Chip Ahoy's 2005 Maine Cruise

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Description

Early on the morning of Wednesday, July 20, Wally Riddle arrived and we loaded up Chip Ahoy on his trailer to begin the trek to Portland, Maine, where we would launch the boat.  Wally would drive the trailer home, then pick me up at the other end. We left Marblehead at 8:00 am and arrived in Portland by 10:30. (Jul. 20)

I'd made a reservation to launch Chip Ahoy at the Portland Marine Services ramp, and we were ready to go at by 2:30 pm.

From PYS I motored over to DiMillo's Marina where I'd spent eight days during last year's Maine cruise and had made reservations for two nights to ready the boat for the weeks ahead.  There, the EPIRB I'd rented from the BoatUS Foundation arrived on time and was brought down to my boat. As you can see, Chip Ahoy was in a league of its own among its neighboring brethren.  (Jul. 20-21)

The ship immediately behind -- which I later learned in Boothbay Harbor is allegedly owned by tycoon Malcolm Forbes -- is registered in one of the Marshall Islands, though it was built in the US and has never cruised further than Florida-to-Maine. (Jul. 21)

The first major waypoint on the way out of Casco Bay heading toward Five Islands Harbor was Halfway Rock, out in the middle of nowhere.  (Jul. 22)

I made Five Islands Harbor shortly after 5:00 pm and picked up a free yacht club mooring, eventually led to it by a member in a dinghy.  A nasty thunderstorm broke overhead just after I got the "pup tent" up.  (Jul. 22)

The next day I reached Boothbay Harbor and the slip I'd reserved at the Boothbay Harbor Marina, one that turned out to be incredibly temporary. This is a photo of the first slip that lasted maybe an hour and a half before I was asked to move to another, then moved again. (Jul. 23)

The conditions at Boothbay Harbor Marina were so temporary that the next morning I decided to move across the Harbor, to Brown's Wharf Marina and Inn, where they were to become too permanent -- but if you've got to find yourself stuck along the way, I do know how to pick'em. (Jul. 24)

I ended up extending my stay there due to various circumstances, primarily choice but one beyond my control when my cell phone died. (Jul. 26)

While so nearby, and since I'd rented a car to drive out to Brunswick to pick up a new cell phone at the nearest Verizon store anyway,  I visited the Hodgdon Brothers Shipyard -- where our old 60' Alder schooner was built in 1926 and someplace I've since always wanted to visit.  It's now called Hodgdon Yachts but still owned by the same family. They build one 100-plus foot yacht, two at the most, a year. I found only one old-timer working there who was interested in my story of our Malabar VIII built there in 1926.  (Jul. 26)

One of Hodgdon Yachts' previously built yachts, at the yard's private dock.  (Jul. 26)