Long overdue pictures and some time to catch our breath   Leave a comment

It’s been a while! I’ve been busy with all kinds of things since we left Block Island. Here are pictures from as far back as our passage out of the Chesapeake.

Out of the Chesapeake and back to RI

Lee, Pirat, and I left Block Island for Newport on the 5th, spent a couple days anchored in the same spot where we anchored before leaving Rhode Island two months ago. It was stiflingly hot but we biked to the laundromat (Lee carrying the HUGE bag of laundry) and the grocery store. My bike tire exploded from the heat after I rode to Middletown so I had to take a taxi back. We moved over to Pirate Cove on Wednesday, pulling into the marina to give the boat a quick bath and get fuel before picking up a mooring outside.
Very early on Thursday morning I speed-walked a mile or so to the bus stop and took a bus to Boston so I could catch my plane to Oregon. A friend (congratulations Sarah and Derek!) from graduate school was getting married and I was really looking forward to the trip. My mom decided to take advantage of me being on the West coast to come visit. She met me in Portland and we stayed in a comfy hotel in Vancouver, WA for the weekend.
Traveling by bus, airplane, and car was strange after months on the boat. I felt like and outsider in the airport full of people. The weather – hot but not as hot as back east, and dry – felt even stranger. All of a sudden I had to use lotion again!
My mom and I went to the bridal shower on Thursday night. It was so much fun to be in a big group of women talking about weddings and such things! The next couple days meant more relaxing in the hotel, sales tax-free shopping in Portland, and hanging out with Katie and Caitlin at Fort Vancouver! The wedding was actually held at the fort on Saturday. I met the anthro girls, along with a couple other wedding attendees, there earlier that day for a little tour of the fort. We are such archaeology/anthropology/museum/National park nerds! It was good to catch up with Katie and Caitlin and the day made me realize how much I miss my friends.
Sarah’s wedding was fabulous, of course! The setting (a field new the fort and hanger at the Pearson Air Museum) was perfect. The food – including the numerous, beautiful cakes – was delicious. We girls did plenty of dancing (more than I’ve ever done at a wedding). Thank you so much to Sarah and Derek for sharing their day with us!
My mom and I drove to Seattle on Sunday to look at a house she is interested in buying. She still needs to sell her house in CA but this place was too good looking to pass up. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, it was spoken for (pending inspection) as of the day before we visited. The house was perfect though so I hope things work out for my mom to end up there.
We had dinner with my aunt and uncle back in Portland that night. It’s crazy how circumstances worked out to cram so many fun activities into one trip.

Sarah and Derek’s wedding

After a long day of traveling on Monday, I was back on the boat with Lee to pack up for our little land holiday in Maine. We decided we needed a break from transient life on the boat. It’s hard, as I’ve said. We work hard all day every day and don’t end up with time to do other, fun activities (like hiking, climbing, swimming, relaxing, interacting with other people, preparing my thesis for publication, etc.). In any case, we tidied up the boat and left it on a mooring at Pirate Cove for a month. Now we’re back at Lee’s parents house in Maine for some down time. We’re trying to make ourselves relatively self-sufficient so we don’t end up like the house guests that never leave. It is gorgeous and so, so much cooler up here. I can work on my thesis revisions and we can regain our strength. I’m also going to work on posting some videos from our sailing adventures. There are some good ones that I’ve just never had the patience to upload.

At the end of the month we’ll sail the boat up here, potentially with my dad as a crew, and then explore more of the Maine coastline by water. The Caribbean is still in the cards for November and I’m getting more and more excited about sailing down there!

Posted July 15, 2010 by Rachel in Pictures

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