The Moon, The Water and Good Friends

Good morning,

Here are picture of Linda Jean and Linda Jean to start today's post.

 She hated being around water, she didn't like being in the sun because she burned easily but she loved being in a warm climate.

In spite of all of her dislikes, I believe that she would be thrilled with her name sake and appreciate the irony.

One of the shakedown cruises

Before anyone leaves for a big trip there should be many shake down cruises. Webster defines shakedown as, thorough search of a person or place: harassment and shakedowns by persons in police uniforms. 

If you apply this to boating you can understand why it is called a shakedown cruise.

On the 25th of September we left for Castine it was a grey day but motoring was fun and the waters were calm. We stopped at a friends mooring on Beach Island,  if we had motored directly to Castine we would have arrived after dark.

Beach Island

On the 26th we spent the day with good friends touring Castine on land and water. That evening we picked up a mooring nearby and spent the night.  It was so gorgeous and take note of the glass like water and keep that in mind for later on in the weekend.

Little sailboats standing at attention with the State of Maine training vessel in the background

Sunset 

Moonrise 

Sunrise

I don't think that I gave you the details of our trip in November 2014 to bring our boat home from RI.  I know that I told you I was petrified.  I couldn't get my "sea legs,"  had on slippery socks, was trying to stop the water from seeping through a plugged gutter in the window that was spewing water on the teak and cushions on the settee.  I looked at the other people on the boat and they looked composed and focused on the task at hand.  At one point I asked for a life jacket because I was sure that we were going to... suffice to say I wondered what I was thinking!  I don't know how high the seas were but high!

I bring this up now to put our trip back to Rockland on the 27th in perspective. We started out for home port in manageable waters and traveled between 7 and 8 knots. When we were further into Penobscot Bay the seas were rough so we slowed to 5-6 knots. On the trip home we had nearly 4 foot seas and strong winds of 20 knots. I am proud to say that I was at the helm the entire time.  I wish it could have been "smooth sailing" but what is important is the change in my comfort level since we first were introduced to Linda Jean.