Merry Christmas

Eva's (Reinhart's Mom) precious little Candlelit Christmas Tree

It’s been a whirlwind of delightful Christmas activity and family gatherings. We are living in Gaissau, Austria, with Reinhart’s sister, Klaudia, her husband, Klaus, and their lively children, Adrian and Nora through the holidays. It’s a quick walk to his familys’ homes in Hoechst, though, which we make almost every day. Now we are headed to Ronko one last time for our anniversary and will be back in Gaissau and Hochst for the rest of our stay, December 30 through January 8. Here are a few pictures, but you can check out more (either today or in the next few days) at our my space page (you must be a member to view the photos) and our picasa photo page (viewable for everyone) at http://www.myspace.com/sailmaia and http://picasaweb.google.com/sailmaia

A winter solstice walk in the hills

The Krewsons host a family party for the Piuk Family

The walk home from the family party

The kids show off their gingerbread houses

Christmas Day walk to Eva's house

Family Dinner on December 26

Looking at funny stuff on the computer

Who knew we'd be so busy?

You think with having 6 weeks home with family, there would be plenty of time for blogging; nope. But we did think about it every day. We have uploaded oodles of pictures and a couple of videos to our my space account (you must be a member to view the photos) and our new picasa photo page (viewable for everyone), and will continue to do so, check them out at http://www.myspace.com/sailmaia and http://picasaweb.google.com/sailmaia

We’ve been spending lots of time with family. We started out our trip staying at Reinhart’s parent’s house in Hoechst and visiting his dad in the hospital. We later moved in with Reinhart’s brother Andre and his wife Tina, and their four energetic boys, Aaron, Gregor, Aurel, and Leander; where everyday brings a new adventure.

We took Reinhart's Mom to visit her sister, Beth, for one night at her vacation home in the tiny rustic village of Ronco in Ticino, Switzerland. Those of you who know us well, have heard us go on and on and on about how magical Ronco is, and it enchanted and renewed us once again.

Reinhart’s dad was finally released from the hospital and he had a happy return home. We filled in as baby sitters for Adrian and Nora, Reinhart’s nephew and niece from sister Klaudia and her husband Klaus, while Klaudia traveled to Strasburg for work. Adrian and Nora play a wicked game of UNO and we spent our rainy afternoons playing game after game. On the other rainy afternoons, we played Yahtzee with Aaron, Gregor, and Aurel (Leander just got to roll the dice every once in a while.)

After several rainy days in a row we were ready for another trip to sunny Ronco. We spent 3 days taking long walks with Beth and her two dogs, Juri and Lara, along Lago Maggiore and its rivers. We can never get enough of the beautiful Ticino scenery, so we’ll be making another trip there before we come home in January. Currently, we are living with Reinhart’s brother Juergen and his wife Elizabeth, and their two sons, Mario and Andreas. We’ll be here a few days before we move to Klaudia’s house around December 21.

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a brilliant New Year.

We got our original Blog name back!!

Please check out our blog at http://sailmaiatoeurope.blogspot.com/ and see our pictures on our google picasa photo page (viewable for everyone), at http://picasaweb.google.com/sailmaia

Happy Thaksgiving!

Better late than never, here are some Caribbean 1500 pictures:

Here’s the crew the day we left Hampton.
Top row L-R: Daniel (ground support and menu planner) and Captain Michael.
Bottom Row L-R: Mike, Mindy, Reinhart, and Jeremy


Our start was cool and sunny with light winds. This was the most we saw of anyone, by the next morning we rarely had a boat sighting.




We caught a mahi mahi (dolphin) along the way. Isn’t he pretty! Micheal and Jeremy grilled him for dinner that night.





We were caught in a trough right ahead of a strong cold front for most of the trip. This gave us light winds, flat seas…
and spectacular sunsets.




We had a brisk sail coming into the Virgins and crossing the finish line. A little rail meat was actually necessary.





The crew of Splendido has arrived in Tortola







Splendido took third place in her class!

