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"Adventure" N62-22 - David and Karen Crannell
August 24, 2006
We have arrived back in Jamestown, RI where we first arrived from Bermuda
and where we started our New England cruising. We cruised down from Boston,
staying on Cape Cod for two nights then to Block Island for two nights then
here. We picked up a rental car at the Providence RI airport yesterday, did
some shopping and I went to a walk-in clinic to get some help with flu-like
symptoms I have been having the last week.
Today we head off for the US Open Series tennis tournament at New Haven
Conn, apparently on the campus of Yale University. A Tampa friend, Lance
Ringhaver, has his boat tied up near ours and he will be flying up for the
weekend with our friend, Chip Webster. It will be great to see them for the
weekend. We'll be cleaning up Adventure then flying to Atlanta Tuesday to
visit family for two weeks.
We really enjoyed Block Island, reminded me of a New England version of
Bermuda. New Harbor is a very large harbor with hundreds of boats moored,
anchored and docked. Great place for hiking and biking. We did a taxi tour
with a lady our age who was born on the island and has lived there all her
life. She knew everything about the island and gave us a great tour.
The Admiral had an incident at Block Island. We landed in our dingy and the
dingy dock was full. When this happens you have to tie up outside of another
dingy then climb across that dingy to the dock. The Admiral stepped into one
dingy and it started to move away I caught her as she was falling backwards
into the shallow water by her shirt. Her feet were in the other dingy with
me in our dingy holding her by her shirt. We then had a minute long tug to
get her upright without getting soaked. She only got one cheek wet and
survived without injury.
We really enjoyed Boston. It's a great tourist stop. We visited the Cheers
Bar, USS Constitution and Boston Commons, did a trolley tour that was very
good. We'll go back again for a longer stay maybe in an RV. We'll also come
back to the Narragansett Bay area of RI to check out the many shore
communities along the bay. Maybe we'll even do all this in a boat who knows.
My Dad has been having some health problems and got a clean bill of health
this week as did my Mom last month so we are all very happy about my
parents' health, our prayers were answered.
Finished watching another TV mini series, The Wire. I thought it was very
realistic about what detectives do in big cities these days. Look forward to
seeing season number two if there is one?
August 17, 2006
We are moored right in downtown Boston. We had a beautiful day yesterday
cruising 100 miles from Portland Maine to Boston. There was no wind and
flat seas, a cloudless sky all day. It could not have been better cruising
weather. We left at 520AM and arrived at 430PM. Made very good time. We have
a beautiful slip. We had dinner with our broker last night and are meeting
with him today.
We'll do some sight seeing today then head for Cape Cod tomorrow. We'll
transit the Cape Cod Canal and stay at a marina on Cape Cod tomorrow night.
The weather is forecast to be good tomorrow then maybe rain Saturday.
We plan to go to Block Island either Saturday or Sunday - whenever the
weather is good.
All is well aboard and the Admiral is happy.
August 15, 2006
We are in Portland, Maine, the biggest city in Maine with 65,000 folks. We
arrived yesterday and today we waited out poor weather as a front blew
through. We rented a car and drove to Kennebunkport, the home of George and
Barbara Bush. They are definitely the famous folks there. Their 11 acre lot
on the ocean was bought by George's father and grandfather for $20,000 in
1903 - probably worth 10 to 20 million today, just for the lot I'd say. The
homes, there are 5, are worth much more. The main house is right on the
Atlantic Ocean and has its own cove. Ocean Avenue goes right by their
property so you can see the whole place from a distance. The land is called
Walkers Point. Lots of tourist drive by to see the house. Big guard gate at
the entrance. There's a house that I'm guessing is for the secret service
right on the property.
The town is your typical Maine tourist town, lots of tee shirts for sale.
We had a great lunch after our 3-mile walk to see the house. Beforehand, I
got fueled with a small Chunky Monkey Cone. We then drove to the Kittery
outlet mall on I-95 so the Admiral could get her shopping fix taken care of.
Of course she bought a pair of shoes, number 342. I think we only have 50 or
so pairs aboard Adventure. And a couple more blouses - we only have 60 of
those. We fill up all the other stateroom drawers with the Admirals clothes.
Oh well, she is a good sport and a kind Admiral. She does only buy bargains
and sale stuff and she has her own money so it is her business, It just
fills our boat! Not sure what happens when we sell Adventure. All the
drawers and closets are already overflowing with shoes and clothes in Tampa.
We'll be cruising about 100 miles tomorrow from here to Boston. Will be a
long day at 8 to 9 knots, 12 to 14 hours of cruising. We'll be getting
started about 5AM. Weather sounds good so it should be a good trip. We'll be
meeting with my stock broker in Boston. He has been the broker for a Navy
friend of mine since 1972 and due to the terrible results I have been
getting from my Tampa broker I am changing brokers and brokerage for the
first time ever, over 35 years in one place. We'll be staying for two
nights, right in downtown Boston. It should be nice. Hope to do the normal
tourist things in addition to the stock dealings.
