Southwest Harbour Maine 1
Shelduck
Neil Hegarty
Tue 30 Jun 2015 15:08
Sunday June 28th
Monday 22nd Anne, Patricia and I were still living on Shelduck on the hard.
Anne and Patricia went to visit Martha's Vineyard for the day on the ferry
which left from nearby the boatyard. They took a guided bus tour of the
island which they'd both enjoyed very much. I prepared a list of works for
Shelduck to be completed while I was away.
On Tuesday I met Shelduck's boatyard manager, Stephanie Elliot and asked
her if we could store Shelduck at MacDougalls for the summer. I also asked
if storage over the winter was available as the yard seemed to be good and I
had got to know many of the people working there. We had burned out the pump
in the fridge by using it ashore, something I was not aware could happen.
You cannot use the fridge on Shelduck when she is out of the water. The hot
water boiler also gave up because of age. Two things to be repaired before
we return in September.
Anne and Patricia spent the day cleaning the boat and washing bed covers and
bedclothes and also took the rugs and seat covers to the dry cleaners.
Wednesday was a very busy day putting everything back together again. Over
lunch Micheal Meehan of the boatyard's ships store drove me to a hardware
where I filled a bottle of propane. Thank you Michael.
At 09.00 on Thursday we were packed and ready when the taxi arrived to take
us to the small airport in Hyannis where John Treanor was waiting complete
with aeroplane to to fly us to his home in Southwest Harbour Maine. The
flight took a hour including a tour over his house and the harbour. His
wife Mary had a wonderful Maine lobster lunch prepared and we dined at their
home that evening. During the afternoon I went with John to visit the
Hinkley boat yard nearby to see John's boat Wiki Wiki which was being
prepared to be launched on Monday next.
Southwest Harbour is on Mount Desert Island at 104 square miles, the largest
island off the coast of Maine. Most of Acadia National Park is on Mount
Desert Island. We visited the park on Friday after lunch at Bass Harbour.
John drove us through the park to the summit of Cadillac Mountain, 466m
above sea level. It was a beautiful clear day so the views over the nearby
islands and sea were stunning. That evening we joined Richard and Temple,
two friends of John and Mary, on the seasons opening night at a restaurant
serving Mexican food.
Saturday was another lovely day and Patricia went sailing in the Treanor
family dinghy, a Nutshell pram, like an Oppie but bigger. That evening we
were invited for drinks to a neighbours house. Patricia stayed home and
cooked us one of her famous chicken dinners.
Sunday, my 77th birthday dawned as expected, a very wet day. We all relaxed
in the house and after cocktails I invited all to a restaurant recommended
by John, Red Sky where I had my traditional birthday fare, lobster.