After saying goodbye to Jeremy in Tortola, the rest of us went on to do some snorkeling at The Indians, anchor in the pristine (yet rolly) Trunk Bay on Virgin Gorda, and had an illicit after dark visit to The Baths.

We finally ended up in the US Virgin Islands, where Mike, Reinhart, and I said our goodbyes to our gracious hosts (GH), Michael and Daniel. We had a magnificent time with no tests of courage or patience.

Reinhart and I have been enjoying our few days home, seeing friends and family, and stuffing ourselves silly on Thanksgiving. Now we are preparing to hop on a plane and spend the last 6 weeks of our vacation in Austria. We hope you all had a wonderful holiday and we’ll be updating the blog as we frolic in Europe.

Back in Tortola

When we left the Caribbean in May we really didn’t think we’d be back again so soon, but here we are in Road Town, 7 days, 23 hours, and 16 minutes after leaving Hampton, VA. We have no idea how we’ve done in the rally; the organizers will have to pick up our log books and factor in hours motored and our handicaps. We motored less than most of the boats but more hours than a few of our top competitors; we’ll just have to see if our particular strategy paid off or not. Of course, some of the folks who didn’t motor much will be arriving in a couple days while we are getting ready to head out to a nice dinner out, so we are feeling pretty satisfied with ourselves at the moment. We didn’t have any rough weather; however, many of the boats in the rally encountered severe squalls. We didn’t have as much wind as we had hoped for, but our weather stayed beautiful and the passage was a breeze.

We'll soon be on our way to the BVIs

We had a wonderful few days home with friends and family, but now we are up in Hampton, VA scurrying to get Splendido ready for her 1500 mile passage on Sunday. I'll just write this up and eek out enough wifi to send it out.

All of the boats are equipped with transponders and you can track Splendido's position at the rally's website (Rally Class 1), http://www.carib1500.com/c1500/2007positions.htm. We've also set up this blog to receive automatic emails daily with our position and conditions; hopefully that will work out fine and not wreak havoc with blogger! We'll update you once we arrive in and settle in Tortola in mid-November.

Maia returns home

Our last few days in Annapolis were filled with friends and family. We said our goodbyes to friends and introduced ourselves to a few more. Kevin flew in to visit and Mom and Dad drove up to join us…and I hosted two dinner parties for 7 two days in a row! Seven fit nicely at the table; we can try for 8, but I may have to eat standing up in the galley. We met Kevin’s friend’s Courtney and Kate and introduced my family to Michael and Daniel. Dawn and Ron fed us once again in elegant style and then we were rushing to get out of Annapolis for the last leg of our cruise.

The weather wasn’t agreeable for leaving on Tuesday, but I can’t imagine it was much worse than Wednesday. We left our slip at Severn House in Back Creek (N38 57.69 W76 29.08) in the pouring rain and motor-sailed in the light Northerly winds. We spoke over the VHF radio with Matt and Gayle on Alisios, who were celebrating the first day of their 7 month cruise! Our predicted winds started freshening up in the afternoon and we could finally sail through the rain without the noise of the motor. The winds were in full force by nightfall and we doused the jib so we didn’t get down to Norfolk too early. The 25-30 knots winds weren’t quite interested in our plans though, and pushed us to Norfolk a couple of hours before sunrise, with a couple of accidental jibes thrown in, just to make me cry. We lucked-out once we were south of Norfolk, and rather than having to idle in front of the first bridge in the drizzle, we got to follow an Army Cops of Engineers boat through all twelve bridges and one lock! We motorsailed our way into North Carolina and just past Coinjock we spotted Renaissance at anchor; we stopped by to chat with Mary & Mark one last time as they make their way south. We anchored a few miles downriver in Broad Creek at 5pm Thursday evening (N36 12.16 W75 57.73). We continued our trip south on Friday; Reinhart at the helm all day, delighted with his new autopilot remote control. We even got a chance to pull someone off the bottom in the shallow and shifty Alligator-Pungo canal. We anchored south of Belhaven in the Pungo Creek (N35 30.81 W76 38.60). We left at first light on Saturday and were treated to a spectacular sunrise and a double rainbow to start off our last leg to Northwest Creek Marina in New Bern.

