We are fortunate to have front row seats to the festivities afloat tomorrow!
Our mooring ball for a couple days! It does not get better than this.
Shelly and Ray hanging out after work today on their sun deck. Nearby moorings disabled by the Harbormaster to ensure room for the Windjammers tomorrow.
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ATONs (USVG aids to navigation) coming into BBHbr.
Burnt Is Light is a single red flash every 6 seconds… unless you are properly in one of the the two major approaches, (from Cuckolds or Ram Island), in which case you’ll see this lighthouse’s light as bright white!
As it appears on the chart.
At night, buoy G9 shows a green light flashing every 4 seconds.
The ATON lights are all configured differently so you know which one you are looking at in the dark! I did a lot of night boating around here in my youth. Great fun.
Above, G9 as it appears on the chart.
There is one more important ATON in between these two that does not appear in the photo: R8 off the west side Tumbler Island. You gotta go around that too.
There are a bunch of “No Wake” buoys out here as well. Above: Well, this pic shows that it’s now tomorrow! The Windjammers have arrived safely having followed all my instructions. Above, Boothbay Harbor public landing. Site of Shelly and my first kiss and a few years later where she said, “Yes!” (There were fewer people on the dock for both of those memorable events, as I recall.)
Below a video of Peter, our dockmaster of the Tugboat Inn. We have Peter to thank for these front row seats today at one of his “TBI” marked moorings!
Video below tooGreat revolutionary era music was played aboard this excursion boat today. Above: in a crowded harbor this Windjammer captain confidently steers with his feet ultimately to make a dock landing at the public float. One of my favorite shanties anywhere in the world. Chip Griffin and family. Sometimes the big mansions are not as impressive to me. My classmates enjoyed hanging in this place as seniors in high school. Classmate, Chesca is Chip’s sister. (I think!).
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Above, David Jacques, Capt Josh Jacques’s dad with Shelly on the sunset deck. Thanks for your visit Dave!It wouldn’t be Windjammer Days without fireworks. .
Great “Blues” sound filled Christmas Cove all afternoon today, from Coveside Restaurant. It was a hopping place of business by land and by sea. Kim and my brother Russ joined us by boat for the most aesthetic afternoon. Shelly had enough viddles to take care of us all. Russ and Adam’s latest addition to the collection. Seems like a solid buy.
Some unique architecture in this port… This home’s color works well with the natural surroundings to enable this cove live up to its name. .An enduring work of art, really. Iconic. Another example of people who care. West side too!The boats in here are nice too!.Impeccable.
A camera can’t capture the soul of a port like this one.
Fogged in Monday eve…
Then sunrise Tuesday morn…
The fog lifts, and the clouds begin to break for a new and beautiful day!
Kay Brown performing at the Tug Boat Inn, the rigging of the schooner Isaac Evans can be seen in the background. .In the pilot house, the view to starboard, Commercial Street of Boothbay Harbor from the helm of the Tugboat Inn!
Ray has not been up here since high school! Looking aft: Electrical panel and a view back downstairs to the dining rooms. The view to port includes the upstairs outdoor dining deck.
Capt Josh Jacques owner/operator briefing the passengers. Shelly and I have known Josh and his parents since he was about 40” tall. Now he’s in charge of the largest windjammer homed here in Boothbay Harbor.
We are now back at the Tugboat to experience Kay Brown’s entertainment in about a half hour. She and I used to work the crowd at the “Tin Inn” across the harbor in the mid 1980’s. I was the bartender, she was the entertainer! Kay’s daughter, Bonnie, is the GM here at the Tugboat; Bonnie and Ray were classmates at Boothbay Region High School just a few years ago.
Nice license plate holders!Bonnie and mom, Kay Brown. Tugboat Inn. DJ Kelly, Kay Brown, and Megan Kelly.
DJ and Megan are grandchildren of Kay.
Their mom, the late Liz Brown (Kay’s younger daughter) (as a 9 ?!?! Year old) swept this whole town off its feet some 45 years ago with her singing and dance number “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy” to win the Miss Shrimp Pageant, Windjammer Days mid 1970’s. ((As personally witnessed and recalled by blog author, Ray Sirois.))
Back to the present:
Chris Kenniston plays her well-tuned bass “gut bucket” to accompany Kay on the piano this evening as she has clearly done many times before. Chris and Kay… half decent view too. Gerry Gammage of Southport Island, Diane Vernesoni of Topsham, Kay Boothbay of Brown Harbor, and Chris Kenniston of Boothbay Harbor, Maine.
Kay is not afraid to share her stage with some of her talented friends, so long as they make it through her rigorous audition process.
Kay Brown live at the Tugboat Inn, Boothbay Harbor, Maine Far right, matriarch Laura Arsenault of the Arsenault Family led the whole tavern with (her favorites) … songs which Kay figured out as they went along. Laura dancing!
Ray remembers playing ice hockey with Laura’s offspring up in Augusta some 40+ years ago.
Those Arsenault boys would be proud of their “Ma” tonight, fer sure! Maybe even proud of their older brother, Billy shown below.
Hiedi Dunn of Gray, Billy Arsenault representing Laura’s Arsenault offspring, and Gerry Gammage from Southport Island (of course) accompany Kay Brown here at the Tug Boat Inn, west side of Boothbay Harbor, Maine.
FYI: Billy Arsenault claims that he taught his younger brothers Gary and Ron how to play ice hockey. (This detail was unable to be independently verified at press time.)
