Picked up a mooring at Portland Yacht Services this morning after a short early morning sail from The Goslings. Were expecting to stay for 2 days to knock some jobs off the boat to-do list. However, after a brief look at the weather forecast decided that we should continue southwards to the Isles of Shoals the same night because we might otherwise be stuck for longer than planned. So we did real whirlwind turnaround with laundry, major food shopping and a few other errands in town (incl.

We're back at The Goslings tonight (a gfew miles NE from Portland) after a great sail from Christmas Cove (so named because Captain John Smith spent Christmas 1614 there), starting in light winds this morning and ending up beating into 15-20 kn across Casco Bay under sunny skies. This pretty much concludes our little "Maine Shakedown Cruise" which we greatly enjoyed over the past 9 days. We had some great sailing (incl.

... almost. We were one of three boats in Seal Bay, a beautiful anchorage on the NE end of Vinal Haven in Penobscot Bay (thanks for the tip, Mike!). Left Castine at 09:20 this morning and had a beautiful sail beam/broad-reaching in northerly winds.

Added a new photo album "Maine Shakedown Cruise" (see photo gallery link on the right). The picture above shows Nicky and Papa in North Haven, using the grocery store's wifi to check the weather forecast.

If you like moving pictures: Here's a short clip of Nana sailing around Cape Small, leaving Casco Bay behind us at last (we'll be very happy to come back though).

[%youtube*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ5Q44S2OCI%v]

Yesterday (Wed, 07SEP), Nicky's school year has started in earnest. Two days of weather imposed down-time in Castine provide a good opportunity to start settling into a school routine on board. After German and English writing yesterday, there was more German (picture above), Math and English writing today. We augmented the "normal school hours" by some fun reading (e.g. the Magic Treehouse series with books on the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving). Up here in Maine it's also very easy to tie in some colonial history throughout the day.

Had a great visit to the "State if Maine", the training ship of the Maine Maritime Academy that's located here in Castine. One the Academy's upper classmen gave us a very interesting tour. Nicky's highlight was a peak in the engine room (see picture below)...

A quick update from Castine where we tied up at the town dock last night. Had a very nice trip up here with stops in Casco Bay's "The Basin", Boothbay Harbor, Long Cove and Pulpit Harbor up in Penobscot Bay.

The Picture above was taken in Long Cove/Penobscot Bay - those knowing Maine's water temperatures will appreciate this as an act of bravery ...

Sailed back to Portland this morning to drop off Laura at the airport there. Laura may not have had the sailing vacation she expected but she sure will have a story to tell: Running aground (on our first departure down the Royal River - luckily lifted out by the rising tide within a few miniutes), towing a motorboat out of fuel off the rocks at Moshier Island (on our return to Yankee Marina), watching hurricane Irene pass by (by then downgraded to tropical storm) - and finally two very fine sailing days.

Namani is back on the water and we're finally spending our first night at anchor. After a relaxing sail to Eagle Island (former home of Admiral Peary, the Polar explorer) we spent the night in the Gosslings, a beautiful anchorage in the center of Casco Bay. Nicky enjoys the late afternoon sun in the picture above before going for a swim in the (nearly polar-cold) waters.

Irene passed through last night, luckily a bit anti-climatic without any major apparent damage around here. While the scene of crashing waves at the back shore was impressive at high tide last night, wind speeds recorded by a weather buoy 12 nm SE of Portland stayed around 30 kn sustained with gusts up to 36 kn, which doesn't sound so bad (see picture above). Against expectations we got very little rain from Irene here but there were floodings further north (see cloud cover in picture below)...