Coastal Cruising: Bay Breeze & Aquavit

  Tropicbird This is the 35th anniversary of a Thanksgiving that we hold very special.  It was November 21-23, 1988. In our 37-year career, it was rare that we took a dedicated vacation. Running a small mom-and-pop company limited the time we could be away from our business. We might take an extra day tagged onto a work trip or a long weekend to visit family in South Florida. But, that really wasn't recreation time. Besides, we traveled so much to so many wonderful places, we never felt the need to take time off to change the scenery. But, we did long for more time to cruise on our sailboat. Our  Tropicbird,  a 1960 Pearson Triton, was a well-found sailboat. We became her caretaker in 1979. The fabled classic Triton was a Carl Alberg designed, heavy displacement craft, full keel with a four foot draft. We worked to refit and upgrade  Tropicbird  and invested much sweat equity and funds. In 1985 we repowered with a Westerbeke diesel. A few years of neglect b...

That’s a wrap! Maine is in the can.  The end of our summer season in Maine had much better weather than our start. The frequent fog, rain, and wind that kept us mostly at the dock changed to on-and-off-again wonderful weather, alternating with rain and fog. ROAD TRIPS! We decided to take some road trips during the times that boating would not be good. During the first week of August, we drove to Rockland for the first day of the Maine Lobster Festival. The festival wasn’t crowded, making it enjoyable to see the local celebration, even if it was a little wet. Gardens! Birds, Blossoms, and Butterflies, Oh my! During another spell when water activities were limited we headed off to Canada to see Petticodiac, New Brunswick, a place where Marvin's great-grandparents lived for a while in the turn of the last century, and near a place where distant ancestors had lived at the head of the Bay of Fundy. The buildings on the main street (Kay St.) sported murals showing the town's...