We are back in a slip in our old marina (NWCM F-25, N35 03.98 W76 58.12), where we started our journey last July. It will be another 3 months before we see Maia, our home of the past 15 months, again. So, it’s probably best that we are so busy, frantically packing up everything we can fit in Mom and Dad’s car. Neither of us are particularly in the mood for reflection; I guess that will come in the next couple of months. We definitely are in the mood to see old friends and family and then hop in Andreas’ car and head to Hampton for our sail south on Splendido.

Show’s over folks

(Blogger is having problems posting pics today, the good news is we will now be able to post videos...we'll try to capture something intersting for you)

It doesn’t seem like we’ve worked harder this year than last, but I did check out my blog posts from last year’s show and it appears I had the time and energy to write something every few days last year, and that certainly wasn’t the case this year. We had gorgeous weather this year, with a sunny and hot sailboat show and a breezy warm powerboat show; what a great change from last year’s downpours! The biggest difference from last year though was our social life; last year we had a couple of great guests taking care of us (thanks Emily and Nicol), but this year we were meeting up with friends every day. We spent time with John and Ron & Dawn who we met at Woodsback marina last year; we caught up with Arne & Bev who inspired us to cruise a couple of years ago; we had a pleasant evening with Sue and Bill who we met in the Bahamas; we had lunch on Ken & Judy who we met in Bermuda; and we stayed late at the show a few nights catching up with boat show friends we worked with last year. We were thrilled with a visit from Simon & Kristi and Greg and had a reunion of last year’s reunion.

Michael and Daniel on Splendido were in town for the show and had us over to dinner with friends a couple of nights. We can never get enough of those lovely evenings in Splendido’s cockpit with delightful folks. We were brainstorming with Michael trying to figure out if we knew anyone who could crew with him (along with Daniel, Jeremy, and Mike) down to the Caribbean in November. It took us a couple of nights to realize we were the perfect candidates with nothing to do in November and a hankering for another offshore run before we return to work in January. So, after we leave Annapolis, we’ll be leaving Maia back home in Northwest Creek, spending a few days with family, and heading back up to the Chesapeake for a departure on November 4 with the Caribbean 1500 Cup to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. If you are looking for a luxurious vacation this winter, consider chartering Splendido while she’s in the Caribbean http://www.splendido57.com/

Back to the present though, I guess it’s too early to say the show is over since Reinhart is out there in downtown working his fingers to the bone. Annapolis will be back to normal this evening though, and we will once again not be able to imagine where they manage to fit over 500 boats in that tiny area. There will be a finale party tomorrow night, which will be bittersweet since we’ll be saying goodbye to old friends this time rather than new acquaintances. It seems all of us are headed south from here; a few folks like us are sailing home to work for a while, while others will continue sailing to their heart’s content; we hope we’ll be able to meet up with all of them at some time or another.

Set-up has begun

We’ve enjoyed a wonderful week in Eastport soaking up the beautiful warm weather and catching up with our friends in Woodsback marina. Reinhart has been busy working on boat projects that he is determined to finish before our return to NC and our friends Dawn and Ron on Dawn Treader have been busy ensuring we are entertained while in their city.

The days flew by though, and we’ve already started setting up for the boat show. Reinhart left for work this Sunday morning at 5:15am, and I am here typing away until I start at 11am! Our boat slip should be available this evening, so we can get moved in before the flurry of work starts on Monday. Reinhart will be doing his he-man duties of lugging around floors while I will be organizing the supplies, posting all signs, gopher-ing, and miscellaneous running-around. If you come to the show, please appreciate the miles of flooring, and the hundreds of signs.

I can’t post any of our pictures as Reinhart has the camera with him. Instead I’ll attach one of the official site pictures and hopefully our next post will be able to show you a picture or two.