Adventure is doing well, not many issues since Florida. The t-do list is
shorter than it has been in a long time.
We have enjoyed Maine and well could have stayed another month to see all we
would like to have seen. Adventure is a great boat for these waters. She
keeps you dry and warm. Dodging the lobster pots lines is a super pain.
There are pots everywhere where the water is less than 100 ft deep and the
bottom is rocky. It makes cruising the shallower waters miserable. We have
gotten hung up on 5 or so, cut one with the prop and made 10+ emergency
stops to avid running over pots. Probably when I next dive the boat next
there will be pot lines around the prop. We have spur cutters which cut the
lines that get on the prop but do not help with the pots that get caught on
the stabilizers. We have to remove those manually. The Admiral does not like
driving Adventure and dodging the pots so it is hard for the olde Capn to
get a break. Tomorrow we'll be running offshore in a straight line from here
to Cape Ann above Boston and will be in water over 200ft deep most of the
time so we should not have so many pots to dodge. Lobster dinners are still
expensive here. We got a deal at one restaurant for a before 6PM dinner for
$13 that was the best. Paid $18 for a lobster 1 lb + steamed claims and corn
on the cob yesterday in Portland but I may have gotten food poisioning and I
thought I was going to be wrung inside out this morning, Fortunately it all
passed during the day and I lived. The days of all you can eat lobsters for
$10 are long gone. The price to the fishermen is $5 per pound. The price in
a fish market is $10 per pound. Not that different than Fla! So we have had
a few lobster while up here but not a lot. With the thousands and thousands
of pots I do not know why they do not catch all the lobster and clean them
out.
We have been enjoying the start of football season. We are both big football
fans. Karen likes college and I like pros but we each also like the other a
lot. We were able to see the Bucs first preseason game because the Bucs
played the Jets and got to watch on DirecTV. We are still trying to sell the
4 seats we have for all the Bucs games up to November.
Aug 12, 2006
We are now in Rockland Maine. We attended the Maine Boat Show today and
looked at a PDQ Power Cat which could be our next boat. PDQ has a trip for
20 of their boats to be shipped to the Baltic next summer for cruising. That
would be lots of fun. We can not own another boat until we sell the one we
have however.
A couple more Nordhavn 62's have come on the market which is not good for us
selling Adventure. When we listed Adventure we were number 3 now 5 are for
sale. We are having Adventure in the Trawler Fest late Sept in Solomon,
Maryland. Hopefully she'll sell this year but who knows. If she does not
sell we'll have her until she does and cruise her next year maybe to Bahamas
for spring/ early summer then Tennessee for hurricane season.
We are buying an RV lot in Northern Michigan in Traverse City which will be
somewhat near Wendi, Todd and Ryne so that will be nice for the future. We
currently own two RV lots in Florida.
Maine has really been nice. The cooler weather has been great and we have
not had too much rain. The bugs are not too bad usually. August is supposed
to be a great time of year and it looks that way to us. We were in Castine
for a couple of days. When we first arrived we did not think too much of the
town but after lots of walking and touring we decided we knew why people
liked it there. A nice community, centered around Castine's over 400 year
history and its being home to the Maine Maritime Academy. We toured the
Academy's 400 ft. long training ship State of Maine which was really neat
and attended a concert by the Castine Town Band. Castine was sort of one of
the first "towns" in New England, lots of history of wars and forts. They
have signs everywhere describing events and people from the past. We have
been sampling ice cream around Maine and Castine had the best Moose Tracks.
We visited Camden--really good tourist place, Pulpit Harbor great cruiser
anchorage, Seal Bay our favorite place in Maine- an isolated pristine spot
great for kayaking, and best of all we spent over a week around Acadia
National Park in Southwest Harbor/Bar Harbor and Little Cranberry Island.
Acadia is a great park for hiking and biking. Bar Harbor is a touristy town
like Gatlinburg Tenn. LL Bean sponsors free buses that take you and your
bike all over the park. We got our bikes out and biked so much that Karen
had a enough. We did several neat hikes. We have hiked most places when we
could go ashore. We have been towing the dingy as we have been in fairly
protected waters.
We have now started heading back to Newport Rhode Island. We'll arrive there
about Aug 23. We are going to attend the US Open prelim tournament in Conn
on Aug 24th then get Adventure and the cats ready for us being gone from Aug
29th until Sept 12th. We are heading back to Booth Bay Harbor tomorrow and
will take on fuel there, (first fuel buy since Ft Lauderdale, we are down to
450 gallons aboard) then back down the coast with a stop in Boston. We plan
to spend a couple of nights on Block Island off the coast of RI before
heading back to port in Jamestown.
