Friday, May 3, Bob Schwaller, our brother in law, met us at the airport and took us to his and Joyce's home which is an incredible farm in Naples, Maine. Bob married Joyce following the passing of my sister, Shirley, in 2006. Joyce had been a dear friend to both of them for many years. They became friends back when Bob and Shirley were living in Boston.

Bob and Joyce live in a recently remodeled six bedroom farmhouse built originally in the 1890's. Like many Maine homes it has an attached barn so the livestock can be fed without going outside. Maine winters are very cold and livestock must be kept in the barn in the winter, Their barn is huge and has 100 years worth of collected stuff. They have ambitions to clean it out someday thinking it might be a perfect place for a house concert with Bob's son Mark's band, MELODEEGO. We would fly up for that if it were at all possible.

They are in the midst of constructing a new carriage house, a two car garage with an adjoining apartment. I expect to see Bob and Joyce spending a lot of time here when next we visit. It's their own design.

The small red building is her sister's old pottery studio. Her sister, Dianne, raised her children on this farm. The house had not been remodeled at that time.

We discovered that not only did we have a week's worth of dirty laundry but everything we owned was wet from the rain in Fort Lauderdale. We became quite a sight with this spread out everywhere. It was a beautiful sunny day and all dried quickly. How lucky we are to have family in Maine.

We took a nice walk with their four dogs to their beaver pond. They had a few geese who were nesting there.

Maine has these rock walls everywhere. Many were built hundreds of years ago by people who first cleared the land.

For dinner we went out for lobster dinner at a local restaurant. YUM!

Life is good.

Fair winds,

Stephen and Franci!

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Friends, the sad last 1/2 day on the boat came. The sunrise was beautiful!

We were due to get the boat back to Capt. Ron in Hope Town Harbour by 10:30 so we could get to the fuel dock for fuel and water before it closed for lunch. Outside the harbour an hour early we decided to stall. No need to end things early. So we practiced a sailing manueuver called being hove to. To do this you back wind the jib which pushes the bow around away from the wind. The main sail is luffed and the helm is put over to push the stern into the wind effectively stalling the boat so the only motion is a slow drift down wind.

When it was time to go in we struck the sails and motored toward the harbour.

The historic but still functioning Hope Town Lighthouse can be seen in the distance behind the Lighthouse Marina. It is preserved by donations and still works in the old way without modern technology. The white light is occulting with five flashes and a period of 15 seconds and arrange of 23 miles.

We left Moon Doggy at noon. Capt. Ron took us by his house to see his incredible racing trimaran.

Lyse and Jay rode the ferry back to Marsh Harbor to stay at the Conch Inn one more night. Stephen and I went to the Abaco Inn, the place on Elbow Cay we fell in love with last January. For a complete description of the Abaco Inn and why we love it so you can refer back to Blog #10. We were thrilled to see old friends and to make new ones.

Here are a couple of our new friends. We had a great time whiling away the afternoon buying each other drinks. We got to stay in our favorite room and had a marvelous time.

The following morning we took the ferry to Marsh Harbor where we met Lyse and Jay again at the airport. This time we knew to save our appetite for the wonderful food at the airport. The lady who cooks your food never writes anything down and remembers everyone's order. We were duly impressed. My burger was delicious as was Stephen's fish sandwich.

Here's a photo of us on the last day of our journey.

Here's a photo of us on the first day of our adventure. I see smiles all around.

Life is good.

Fair winds,

Stephen and Franci

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Ahoy Maties,

Rain was anticipated but it did not happen. It was a lovely sunrise.

This was to be our last full day on Moon Doggy and we were looking forward to a nice sail to Sugar Loaf Cay where we intended to spend the night. As it turned out we went around Set Point to Matt Lowe Cay since It provided protection from the SSE winds of the day.

Lyse got in a little helm time

Stephen tried a little fishing but got his line caught in the rudder and had to cut it. Later when we had anchored he would get into the water to find that the line had freed itself and all was fine.

Here's a little note of interest, especially to the guys. The ceiling above the potty is somewhat low making it seem difficult to relieve oneself standing up. Jay here has worked that problem out.

Lyse and Franci made chicken salad for lunch with last night's left over chicken. It was delicious.

Later we moved to anchor on the other side of the power boat to give him some more room.

That afternoon Jay took a nap, Franci blogged and all enjoyed a little quiet time.

For dinner the challenge was to eat as many of the leftover food as possible. We still had shrimp cocktail to go along with chicken salad, tuna salad, fruit, frozen vegetables and other miscellaneous leftover items.

