Hello again Family and Friends,

In the three years we’ve lived aboard Wildcat we’ve sailed to a few new areas but mostly traveled to familiar cruising grounds. This summer we’re cruising in virgin territory for us. Maine has 6,200 islands. Beautiful coves are everywhere. The tides are significant, especially when you consider lots of rocky ledges, swift currents, thousands of lobster pots, and FOG. We do not take navigating lightly Down East.

In Gloucester, Mass we had a wonderful stop visiting with our friends Betsy and Martin aboard Molly Blossom. They ferried us around in their car and we provisioned up. They showed us the Cruising Guide by Taft, Taft, and Rindlaub that is considered the cruising bible up here. It has turned out to be a difficult book to find, but find it we did. We had a wonderful visit with our friends and went to a first-ever farmer’s market downtown by the docks. The fresh vegetables, seafood and bread made for a delightful dinner aboard Molly Blossom. Saying goodbye we set sail for Maine.

The day was magnificent. We sailed outside of the Isles of Shoals and had a “Thar she blows” experience. Chris saw the whale blow first. Lucky for us this whale needed two breaths, and we both saw the second. Later we saw cute little faces peaking out at us from the water. They were seals. We’re already in love with Maine.

Our first stop was at Biddeford Pool. It’s a cute town with a well protected inside harbor and a less protected outside harbor. With the prevailing winds the outside was fine. It’s good to arrive at near low tide to see all of the ledges. It was a great first stop and a good provisioning stop if needed.

Then we headed to Casco Bay. Our former Seaford, VA neighbors, Charlotte and Don, live on Harpswell Neck off of Casco Bay. We sailed into their cove and their neighbor let us stay on his mooring. That first night we were treated to steamed mussels and steamed lobster. The lobster cost $6 per pound. Charlotte and my Mom are the most thorough lobster eaters I have ever seen, with Charlotte perhaps edging out my Mom. We learned each and every part we could eat on the lobster. What a feast!

The next two days we got a fabulous sightseeing tour and visited the famous L.L. Bean store. Happily for Chris and I we found the all-important Maine cruising guide. We visited Orr’s Island, Bailey’s Island, and Bath with the Whitman’s. We actually went out for a pleasure sail. When we’re cruising we always have a destination in mind. It was nice to just sail for the fun of sailing.

We said our goodbyes to our friends and head off to Sheepscott Bay. The Bay becomes the river and then you can take your pick of delightful coves. We chose Love Cove. In the cove a gentleman in a power boat came over and told us to take a mooring of one of his friends. How nice everyone is up here.

Some of you have visited our website and checked out where we are by clicking on “Where’s Wildcat?”. For those of you who haven’t looked there I’ll give directions. First, go to the website at www.cs.odu.edu/~wild/travels (The ~ is called a tilda.) In the left hand column you’ll see Where’s Wildcat?. Click on that. It will bring up a map and we’re located at the spot you’ll see called WB2LDV which is my ham radio call sign. You can zoom in and out using the bar on the left. What’s really neat though is the satellite picture. So click on ‘satellite’ and you can zoom in to see streets, rocks, etc.

Fair winds and following seas. Pam and Chris aboard Wildcat