Having trouble uploading posts. I'll try this sunset photo from lat night.

Here goes

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Saturday, May 3, Bob and Joyce drove us to Bremen to take delivery of the new boat. We were joined by sister Dianne and her son, Dave, a 22 year old boat builder who has ambitions to be a schooner bum. We had lunch in Wiscasset where Dave works at a boat building place that builds large boats for wealthy folks. We enjoyed getting to meet Joyce's family. As always the food was great.

Lobster Roll

Haddock Wrap

The company was marvelous as well.

Dick Vermeullen, the designer and builder of the Maine Cat 30, met us at the boat with all the many boxes that had arrived at his shop. We had ordered stuff from West Marine, Macy's, Target, the Container Store and many other places.

We were really grateful to have these guys with us to help move all our many boxes onto the boat.

The first day of Christmas had begun. We unpacked boxes, wiped out shelves and stowed new belongings until we were totally exhausted.

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

Saturday, May 3, Bob and Joyce drove us to Bremen to take delivery of the new boat. We were joined by sister Dianne and her son, Dave, a 22 year old boat builder who has ambitions to be a schooner bum. We had lunch in Wiscasset where Dave works at a boat building place that builds large boats for wealthy folks. We enjoyed getting to meet Joyce's family. As always the food was great.

Lobster Roll

Haddock Wrap

The company was marvelous as well.

Dick Vermeullen, the designer and builder of the Maine Cat 30, met us at the boat with all the many boxes that had arrived at his shop. We had ordered stuff from West Marine, Macy's, Target, the Container Store and many other places.

We were really grateful to have these guys with us to help move all our many boxes onto the boat.

The first day of Christmas had begun. We unpacked boxes, wiped out shelves and stowed new belongings until we were totally exhausted.

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

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

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