Broken down in Portland,Maine

Well, it happened again. Another breakdown.  This time it is the roller furler on the jib sail.  It started causing trouble the other day, Monday, when were sailing down from Sebasco.  We were out having a nice sail and had reefed the jib sail. Then Joy decided to pull it out and what would you know, it refused to come out or roll back up.  It was jammed and the line was all entangled inside the
drum.

Managed to drop the main sale in Portland Harbor, and drive the boat to the mooring at Portland Yacht Services.  The rigging crew came out to the boat, and checked out our problem. Several broken parts inside the lower drum unit.  So then the ordering adventure started.

Too late Monday night to order parts.  Supplier said first thing out Tuesday morning for arrival on Wednesday. Wednesday comes, no parts.  Turns out person responsible for shipping them out on Tues day did not come to work, or something like that. Parts sat on a desk for Tuesday. 

Called again, parts sent out Wed, arrived this morning.  Wiley climbed up the mast, no safety line. He is a rock climber.  Picture of him at the top of the mast and also working on the drum unit.

Linda Franko always wants pictures of repair work.

So now it is Thursday, the weather is turning bad so we will be staying here in Portland until Sunday moing. The Simmons get together will be in Portland rather than Portsmouth, NH.  Actually here at the boat yard the parent company is sponsoring a Beer Festival all weekend. You can taste 22 beers and get some food.  Not sure if Joy and friends will want to do that.

Madona left yesterday but not until she and Joy put together yesterday's GREEN DRINK.

Basically fruit and greens, supposed to be good for you but sometimes it is too thick .

Here is what it looks like

That is it for now. Going to move off the dock when Wiley is finished and then go to Whole Foods to get some food for the weekend activities.

Joe

Portland, Maine

We arrived in Portland, Maine after spending two nights at Sebasco Harbor Resort. Joy had spent some summer vacation time there when she was about 10 years old.  For only a $40 per night mooring fee you get to use all the resort facilities including the pool and showers.  On the second night there was a reception where we met the current owner,  Bob Allan and his wife Lori.  They had great food and drinks and it was all free.

Here is a picture of Madona and Joy eating some lobster that they picked up for only $10 for
two at least pound and half each. 

So at Sebasco the pool was delightful.  Joy and Madona were kind of trapped inside the pool area while a wedding was taking place just outside on the lawn.

So this morning we left Sebasco about 10 am and planned on sailing the entire way to Portland and get here a day early due to forecast of thunderstorms on Tuesday.  Was an uneventful trip until we had problems with the jib sail's roller furler.  The reefing line got wound up in the fuller bottom piece and it locked up. This meant we would not pull it out when we were going to pick up our mooring.

However we were successful in picking up the mooring and then Joy after we finally found the correct size wrench, 3/16" hex, was able to fix it, so we thought.  We had called the Portland guys and they came out.  Then she found a piece under the furler which was identified as part of the furler spacer which keeps the furler in line with the forward stay, and so off they went back to shore to see if replacement parts could be ordered.  Worst outcome is a new roller furler, best is a new part.  We shall see what happens.

Madona leaves Wed afternoon so we will be here for three nights and then it is moving south to Boston area.

Joe

Fogged In

Wanted to keep everybody up to date on our travels over the past couple of days.  Right now it is 7:36 am on August 24, a Thursday. We, the three of us, are at McGlathery Island in a nice cove sheltered from waves except for the lobster boats.  It was very foggy this morning so we are not leaving until the fog lifts or 9 am or later.  Heading to Camden, Maine.

But I want to go back and share a little about our last couple of days in Cape Breton.  Went on a whale watch trip on last Saturday evening  Only five passengers, the captain, and the guide so lots of room and chances to talk to John the captain.  Joy got to dive the boat for an hour or so on the way back to the dock.  So here are some pilot whale pictures

 

 

 

.  One of the last things we did was to visit Hopewell Rocks in Nova Scotia. This is where the tide change is 38-43 feet and you can basically walk on  ocean floor at low tide.  Please note that in the second picture, the ride rises 20 feet to get to where we are standing, and then another 18 feet above that. Google Hopewell Rocks to find more about this amazing place.

