As we peek at the calendar this week, we notice that we have moved beyond the halfway mark on our journey! In some ways, it doesn’t seem possible that we have been living aboard Thalia for seven months. In the same breath, though, it seems a very long time since we lived in our Bedford, NH home; the boys running around the yard with neighborhood friends. We talk of home a lot — missed friends and activities mostly — yet now this also feels like home and we acknowledge that we will miss this life when we must resume our land-based lives. In a way, knowing that we have passed the halfway point nudges us to now hurry to see all that we can in the time remaining. However, this life is supposed to be one of slowly taking in other cultures and enjoying the day to day.
While some ideals remain ambiguous in my mind, one thing I’m certain of is that I feel compelled at this juncture to do a highlights tour of our journey so far and, hopefully, bringing in some pictures we haven’t yet displayed of our past wanderings.
Come back with me to Portland, Maine … late June, 2006.
In the above picture, Thalia had just been launched after having been hauled from our home in New Hampshire about 100 miles away. She had spent the winter in our side yard as Tom frantically worked–literally day and night–to accomplish his huge list of projects to ready her for our year on board. Notice her mast has not yet been stepped, and that is our boom on the dock! Also, because we had extensive fiberglass work done on her deck, notice that there are no lifelines, or stanchions, no stern or bow pulpits and until a month previous there was no plexi-glass in the windows, no hand rails, winches or jib tracks. The items that you see on her deck right now are those we could put on before the haul from our home. We were very restricted on height for the over-the-road transport so we spent the first week of early July on the mast rigging and all the deck hardware. Then, as now, we were eager to set off for new territory to explore.
By the second week of July we were officially on our adventure. First stop, Boothbay Harbor to see our very good friends, the Withees! After lobsters, dinghy rides to nearby islands and trips to the terrific shopping areas we set off for points east. We spent several days in Rockland, Maine where a blues festival was being enjoyed. Shortly after leaving Rockland, we experienced what we refer to now as just “Castine”, as if it is a verb and not the name of a very sweet coastal town of Maine. This is where we were calmly waiting for a thunderstorm to approach and blow past before we were to go to town in our dinghy, yet were thrown off guard by a major weather event! While this was all over in less than probably 20 minutes, we had hail, frighteningly close lightning strikes and winds which continued to build and build until they topped 70 mph. At the height of chaos of this frenzied time period we were heeled over while on anchor by the strength of the wind, with the port-side toe rail dipping underwater and coming upon us was the sudden realization that our anchor was dragging and we were slowly traversing the harbor.
Completely humbled by the strength of Mother Nature, we tentatively continued on our journey “down east” while continually talking the kids through the recovery stages of our experience. We were all shaken by this event and it is to this date the most amazing display of weather we have seen in any of our lives.
After a few more hops between the great islands of Maine, we found ourselves at Northeast Harbor on Mt. Desert Island. This is where Acadia National Park is and we had a grand time here. We met a special family — the Windsors, from Colorado — went biking, hiking, sailing and completed our final provisioning prior to departing the US for the first time. Below are the kids atop one of the peaks inside Acadia NP… picking wild Maine blueberries for an afternoon snack, YUMM!
On the afternoon of July 24, 2006 we departed Northeast Harbor Maine for a destination of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia! Earlier in the day, a young man from a nearby sailboat stopped by and said he heard we were crossing the Bay of Fundy on this day and that he and his dad were also making the trip. We exchanged information and set up a call schedule to allow us to keep track of one another through the night. The name of their boat was “Alacrity”. In the coming months, it will have become common place for us to communicate with other vessels traveling in our same direction. It is a community in and of itself, with people willing to provide information, help troubleshoot an equipment malfunction or respond to more serious situations. It is the community we are now a part of.
Our memory of Nova Scotia contains fond thoughts of people we met and of the rugged landscape which must play a part in shaping the great gentle souls of Nova Scotia. During this portion of our journey, we began to realize that this 13 month endeavor of ours was to be as much about the people along our path as it is about lands which our path connects. Undoubtedly, one minute we will be silenced with the magnificence of the natural beauty surrounding us. Yet, what remains in our hearts, minds and souls long after the vision of the landscape fades is the impact an individual has made upon us. Having said that, here are some special Nova Scotia photos of the environmental aspect of our journey!
Above, Zachary on a dune on what is probably the only sandy stretch of coast from Yarmouth, around Cape Sable and to the farthest point we traveled in the northeast direction — Halifax, Nova Scotia. This is the ONLY day we swam while in Nova Scotia’s chilly waters!
