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Well, we had yet another trip that was mostly motorsailing.  Even though we saw two dolphins and a seal, I found myself getting annoyed at the whole “Downeast” myth.  We have been going “downeast” (down wind) for weeks and have had only one amazing day of actually sailing downwind in decent breeze.  Chris chose a nice reward at the end, though.  He had found Pulpit Harbor in our guidebook, which is located on the north end of North Haven.  North Haven is one of the large islands in the middle of Penobscot Bay.

Chris rows to the other side of the harbor, the ideal location in which to view the sunset

We pulled into this quiet harbor and I marveled at how many boats there were and yet how very quiet it was.  There were people kayaking, people reading in their cockpits, and people on the shore, but there was a kind of hush that made me think of “Goodnight Moon”.  Chris and the kids kayaked to town and I stayed on the boat to enjoy some meditative time alone in the beauty of our surroundings.

sunset in Pulpit Harbor, ME

We all went swimming at 1800.  Chris dove under the boat to inspect for damage after I ran over a lobster pot during the trip.  He noticed a few scratches on the rudder, but more importantly, he saw that one of our zincs is completely gone and the other is halfway worn out.  Zincs are used as a sacrificial corrosive.  The sea water wants to induce galvanized corrosion of the metal on a boat.  Zinc corrodes more readily than other metals, so rings of zinc are screwed onto the bottom of the boat, especially near the expensive and important propeller.  I’m sure some of my sailor readers will comment here and help explain this better.  All I know is that they need to be replaced soon, which means all the SCUBA gear has to come out…

The next morning, we pulled the anchor to discover tons of mud had attached itself to our 150 feet of anchor chain.  Chris hauled bucket after bucket of water up to rinse the mud as the chain came up.  He was sore the rest of the day.  Wait till you see what our solution to that dilemma is…(and sadly, it isn’t installing a fresh water washdown hose)