Goodnight Irene

Since our plan to return to Zusammen after our Maine trip was impossible, our wonderful friends, the Williams, took us in for 4 days. We had a great visit, and even spent a few hours on Duxbury beach. The storm hit on Sunday, but apart from a few branches down, the Williams saw little damage. Power was out for about 24 hours though.

This morning Zusammen will be re-launched, so home we go! Looking forward to seeing all the completed work that Niemic Marine has done. I'm most excited about the new holding tank! WooHoo! Weird thing to be excited about I know, but sleeping on that bag was really not something I enjoyed.

Hurricane Irene, heading right toward Buzzards Bay! Luckily for us Zusammen is out of the water.

Stop in Portland

After leaving MDI we stopped in Portland to visit M, S, and K. We had a beautiful beach day on Friday. Its hard to believe a hurricane is on the way. We had a great visit and were thankful to be able to see M,S, and K before we leave.

Zusammen is on the Hard for Irene's arrival

The boat is on the hard getting her final additions and prep for the trip. Hurricane Irene is till tracking straight for us, but we should be fine on Pope's Island. We'll launch again on Monday or Tuesday and get ready to start South.

Having a great time with family in Maine. Granny and Papa have been supplying the kids with all their favorite things. It will be hard to get them back on the boat! Tim, Thibault and Margot have been with us for the week, which has been great. We've hiked the Beehive and Beech Mountain with John trying hard to get over his fear of heights! The kids spent 4 hours at the water park, and probably would have stayed longer if the doors weren't closing. The weather has been perfect all week, but dipping down at night, reminding us that we need to get on the move to stay away from the cold!

Check out the picture of John and I and our kids and nieces and nephews!

Great time out in Hyannis with the Sypeks

New Bedford Bridge

Tyler building card houses underway

Liza at the rope swing!

Granny and Papa took Liza for a land vacation this week. After all the fun things they've done it will be hard to get her back on the boat!

Likely the last night with Lex and I solo for a year!

We're on the hook at Hyannis Yacht Club after a great broad reach in 20 kts of breeze. Lex made a killer meal and we drank a great bottle from our cellar. Off to hit the town in Hyannis for a bit of a last huzzah!

We pick Tyler up tomorrow. We'll take the Meade's out for a sail and maybe spend one more night here. The hard SW is slated to continue and we don't want to beat back west in 20+ so we may stay holed up one more night. We'll move from the YC to an anchorage behind Egg Island tomorrow.

I've been speaking with Jess's brother's connection during the day about the solar gear - looks like we'll get a pair of 135 Watt panels and Morningstar controller and monitor - should keep us in 7+amps most of the day!

Deploying "Allein" for the run into town - film at 11......

Solar panel mounts and stabilizer bar done

Time for an adult beverage....

Liza asleep on way back to Zusammen

Dissecting Squid with Kelli

Our great friend and teacher Kelli taught the kids a lesson on squid dissection.

Liza up the mast

Boat Dog (not ours)

Cuttyhunk!

Better shot

On Ted's mooring at the 'hunk after a rousing round of rock horseshoes. We all agree that coconut horseshoes are better but rocks are still fun!

Dyneema saves the day

We were just ready to hit cuttyhunk and lost a loose shackle OB.

Double NBYC Instructor Award Recipients!

Great Job kids!
Big classes for both of them, and they both got this prestigious honor!

Sweet new Mainsheet! Forrest is da man...

BBR

A great time sailing during the Buzzard's Bay Regatta. We had everything from calm wind on Friday to 30+knts of breeze on Sunday.
I had the privilege of sailing with Rod and Al Johnstone aboard Doug Curtiss's J124 "Wicked". A great time and a cool spectacle to have both of the Wicked boats on the race course at the same time.
NBYC had close to 1000 people in attendance I'm told. It was great to see how many folks come out to support the racing.

My iPhone bricked on Sunday night, but I managed to get a replacement from Apple today without much hassle. Lost a few pictures in the process. I need to be more diligent about backing up...

Double Rainbow!

What does it mean?
;-)

sand,tape,wipe,varnish x 10

Back from Nantucket on Monday. Long day, 7 Hours, but beautiful sailing for the most part. Wind picked up for last hour so had to motor. This week we have been back to "work" varnishing toe and hand rails. Its a ton of work, but they are starting to look good, so worth the effort.