Below, an early morning picture of the three churches in Mahone Bay. These old beauties are frequently photographed and I insisted that Tom wake early (as our resident photographer) and dinghy over for a good shot of them.
Below, is a shot of the Nova Scotian coast which shows its ruggedness. No where to land a dinghy here! I often think of the difficulty which pioneers must have experienced while settling this area. I’m sorry I was unable to get a closer shot of this town.
I had to include this next shot for those parents of young children. If your children were anything like mine, they developed a love for “Theodore The Tug Boat” which is a book series made into a public television series for young children. The stories always have a meaningful message and the characters are all the inanimate objects often found in the Halifax Harbor … Barrington Barge, Emily the tug boat, Dispatch, and of course Theodore. The Halifax tugs look just like their play versions and the city built a working “Theodore” which gives harbor tours to eager bright eyed boys and girls. My two sons begrudgingly posed in front of Theodore, claiming that they are too old for “this”! If you think Halifax is not for the young, think again!
We leave Nova Scotia with a photo that sums it up. Natural beauty often shrouded in a haze (or fog). One of the many very old light houses built on the low lying, off shore rocky outcroppings.
We returned to the US via Northeast Harbor, Maine. While here, we installed the new windlass sent here ahead of us and which we made due without after ours failed in Mahone Bay. While in Northeast Harbor, we again enjoyed Acadia National Park and accomplished some needed boat maintenance.
It has now become early September, the beginning of our third month aboard Thalia. As we plan our movement back along the Maine coast, we set our sights on seeing some of our old friends while passing through. We visited the Withee family in Boothbay Harbor then quickly set sail for Biddeford, Maine in the western section of coastal Maine. We were so eager to see our second set of friends that we didn’t make the wisest decision. We left Boothbay under weather predictions which called for substantial seas and high winds. We sailed straight through and came in to Biddeford near midnight while named storm Ernesto was causing havoc with the seas. This definitely comes in well inside the top 10 list of “Most Hair-Raising Experiences Aboard Thalia”, though it is no match against “Castine”. When we finally grabbed a mooring ball, our heads couldn’t wait to find a pillow. Early the next morning, we moved on to Cape Porpoise to meet up with our friends, the Skillins (whose two younger children are shown below.
On September 6th we left Maine, sailed past the small coast of our home state of New Hampshire and arrived in Rockport, Massachusetts. We are making good time now! The weather had been unseasonably cold, especially in the morning hours and we were looking forward to getting south of Massachusetts. But not before we stopped in Plymouth, Mass for our colonial America history lesson! Sorry, no pictures of this! Photographer must have been on strike for lack of overtime pay!
After cruising through the Cape Cod Canal with the current (which had us MOVING at over 10 kts at times), we passed into a choppy Buzzard’s Bay and made our way through Wood’s Hole Passage, Vineyard Sound and into Vineyard Haven on the island of Martha’s Vineyard off the southern coast of Massachusetts. Named storm Florence is making her way toward Bermuda and this seems to be the best location to hold over while ‘Flo’ decides what she wants to do. We move over to Edgartown for our remaining time on Martha’s Vineyard after our one and only rolly night in Vineyard Haven.
Finally, both the air and water are warm enough for the kids to get into the water! The last time they swam this summer is early on in Nova Scotia!
After several days in Edgartown, we stopped by Cuttyhunk Island and headed off toward Block Island. While underway, we learned that our engine’s cooling water pump had failed so we diverted to Pt. Judith, Rhode Island where we had a part shipped overnight. Thanks to our trusty dinghy serving as a tug boat, we made it in to Pt. Judith’s “harbor of refuge” without incident. Over the next week, we made our way along the Connecticut shore and into New York City. We had a lot of excitement while in Long Island Sound that can be reviewed in detail by looking at our trip updates page for mid to late September of 2006. Getting into New York City on a sailboat is certainly one of the highlights of our trip to date. We were moored along the Hudson River, a short walk from a subway station and from Central Park. We did and saw so many things in the four days we were there and we used the opportunity to talk to the boys about the history of this part of our coastline!
Thalia, below, swiftly travels south on the East River toward the Brooklyn Bridge with Manhattan on our right. What a thrill for all of us this was!