Wednesday morning we would turn in the boat by noon. It would be the end of a grand adventure. Stephen got a little helm time on the way back to Hope Harbor.

Life is good.

Fair winds,

Stephen and Franci

If you are following this blog and get email notice of each new post remember to click on Dolce Vitaville at the top or put the link in you browser. Other wise you may only get the text and not the pictures

Ahoy Maties,

To begin, a word of advice to any of who are following and are not seeing photos with this blog. If you click on the title, Dolce Vitaville Blog #19, all the pictures will come up.

Sunday night we had happy hour and a great dinner. We listened to Sister Jane on the laptop and had a really, really good time!

Monday morning we all slept late. The sun had already come up when we finally arose. There was a lot of moaning. We may have had a little too much fun at happy hour the evening before. Stephen had a few miscellaneous pains, perhaps a little sore from his snorkel experience the day before.

The snorkelers reported an okay snorkel. Lyse was pleased to see some new coral growth, although she said she got a little cold toward the end. They saw a barracuda, a grouper guarding his home near some cinder blocks, a small lobster, a giant starfish, lots of small tropical fish, a HUGE starfish.and the BIGGEST sea cucumber they have ever seen. They also saw a barbeque pit and some random garbage. Stephen caught two small yellowtail snapper which he intends to use for cut bait.

After lunch, we anchored by White Sound where we took the dinghy to Sea Spray Marina for ice.

That night we anchored at Tahiti Beach. We dinghied ashore at low tide and found lots of living sea life.

Jelly Fish

Starfish

Sand Dollars

Octopus

We saw a baby conch as well but the camera had run out of batteries by then. It was a very cool tour. Magic!

For dinner we had grilled chicken, green beans, potatoes and salad.

Jay did a little evening fishing.

We expected a thunderstorm in the night so we put down the eisenglass protection all around. Just before retiring, a large moth flew into the cockpit and startled us. It was actually quite lovely.

The sunset was great an we could not resist one more group hoot.

Life is good.

Fair winds,

Stephen and Franci

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Maties, another Dolce Vitaville sailing blog post blowin' your way!

Sunday morning we were up before sunrise. We generally get up before sunrise because dawn is so beautiful on the water.

Lyse did her morning exercises in preparation for snorkeling today

Stephen did the daily job of emptying water from the ice chest. We use the water for the solar sun shower and 2 gallon sprayer.

At 10 a.m. we left Little Harbor but not before taking a short cruise around the harbor to get a better look at the caves.

Stephen made a nice video of the tour,

This man with his dog are out perhaps looking for conch. He supplied conch for a big conch salad at the restaurant last night. He also brought flowers for each of the ladies in the restaurant. Stephen gave him a tip and he got a flower, too.

Here's an interesting two masted boat we saw in the harbor

It was a short motor ride to our destination, Lynard Cay. There were six foot swells along the way and we were rocking and rolling. Our drinks rested nicely on the table. We love catamarans. We love this boat!

We anchored at Lynyard Cay and Lyse, Jay and Stephen put on their snorkeling gear and took off on their adventure. Franci stayed behind and prepared tuna fish for lunch. She also boiled water for the 2 gallon sprayer so that warm showers would be ready for them on their return.

On the other side of the beach was the ocean

They reported that it was an invigorating snorkel. They found fun things along the way.

A star fish.

A conch.

A sea biscuit.

After their adventure, they put the snorkel gear back on and returned to the boat, happy and satisfied.

After lunch, we set sail for Tilloo Cay where there is also good fishing and snorkeling. Jay wanted to troll along the way and took a day off from being at the helm. Franci got to sail the boat that day. Everybody is getting their wish list buttons punched. Life is good.

Here's Lyse helping Jay straighten out his trolling line, a lovely assistant she can be.

We arrived at our destination on Tilloo Cay at 5 p.m. We anchored by what they call the fish hotel. Our neighbors at anchor were fishing. Stephen watched them through the binoculars hoping to see them catch a fish. He attracted their curiosity and they came by to say hello.

Sunset was gorgeous as always.

At the moment the sun went down we enjoyed a group hoot together in honor of Lilly, Lyse's chimpanzee she raised back in the 70's.

For dinner we had Mahi Mahi grilled with zucchinis and served with rice and beans. For hor'derves we had leftovers from last night's dinner at Little Harbor.

Stephen and Jay tried a little fishing off the boat in the evening. In the morning it would be snorkeling.

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