Below, Ramona Gaudet, of Southport Island harmonizes with Kay Brown with one of Kay’s performances tonight. Ramona worked at the Southport Elementary School for 5 or 6 decades. That small school house is reportedly STILL in operation today for K-6. Back in my day (1970’s) the students from that small Southport elementary school always stuck up for each other once they made it to Boothbay Region High School. They were like family for each other. “Don’t mess with a Southport student if there was another Southporter around.”
.Chris and Don Kenniston round up my final pics for the night. Don’s mom was the well respected (and well loved) Betsy Kenniston, a realtor for decades in this region. His dad is reportedly the craftsman who made the “half hull” shown on the wall here. No additional details are known yet. But: Stay tuned!Kay Brown performing at the Tug Boat InnOur next door neighbor, Ellen, chats with Tugboat Inn dockmaster Pete, as we begin preparations to push off this morning.
We obviously enjoyed the hospitality and rekindled friendship with the Andersons this weekend. The weather was not great, but check out their surroundings! I sneaked these pics in between rain showers!
With lifelong friends: Tammy, Britta, Jake, Shelly, Ray, Ernie
Packman Dave on guitar till 8:00
Freedom Cafe, Naples Maine
.Robin + son, Jake!Packman Dave is back!
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I cannot tell you how much deep personal history we’ve experienced at this venue in past years. ...Ray with retiring owner of this establishment, Darryl Murray. Darryl’s right hand, Dana Barrows, takes the reigns this season as GM. Darryl let us tie up to his docks here at Freedom Cafe many times over the years, as many life decisions were made to move on to other (bigger) waters.
Darryl has purposefully built-in a culture among his staff that I will elaborate upon later. Stay tuned.
See you at Windjammers Days in a couple weeks, Darryl!
Next door:
Brother Fleckers (former Sandy’s Flight Deck)
Tammy, daughter Britta, ShellyJordon Kaulback plays for us… they have ample parking for boats, planes, and cars here! Naples (Maine) Causeway. Father and Son-in-Law seem to be getting along! At least Ernie is in-focus!
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This sign used to be on the dock dedicated to seaplanes. Owner, Susan Fleck, daughter of James Build, shows off some of the historical memorabilia that she hung in Brother Flecker’s on the Causeway.
Ray grew up around these parts, so we sent the local weekly newspaper the Boothbay Register, a press release about our adventure which they published! We’ve already begun running into old friends like Mark Stover, Kelly Johnson, Kay Brown, and others.
This is a pic of what we see from the town dock in Wiscasset this hour. What do you see?
I’ll tell you what I see….
1. The nearly full moon is reflecting upon the ocean water. Isn’t that nice! ((Both my writing teachers and those of my son, Nick, instructed us to NEVER use the adjective “nice” as good writing should be more specific and descriptive. Tonight, I take license to use the prohibited word because there are things about this pic which are MUCH more interesting than the “nice” moonlight!
2. The boats in close to us are pointing in a different direction than those out further. One in the middle is “undecided”. Why?
3. The current of the flooding Sheepscot River is driving those boats to have their bows pointing into the current.
4. The current isn’t as strong in here, closer to shore. So the wind direction is more the influence. The boat in close points into the wind, and the other halfway in between, predictably, is half and half!
From Sarah’s restaurant where we were treated to dinner by Russ & Kim!Shelly and Kim! Kim and Russ dropped off our Prius here in Wiscasset …access to our own car! Yippie!Sunrise!
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Kim has a good eye for good light … she sees the picture before it is taken. Sunset dinner aboard. Jody’s Angelina right off our starboard beam. Thanks for dinner Jode!
In between business calls today we moved from Diamond Cove on Gr Diamond Is to the west shore of Clapboard Island. It was SO much easier here!!! No rock ‘n’ roll, calm, and the Internet connection was MUCH better. ((Full bars)).
Those are all MOORINGS in the upper left quadrant of this pic!
NE end of Great Diamond Island in Casco Bay. Very picturesque spot. Very protected spot. Not much room for anchoring, but lots of mooring balls to pick from (20+).
Here for a week or so if the borderline Internet keeps working!
Ferry traffic makes some wake, but we’ll survive. 5-Star Diamond Edge restaurant might get a visit when the open up on Thursday.
Addendum
Well, Diamond Cove has lost favor with us. Nights 2 and 3 were too rolly, and the Internet was simply not cutting it. We had to move.
The swells come in from Hussey Sound and bounce right into Diamond Cove. We only realized this after several nights.
Time lapse video of the Mannisquam at slack tide. I thanked the bridge-tenders for the openings and for slowing down the current for us. That got a good belly laugh out of one of them! Several of these floating cottages were seen on the Annisquam River. This one was the most patriotic. Appropriately named the Boat House !
Jackie, Nicole, Rich, and Shelly. Andre lives in Rockland Maine, so we’ll have to get a pic of him later this month. Also tonight, Shelly and I (mostly Shelly) polished off this box of Hobbsies popcorn from Salem Willows. It is indisputably, the best popcorn in the WORLD!Shelly and cousin Donna Lambert spent the afternoon together. This box was a going away gift to Shelly from her cousin.
Then!
Tammy and Ernie called (actually Facetimed us) from their deck on Edes Falls Road, Harrison Maine… walking distance from where we used to live.
Ernie and Tammy with Shelly and I on Facetime tonight.
We will be navigating to Maine over the next two weeks, and we’ll be guests in Ernie’s and Tammy’s home. (Tammy promises to TXT me driving directions to their house.)
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