Christine Fletcher

Maiden voyage of the Mollymauk after her lunch on Tuesday 8/19. We arrived at South Port Marine at 8 AM, set up the boom and bent on the sales. After trying without success to figure out the lazy jack set up we opted to proceed without this and we were able to depart from South Port Marine at about 1015. Navigated Portland Harbor with no issues, headed out between peaks Island and Cushing Island and set sail at a close haul. We were able to sell for about an hour averaging 5 to 6 kn and she performed beautifully. We encountered mild swell but much less than forecast, effects of hurricane Erin happily not as severe as they could have been but we still had some queasiness when we were down below. Wind ended up having a less favorable angle and dying down considerably and we motored most of the rest of the way back. We gave a wide berth to the heavy current at the mouth of the Kennebec and saw extremely impressive large breaking waves between fuller rock and Griffin head, happily none of which we’re close enough to us to have any significant impact. We came through goose rock passage at almost exact Slack low tide and did our first docking maneuver in order to pick up the dinghy without incident. We were in the car on our way back to pick up the vehicle in South Portland by 6 PM. It was a fabulous day, made particularly wonderful by the presence of Natasha Salvo and her excellent coaching and guidance!

Fast and furious haul out trip, challenging to land at Wrights landing but managed in the end, hauled out, unstepped mast, got home and found that winch cable on trailer had broken, happily with no damage and ratchet strap held boat in place well. Long late night, definitely makes us glad to not need to be doing this process again in the future!

Despite a questionable small craft advisory we headed out goose rock passage with a fairly stiff initially east and then south/SW wind between 10 and 15 kn, sailed for a time with just the Genoa. We enjoyed lots of excellent basking seal watching. Put out a stern anchor off the northern tip of upper Mark Island, didn’t ever totally hold but gave us enough of a pause to eat lunch and enjoy up close seal viewing before we motored over to the inlet between barters Island and Sawyer Island where there was a massive sailboat whose masts were visible from the opposite shore. We nosed in and got a good look at Maximus, hailing from the Cayman Islands. Then we motored across quite stiff seas to make it back through the passage and onto the mooring, landed on the dock at Robin Hood at 2:02 with excellent timing.

Absolutely gorgeous day, highly variable wind but a lovely sale out to Hendricks lighthouse, back through Ebenecook harbor and around the northern tip of spectacle island before heading back to Robin Hood. Several very close curious seals, multiple porpoise sightings, great company, a lovely day all around!

We left from Robin Hood at about 2 o’clock, brisk 10 to 15 not south southeast wind, sailed a bit in the bay before heading downwind through Ebenecook harbor and through the Southport bridge to Boothbay, disembarked in Boothbay at Hodgdon Marina at 5:10. Sure leave with Tripp to Shermans, pizza, ice cream, left Hodgins Marina at about 645, 100 yards from the dock motor started to run rough, less than full power. very slowly made our way back to Robin Hood, arriving in the last remnants of daylight. Luckily the tide was with us, and Rachel had packed a good flashlight. Christine rowed the whole crew back to the dock and then returned to the boat for a solo overnight on the mooring. Fabulous stars.