Camden , Maine , USA

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Sat 20 Aug 2011 12:50
SATURDAY  20th AUGUST  2011
 
Today is cool and foggy, but thats Maine, and like the rest of the world, their summer has been poor and
unpredictable so far, but it is warmer than Ireland,
There is a regatta taking place here this weekend, so skipper is thinking of entering " A Lady" for a bit of crack.
but will decided that later,
 
Last Tuesday 16th  , Skipper was still in pain from the blinkin dog bite to his right arm, but one has to continue,
The heat exchanger did not arrive at the boat yord, so we spent the morning pottering around the place,
 
Later in the afternoon, we had a visit to the boat by Jill Harrison and her daughter Grace,  Aileen met Jill a couple of
days ago and then we had a coffee with her in town yesterday when skipper was trying to recover from the dog bite.....
They are local and brought some lovely local produce to the boat where we spent a relaxing
couple of hours chatting before they departed for Horse riding and skipper and second mate took
off to the library and watched a Cowboy & Indian film by director John Forde, 
A great film for its time, but badly interupted by " Love scenes "
 
Wednesday 17th 
The weather was much improved today, but no Heat exchanger, so no repairs to be done,
We decided to walk to nearby " RockPort" well about 3 miles away, The houses along the way were magnificant,
along with the scenery, trees and of course the Cows, the " Belted Galloways"   these black cows with a big
white stripe around their middle looks as if it was painted onto them and resembles a belt around their centre,
hence the name,   BELTED GALOWAYS ,
The farm was called " Aldermere Farm" and naturally has lots of prizes for their pedigree animals,
 
After exploring " RockPort" we walked back to Camden in very hot conditions,
On arrival at 6pm or thereabouts we decided to have dinner in "Francine restaurant " where we bumped into
Micheal Flaherty again and joined him for dinner, a great evening with far toooooo muuuuch wine and cocktails,
The food here was terrific, really very different, skipper and micheal had scollops in black beer batter and
they were special , plus chowder to start,,   ahhhhhhhh yum, yum,
Skipper was blitheroo on the way back to the boat, but Aileen kept a watchfull eye for pots and things floating
in the water.... we survived another day............
 
Thursday  18th
 
Its a small world , We keep saying that, but here we are in Camden and moored beside us is " Molly Halks Shadow "
from home in Cork,
This boat belongs to skippers friend David Nicholson, and was sailed over by his son Eddie, well what do you know....
There was a thick fog here today with visability down to about 20 feet, even taking the dingy to the marina was difficult,
especially as this thing has no navigational aids,
And, AND, and, The boat yard had the heat exchanger,  so Aileen went off about the place while skipper spent the whole day
removing the old one and installing the new one,
By 5 pm, it all looked good, time to try out the generator and make sure everything was working properly,
BUT, but , the blinking thing would not start,  over and over, it just refused to start and skipper was stumped,
time for a mechanic, but its too late today, so tomorrow,,    Ohhh enough to make the "sheppard kick his dog."
 
Nothing for it now, so we went ashore to " Peter Otts" for a steak, and it was excellent,,
no drink tonight, ( I wonder why )
Aileen had " haddock " and skipper had a " Rib eye " steak,
An early night,
 
Friday 19th  ( Judith's Birthday , thats skippers sister, )
 
07.30 we went ashore , a beautifull day today and Aileen went in search of Mass while skipper scooted
over to the boat yard in serch of a mechanic, but nothing available today, feck.................
Skipper returned to the boat and cleaned out the bilges, cleaned and polished the timberwork internally
before taking the boat into the marina to fill up with water, ther he met Mike ( skipper)  on " Wind Dancer" a boat
that looked very much like " A Lady" and even had a couple of shamrocks painted on the boom and transome,
It turns out the owner is " Terry Daly" of irish descent, but unfortunatly he was not on board at the time,
 
5pm, we went to a reception at the Yacht Club,  there is a regatta on this weekend and were invited to the reception,
If we knew that we were going to be here for the weekend, then we definatly would have entered " A Lady"
in the event, but we thought we would be in " Castine " by now,,,,
At the reception we met Micheal Flaherty again, his boat " Namhara" is the commettee boat and we met lots
of others including Shane Flynn, from Carrick on Shannon and owner of " Wayfarer Boat yard and Marina"
 
Later, we returned to the boat and skipper cooked a dinner of stuffed porksteak , creamed potatoes, and veg,
simple and delicious,
after stuffing our faces with the simple food , we read our books, skipper , who normally never reads, is doing
this book called " A Full Cup " , its about the life and times of " Sir Thomas Lipton " , a very interesting and compulsive read,
 
Thats it for now,
 
Signed  :-   Stephen Hyde  ( Skipper )