Maine to Maryland 2007

A lot has happened in the 12 days since we updated the Blog. We left Mt. Desert Island on Thursday, 9/13 and had a sweet spinnaker sail out of the park followed by a pleasant motor down the Atlantic to Cape Ann and another spirited sail into Gloucester on Friday, 9/14. We dropped the anchor once again at N42 36.6 W70 39.4 and spent a fun weekend in Gloucester finishing up any remaining lightning damage business. We even got a free night on the dock at Brown’s after we filled up with over 150 gallons of diesel.

We had a forecast of very light NE winds, so we were expecting a pleasant motor to Annapolis, Maryland. We left Gloucester on Monday, 9/17 and ended up quickly picking up to 20 knot NE winds, which blew us straight through Cape Cod and Buzzards Bays and down the Atlantic coast. We kept thinking they would drop off at some point, but even as we turned up into the Delaware Bay on Wednesday morning, we still had excellent winds pushing us on. We had to motor sail our way through the C&D Canal and down the Chesapeake for an arrival in Annapolis on Thursday, 9/20 at 9:30am. It was a 455 mile trip completed in 74 hours and we couldn’t have been more pleased with the amount of sailing we were able to do. We anchored in Harness Creek off Quiet Waters Park in south Annapolis (N38 56.12 W76 30.43).

Since our arrival in Annapolis, we’ve been reuniting with old friends and meeting new ones. We excitedly caught up with the boat show staff on Friday evening and spent Saturday with other Caliber owners. We spent Sunday hanging out with Ed & Eva aboard Makai and Matt & Gayle aboard Alisios. We met Ed and Eva on Friday and were eager to tour their brand new 2007 Caliber which they moved on to this year. We met Matt and Gayle last year and they had us all over to Alisios on Sunday evening for dinner; we are thrilled for them as they prepare for a 7 month cruise south. It seems everyone we speak to is preparing for an exciting cruise, just as we are nearing the end of ours. I get the idea this trip to Annapolis will rouse bittersweet feelings about the imminent end of our sailing trip.

We headed over to Back Creek in the Eastport section of Annapolis on Monday to anchor near Woodsback Marina for a few days before we move into a slip for the show (N38 57.96 W76 28.99). It was looking like we’d be anchored for the show this year, but a Back Creek slip is becoming available in October, giving us the opportunity to keep separate working hours and come and go as we please. We’ll catch you up on Annapolis before we go into full-time-boat-show-set-up-mode on September 29.

Acadia National Park one year later

We’ve had a couple of rainy days, so I can finally catch you up on what we are up to in Maine. We had a fantastic sail up from Gloucester on Labor Day and arrived in Southwest Harbor on Tuesday afternoon, dropping the anchor in front of the Claremont Inn, where we spent so much time last summer (N44 16.79 W68 18.57). We had another dreamy sail under Spinnaker on Thursday up Somes Sound and into the charming anchorage of Somesville (N44 21.71 W68 19.69). We were able to get a couple of breathtaking hikes and breathless bike rides in before our weekend trip to New Hampshire.

Saturday morning we rented a car and headed southwest to visit Mr. and Dr. Tombs, who were throwing a party on Saturday night. It was great to see Karen’s family again and the gang from the New England Handicapped Sports Association (http://www.nehsa.org/). The yahtzee tournament was in full swing on Sunday and before we knew it, it was time to hop in the car and drive back to Somesville. We always have such a good time with Kevin and Karen, and the Fair is coming to town, so it was hard not to stay a few more days in New Hampshire.

We spent a drizzly day in Bar Harbor window shopping, watching lobsterman maneuver their boats expertly around the harbor, and were also treated to the sight of the crew from the yacht Turmoil working on their helicopter! A rainy Tuesday gave us another chance to visit the village of Southwest Harbor, and Reinhart is trying his hand at rope splicing. We needed a rainy day or two, but we thrilled to wake to sunny Wednesday morning. We spent the gorgeous day biking and now we are back down in Southwest Harbor for a little wifi. We’ll be heading back down to Massachusetts to stay for a day or two before making the 550 mile trip to Annapolis. We’d like to be there by September 22 for a Caliber Rendezvous, before starting with the boat show on September 28.

Gloucester at Its Finest!