At high tide, especially full moon days,the arch above out heads to covered up by the water.
Amazing!!

Tonight we are in Camden, Maine.  We decided it is one of our favorite places to visit as everything is within walking distance and every body understands how important boating is to their community.

Tomorrow it is off to Tenants Harbor, Maine, and then on to Sebasco Estates Resort where Joy went as a kid plus dinner with Charlie and Sharon Albiston on Sat. night.  Charlie is a second cousin through Joy's grandfather, Ted Bush.

Joe

Back to Acadia National Park

We have returned from the wilds of Canada, actually it is very cultured, some places just do not have good Internet services and we could not use our cell phones as they cost $.69/minute on Verizon.

Did a lot in the last couple of days so this blog will only contain some of the highlights of the past week.

So driving around Cape Breton we stopped at this farm house and picked up a ton of fresh veggies including carrots, beets, onion, garlic, and met this lady, can't remember her name, but she came to Canada from England with her husband so they could start a farm. Which they did

Music is very big, both on PEI and on Cape Breton. They have CEILIDH, means gathering where people sing, play music, dance and have a great time. Joy and I got to go to three of these, one in PEI and two on Cape Breton. The music is very Celtic or also known as Gaelic. Heavy influence from the Scots that came over in the 1700s as well as the French, who became known as Acadians.  Big duel language issues at times.  Some town in Cape Breton are 95% French background.  Music was great.

So on our trip around Cape Breton we got to ride on the world's shortest ferry, travels about 100 yards or so across the river and saves 30 minutes of driving.  Was so fast I did not realize we had left the dock until we were almost on the other side.  Cost $2.25 with a ticket from the B&B we stayed at.

One of the places that Madonna, our friend from Cleveland, wanted to visit was Gampo Abbey in Cape Breton.  It is a Buddhist monastery. A very nice tour one sunny afternoon.

last picture, he is Joy and Madonna having an afternoon drink on the deck of the beach cottage we stayed at for two nights in Inverness, Cape Breton.

This was a great trip for us to have a chance to see parts of Canada we had never gone to.

Pretty sure we will be back some time in the future, perhaps with High Spirits.

Joe

Halifax

Today is the last day we will be in Halifax and have decent Internet.  Heading out tomorrow for Cape Breton and no idea if we will have wifi where we are staying.  But let us talk about the last couple of days for a little while/

Sunday afternoon we drove to Eldon, NS and stopped at the town of Orwell, or at least it was populated by people about 50 years ago. It seems that the entire village was turned into a national recreation area when the last person moved out and they closed the one room school house in 1969.  The authorities have preserved the Clark General Store and farm as kind of a living momento of village life in the 1800s in Nova Scotia ( or New Scotland). More about that later

Got up the next day and took the ferry boat to Pictou, NS.  This is a famous town in NS history as this is where the sailing ship Hector in 1773 brought 200 Scottish settlers to NS from Scotland, including William Fraser, one of Melody Gabriel's direct multiple great grandfathers.  We found his name on the list of passengers.  They had a tough voyage of 11-12 weeks, with many dieing along the way.

The town of Pictou built a replica of the Hector and we visited its park and museum.  Here is Joy and the ship's bell and a look along the deck.

Hard to image 200 people on this small ship.

Then on to Halifax, we arrived yesterday afternoon and are staying with Faune and Alex, the two sailors on Iolite that we met several times on our cruise to Fl and the Bahamas.  They have a dog they rescued named BOB, and he gets this cute tie from the folks who clip his coat

One of our activities this afternoon was to visit the Citadel, the major fort here in Halifax. Ran across this piper and learned all about bagpipes.

For dinner tonight we went down to the waterfront and took a ferry boat ride to the other shore and back, cost only $2.25 per person, both ways.  Found Theodor Too, a tugboat that is the mascot for the Halifax area.

Alex, Joe, Madonna, and Faune.  Madonna just flew in this afternoon and will be on vacation with us for the next two weeks in Cape Breton and sailing on High Spirits as we turn south.

