Fun and Games

Sept. 22 - We left our mooring around 6 a.m. in fog that got thicker as we went. As if that wasn't enough fun, we also had to watch for and maneuver around lobster pot buoys and countless lobster boats. It's not a good feeling to hear a boat engine and be unable to see where it's coming from. We have radar, of course, but that has its own set of challenges. Then there's the horn. If you're motoring and visibility is less than half a mile, you are supposed to sound your foghorn every two minutes. The automatic one doesn't work because the hailer is out of order, so I had to do it manually. We have a horn that looks like a water bottle with a contraption on it and you have to pump it up every time you blast it.

So every two minutes for about two hours I watched the clock, blasted the horn, and pumped it back up. While I played "Watch, Blast, and Pump," Wayne played "Dodge the Pot Buoys," "What's That I See On Radar?" and "Is That a Boat Up There?" Yep, it was a morning of fun and games.

The fog finally lifted, but the fun wasn't over yet. Wayne's favorite game is "Sails Up With Perfect Wind For the Whole Day," but we usually end up playing "Sails Up, Wind Dies, Sails Down." Today it was "Sails Up, Wind Dies, Sails Down, Sails Up, Wind Dies, Sails Down, Sails Up, Wind Dies, Sails Down" - my least favorite game.

It was probably a foolhardy decision to keep going in the fog, but we are in Maine and  could have spent who knows how long waiting for it to lift.

There are three marinas in South Freeport and the first two we called didn't have room for us because they were filled with boats waiting to be hauled out for the season. After a couple phone calls back and forth, the third one, Ring's Marine Service, told us they had a mooring and explained where to find it. Long story short, first we couldn't find it, and when we finally did, we discovered the rope was too short to reach our boat and a guy on a nearby boat yelled not to tie up there because we would end up dragging. We radioed Ring's and the woman on the other end said she would send her husband down to help us. We played "Idle For An Hour" and "What Do We Do Now?," but no one showed. We finally got out fenders and dock lines and prepared to tie up at the city dock, a game called "Now He'll Come For Sure."

Sure enough, just as I was tying us up at the dock, a guy in a dinghy came by waving and asked if we were waiting for Ring's Marine Service, then motioned us to follow him back to the mooring. He untangled the mooring rope so we could tie up and assured us it would hold. We asked if the shuttle into Freeport was still running, and he answered, "No, but the Thornton shuttle is." So after we got the boat squared away and dinghied to the dock, Thornton drove us three miles or so into Freeport for a game of "Shop 'til You Drop Or Until 10:00, Whichever Comes First," and told us to call him when we were ready to return to the boat. How's that for service?

There are a lot of outlet stores in Freeport, but we buzzed through them quickly and didn't buy anything, unlike the first time we were there back in around 1990. There were very few outlet malls back then, and we went a little crazy. This time we made all of our purchases at L.L. Bean. We were dismayed to learn that their outlet store had moved a mile away, so we didn't buy very much. The retail store had all fall and winter clothes, which we have plenty of and don't need as much of any more since we spend so much time in Florida. I was hoping to get all kinds of summer stuff on clearance at the outlet and we could have walked down there, but they closed at 6:00 (unlike the retail store, which is open 24/7/365). We didn't have enough time anyway.

I ended the day with a game of "Searching For Wi-Fi," but I lost and went to bed.