Day 32-Aug 2nd- Vinalhaven, ME to Brooklin, ME

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It's very nice to wake up at dawn and feel boat rocking softly back & forth with the incoming current and listening to the sound of gentle waves lapping at the beach.

It's really annoying to wake up to the sound of the boom rocking back & forth with the current because I neglected to tighten the preventer line.Tha-da, thump, click. Tha-da, thump, click. Kinda like a dripping faucet. Then the dinghy adds some percussion to the music because I left it floating last night instead of raising it on the davits: tha-da, thump, click. Bump. tha-da, thump, click. Bump. A person can only try to ignore it for so long before jumping out of bed like a banshee and tightening all the offending lines. But luckily that's all it takes to restore the serenity.

It made me think about all the little things that are less than perfect about boat life.  There's a fine coating of sand on *everything*. Things always feel damp and take forever to dry.  Glare from the sun. Flies.& mosquitos. Conserving water. Minimizing power consumption. Sketchy phone & internet.  There's always something that needs to be fixed.  But these are all first-world problems, and more than compensated for by the scenery and joy of the trip.  Second Star is an extremely comfortable boat, and we definitely not complaining at all. Except about the flies!😠

I thought I'd share my latest needlework with you. I got the idea from a poster I saw, but the actual pattern is one I drafted.

Brent took Shelby to shore on the SUP this morning and they took the hiking trail through the hills.

And we had visitors over for breakfast. They had fish.

After a lazy morning it was time to get moving.  Our course today runs the narrow and congested Stonington Thoroughfare.  This channel is a narrow pass between rocky islands on both sides.  Add to this mix a very unreasonable amount of boats moored along the channel, then add a completely insane number of lobster trap floats. The result is a tight squeeze.

Here's a photo of Two Bush Island. The guidebook didn't say how it got its name.....

Then with a building breeze we sailed into Eggomogan Reach to take a mooring at Brooklin Maine, near the famous Wooden  Boat  School.  

After dinner there was a real treat: friends Jay & Lynne from Virginia came to visit.  They brought along Brian, Rebecca, and Kyle who Jay is crewing with tomorrow on a classy old wooden Concordia yacht in the famous Eggemoggan Reach Regatta. Also joining us was Leslie, a cruising friend of Lynn and Jay who lives nearby. Wonderful to see friends from home and to meet fun new people!  It has been more than a month since we sat around with friends chatting, and this little social event was a very nice reminder of our wonderful circle of friends back in Virginia and many other places.  We do love when friends drop by to visit!   


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