We spent Tuesday evening getting the boat ready for its 140 nm sail to Acadia National Park in Maine. We awoke to beautiful weather and perfect conditions. As we discussed our plans with the gang at Brown’s, they wished us luck, and expressed their disappointment that we’d miss out on the wonderful Gloucester Labor Day festivities. We had been hearing great things about Labor Day weekend, but really didn’t know what it entailed other than a delightful parade of lights. Once we found out that 18 schooners and countless traditional small craft were sailing here for a weekend of racing and cannon firing, we just had to stay in town. So, on Wednesday, August 29th, we made our way back to our anchorage in the inner harbor and dropped the hook where we were struck by lightning on July 28th (N42 36.6 W70 39.4).

We took a gorgeous 15 mile bike ride to Rockport on Thursday and spent Friday watching the schooners waltz in for the festival. The anchorage was starting to get crowded on Saturday morning as weekenders sailed and motored in for the festivities, and rather than touring the ships, we stayed out on Maia enjoying the growing mayhem in the harbor.

We had the perfect seat on Maia for Saturday night’s parade and fireworks; but we ended up dinghying into Brown’s to watch with everyone on the dock. An impromptu party cropped up, and before too long, the grills were going and the deck and piers were crowded with adults, children, and pets. We had a great night waving and hooting at the decorated pleasure and commercial boats followed by ooh-ing and aah-ing at the fireworks. The cannons were quiet by 10 pm but parties could be heard all around the harbor until the wee hours. We woke to cannon fire on Sunday, race day for the schooners, and quickly hopped in the dinghy and followed the parade out to the starting line. It seemed like everyone in the community was out on the water on this spectacular morning.

We are so happy we stayed for the schooner festival, it really is Gloucester at its finest, and it brought our 6 weeks here to the perfect end. Once again the conditions are ideal for a sail north, so Monday we’ll be starting out to Acadia for a Tuesday arrival.

We are still here!

Okay, we lied, we are still in Gloucester. We are leaving for Acadia National Park on Wednesday morning and will be there sometime on Thursday the 30th. We are looking forward to getting out of the city and doing lots of hiking and biking and enjoying the fresh air, but we’ll miss our friends here at the yard and we’ll miss having cell phone service and running to the store anytime we want.

So, it’s one more trip to the grocery and hardware stores today and tomorrow we’ll be tearfully waving goodbye to all the great folks at Brown’s Yacht Yard! We hope everyone has an excellent Labor Day Weekend, and we’ll update you on Maine sometime next week.

Back in our Element

We had a fantastic New Hampshire vacation with Kevin and Karen (Dr. Karen, that is)! They drove down to Gloucester on Friday afternoon to pick us up. We took the scenic route though Massachusetts to far more scenic central New Hampshire, stopping at the famous Ipswich Clam Box on the way. The temperatures were dropping quickly with highs in the 60s and lows around 50, and we spent most of our weekend at Wandering Bear Estate joyfully in fleece.

Kevin and Karen both volunteer for the New England Handicapped Sports Association (http://www.nehsa.org) and we attended a fund raising cook-out on Saturday at Mount Sunapee. The rest of the weekend they stuffed our bellies with delicious food while we played Yahtzee into the wee hours of the night…okay, more like 11pm, but we were tired from all that clean cool NH air. We enjoyed sitting out on their deck watching the abundant wildlife, but there were no wandering bear sightings, so we’ll have to visit again. They brought us back to Gloucester on Monday and the sight of Maia up on stands made us want to hop right back in the car with them for a few more days of fun.

The next morning, Brown’s was ready to get us back in the water. They had a long list of activities for the day and ended up starting with us at 2pm. No water leaked through Reinhart’s new through-hulls and the bilge stayed as dry as ever. Tuesday evening I was thrilled to have a working refrigerator for the first time in over 3 weeks. The air conditioner was also working great, but with highs of 70 degrees we really don’t need it. Wednesday afternoon they stepped our mast and we were able to confirm the wiring and lights were installed properly.

