It was brought to my attention that I didn't give you the name of the destroyer that we were lucky enough to see sail out to sea. The name of the  ship was the Micheal Murphy, named after a Navy Seal who lead his men into battle in Afghanistan  and only one survived.That information was supplied by one of our wonderful readers, thanks John. I did know the name of the ship just not the story. This morning we got up and it was a clear day, with the wave height at 5 foot, so we decided to wait a little while for the seas to calm down some. John had sent us info that said it would calm down during the day, so we left at 11am. The seas were rough getting out of the inlet it was about 4 foot seas, but we kept on moving. Once outside the inlet the waves were still 4 foot but they were rolling and pretty smooth, so it wasn't as bad as we expected. I was a little nervous at first but Carl assured me we were just fine and I felt better. Carl is not one to take a chance with our safety. The day went by fast.. The engine is running much better now and we were able to cruise at about 6.5 knots.. Much faster than before. We arrived in Portland by 2:30pm, we couldn't believe it... This port is protected by 3 forts. Not a ship would have been able to come in here without being seen by one of these forts.  New England did make sure all of their ports were proctected from anyone who thought about  envading them...America safe from the sea.... As we came into port we waved at people like we have at every other port only here, nobody waved back or said hi. Even when we docked I said hi to people with no response. This is your typical big city where no one says hi, not like the rest of Maine...We were very surprised..We tried to get to the city dock, but it was a very small hole and a lobster boat bet us to it. And it didn't look like it would be moving anytime soon. So we headed to the anchorage on the east side of town. They don't allow you to anchor inside the harbor, and the anchorage is pretty far out. Once at anchor Carl putzed around a bit and then we took the dingy down so we could go ashore. At shore we had to pay $5.00 for the dingy dock use, which didn't make Carl to happy. But hey, we had to pay it some other ports and I wanted to go ashore. Plus we will never pass this way again. The town is really neat, like most other New England towns, very old with narrow streets and wonderful old buildings. We found a place to stop and have a drink that even let us bring Bella inside. They didn't serve food and it was a cool little neighborhood bar. We loved it...We walked though town looking in all the windows and checking it out. I saw a shop that had little hand blown glass lobster buoys, they were so cute. I would have bought one but they were more than I was able to spend. But very cool. I am sure they are something everyone should have after traversing  these waters trying to miss them. One thing we noticed on the way back south is that aren't as many lobster pots as when we came through here on our way north. They must be pulling some in. At the end of the evening we headed back to our boat guided by the mast on the boat the boat next to us. She is one of those high end boats with lights all the way up her mast, thanks fellow sailor. Today we move farther south and make our way on port at a time..

As we awoke the wind was blowing pretty good and it was raining. I made some coffee and we talked about what the day would bring. I was just getting ready to call Nancy to see if she would be going to town today when she called. Said she wasn't going to town but, we could use Ernie's truck. Of course we said yes and got ready to go to town. I looked up on the computer where we could obtain propane and called the closest one. They said they were in Brunswick which is farther than we wanted to go so they gave me a  name of  a hardware store in Bath that sold it. That's one of the good things in Maine, if they can't help you they will tell you who will. We made a list of everything we needed and packed up the video's. We had already watched them and hoped to find a place to trade them. Ernie had left the truck at the town dock, thanks Ernie. A quick stop at their house and we were off to town. The trip to town was a great success, we got propane at only 92 cents a gallon, found a store to trade our old DVD's at, got me some warm socks for my feet and hit the store to pick up a couple of items we needed. Just as we were finishing up Nancy called to say that one of the Naval Destroyers that is built up the river in Bath was heading out on its maiden voyagae and the Marinetime Museum was having a celebration and dedication to send off .It was free to go museum today and be part of it, but, everyone in Popham would be on the beach to send them off. How awesome is this.. seeing a Naval ship off for the first time out of the ship yard on it's maiden voyage.. We opted to join them on the beach in Popham..  We quickly got all of our things done and headed for home. It was a good choice not to go to the museum, it was packed, the road had cars parked on it for about a 1/2 mile, since both parking lots were full. We even hit traffic on the road to Popham, we couldn't believe it. Traffic in Popham, who would ever think that could happen, but it did. I had 7 cars in front of me... Once parked we joined Nancy and Ernie on the large rock by the fort. Nancy was holding a large flag and some local friends of theirs had joined them, this was quite the event, everyone was out.! How cool was it that we got to see this... When the ship came by it had all of it's men standing at attention in their dress whites.!! The ship blew its horn and the crown cheered and clapped. I was now holding the flag and I waved it as much as I could. You really feel your American pride seeing and being a part of this.. We are so very lucky to get to see all of the wonderful things we have on this trip. A naval ship casting off  on its maiden voyage to cool..When it was all over , Carl took the things we bought to the boat and I walked Bella. Ernie had made spagetti for everyone so we headed over to their home for dinner. Nancy sister and her husband were in town so they joined us.It was really nice to meet them. The sauce was great.. that Ernie is quite the wicked cook!!. The day came to a end with my only regret was that I didn't have a camera on me. Ernie got some pictures and I will try to get them from email and post them. I'm not that great at the computer so we will see.. Today we will try to leave one more time,wish us the best