Fall has fully arrived, as it is now early October and we have sailed south along the NJ coast to the opening of the Delaware Bay. We rent a car for a history field-trip to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and to pick up our first guest — Grandpa, Tom’s father. He will be with us for 8 days of sailing up the Delaware Bay, through the C&D Canal and around the northern sections of the Chesapeake Bay before he leaves us from Baltimore, Maryland. After several days in Baltimore, we moved further south in the Chesapeake in order to meet up with the Englishes–a long-time family friend of ours. How relaxing to be on shore for a few days and to have the use of a car! Once we bid our friends farewell, we decided to take a trip up the Potomac to Washington, DC. Two days up and two days down the Potomac left us about five days to explore DC. I’m not sure we can take in any more history after New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, the Potomac River (and a stop over at Mt. Vernon, George Washington’s estate) and now the capital of our country! Whew!
One of the highlights of our time in Washington, DC for me personally is our tour of the Washington Monument. I learned that there is a great deal of art displayed on the walls lining the interior staircase which winds to the top. They stopped the elevator as it ascends and descends for you to quickly view the pieces. I would love more time to explore this national treasure. Here is a quote carved into marble that made me wish that the traits of humility, decency humbleness and philanthropy were of greater importance to us when electing leaders.
From Washington, DC we went directly to Hampton, Virginia to prepare for our voyage to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. Two dear friends of ours were scheduled to make this voyage with us, but a health complication for one of them made that impossible just three days before they were to arrive. So, just a week before their scheduled departure we joined up with the Caribbean 1500 — a rally of sailboats which race from Virginia to Tortola. This allowed us to pick up an extra crew member to help fill in our watch schedule.
Destiny just had it in her mind, however, that we would make this voyage alone as a family. On the third day of our 12 day voyage, our crew member required a medical evacuation from our vessel. Exhausted from the emergency which had consumed the previous 24 hours, we weighed our options. Turn back to the east coast of the US (minimum of 200 miles away & requiring us to cross the Gulf Stream again), divert to Bermuda to rest up and potentially pick up a crew member, or cover the remaining 1100 miles to Tortola ourselves. The forecast was for light winds and calm seas so we decided to stay the course. We all could have kissed the dock when we were finally tied along side it nine days and an immense amount of accumulated fatigue later. (I will write more on this ocean crossing some day, but this highlights tour is not the place for it.)
Here are some of the boats that made the crossing with the Caribbean 1500. We each displayed a bright pink flag so we could recognize other Caribbean 1500 boats and nearly 60 of the 70 boats involved in the rally this year were all in this marina, Village Cay, at the end of the race. We enjoyed several days of comraderie, story telling and friendship with this collection of people who made up our community over the last three weeks and who would be a part of our on-going community while we are in the islands.
From the date which we arrived in the Caribbean (November 19th) until January 16th we explored the British Virgin Islands and US Virgin Islands. Why spend so much time among this collection of six large islands and a dozen or small very small islands? Well, we have had one thing after another occur which has required our time and attention. Our refrigeration system was not robust enough for the warm air and water of the tropics so after having a company attempt to fix it for nearly a week, we gave up and ordered a new one to be shipped to us in St. Thomas. Once this arrived it took Tom three full days to install it. Our dinghy and outboard engine were stolen which required time and great effort to secure another one. Our son developed a medical condition which required minor surgery. On the positive side, we got to explore much of that great area and we had a group of Tom’s friends fly down to spend time on our boat.
On January 16th, we left St. John (US Virgin Islands) for Saba Island — about 120 miles. This was an overnight sail in rough conditions, but we were happy to be setting off for new territory! After our first night on a mooring off Saba, we discovered a problem with our rudder — we had absolutely no steerage. We spent the entire day developing a plan to deal with this curve ball. Early the next morning — with our rudder secured underneath us by a cradle built out of ropes — we were towed by a Saba fisherman to St. Martin, 27 miles northeast of Saba.
I have decided to not include many pictures of the Caribbean portion of our trip since those weekly update page were written so recently. Please see those web pages between November 19 and now for the photographs of the tropics.
Today is Friday, February 2, 2007 and we hope to be put back in the water this afternoon after exactly two weeks of living on the hard while a new rudder was fabricated. We have tried to make the best of this change in plans. We have taken in two movies at the local cinema, toured the entire island, accomplished a substantial amount of boat work and allowed ourselves to rest and relax.
Thank you for walking down memory lane with me. I hope you enjoyed it. Hopefully next week we will have some pictures of a venturing Thalia to share!
Love to all our friends and family. Stay warm up there in New England! Oh, and let us know how the groundhog makes out? Funny, but you don’t hear much about that character down here … wonder why?