September 19 -- Plymouth Mass.

Hi all -- I'm sitting outside a little restaurant in Plymouth and it's too cold here to load any pictures today -- be sure to check out the link to the google map though...

Sept 13 – Sept 15 (Saturday – Monday) Boothbay Harbour
We decided to stay another day in Boothbay as it is such a pretty little town. We did school in the morning and then went to town in the afternoon. There is a great shoe store here and Dave got a pair of sneakers, Kristen got a pair of shoes and I got a pair of leather boat boots. We wandered around town, got some groceries and walked over the footbridge that crosses the head of the harbour. It used to be an opening bridge, and there is a house on the bridge where the bridge keeper used to live. Apparently there is a trap door in the floor of the kitchen that was used during the days of the rumrunners.
It was wet and windy on Sunday so we decided to stay put, and will likely also be here tomorrow. We got the schoolwork and laundry done in the morning. At 4:00 we went back to McSeagull to watch the football game – New York Jets against New England. New England won which was great for their QB who had never started a game before, but not so great for Brett Farve the new QB for New York. On Monday we got the schoolwork done and we were going to go bowling, but the bowling alley was closed. Instead we decided to walk to the Maine State Aquarium. On the not-to-scale map we figured it was 2 or 3 miles. It was a loooong walk. It took us well over an hour, and when we got there, of course, it was closed. We had a little look around at the displays that were outside and then walked back to Boothbay.

Sept 16 (Tuesday) Boothbay to Freeport.
We put the dingy up on the davits (not towing that again), left at 6:30 and had a calm smooth motor to South Freeport. The girls were able to get their schoolwork done under way. We arrived around 12:00 and got a mooring. We had a quick sandwich and had the marina shuttle take us to Freeport around 1:00. We had a busy couple of hours getting things that we needed – Cathy, Kristen and Annie got rain jackets, Dave, Kristen and Annie got jeans, Kristen found the Keen sandals she wanted for half price! Annie and I walked really fast to go the mile or so to the end of town, get a couple of groceries go to the school supply store and then walk back to meet the shuttle at 3:45. The lady that drove us back on the shuttle seems and seems to be running the marina is one of the girls that we remembered that ran the shuttle when we were here before. She told us a bit about her trip to the Bahamas with her parents and sister when she was in grade 8.

Sept 17 (Wednesday) Freeport to Portsmouth N.H./Kittery Maine
As much as we would have liked to spend another day in Freeport, today was forecast to be a good travel day so we put the dinghy up on davits and were underway at 6:00. We weren’t sure where we were destined for today – we hoped Rye NH, but we called there and there was no room. We tried calling the harbourmaster in York Maine, but we couldn’t get a hold of anyone there… We figured that we would find somewhere to stay in Portsmouth even though it would be a bit of a struggle against the strong current. It was a stressful day as it was quite foggy off and on after 11:00, but it was fairly calm and the kids got some of their schoolwork done. We finally came into Portsmouth and out of the fog around 4:00. There was a mooring field/anchorage near the mouth of the harbour, on the Maine side of the river in Pepperill Cove so we pulled in there and picked up a Pepperill Cove Yacht Club mooring. We called them on the radio and didn’t get a hold of anyone so we dropped the dinghy and the three girls took Rudder to shore and to find someone to pay. We found out that the PCYC is actually on the New Hampshire side of the river… so we figured if they came to get their money we’d be happy to give it to them. We had a great (short) walk to an old fort that is now a state park. The fort was built around 1840 and was manned through 5 wars including the Civil War, Spanish American war and World War I It was really neat to walk around and look at the battlements. Unfortunately we forgot to take the camera.

Sept 18 (Thursday) Portsmouth N.H. to Plymouth Massachusetts
We had a big day planned for today with a long destination of Plymouth Mass at 72 miles, or alternately Scituate Mass at 62 miles. Seas were forecast at 3-5 feet and winds of 10-15NE so it sounded like it would be a pretty good trip. Unfortunately it was quite a bit windier than forecast and the seas were more like 10-12 feet. Good thing they were behind us! We had no mishaps but didn’t have any lunch either!! School was called off for a "wave day". We made it all the way the Plymouth and were tied up on an (expensive) mooring at 5:30. The people at the yacht club are really friendly and that makes a huge difference after a long and tiring day. We had a little walk around town and looked through the fence at Mayflower II that brought 102 pilgrims from England to Massachusetts in 1620. Had a late supper and then off to bed.