Its Thursday morning here in Glosta and there is still wiring left to do; a boom, lines, and sails to be installed; a couple more electrical installations; and at least one sea-trial to check our rigging and instrument calibrations. I can’t imagine that we’ll make it out of here before Monday the 27th. So, it looks like it will be just over 4 weeks from lightning strike to sail away condition. Gloucester has been like home to us, and we couldn’t have picked a better time and place to undergo such extensive repairs, but we are really ready to move it north to Maine before winter sets in! The next time we post we’ll most likely be doing so from Maine.

We're Yard Rats in Gloucester, Mass

Yep, yard rats, but you have to say it with a Boston accent. We are still out of the water, walking around the shipyard like we live here (since we do); looking like we work here since we are always carrying tools and boat parts around. We can give you our coordinates (N42 36.715 W70 38.99) since we have a working GPS (it’s a good shot in GoogleEarth).

We rented a car last week to drive across the border into New Hampshire (no sales tax) and purchase some of the items we needed; we later found out from our friends in NH that makes us massholes. Reinhart is busy as a bee installing all of the new electronics which arrive daily…in boxes…with lots of Styrofoam peanuts. When things first started arriving we were buried in boxes (and peanuts), the cockpit and saloon were full of parts and tools (and boxes, and peanuts). That is almost all taken care of now, the boxes are put away in the aft cabin, and there isn’t a piece of Styrofoam in sight. I’m not much help to Reinhart, but at least I can pull new wires through the boat when necessary. On Monday we had to take apart the boat to pull a few wires, and when it started to become clear that we weren’t going to get it all put together before dark, we started calling hotels. We lucked out getting a special deal at an ocean front inn nearby we could ride our bikes to. We had a great night ordering in pizza and watching cable TV. The wifi was even good enough for a long skype call home on Tuesday morning.

Almost everything imaginable has been installed now, instruments, transducers, navigation lights, antennas, the refrigerator compressor, the AC/Heat compressor, a TV, a stereo, etc. We are just waiting on a few specialized parts to arrive next week: the alternator and the electrical panel. Reinhart is finishing up the roller furling today and then Kevin and Karen will be coming down to pick us up and take us to New Hampshire for the weekend. We hope to get the boat back in the water on Tuesday and then we can start to turn on the water cooled systems to see if they are really working! We’ll let you know how it is going and how our weekend in New Hampshire turned out once we are floating again next week!

On the hard in Gloucester

Things started out just a little slower than we hoped, but it definitely seems to be going in the right direction. On Monday, July 30th, we were assigned a claim number. On Tuesday, July 31st, a marine surveyor contacted us and asked us to decide on a place to have the boat hauled out and the mast removed (mast removed?!). On Wednesday, August 1st, Browns Yacht Yard stepped the mast and hauled us out. The surveyor came by on Thursday, thoroughly inspected the damage and gave us a lot of hope that we would be well taken care of by the insurance company. Now we are just waiting for word from the insurance company that we can start ordering parts. We are expecting to be here for 2-3 weeks. I am starting to believe that 2-3 weeks is in marine time, and maybe they mean 6-8 weeks in the real world.

We started out pretty comfortable while we were in the water. Even though most of the electronics were gone, we still had our lights, our stove, and the water pump. However, Reinhart had to disconnect the house batteries on Wednesday to keep them from becoming completely discharged and we didn’t have those conveniences for a while. Once we were connected up to 110 volt in the yard we realized the microwave made it through, so we could cook with that. Most of our outlets are functioning properly so we can charge the computer and phone. The convenience store across the street sells block ice, so we can continue to keep our refrigerated foods cool. We have a foot pump at the galley sink for water, we have a little battery operated radio that keeps us entertained, and we have use of the yard’s bathrooms and showers. Reinhart found a way to connect the solar panels directly into the batteries on Friday, so we got back our lights, stove, and water pump; he just has to keep an eye on the batteries since there is no controller analyzing the charge state. It does appear that the batteries have not made it through this experience unharmed. If the insurance company gives us the go ahead, we may move to a hotel for comfort; although, Cape Ann is a big tourist destination, and hotels are somewhat booked up.

