We had a busy weekend in Maine and lots of fun. After spending most of Thursday indoors, while half an inch of rain fell in numerous squalls, we went to the Stonington Farmers’ Market Friday morning with Georgia. Later, Donna and I rode the Spyder to Blue Hill and bought some groceries at Tradewinds Market. While we were out, Roger made it back from his business trip to Albuquerque.

On Saturday morning, Roger rowed Donna and I out in his dingy to Tarpon, his 30-foot sloop. We rigged the jib and also tried to assemble the lazy jack but ran into a few problems – no big thing. We fired up the harbor motor and I putted toward the bridge over the Eggemoggin Reach. Heading into the wind toward Billings Cove, we put up the jib. I came about and we hoisted the mainsail. Roger had to undo the lazy jacks. The way we rigged it interfered with the mainsail. We’ll have to redo it another time. By the time we unfurled the mainsail, the wind died.

As we drifted back toward the bridge, the wind suddenly picked up. We were sailing!

I had the helm and had us on a heading of 328 degrees as we sailed through the reach toward Condon Point. When we were near the Pumpkin Island lighthouse, Donna took the helm.

Donna made the turnaround  at the bell buoy southwest of Buck’s Harbor. The wind was coming from the south-southwest. Heading back down the reach we had more speed. The thing about Eggemoggin Reach is the prevailing wind lets you sail in either direction without having to tack.

We furled the jib and lowered the mainsail as we got close to Roger’s place. We ran the harbor motor while Donna steered us to Roger’s anchor buoy. I adjusted our speed by taking us out of gear as we approached the buoy. We hit it perfectly with the boat nearly stopped and the buoy stick on the starboard bow. Roger was able to reach down and pick it up on the first try! We had been out for few hours and it was great.

Later in the evening, we went to an old house called Edge Hill. It was once a restaurant and inn and now is owned by Roger’s relatives. They had a party for one of Roger’s second cousins, Morgan. Roger has so many relatives and history in the area that it can be a little confusing at times. Morgan and her husband were celebrating their wedding anniversary and they had friends from as far away as Austin, Texas there. We stayed for a little over an hour and had cocktails and appetizers.

They were grilling chicken dinner for 55 people and had dining tables set up in the barn. But, we had other plans for dinner back on Little Deer Isle.

Roger’s neighbors Russ and Katie invited us to join them along with some extended family and other neighbors for dinner. Russ boiled lobster while Katie grilled flank steak. So it was surf and turf for dinner at Roger’s boat house. He has two houses on his property – one is more of a party house down by the water and they call it the boathouse.

We had good food and great fun. After dinner, a couple of people played guitars on the porch and sang.

On Sunday morning, I downloaded the Assen Moto GP race and it was a real thriller. Later we drove with Roger and Georgia out to Conary Cove on Stimson Neck east of Deer Isle. The property there once belonged to Roger’s family and his childhood home was there. It was built around 1905.

We met the current tenant of the house and took a short tour.

Inside the cove, there’s a lobster pound where Maine lobsters are being farmed. I didn’t know Maine lobsters were farmed. I’ve heard of farmed raised spiny (rock) lobster. It seems like quite an endeavor. They have pumps to keep the sea water in the pound from stagnating. It takes five years or more for a lobster to reach a size of one pound. I don’t know if they trap lobsters and introduce them into the pound to put on size or if they are raised from larvae.

On the way back, we made a stop at a place called Nervous Nellie’s Jams and Jellies.  It was an interesting stop with a bunch of old outbuildings on the property and a variety of sculptures by a local artist.

Last evening, Roger’s sister Sandra arrived. She had been vacationing in the Adirondacks in New York and will stay here for about a month or so. We met Sandy in Albuquerque at the Balloon Fiesta last year.

The forecast calls for cooler weather today, but it’s supposed to be near 90 degrees on Wednesday, the fourth of July. We plan to move on down the road on Thursday. We’ll make another stop in Bennington, Vermont for a visit with Donna’s parents before we start heading west.