Did you ever get the feeling you have stayed somewhere to long? That's just what we are feeling now..It took so many days in Tenants Harbor to fix the fuel problem, we thought we would be much farther south at this time of year. So here we sit in Popham Beach, Maine waiting for the weather to break, so we can move south.The day began with us trying to get out to travel south, as we got into the inlet the waves were on our nose at about 4 foot high. The boat was slamming into them.. We kept going thinking maybe they would calm down some, since it was an outgoing tide and we would be pass the inlet soon. The day was pretty clear and we figured we had the time before the bad weather to hit Portland Maine. Well that didn't turn out so we headed right back in, to rough for us.. We got back on the mooring ball we had been on before and settled in for a couple of days.The weather reports say we should be able to move on Thursday, lets just hope that holds true. The  wind blew and the  rain fell of and on all day, while we watched movies and snuggled up on the couch. Bella loves to lay on the couch with us. We also played a game of Rummy, since I brought a pack of cards back with me from Florida. Can you believe our first game and we had a tie score, we had to cut the cards to see who won, bummer I lost...Nancy called and wanted to know if I wanted to go to town with her, but King Kong was running all  over the screen , and I didn't want to miss the big ape trashing other creatures and New York.  Nancy worries about us staying out here,she thinks we are stranded, but that is the life of a sailor and we are just fine. Although I do hope to go with her to town today.As we kept the warm weather inside, I made a pot of Kale and White bean soup to ward off the cold, which we enjoyed very much. Thanks to Katie for turning us on to Kale..This morning the wind is hollowing and the weather channel says the waves are 6 ft so we will spend another day waiting on our weather window , snuggle, play and keep warm while we wait..

Hi everyone and welcome back, we hope you had a wonderful Labor Day Weekend. I am back on the boat after a very busy week in Tampa. I drove a  billionaire around with his security staff all week. It made for a interesting time, he called me driver all week and it made think of Jack Benny. Oh Driver!!! Not that I am that old, I just remember seeing reruns when I was very young!!Some people would have been offended, but it made me laugh.  I was on a roll in Tampa  I broke my computer screen and my Kindle, so I sent my computer to be fixed and got a new Kindle at a pawn shop. My daughter Tammy let me take her computer with me on the boat until mine gets back or we just trade till we get back to Florida. I hoped a plane in Tampa at 7am on Sunday morning changed planes in Baltimore, landed in Boston at 11:20 and ran to the bus for Maine by 11:35. It was a quiet ride to Bath Maine where Nancy picked me up and took me to the grocery store. I arrived at their home and found Carl and Bella waiting for my return. Carl and Bella spent the whole time I was gone in Tenants Harbor, waiting on parts and repairs. Lets see if I can remember all that was done. I told you he had put new compression lines, replaced the  water/fuel separator, when all 4 injectors were sent our and rebuilt. When Carl tired to leave the dock the boat stalled again and he had to be towed back. He talked to the people at the marina and the mechanic was back on the boat. Then they put a vacuum presser system to the boat to try to find the leaks. They replaced the fuel pump with  an electric one. Next the secondary filter fittings were found to be leaking so they had to be tightened up.Only the mechanic tightened it to tight and broke it , so off to Napa they went to get a whole new system with brass fittings. Before Carl took a chance at leaving the dock, he and mechanic tied the boat to the dock and ran it in gear for a couple of hours to make sure all was repaired. When all was said and done and the bill was discussed at length, Carl and Bella were ready  to set sail the next morning , which just happened to be the day I was flying in. We didn't know until then where I was to meet them. The boat ran fine and it was back to Nancy and Ernie's, we are like the guests that won't go away..  Nancy made us a nice dinner and we talked the evening away. In the morning the tide was out so we couldn't get to the boat until 10am, at which time I was finally able to put our groceries on board. Back to the Lebel's, Bella and I took a shower and Carl got his clothes clean. By time we got back to Windward Spirit it was to late in the day to head to another port. After lunch we got in the dingy and headed over to Fort Popham , we hadn't gone in it last time we were here. That was some fort, very thick granite walls different design that most other forts we have seen, no cannon balls could hurt it. Then we headed over to Ft.Baldwin on the other side of the inlet, just behind Nancy and Ernie's house. It was up a steep hill and I was huffing and puffing once we reached the first of 4 bunkers, pretty neat. No ships were gonna come up this river without being seen. They have been building big ships up the river since 1800's and still do today. And the forts protected them up until WWII. Although we hear there was never a shot fired in battle.  We returned to the boat to have the first hot meal on it in 10days and watched a funny movie I had picked up in Fla while I was there. It is great to be back together again  on the boat. I loved seeing the few people I could while I was in town , just sorry I couldn't have seen more, but I was there to work.. Now the long trip home begins, we hope we can leave here soon, as the weather is already pretty cold for us. Its woolys,long johns and hats for us. Plus lots of hot soup..