Oddly enough, Reinhart and I are having a blast. Reinhart loves troubleshooting and has immersed himself in research. He is looking forward to installing all of the new electrical components to his specifications. We have met lots of great people and are feeling at home here in East Gloucester. We’ve thoroughly checked out our surroundings and have ridden our bikes around the neighborhoods nearby, like Rocky Neck Art Colony and Eastern Point. This morning, we are heading out to buy ice. Later on I’ll be investigating painting the bottom while Reinhart polishes the stainless. Hopefully, we’ll hear something from the insurance adjuster by day’s end.

Lightning strikes just once, right?

We were going to let you know how wonderful it is to be anchored in Gloucester’s working harbor (N42 36.6 W70 39.4) or how great it was to spend several days with Mom and Dad while they put us up at Brown’s Yacht Yard here in town (N42 36.7 W70 39.0). We liked it so much, we moved back out to the anchorage and spent a few more days biking the lovely rural roads between harbor towns and enjoying the friendly folks of Cape Ann. Then we thought we might reminisce a bit upon our one year anniversary of starting this cruise (July 24th). Things change quickly, though, and instead we’ll be telling you about how we got hit by lightning on Saturday afternoon at 5:43:48 (one of our clocks is frozen in time).

We had been sitting outside for a few hours watching the dramatic thunderstorms passing west of us and enjoying the light show. Things had quieted down and I went inside to read and Reinhart remained outside and was just checking the radar on-line to see if any other storms were on their way. It was very bright and very loud at the same time, and then very quiet except for the tremendous ringing in our ears. While we were starting to figure out what was affected we heard a boat hastily pulling alongside and came out to find the harbormaster and his assistant getting ready to board the boat. You should have seen how relieved they were to see two healthy people emerging into the cockpit. They said a very large bolt of lighting hit the top of the mast followed by plumes of smoke rising from it; they ran out of the office and came over right away assuming that we might be hurt. I hadn’t really thought we were actually hit until they told us. It appears lots of folks saw it because our neighbors dropped by one by one letting us know how spectacular it was.

Some very important things are working just fine, like all of the through-hulls, the bilge pump, the water pump, and the engine; lots of other important things aren’t working, like our electrical panel, inverter, solar array charger, instruments, VHF radio and refrigerator. We are surprised by what has been spared, and surprised by some of the things that were taken out. Anything that was on top of the mast is gone; we found bits of our anchor light and windex on the deck. This computer and its charger are fine and our recently activated cell phone is fine (the charger was fried, but we had a spare that was unaffected). Luckily we recently purchased a back up mini inverter and will be able to charge the computer and phone from our house batteries and it appears we are still able to charge our house batteries with our engine.

We’ve posted a picture of Maia in Gloucester on Friday; you can zoom into the top of the mast to see what was blown off 24 hours later. We also posted a picture of the part of the anchor light we found lying on deck afterwards. An insurance rep should be out on Monday to start the process of getting us back up in working order. The harbormaster has been by several times checking on us and the local coast guard is also aware of our problems. I expect we’ll be at a dock for quite some time once things are looked at on Monday. Good thing we like Gloucester so much, I believe we may be here for a while. We’ll update you on our continued adventures in Gloucester and from now on, Chuck says you can call us Sparky and Flash.

Did I say Provincetown? It's P-Town!

After the gracious sophistication of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard to the south, P-town was like a zoo…a scandalous zoo, full of naughty and wicked things! Reinhart and I spent all day walking up and down Commercial Street blushing and giggling. We really wanted to put in another day of debauchery, but contrary winds are looming and we have to cross the Cape Cod Bay to Gloucester before unpleasant sailing conditions set in. We hope everyone has a great weekend!

On our way north again

We finally got up the initiative to leave the fanfare of Nantucket. We certainly weren’t bored with it, and we could enjoy the constant parade of boats & people and the sporadic fireworks displays for another week or two, but we knew it was time to move on. We spoke with our friends Mark and Mary aboard Renaissance and found out we’d be passing within 30 miles of one another and decided to meet up on Monday evening at Hadley Harbor off the Wood’s Hole cut from Buzzard’s Bay to Vineyard Sound. We passed Splendido on the way, and made as many foolish and unsuccessful attempts to get their attention as we could; hopefully they’ll enjoy their time in Nantucket as much as we enjoyed ours.

