Let The Season Begin!

Once again, we started our boating season with a few weeks in Plymouth.

We saw Queen Experience last October at the Spire Center and really enjoyed the show. I signed up for their emails and the April 25 show caught my eye, so I bought four tickets in December to see Tristan MacIntosh and Linda Ronstadt on our first weekend back from California.

Safe Harbor Plymouth planned to launch us on April 20, and I planned to have Peter and Paula join us at the concert, and for all four of us to stay on the boat after the show.

Unfortunately, two subcontractors hadn’t finished winter repairs and our launch got delayed. We ended up driving to the Concert.

But before the show we tried a new restaurant (for us) in Plymouth named La Baia…

La Baia Mediterranean Restaurant & Bat

It’s located on Water Street across from the Plymouth waterfront. The interior is hip, but rather noisy.

It’s billed as Mediterranean and the menu offered a lot of Italian and Greek dishes.

We started with an order of their bread service, which was served with a fine EVOO and very tasty…

Unfortunately, I had already taken two bites before I remembered to take a photo (a little out of practice!)

Peter ordered the Bolognese…

It was very tasty, but not really a Bolognese – it was missing carrots, herbs, and wine.

Mrs. Horne and Paula had the Scampi.

It was classically prepared and delicious!

I ordered the Lamb Chop Appetizer…

It was excellent. I traded one with Peter for some Bolognese and Peter got the best of the deal. Next time I may ask the kitchen for a quote a price to add one more chop – four would be a great meal.

The “ Sides” menu offered something I’d never seen before – Lemon Potato, so I had to try it…

The taste was excellent, but it wasn’t warm and the potatoes weren’t quite done. I would definitely order it again, but ask them to prepare it well done and extra hot!

We wrapped it up with their Carrot Cake and four spoons!

Tristan McIntosh Concert

After dinner, we took a quick walk up the hill to the Spire Center for the Linda Ronstadt Experience Show.

The Spire Center is such a wonderful addition to downtown Plymouth. It’s the perfect size to fully experience the show and the lobby refreshment concession offers draft IPA!

If I lived closer I would definitely become a Gold Patron.

First Night Onboard

Over the years I’ve learned that the winter storage and commissioning team can do odd things to the boat. Various techs may have worked on something in the forward utility room and accidentally shut off the hot water heater, stuff like that.

So Mrs. Horne stayed on board in Plymouth on May 1st, just to test all the systems we expected to work. The only issue turned out to be the Starlink, which reset itself to the factory settings – probably from being offline for six months.

East Bay Grille

Mrs. Horne wanted beef and I wanted shrimp, so we dined at the East Bay Grille.

The East Bay Grille may well be the most reliable fine dining option in Plymouth – although Salt has never let us down, they just have an eclectic menu.

Be advised that making reservations at East Bay Grille isn’t exactly straightforward. From what I can tell, they do not put Fridays and Saturdays on Opentable:

For years, I assumed this meant they were always sold out. Peter got curious and called last year and that’s when we learned about the weekend dinner reservations process.

We now know that they almost always have weekend dinner availability, but you have to call (508) 746-9751.

Dinner was delicious as usual!

Everything worked as planned that night.

The Marina was still pretty empty, but we were almost good-to-go. The only delay was our big upgrade for the season wasn’t quite done.

The big upgrade was to convert our portable DI Water System into a built-in (and easy-to-access) system.

Maritimos have a lot of glass surrounding both the lower salon and the enclosed flybridge. The standard way to keep salon windows spot-free is to wash them with soap, rinse with city water, and then squeegee.

One of the best features of Amazing Grace is the fully enclosed Flybridge. That said, cleaning the upper windows is quite a challenge.

It’s possible to reach them with a long-handled mop or brush from below, but the only way to squeegee them is to hang from the roof on a trapeze sort of harness.

I emphatically assure you, I’m not doing that!

You can rinse them with city water, but once they dry, you’re left with annoying spots.

The closest one can get to a squeegee is to rinse them with Deionized Water.

Our Onboard DI System

Last season I bought a system from a company called Pro+ Aqua that removes all the minerals from city water.

It’s not always as good as a squeegee, but its’s damn close.

Our Onboard DI System

We stored our DI System in the lazzarette, which was a pain to set up when the time came to clean the windows.

So for 2026, we have Dave (at Safe Harbor Plymouth) run a pair of stainless steel faucets from the tank in the hold to the port side of the aft cockpit.

With this new setup, we simply hook up the city water input and the DI output rinse hose and we’re in business.

With the final project completed, we were ready to run Amazing Grace south to her summer home in Onset Bay!

Next Up: Onset and Day Tripping