galley, with entertaining stories from Captain Doug



Captain Doug and daughter Clara

Since it is the last night, time to be silly and have some fun... time for shooting off the (small) canons and wearing silly hats!







Another boat - the American Eagle - came by and bugged us! (practical joke gone a bit too far - they planted plastic bugs all over the boat while we were eating below ; turns out on of the crew on the Heritage was a spy/mole for the Eagle... hrmm)

Sat. 19

Back on dry land, watching as another boat is taken out of the water on a ramp at the North End Ship Yard (where the Heritage sails from, co-owned by the Lee's and a friend of theirs).

Back in town, there is some carnival going on. We stop in a store, and find more silly hats!

Sun. 20

Back at the North End Ship Yard, another boat is being put in the water by the Little Giant crane.

And later in the day, at the next meet & greet, are the Lee women (Clara's younger sister Rachel was sailing around in the Caribbean for the last 9+ months!)


And of course, all the Lee's!

Mon. 21

After a great week in Maine (thx everyone on the Heritage), back in the real world, here is what I missed @ work: a Tiger candy bar. Ph3@4 d 71g34! Tiger, coming soon @ an Apple WorldWide Developer Conference near you!