Windfall Down East: July 2014

Approaching Windfall.

Today, we left Someville Landing at approximately 1pm. The mooring Dan keeps Windfall on belongs to David MacDonald, a friend of his since they were kids.

After motoring and prepping for about ten minutes we threw up the sails and were off-and-running... and beating and tacking. No in-between. The wind that far up the sound was GOOD. Any more and we would have reefed the sails.

Grabby McGraberton

I grabbed the tiller right away and Dan was quite accommodating. He fed me pointers and I asked questions. He showed me how to come about and start a new tack so I started practicing. After a few tries I got it. As it turns out, I ended up sailing us out of Somes Sound, between Southwest Harbor and Greening Island. We were tempted to go out Western Way and find some bigger wind, but our lack of provisions forced us to cut back to Northeast Harbor.

We grabbed a spot at the end of the public dock in Northeast Harbor and then immediately offered to let the Mystery, an Irwin Citation 34 out of New Brunswick, Canada, raft up to us as they were also looking to dock for a minute. Rik and Linda were very appreciative and invited us to join them on there mooring later that evening as the bar was "open for us" any time. We did not make it, which I'm sure suited Captain Hook, their jet black cat just fine.

A quick trip to the nearest grocery store had us reconsidering where we will shop next time. The place was a little too close to the harbor for us. The prices were proportional to the proximity. At any rate, we have t-bones, avocados, corn-on-the-cob and bell peppers to grill. I have some St. Pauli Girl n.a.b.

Dan takes a call from our Dad.
He wanted to know how we were
making out.

The decision was made to motor to Little Cranberry Island as the wind had died and we were anxious to get to our mooring. It was getting close to Happy Hour after all! We found Dan's friend's mooring and went on hook. Thank you Olearceks!

Dan manning the grill.

Once safely moored it was time to start prepping dinner. Dan took grill duty, while I worked on this blog-post. Using my "jailbroken" Iphone 5 as a hotspot worked excellently and I had great internet speeds.

Daniel and dinner in the salon.

Dinner was excellent and pleasant. I Spotified a little Vivaldi through the Windfall's sound system.

Dan figuring out the Thermacell bug repeller

We tried a Thermacell bug repeller for the first time. it seemed to work well. There were no bugs anyway. No oders or fumes either.

Solving the world's problems.

The rest of the evening was spent chatting and relaxing below deck. Dan sleeps in the v-berth which he's adapted for maximum surface and comfort. I took the port berth in the salon which he has also been enhanced for comfort. Conveniently it is right next to one of the power-points Dan has installed so I was able to plug in my CPAP machine which I hacked for 12vdc operation.

11pm zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Today we hit the water and see what we see. Dan has been furiously working and tweaking Windfall all winter. She is not the same boat this spring she was last fall. She's been in the water a couple of days now and, so far, everything seems to be working except for one of his depth finders, which is giving inconsistent readings. Dan suspects the old transducer, which is in line and forward of the new transducer, is causing turbulence and hence the bad data.

The plan, at the moment, is to go out without destination and spend at least one night onboard; sort of a shakedown.

My luggage at Somesville Landing.

The Dotty Kay

I arrived at the landing a little bit before Dan and had some time to soak it all in. I haven't been here since last summer. When our parents had The Dotty Kay, a 34' Marine Trader trawler, they had her moored here. The landing is private and managed by the Someville Landing Corporation.