Tuesday, July 10 – Saturday, August 18, 2018
Hugh’s cousins were in residence in both the farm house and the Pigeon House, so we stayed aboard KATIE MACK, and enjoyed taking various cousins and their children and grandchildren for “toots” up Somes Sound or around Suttons. Hugh rigged the BOB, our North Haven Dinghy, and eventually bent the sails on RESOLUTE, so we could all mess about in boats. This is an ideal spot for day sails because we can go so many different ways, depending on which way the wind is blowing.
as simply messing about in boats.” ~ Ratty, The Wind in the Willows
After dropping Annie at the kennel, we drove down to Yarmouth on July 12 in our car that friends had driven up for us on their way to meet family at Acadia. The next morning we flew out to sunny California for our biannual Dakin Family reunion at Drakesbad in Lassen Volcanic National Park.
We returned to Maine on the 23rd, and moved back aboard. What a wonderful visit with all my side of the family, but we never slept as well in California, on the hard, as we did on KATIE MACK! Also, while the mosquitoes were bad on land, we didn’t have them aboard, thank goodness.
Once Hugh’s cousins departed and his siblings, their kids and grandkids, and our sons arrived in early August, we moved into the Pigeon House, and placed Annie in the kennel. On the first Saturday in August, we tried to get over to Brooklin for the annual Eggemoggin Reach Regatta hosted by WoodenBoat, but the fog was simply too thick and we turned around before we made it out of the Western Way.
On a brighter morning we headed out the Western Way with Charlie’s fiancee, Kyle, to the east side of Gotts Island to connect with Time from DroneOn who wanted to film KATIE MACK from his drone. We circled the cove several times and then headed back to SWH. A few days later, Hugh noticed some fine metal “dust” under the engine. Hugh checked in with John Spofford, who couldn’t find anything wrong. He referred us to an expert mechanic in Pt Judith, RI. These 6-71 diesel engines are outliving the mechanics who know how to work on them.
Once our kids left, we moved back aboard KATIE MACK to make room for more family members arriving. At one point, we met Todd and Linda who keep their pretty little m/v TORTUGA in a slip at Great Harbor. Another day we took the Island Explorer bus to Bar Harbor to do a major provisioning at Hannafords to prepare for our next adventure.