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Dolce Vitaville Blog #25. The Seven Days. of Christmas (continued)

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That night we cooked a lobster and steak kabob feast. We bought the lobster from the Broadcove Marina where we were docked all week. They were kind enough to let us store the lobster live in one of their boxes until we were ready to cook.

 
 
 

We had a little musical fun one night.

 
 

Wednesday the work on the boat continued as did the shopping although the pace was beginning to slow down. Our sleigh was not quite so full. We got to visit the Maine Cat building where our boat was built and we saw other boats that are currently under construction.

We had breakfast every morning at the Moody Diner, a place on Hwy 1 that feeds 900+ folks a day and has become a Maine icon. It was always a treat.

 

Here are a few more Maine icons.

Lobster Traps

Fog.

The night before we took off Dick and his wife, Lynn, took us to dinner at the Grill in Damariscotta. Before dinner we made one last trip to Remy's, a discount department store and also a Maine icon.

We're ready to go.

Thuesday, the sixth day of Christmas, we ate breakfast at Moody's, turned in our rent car, made a last stop at Hamilton's and Walmart and returned. to the boat ready to take off on our journey. While we we gone Dick and the fellows installed one last boat part that had been ordered express delivery. We left at 12:52 pm heading for Cape Cod.

Life is good.

Fair winds,

Franci and Stephen

 

Dolce Vitaville #24The Seven Days of Christmas

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Sunday, Ralph and Arlene, our professional skipper and his wife, arrived and the work continued. Dick brought yet more stuff from the office and the stowing continued. Ralph began to inspect all the workings of the boat. There are not a lot of photos at this point. We were distracted with all the new everything.

For dinner we went to a King Elders Pub in Damariscoltta, a place Ralph knew about. The food was wonderful. Maine has names of towns that are very hard for us to say and remember but we got better as the week progressed.

Monday Dick and his crew arrived early to begin completing things that needed to be fixed on the boat.

We went to Hamilton's, a marine store, and bought incredible amounts of stuff needed for the boat. We had lunch at another great restaurant Ralph knew about. We are certain we will get along well with Ralph and Arlene. It's all about food.

 

After lunch we went to Walmart for an amazing amount of stuff we still needed for the boat. We also found a music store where Stephen bought a ukelele and I bought a drum and several fun rhythm toys. We were inspired after Arlene showed up with a ukelele. We hope to find time for musical fun somewhere along the journey. By the way, Arlene can cackle and snort as good as Franci. We are going to have some great times on this journey. Laughter and food……we know how to live!

By this time our sleigh, a VW passat, was full and we headed back to the boat to find more places to store stuff.

Meanwhile, Dick and his crew were working hard and fast on the boat finishing up things that still needed to be fine tuned and fixed.
Dick Vermeullen, the designer of the Maine Cat 30, the best boat ever..
Shannon, the electrician
Roscoe, he can fix anything.
Arlene, the best first mate ever.
Ralph, the captain.

That night we had our first meal on the boat…..leftovers in a pot from the previous night's dinner. It was the best meal of leftovers we had ever had….haddock, scallops, seafood stew, lobster risotto and spinach all combined together. YUM!

 

Tuesday the work on the boat continued. It was fascinating to watch these guys work. Rqlph went up the mast to install the radar reflector.

Ralph, up the mast putting on the radar reflector.

Arlene did the hard work. She hoists him up.

Dick Vermeullen, the designer and builder of the Maine Cat 30, works on the dinghy.
Stephen puts water in the solar shower.
Stephen and Dick.install the sail cover.
 
Shannon and Dick take us for a test drive.
 

 

Later that afternoon we finally got time to go grocery shopping. It took three grocery carts to hold all the goodies we had bought. Once again our sleigh was full and we returned to the boat to find space for all our new goodies. Arlene is very good at organizing and stowing things. She and Ralph lived and raised four children on a boat. They also have delivered approximately 30 of this particular brand of boat. They have known and worked with Dick for many years.

Fair Winds,

Stephen and Franci