Nice cruise, now back to finishing the boat

We had a nice cruise with a night in Pulpit Harbor, then two nights in
Cabot's Cove while a small front moved through. We spent the time
unpacking boxes and trying to get settled on the boat. Fay took
charge of the dinghy with her own 2hp engine, total independence! She
went ashore on North Haven, picked wild berries and then walked to the
market to buy fresh crab. Then I was treated to a great dinner of
fresh crab cakes and wild berries. This is the cruising life!

Now we're back in Thomaston for another week of work on the boat.
Miscellaneous carpentry tasks need to be finished, a few rigging items
and some electronics to be sorted out. We'll spend Tuesday and
Wednesday in Camden while they work on the boat, then come back on
Thursday to see how everything is progressing. If all goes well we'll
leave on Friday for another 10 days of shake out cruise.

We just got a CD from Billy Black with some stunning pictures of the
boat. Now that we have some bandwidth I'll try to post some of those
in the next few days.

First night

Last night was our first night anchored out. We're off Conway Shore
on Vindalhaven, about 7 miles east of Rockland.

Beautiful sunset as we anchored. Too many lobster buoys but otherwise
incredibly scenic.

And strangley we have intermittent cell coverage so I can get out this
message. Next is getting the sat phone email working.

Please excuse the typo's and brevity. Sent from my iPhone

Equipment failure

No, nothing on the boat, my computer died. As a result I've been
unable to post pictures from the christening party. Lyman Morse is
grinding through the punch list and we're planning to move onto the
boat Friday. Then we'll spend a day or two getting settled before
leaving for a few days of sailing.

The rain has backed off a bit and we've had several sunny days. Last
night we went to the Union Fair, a very nice local fair with 4H club
animals, lots of junk food and our favorite: the DEMOLITION DERBY! A
surprisingly small grassy field area contained by some fairly modest
concrete barriers that kept the spectators about 20' away from the
smashing cars, steaming radiators and burning tires.

The computer should be back next week so when we're back from sailing
I'll post some pictures.

Wow! Three days of parties and we're exhausted!

We were overwhelmed by the efforts of our friends and family to
celebrate New Morning. Many people came from California, up from
further south on the eastern seaboard, and even as far as London.
While the rain poured down (canceling some flights and causing
delays for everyone) we celebrated at the house in Tenants Harbor on
Friday afternoon followed by dinner at the Dip Net in Pt. Cylde.

But on Saturday the weather was glorious! The lighting was
spectacular at the Lyman Morse dock in Tenants Harbor where Caitlin
did the honors and broke another bottle of champagne across New
Morning's bow. Everyone toured the boat and the comments and
compliments were very gracious! Then we moved to In Good Company in
Rockland where we had a great dinner and enough wine to cause more
than on person to dip into the aspirin locker on Sunday morning!

Sunday the weather was more spotty with sun in Tenants Harbor, but
thick fog just outside Southern Island. We did venture out in the
morning and again in the afternoon, but the fog, lobster buoys and
light air conspired to make both trips a challenge. None the less
everyone enjoyed getting away from the dock and getting a feel for New
Morning when underway.

That's a quick report, we'll post pictures and more later this week.

The last 1%

We're moving forward. The last 1% is the most painful. We take two
steps forward, then one step back as we solve two problems, but expose
another. But in the process we hope we're creating a reliable vessel.

We spent three days on board last week and took a 3 hour trip down the
river and then back to Thomaston. We exposed some problems, but also
had a nice afternoon on the water. The weather has been pretty awful
with lots of rain and some thunderstorms. The upside is that the
heavy rains are giving us confidence that we don't have any deck leaks!

Fay and I are now moved into a rented house for two weeks, letting the
yard work on the boat while we prepare for the christening party on
Saturday and seeing all of our friends who are making the trek to
Maine. We'll post some pictures of the party and the almost finished
boat next week.