Challenging

Every so often, a summer becomes challenging and 2021 proved one of these. Cold, fog, hurricanes, tropical storms, mechanical and health breakdowns, well you get the idea. At the end of three months, both Carrie Rose and us needed a refit. A beautiful Midwest fall helped to accomplish this. Now it is Carrie Rose's turn!   

 

But that is not the whole story. We explored physical and psychological limits, experienced camaraderie, benefited from technical skill, and found comfort in small town America and secluded anchorages. 

 

Our travelling companions on Sir Tugley Blue rescued us from an unknown fate in the obscure waters of Downeast Maine. The North Atlantic was benevolent that day, and that came down to the experience we have collectively gained by travelling thousands of miles. Careful planning and an aversion to risk are the lessons learned.

 

Of course, 2020 was a year off from cruising and travel in general. As sanity began to reappear, and with the help of the vaccine, we felt free to cautiously travel. So did two couples, one from Chicago and one from Maryland who visited us along the way. It was wonderful to break bread with them in such a faraway place, for Maine is unique in that.

 

Maine is as distant from Chicago as Miami is, but the similarity ends there. To travel south is to invite congestion. Not so on our trek northeast where the world quiets down. Though summer is busy in Maine, with a little forethought and with the benefit of a floating home, seclusion can be found.

 

Seal Cove Bay and Perry’s Creek on Vinalhaven, McGlathery Island between Deer Island Thorofare and Merchant Row, Roque and Swan’s Islands which are on opposites ends of our chosen cruising grounds but share wildness. The odd exposed anchorages of Barred and Pickering Island in East Penobscot Bay. All these contributed to the adventure that cruising in Maine is.

 

We have come a long way from Montrose harbor in Chicago. The tumultuous Great Lakes have been traversed. Canada’s legacy canals were negotiated lock by lock. The St. Lawrence River propelled us east to Lake Champlain and from there the Hudson River to NYC and then ICW to the Chesapeake. And through bays, rivers, waterways, and canals adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean we travelled north, sometime protected, sometimes in the open coastal waters of the North Atlantic to Maine. 

 

Along the way we have missed as much as we have seen and so there is much more to explore, and isn’t that what life is all about. Every day, especially when we think we are settled, brings changes that we have to confront and adapt to. So, Charlotte and I hope for our family and friends to continue to strive and prosper despite the challenges.

 

Happy Holidays!

 

Charlotte & Dean