When I first get up the mooring field is so flat it’s like a mirror, in fact the reflection is so amazing that at first, peering over the side, I think I can see the bottom, with white rocks and darker sand in between before I realise that it’s actually a reflection of the blue sky and white fluffy clouds.
By 9.15 I am ready to leave and psyche myself up to getting in the launch, which arrives shortly after Mike calls for one. I needn’t have worried; the driver pulls alongside and holds the launch flat against Jeannius while first Mike, then I clamber over the side. Actually it’s dead easy although a heaving sea could change that!
I beam enthusiastically at every car that comes down the road– I have no idea what car the Daigles’ drive – but when they do arrive it’s easy to see them as Maggie is waving just as enthusiastically as I am beaming. It’s great to see her and Bob and after hugs all round we drive off to find joy and excitement, Mike and Bob style, in a chandlery … or two. Then to satisfy Maggie and I, food shops, where I discover the delights of Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. In the latter I buy store smoked beef jerky – absolutely delicious – most of which we eat in the car on the way to lunch at an Irish pub where I, naturally, order lobster.
After lunch we go off to Maine Mall where we manage to buy a cheap mobile phone to use here and a Virgin network roaming internet dongle thing so that we can get better internet. I treat myself to some new makeup and a lovely linen and cotton jumper to replace one of my favourite ones that I left at home because it is starting to fall to pieces
Shopping done we head back to Maggie and Bob’s lovely Maine-style clapboard house in South Portland. It’s absolutely perfect – beautifully styled and furnished and just how I imagined it would be. The colours are just right – like the traditional paint colours made by Farrow and Ball.
The next stop is to visit Maggie’s horses and take them a supply of hay and feed – for us it’s another chance to see more of inland Maine as we drive into the countryside, just minutes away from their house.
They take their trailer, hitched onto the back of the grandpa car (so called because only old people drive them). Now this car is a real trouper. Feeling like it barely has any suspension, it skips along over speed bumps, road cracks, hills and grass. When we get to the stables to pick up the hay, Maggie proves she is a country girl by leaping with gay abandon up into the hay loft and starts lugging huge bales of hay around. Now I know why she got changed.
Then it’s over to where she keeps her two horses, Memphis and Nate. Now I’m not a horsey person, I’m with Oscar Wilde on this one ie “dangerous at both ends and uncomfortable in the middle”, but even I have to agree that they are both beautiful, especially Memphis, the dappled chestnut one who looks like he has highlights streaked through his mane. He’s also the one with attitude, and occasionally nips at Nate, just for the fun of it.
Leaving a small portion of feed with the horses, we take the rest down to where they will be taken in a few days and once again bounce over a bumpy lawn, the suspension becoming even more of a low rider as we go.
Back at their house they prepare for the evening meal – Bob has a huge smoker for an enormous pile of ribs and he’s going to try out some flavoured wood chips on it tonight. They have invited their sons, their son’s friends and Tom who we last saw in Tahiti just before he flew home after crewing on Brown Eyed Girl and Chessie.
While Maggie and I make the salads, we share a bottle of Isobel sauvignon blanc before hitting the Kim Crawford. I just know I’m going to regret that in the morning.
Mike has a long discussion with Bob and Tom about beaching Jeannius. The fight with the lobster pots has left its mark and he needs to fit a new anode to the prop shaft and also paint the sail drive legs, something he forgot to do when he did the hull earlier in the summer. Tom knows just the place – Scarborough River, just 20 miles down the coast. It’s a gently sloping sandy area with no hidden rocks, just perfect for what we need – and £500 cheaper than getting Jeannius lifted out of the water. We could have hired a diver to replace the anode but Mike wants a really good look and obviously you can’t paint under water!
We have a lovely evening together but that’s before the uninvited guests arrive – the mosquitoes! It’s a pleasantly warm evening and we move between kitchen and garden then all of a sudden this almost swarm of mosquitoes hits South Portland and decide to eat at Maggie’s, and the main course is me! I feel them start to bite and rush in for a long sleeved top but it’s too late. By the end of the evening I am able to count 19 very large bites, 4 of which are at the top of my thigh which means they got me through my linen trousers. Mike gets bitten too and even had blood running down his leg from one of them. Nasty, evil little bastards. At least when I get ready for bed I manage to kill one, not much, but a start!
Position: 43 deg 43 min N, 70 deg 12 min W
Distance so far: 1818 miles
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