Spring Ritual in the Boatyard

In the sailing world the rites of spring always include lots of scraping, sanding and painting as the weather warms and day lengthens.  This is especially true for wooden boats owners like ourselves.  Since Surprise is proudly celebrating her 92nd year we are vigilant about maintaining her to the highest standards.  Our National Register status does not limit us on choice of paint color or any restrictions like that but we keep our maintenance schedule in line with her historic character.  Soon we will be sailing that history once again on Penobscot Bay.  We hope you will get to enjoy it with us and evaluate our painting for yourself.  Now it is time to change the sanding disc on the orbital sander.

The new Granite Steps

We continue to make progress on our house renovation.  Yesterday the new front steps were installed.  Our contractor Ryan Lawrence found us an economical supplier of granite which we selected just last week.  He had them delivered and installed and now we have a proper front entrance.  Meanwhile, Matt and Gary have almost completed the two sets of wooden steps and porches for the kitchen entrance and the back deck.

While this work has been going on we have removed the plastic covers from our masts at Rockport Marine and we are getting ready to work on rigging and fitting out Surprise for the sailing season.  Ahh Spring!

A Spring Celebration

After our recent success during this Christmas holiday feast, which was inspired by Michael Salmon’s cookbook (In the Kitchen with Michael Salmon), we celebrated the arrival of spring this week with another one of Michael’s delicious recipes.  This time it was “Flounder  ”Oscar” with Maine lobster (see p. 155) and we served it to two other sailing couples, our relief team of Capt.Perry Davis and his wife Bethany McNelly  and Capt.Robert Burns and his wife Kelly Fales.  We celebrated the near completion of our Camden house renovation and  toasted to the sailing season ahead.  Soon we will be far too busy with boat preparation to have such fun with Michael’s recipes.  Then we will be able to sample them from his own hand as we make reservations to dine in the exquisite and friendly atmosphere of the Hartstone Inn.

The Red Front Door

It’s a sure sign that we are making progress on the house renovation when the carpenters gave us permission to paint the front door.  We are hoping to have the major work completed in another two weeks and then we can finish interior painting and installing appliances.

Several sailors in Southern Maine organized a collection of used sails to be sent to Haiti to help supply temporary shelter for the many thousands who lost their homes in the earthquake.  We were able to donate four used sails which we brought to Pope Sailmakers in Rockland.  They drove them to Portland last Friday from where they will be shipped to Miami and then Haiti.  Many other windjamming captains were also able to donate sails to this great cause.

Although much of the heavy snow has hit south of us (poor New York and D.C.), the Maine coast has received many winter gales so we have been quite happy to be hauled out at Rockport Marine only a few feet from the shoreline but happily “high and dry”.  Spring will be here soon.

We are also making great progress on our house renovation project and hope to celebrate soon with a romantic dinner at the Hartstone Inn which has just received another distinctive award.  They have been named as one of the top 10 romantic inns in the U.S. by the American Historic Inns and iLoveInns.com.  Congratulations Michael and Mary Jo !

After several snow events and some bitter cold weather, Ryan’s crew (Matt and Gary) have finished the new cedar deck.  The stairs will go on when the ground thaws.  Meanwhile we are looking forward to some lounging and grilling!

We stopped late Thursday afternoon on Bay Road to enjoy a cup of hot chocolate before going home to wrap the last presents.  The sun was low in the sky and cast some great shadows on the windjammer fleet and Mount Battie.  Merry Christmas to everybody.  We hope your New Year will be peaceful, happy and healthy.

We got the cover on just in time for the first big snowfall.  We should be good for the rest of the winter.

We brought Surprise to Rockport in late October before we hauled her out for the winter.

She sure looks great in the afternoon light!