August 6, 2006
We are in Bar Harbor, Maine. Very touristy town. The gateway to Acadia
National Park. Acadia is a great park. Lots to do. We have been attracted to
Bar Harbor so we can take advantage of what Acadia has to offer from our
boat. We have been bike riding and hiking and have ridden all 8 of the free
bus routes to see the park. LL Bean donates over $1,000,000 per year to pay
for the buses. The buses are great if you do not have a car. They also have
special bike transports that take you and your bike to some great riding
areas. Many, many motels and campgrounds in the area. Many different harbors
to anchor or moor in while visiting the park. Bar Harbor is not that popular
of a yacht anchorage because it is not very protected from the sea and its
waves. Fortunately we have had calm weather.
We are moored near "Floridian", the yacht owned by Wayne Huizenga, owner of
the Miami Dolphins. It is one of the really big yachts with its own jet helo
and many water toys. His guests are having a ball riding all the jet skis
and boats.
The Admiral got her hair cut yesterday and I rode some more bus routes, then
we both rode a route. We plan to go biking today. One bike is in good shape
and one in not so good shape. We'll try to get one fixed today in town.
We went grocery shopping two days ago and loaded up. Hanaford is the big
grocery chain in Maine. They are pretty good and are the only game in each
town we have been to. Maine is not big on national chains so all the
groceries/banks/hardware etc are local companies.
Aug. 5, 2006
It has been a month and a week since the last update. We have done a lot in
these past 5 weeks.
Sandy and Max Ramos left Adventure and flew to Colorado where they had a
great time. They are now back in the Tampa Bay area working. They may be
retiring at the end of this year. We had a great time with them aboard as we
did with all 7 groups of guests this year. Having the different group of
guest/crew on the various legs worked very well for us and the guest/crew
seemed to enjoy themselves. We have been alone since we returned to
Adventure July 13th and have enjoyed cruising just the two of us. The
Admiral says I am getting whipped into pretty good shape.
We visited Holli/Taylor and Taylor's parents over July 4th in Fairhope, Al
outside of Mobile. Had a great time in the laid back rapidly growing area. I
had my first hair cut since Feb. The Admiral insisted. Was at the local
Fairhope barber and I got my money's worth.
We have decided to put Adventure up for sale and cleaned her up and
decluttered her really well before leaving her for Fairhope. On the way to
Boston's Logan airport we drove through the infamous Big Dig/Ted Williams
tunnel before it had been closed. What a mess now with the tunnel closed
when going to and from Logan Airport to Boston. Adventure is now for sale on
the Nordhavn and Yachtworld web sites. She is looking good. One of the
lookers wanted to know if the owner was a surgeon as the boat was so clean!
Following our visit to Fairhope, we had a great visit with Wendi/Todd and
Ryne. Ryne had really changed alot since I last saw him in January. He was
talking lots more and moving around a lot better. We especially notieced
this when we took him to an indoor McDonald's playground which we had also
done in January. He was much more into things this time around. He is 2 1/2.
With us he is very well behaved and seems very smart, he is very mechanical
and loves trains, cars, NASCAR, football and baseball. He is the greatest
surprise I have ever had as to how special he is and how important he is to
both of us. His parents are very generous in sharing him with us. Since they
both work the Admiral and I get to spend a lot of time with him by ourselves
which is a lot different than being with him when Mom and Dad are around.
The Admiral as usual spends a lot of time whipping him into shape. He calls
her Ninny and me, Pa Pa. Pa Pa tends to let him have very wide boundaries
which is often not too popular with the Admiral and Mom and Dad. He just got
his new swing set set up at their new house and he is a happy boy. We'll be
seeing him again right after Labor Day for another week.
We have been to many neat places since leaving Newport and heading North to
Maine. We visited Nantuckett, Martha's Vineyard, transited Cape Cod Canal,
Marblehead/ Salem Ma, Wentworth by the Sea Marriott Resort in Ma, Portsmouth
NH, Portland/Falmouth/South Freeport, ME, LL Bean in South Freeport, Booth
Bay Harbor, ME, Christmas Cove, ME, Camden, ME, Pulpit Harbor on North Haven
Island, ME and tonight we are in Seal Harbor off of Vinalhaven Island, ME.
As we have continued north we have gotten more away from dense cities which
we like. We finally were able to anchor vs docking or being on a mooring the
last 3 nights in Pulpit Harbor. We took to bikes ashore and rode yesterday
and took them to church this morning in North Haven. All the church goers
were well dressed and we were in very casual stuff which is all we have so
we laid low. It was amazing the bikes worked since they had not been out of
their bags since Alaska last summer. They are 6 years old and showing their
age but they are OK.
We'll continue to head north but not leave Maine. We will be back in
Newport, RI Aug. 26th prior to flying to Atlanta for Labor Day on Aug 29th.
We have gotten the kayaks out and had several good days of kayaking, very
good exercise. Have not done any fishing and do not plan to... too messy.
Adventure has been doing well. One of the fuel injectors is leaking which is
tomorrow's project. We have been cleaning and polishing when ever possible.
So life is good, Maine is great.
For more details, click here for "Adventure's" website
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