Joe

HIGH TEA AND HISTORY TOO

It is raining a little, so I am trying to keep the computer from getting wet and still get the blog done for today.  We have had a great time here on Prince Edward Island, but now it is time tomorrow to drive over to the Eastern side of the Island so we can take the morning ferry to Nova Scotia on Monday morning.  Costs only $75 dollars and takes one hour versus the bridge fee of $45 plus gas and about a 4 hour drive.

Yesterday we drove over to the west side of the Island and visited the North Cape
Wind farm which had a very good display about wind energy plus a nice restaurant for lunch

On the way back we stopped at the Irish Moss restaurant and learned about Irish Moss, how it is harvested from the ocean, and the products it goes into as carregeen. Saw lots of potato field, green plants with white flowers on top. Here is a picture, the plants in the background with the white flowers are PEI potato plants.

  

We were travelling around Summerside, PEI and ran into the manager of the local Segway business, you know the one person electrical riding equipment that we rode on in Manchester with the Simmons College crew.  Anyway, he told us that he worked on a rotating house that was close to where we are staying in North Rustico. So of course, we had to drive over and see it. Here is a picture.  I am still trying to figure out how the various electrical and plumbing systems connect the lower unit to the rotating upper half. The house turns once every 43 minutes.  Anybody have an idea?

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1. Yesterday was spent in Chalottetown, the capital of PEI. It was where the first conference of the Federation movement was held in Sept 1-8, 1864.  The three Maritime colonies, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island met with a delegation from the Colony of Canada (the future Quebec and Ontario) to start to talk about joining together. One of their fears was the outcome of the US Civil War and wold the Americans try to take over Canada.

So at Charlottown's Province House they have an acting group that puts on a little play about what happened. Actually Province House is the capital of PEI and we got to see the chamber where the current legislature of 27 people meets two times a year. 

 We met the young lady actor before we got there. She had just finished doing a tour in the morning and we found here on the street.  She is a theater major at the local college.

PEI stayed out of the Canadian Federation for a couple of years and finally joined when they went bankrupt trying to build a railroad system that would connect the towns on PEI.

Then on to High Tea at Delvey by the Sea.  It was a fun experience, reminded us of tea in Devon, England.  Joy had the pudding and I had scones.  Here are two pictures of their presentation.

So today after breakfast, it is off to the Eastern end of PEI and another motel for the night.
Then Monday morning it is the ferry ride to Pictou, NS where Melody's family immigrated to Canada from Ireland or Scotland, not sure.  Melody was married to Joy's father for 20 years.  She lives down in Vero Beach, FL.

Joe

No High Tea for Us

I will explain the title later. Today was a trip to Brackley Beach, think I have the correct spelling.
Actually I am outside to get the better Internet connection, but now it has started to rain, but I am under the overhang.

This morning we slept late, like about 8:30 for Joe.  Finally got going and drove to the PEI National Park which costs $15.60/day or $40 for a week.  We went to a great beach with our picnic lunch.
More and more people came during the day, but we took two pictures to show you the high sand dunes and how red the clay is.  It is packed with iron oxide.

The high tide was shortly after we arrived so most of the time we were there it was going out

So now onto the title explanation. We were told by people we met earlier on the tour to make sure you go to High Tea at the Delvay Hotel in the National Park. So off we drove to the hotel after spending time on the beach.

HOWEVER, they cancelled High Tea for today.  Joy was really bummed out as she was really looking forward to having bread pudding with her tea.  It is the same menu we had in Cornwall, England a few years ago.

What was interesting in retrospect was that this is the hotel that Prince William and Duchess Catherine visited on their trip to PEI in July 2011.  It was a MAJOR deal for this part of PEI.  In fact they had a large scrapbook with pictures, newspaper clippings, etc about the visit. On the hotel grounds is where they had the dragonboat race and William did his helicopter landings. There were
2,400 guests on the grounds. 

With all this in mind, we are making a special trip back to Delvay Hotel on Saturday afternoon.

The house was built in 1896 for a family from Cincinnati, Ohio then turned into a hotel later.

Joe