Coastal Cruising: Bay Breeze & Aquavit

  MAINE SUMMER (If videos do not load on email, please use the blog link to view.) There is so much going on in our area of Maine in the summer. It’s like Mainers cram in a whole year’s worth of events into 12 weeks of great weather. Well, the weather is not always great, but it’s pretty good.   T he people of Maine are so welcoming and friendly. From a chance phone call to an iconic Rockport luthier, Nikos Apollonio, we were invited to his house for a delicious salmon and lamb dinner, and of course to see his amazing collection of instruments. He is a local legend and has credits for making guitars for folk performers, including maritime singer Gordon Bok, and Paul Stookey of Peter Paul and Mary. In fact, the next day Paul was meeting him for lunch. Apollonio makes so many different instruments from bouzoukis to violins to guitars (both 6 and 12-strings)  https://nikosapollonio.com . Marvin was particularly interested in his 12-string instruments. One of his st...

Safe Harbor Marina - Rockland, Maine Rockland Harbor - a hundred boats at marinas and on moorings We arrived in Rockland on July 4 after a three-day road trip on a holiday weekend. Though it seemed counter-intuitive to us, Frank and Pat gave us great advice on traveling to Maine on a holiday weekend. There was less traffic and no  road construction delays. By the time we were driving into Maine, the “Vacationland” crowd was heading home in the opposite direction. Easy-peasy! We have the same slip in the Safe Harbor Rockland Marina that we had last year, closest to the breakwater on an inside dock. A little dicey to get the boat in and out of, but doable, and dockhands are on-call for assistance.The new owner, Safe Harbor, a growing mega marina enterprise, has taken over and are making improvements to what was already a premiere operation. They even installed a custom welcome mat for us at our berth! While spending a few days at the dock, provisioning and prepping the boat filled ou...