And so it begins – Maine 2024

I wanted to spend the 4th of July in Boothbay Harbor, which meant leaving for Maine in June rather than late July or August.

June can be lovely, but with summer rolling in, it’s easy to get a storm front or fog bank without much warning.

Before we even left, I had set up both a Plan A and a Plan B. Plan A was to make the 65-mile run to Boston Harbor and spend the night in Marina Bay.

If the seas were favorable, Plan B was to sleep on the boat in Onset, head out early, and stay in Portsmouth, New Hampshire – a 105-mile trip.

Onset Thursday

Given the excellent Safe Harbor member discount, I topped off with 988 gallons of diesel Thursday afternoon for a full tank of 1260 gallons or 9,000 lbs of fuel.

Mrs. Horne had a two-day golf tournament during the week and wasn’t getting home until the midafternoon. We were adding new technology, so Peter and I met with the installation team at noon for training.

The new technology is an Augmented Reality system using an Nvidia GPU and a special camera to continuously scan the sea and alert us to potential threats.

The technology is very promising but clearly in the early stages of development – stay tuned…

The 1883 Lounge

Thursday nights at the pub in the basement of the Glen Cove Hotel in Onset has become one of my favorite things.

There’s a definite “Cheers” vibe in that everyone seems to know everyone, and strangers are always warmly welcomed. The bartenders are fun, the food is great, and on Thursday night the live music starts at 7:00.

On Thursday, we were treated with a new bartender, Shannon.

The live music was provided by an very entertaining singer songwriter named Michael Paul Brennan

After each song, he’d shout out to the audience, “What’s Next?” He was literally having the audience craft his set.

Never wanting to miss out on the action, I requested Rudy’s favorite Lowell George song, “Willin,”

Mrs. Horne became a full-fledged groupie, and I bought her one of Michael’s fan shirts.

Back on the boat, we caught a little American political drama unfolding on TV (that’s about as political as we get at My Buzzards Bay.

June 28 Departure

In 2022, the trip to Maine was almost entirely dreamlike conditions. Relentless ran a few ticks faster than Amazing Grace, and we enjoyed a couple of 100-mile runs between breakfast and lunch.

Unfortunately, our day of departure began as more of a boating nightmare than a dream.

The weather forecast was for one of those rare days when the winds begin strong from the north and then calm after noon.

At 8:00 AM, it was gusting at over 20 knots in Massachusetts Bay, and Small Craft Warnings had been posted.

There was no sense in rushing. Around 9:30, I saw the actuals from the NOAA buoys drop below 15 knots and set our departure for 10:00 AM.

Right after we left the dock, OBM’s dockhand, Tommy, texted me a beautiful photo of Amazing Grace.

I was still thinking New Hampshire when I turned north in the canal and reached to engage the autopilot.

First, the wierd weather, and now this! Amazing Grace has two huge rudders, and despite hydraulic power steering, working the wheel at cruising speed is a lot of work. There was no way we would make 3-4 hour rubs without the autopilot.

I immediately went back to Plan A (Boston Harbor) and reached out to Scott at SK Marine, asking him to meet us at Marina Bay.

Scott didn’t like driving in and out of Boston on the Friday before a holiday week and asked if we coukd do a pit stop in Plymouth. Scott is a great marine electronics tech and has repeatedly come to our rescue.

It was 11:00, and we’d need lunch, so I said “sure” and contacted Doug at Safe Harbor Plymouth to secure dock space for a few hours.

The northeast wind was still howling when we made the turn toward Boston.

The waves were only 3-4’, but the period was so short that we were taking green water over the flybridge – 25’ above sea level.

We arrived in Plymouth around 12:30 and texted Scott to let him know we were ready for the pit stop.

Meanwhile, we headed over to the Surfside Smokehouse for a little lunch!

Everything was great, but the fries were outstanding. They’re twice fried and tossed in a parsley and garlic seasoning.

Scott got us up and running by 2:00, so I set the course for Marina Bay. The forecast was correct, and the 45-mile run to Boston Harbor was sunny and smooth.

Then suddenly it wasn’t!

We were about five miles out running at 28 MPH in fifty feet of water when, all of a sudden, it felt like we’d hit something. We lost speed, and the steering wheel began vibrating.

Our hearts all sank at the thought of losing our Maine vacation trip and scrambling for technicians over the number one vacation week of the summer.

As we silently prayed, the good Lord whispered, ” Call Captain Tom!

Tom from Maritimo to the Rescue

As is usually the case, Tom (Maritimo America’s Director of Customer Service) instantly answered the phone.

I described the symptoms and said, “You may just have picked up something wrapped around the prop.”

He told me to spin in reverse with the starboard engineand watch to see if anything pops out behind the boat.

I instantly felt Amazing Grace return to full power, and the crew saw something that looked like a Clorox bottle pop out behind the stern.

I ran back out to Boston Harbor to do a mini Seatrial and Amazing Grace ran perfectly smooth up to 30 MPH.

All’s Well in Marina Bay

We docked in a slip, washed down the boat, and headed to the bar at ReelHouse for dinner.

As I turned in for the night, I had the weekend forecast on my mind. It was going from “okay” to storm warnings.

Tomorrow – Where will we spend Saturday night?