Camden, Maine (again)

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Sat 17 Aug 2013 15:21

44:12.6N 69:03.0W

 

 

Wednesday, Thursday & Friday – 14th, 15th & 16th August

 

Wednesday started with thick fog again and so we made our way ashore in the dinghy with the handheld GPS saving our route back!

 

We got down to the coach station early as advised, but this was pointless as the coach did not start from this location, Rockland is the second pickup point, so we waited for it to arrive and would you know it, but despite everything people told us about this service and its punctuality, it was 15 minutes late. We waved goodbye to James as he set off on his 24 hour journey home to Suffolk and then headed back to the dinghy to fetch the large bag of laundry. Sarah headed for the laundrette whilst I took a ride out to Rockport to visit the dentist to resolve the small issue of a broken tooth.  Seems I had done an excellent job on this and so I was in the chair for well over two hours as they drilled, filled and fitted a temporary crown. (A proper crown would have required a number of visits and about three weeks…). But it all seemed to go well and things seemed to be delayed a bit as I was required to talk to various members of staff at random ‘because we love to listen to your accent!!”

 

Poor Sarah in the meantime had taken the washing on our trolley all the way to the laundrette and then hauled it all back into town to the hairdressers where she had an appointment. The plan had been to offload the washing with me, but we had not planned for me to be at the dentists for so long. We finally met up back at the dinghy and returned to Serafina where we found an email from James to say that the coach had in some way been caught up with a police drugs raid and so he had watched all the flashing lights and arrests being made, but this had delayed the coach so he missed his connection in Portland. The driver seems to have been unfazed by this and simply took it upon himself to drive his coach the extra 4 hours to Boston so that the passengers could all catch their flights.

 

Thursday by contrast was a beautiful day and once we had run a few errands ashore, we headed from the anchorage to Journey’s End marina to take on some fuel and water and then sailed in the 15 knot breeze up to Camden where we were directed to the buoy that we had booked for the next four nights.  We headed ashore using the yacht club’s launch service and Sarah was given a lift by car by Dennis (an OCC member) to the Grocery store whilst I headed to the library for an internet connection and then Wayfarer Marine to try to sort out a few technical issues that have arisen.

 

We met up again back at the Camden Yacht Club to catch the launch back out, but found Dick & Susi tied up alongside and so we sat and enjoyed a quick drink with them.

 

Meanwhile – our friends on Nimue had hit a rock at speed and done some serious damage to their yacht. The full extent was not known but they were escorted by another British yacht that was sailing with them to Camden and the plan is for the boat to be hauled here and inspected. We gathered from Wayfarer Marine that there have been 5 such incidents in the past week. We listened to one of these being played out on the VHF last week and that boat ‘Archangel’ is also here with her broken mast and other damaged bits.  So in addition to all the lobster buoys, you do need to keep a good eye on the charts for the unmarked rocks (no marker buoys) that litter this area.  We met Michael and Ann from Nimue just as we were leaving to take the launch back out to Serafina and so were delayed still longer. But finally we got back on board and we busy stowing all the groceries when there was a call from a dinghy outside and there was James and Patti from ‘La Adventura’ who we had last seen in Israel!  So of course they came aboard and there was no end of catching up to do, but as they are staying here for a few days as well (The OCC have a dinner here on Sunday) so we should have more time to chat later.

 

Friday was to be an important day as we had arranged for Wayfarer Marine to come out and fix our windlass. I had purchased all of the spares needed in advance as they are in very short supply, but we needed someone a good deal brighter than me to fix it. Lewis arrived promptly and set about working out what the problem was as well as figuring how to resolve it. We were clearly very lucky as Lewis turned out to be a very bright bunny and despite his boss declaring that more parts needed sourcing, he figured differently and he came up trumps and was able to rebuild it completely, identifying some issues we should keep our eye on for the future. It has had a long and busy life and there are some parts showing serious wear and these will need to be replaced before too long, always assuming we can find them.

 

Sarah spent the best part of the day in the library harnessing the wifi there, which is never much fun. This anchorage is unusual in that the wifi available is very poor which is frustrating as we are staying here for the event on Sunday. We also now have Wayfarer coming out again on Monday to look at the problem with the Raymarine autopilot. Not great timing and this obviously sets back our planned trip to Canada as there is no way we are heading off there without a working chart plotter and autopilot, especially as the fault throws the radar out of true as well in this lovely foggy land!