We were busier today with tours, but it didn’t seem as bad, I guess the flow was just a little better. Starboard watch was on tours and Port had work party, the boat got another coat of paint on her.
Today is our last night on land and since the festival is over we ate dinner with the volunteers. In this port we have exchanged cooks, temporarily lost a crewmember and bosun, gained a crewmember and a volunteer.
Had a coast guard inspection as always when we get to a new state. In the afternoon we had a parade of sail with the Lynx and also a barge that has a sail on it called the Gundalow.
When I was woken up for watch I was really confused, went on deck and it was just Grant and Tenley, we were hove to, going nowhere. Laura and I stood the two hours and then woke Peter and Darren. For work party Tenley and I got to play in the bilges, yay! Then we all laid into baggy wrinkle, we tried using combs to fluff faster and it worked okay. The Laura put it up on the stays so that we wouldn’t look silly.
When we got closer to Portsmouth we had to wait out of the channel for a pilot to help us up the river and to our dock, we were also waiting for Lynx so that we could go in together.
Docking was okay, but since the tide is about 9 feet we’ll keep having to reconfigure the brows.
Watch this morning was very calm, slowly sailing, about 2 to 3 knots. For work party Tenley and I started sewing the signal flags again, but ended up shaking out and setting every sail. Afternoon watch we struck everything and stowed it. Peter and Cory furled with us, it was nice having the mates there and us actually having to teach them because they hardly ever go aloft. While aloft we also saw some whales.
The 4 to 8 watch ended up seeing some very strange clouds, morning glories. Apparently they are very rare and usually happen around Australia.
This morning we spent work party painting black and yellow over the side because the dock was so low it was easy for us to do. Got off the dock at noon and headed out, shook out all the sails because we’re just playing with the boat till Thursday when we have to be in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Dan went over how to set and strike sail for the new people and now I defiantly feel comfortable about sail handling.
Tours today were actually enjoyable, the weather was great, it warmed up and they even had some really great questions. We had enough people to have an idle position so during my hour I went to the museum, they had a lot of great tools and original buildings from when that area was a ship yard. They also had a pirate ship playground and at the end of the day Jesse, Scottie and I went there and played around. It actually was properly rigged, we fixed a brace and lift that were off, but other than that it really had a topsail you could set. Halyard, braces, bunts, clews and sheets.
We also had some sea scouts on board who played a bit with braces and climbed. There was also fog that really did roll in like a blanket and covered everything within minutes.
Got another new crewmember, Tenley, she’s on A watch.
Amy is from Portland so she had her car and she took John, Scottie, Jesse and I into Portland for the day. We first went to Grey to look at a nautical junk shop, unfortunately it was closed, but we did wonder around the whole yard looking at the cool stuff they had our there. We stopped for food and then went to a Fort on Cape Elizabeth where we met one of Amy’s friends. Ate and then walked around, there was an amazing light house, Head Light, apparently the most photographed light house. We also went to Hamilton Marine where I got a palm, very excited to have my own seeing as how the ship ones have vanished.
Got a new crewmember, Richard, he’s on B watch but is also a new roommate.
Continued to sew flags all day today, luckily at the end of the day we actually finished hemming all the frayed edges. Had our coast guard inspection, went very smoothly, we even had a MOB drill with a life ring, it went very quickly without a flaw. A reporter from the local paper also showed up and took pictures of Scottie and I while sewing the flags.
For dinner we had a huge lobster bake. One of Robin’s friends who lives near by brought us about 40 lobsters and a lot of clams. We all sat on the dock and ate with our hands, throwing the shells into the water. We didn’t have any crackers so we ended up using our leathermans and a mallet from bosuns.
