13 Aug 16

I was rudely awakened at 04:00 by the sound of the mooring ball getting pulled back and forth under the hull of the boat and threatening to knock the anchor off of the bow roller. The flood current was running strong from the SW and the wind was blowing 10 knots out of the E, so the boat kept sailing over the mooring ball. Eventually, I could not stand listening to it, got out of bed and went forward to sort it out, which took an hour in the pre-dawn gloom. The problem was finally solved when I put the rudder hard over to port, effectively heaving the boat to. We finally struggled out of bed about 07:30 and were on our way again by 08:30. We motored the 8 miles to the mouth of the Piscataqua River in a very confused and lumpy sea and were tied up at the Badger Island Marina in Kittery, ME just after 10:00. We were in here two years ago in late September as we made our way south from Maine to Jamestown, RI. Our trip down memory lane continues. As soon as we were settled, we walked across the bridge to Portsmouth, NH and visited a few of our favorite haunts from two years ago: lunch at the Portsmouth Book and Bar, a quick run though the Portsmouth Historical Society center to see if anything was going on, while the Admiral was getting a quick hair-cut, I stopped in the Ri Ra Irish pub for a pint and a dose of the Olympics on the tele, followed by dinner at Bridge Street Bistro. We got back to the boat about 21:30, just as a heavy downpour commenced.

43-04.835’N, 070-45.100’W

14 Aug 16

I bailed about 6 or 7 gallons of water out of the dinghy this morning, so it must have been a pretty good rain last night. We breakfasted aboard, then went for a cup of coffee and a newspaper at Beach Pea; worth the walk. The dock-master came around and pumped out the holding tanks and the Admiral did a bit of laundry. Eventually, it got too hot to stay on the boat, so we walked back to the Book and Bar and had a long lunch and read the newspaper in the cool through most of the afternoon. Back to the boat for happy hour and dinner aboard.

15 Aug 16

We slept like logs last night and were up at 07:30. After breakfast, we walked up to Beach Pea for coffee and sandwiches and stopped next door at the Golden Harvest to shop for fresh produce; they have great, locally farmed stuff there. After lunch, we spent a bit of time booking berths and mooring balls for our upcoming critical parts of our trip down the coast; Boston vicinity in late August, traveling south during the Labor Day weekend and a couple of days when we absolutely have to park the boat up for 2 nights to get back to Boston to pick up our friends from Vancouver. It’s all done now; I only have the winter storage left to sort out, plus a couple of nights in the NYC vicinity. Man, this all sounds a lot like a schedule, which is a very dangerous thing to have on a boat. Good thing we have lots of planning fluid on board. Tomorrow, we are on the move again - planning on Newburyport.