Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Successful First Cruise

Location:  Great Bay Marine, Newington, NH

All systems are up and running and we made our first voyage of 2012 on Sunday, July 1st.  It was time to change marinas from Wentworth-by-the-Sea to Great Bay Marine.  We were lucky and had a few guests on board to help us with the boat and to enjoy the day.  Two of Dave's classmates from Mass. Maritime and their wives joined us late Sunday morning at Wentworth.  We had lunch, got to hear a few stories and pulled out of the marina about 2:00 p.m.  It was a beautiful day with light winds and calm seas so we spent a few hours cruising out to and around Isle of Shoals (and got to hear more stories).  We headed back in around 4:00 p.m. to catch the incoming tide up the Piscataqua River.  The current is pretty strong is several locations in the river and if we didn't catch it right, we would have burned a lot of fuel and not made much headway.  As we traveled up river, there was a lot of boat traffic headed down river after spending the day watching the air show from Pease Air Base.   While we were offshore we got to see some stunt planes and the Blue Angels flying in formation.

When we arrived at Great Bay, we had a small birthday celebration for the Mass. Maritime graduates (all three are turning sixty this year), with, hopefully, many more to come.  It was great to spend the day with friends and have the boat running smoothly.

As promised, here are a few pictures from our travels so far.  This first picture is of the Blue Ridge Mountains, taken from the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We didn't spend much time there this drive up.  But a few years ago, while pulling the trailer, we spent some time and did some hiking in the mountains.

This is a picture of me, standing on Monkey Island, on the day we arrived at the boat.  Monkey Island is the top deck of the boat, mainly used to watch sunsets while drinking a cold beverage.

We are traveling with our two cats, Doofus (on the left) and Puddy (on the right). This is a picture of their stressful life aboard the boat. Both have been with us for many years and have traveled across the US and into Canada with us in our trailer and have settled into their new life as live-aboards. Doofus got a little sea-sick on our first cruise but was recovered by the time we tied up at our new location. Puddy is continuing her normal role as our greeting committee when new people come aboard.
This is last night's sunset at Great Bay Marine (the picture was taken from Monkey Island). 

 We spent the day doing a few more chores, having lunch with Dave's Dad (lobster roll for me (again!) and visiting Dave's Mom.  Tomorrow, more chores and hopefully we'll get to see some local fireworks.  Happy 4th of July to everyone.

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