Update

Champlain
George & Sam Chandler
Thu 24 Jun 2010 14:13
43:03.416N  70:43.551W
 
Tuesday afternoon we arrived at Wentworth Marina, where Champlain will maintain a berth for the summer.  Once again there was almost no wind for
the trip from Gloucester to Portsmouth.  It is very strange to see an almost perfectly flat ocean especially when we had mentally prepared ourselves for
rough seas, cold weather and torrents of blue water running off our foulies.  It was fun anyway. We saw three more whales one very close to the boat so that
created the mid-day amusement.

We arrived outside Little Harbor, in New Castle, where the entrance to the marina was just at low tide.  Unable to enter the harbor with our 8' draft, we decided to burn up a couple of hours by motoring into the center of Portsmouth.  We fought the ebb tide going in but flew riding it out.  The city is wonderful;  great views, harbors, fishing fleets, naval yard and submarines, historic bunkers and forts, and miles of inter harbor and wetland and waterways.  Then there are the floats marking lobster pots everywhere.  You stear erratically around them so not to foul your prop, or their gear, but to anyone who can't see them, you look like a drunken sailor.

Wednesday, sadly Tom and Cindra departed, but not before helping us give Champlain a thorough cleaning and desalting from stem to stern.  Champlain is
just about ready to explore the Maine coast, hopefully we can bring our navigation skills up to a level that are as ready as she is.

George