We anchored beside Renaissance in Hadley Harbor (outer, N41 30.9 W70 42.1) and spent a lovely evening chatting with them about what we’ve all been up to since last year’s boat show and getting more of their expert advice on cruising the northeast. The next day we waved goodbye to Renaissance as they began their trip back to CT and we dinghied around to check out the estates surrounding Hadley Harbor on Naushon, Nonamesette, and Uncatena Islands. It was a hot, dry, and calm day and we decided to dinghy across the busy cut to the town of Wood’s Hole, MA. We were thrilled to discover the town filled with the bustling campus of the Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institution (http://www.whoi.edu/) and even attended a lecture on one employee’s recent Antarctic Exploration.

Wednesday morning, July 18, we were off the hook gloomy and early for our sail up Buzzard’s Bay and through the Cape Cod Canal in the rain. We arrived in Provincetown, MA on a cold November afternoon and anchored at N42 02.4 W70 11.1. We had a rough evening of wind and rain, but at some point during the night it all stopped. It is a beautiful Thursday morning in Provincetown, and the lobster boats are all around us collecting their catch. We’ll be heading into land this later this morning and enjoying the town before the next line of thunderstorms comes though. We’ll update you with pictures once we get to Gloucester this weekend to meet up with Mom and Dad!!!!

Celebrating the 4th in Nantucket

It has been just over a week since we arrived in Nantucket; although, we’ve fit in about a month of activities, and we haven’t had nearly enough of Nantucket yet. Our days here have been a blur of cobblestone alleys, picture perfect shingled homes, roses as far as the eye can see, nautical treasures, and friendly nightspots.

One of our favorite spots has been the Nantucket Vineyard/Triple Eight Distillery/Cisco Brewery complex; we liked it so much that we left Kris’ camera there and spent another day there when we returned for it. The farm next door has a wonderful shop and serves up great foods that can be taken back to the Vineyard for a picnic. I’m sure Reinhart and I will be making another visit before we leave Nantucket, because our 6 hours of banter at the bars and lounging in the Adirondack chairs on the terrace just wasn’t enough. Our friends Mark and Mary introduced us to another favorite spot: The Brotherhood of Thieves, a bar and restaurant housed in a restored 1800s home, has the most charming bar tenders we’ve met on our travels. Our favorite night spot, though, is The Club Car. Kris discovered it on our second night in Nantucket. We walked into the crowded railway car, and Kris dragged us through the crowd to the back where a large group of smartly dressed folks were singing at a piano. We instantly joined in chorus and spent the rest of the evening tossing out requests to the entertaining pianist. It turns out he is just the weekend guy and the weeknight pianist has many things to learn from him, but still we’ve spent a few nights singing away and hobnobbing with Nantucket’s rich and shameless.















Kris rented scooters for us on July 4th and we headed out to the village of Siaconset (S’conset) to admire the rose covered shingled cottages just steps away from the beach. On the way there we tore though the dirt trails of The Moors and The Bog, a huge nature preserve and cranberry bog set aside in the center of the island. Kris and Reinhart had smiles plastered to their faces the whole time, and I just held on to Reinhart and kept my eyes closed to keep from screaming. We made it back to the boat in time for the impressive private and breathtaking public fireworks displays after dark. Once the fireworks were over, the large vessels in the harbor blasted their fog horns for several minutes as the rain we had been expecting for days finally came in. The rain set in overnight and when Kris and Reinhart boarded the dinghy for the airport at 5:50 am it was downright squally! Reinhart and I spent the rest of the day lying around and watching the rain fall and the wind blow it in every direction. Now that we are alone once again after a month of friends, we are falling back to our own unhurried pace and will spend a few more days checking out Nantucket before we head off to…hmm, where are we off to next?

Shots from Kris