September 6th, 2019
HURRICANE DORIAN
We have had a few emails asking where we are and if we are OK with regard to Hurricane Dorian. One email said they couldn't quite work out where we are on the blog. Looking at the picture you can see where Dorian will be tomorrow at her closest around midday tomorrow - we are at the end of the pen. At the moment, we are expecting up to 35knts of wind and lots of rain. If things worsen the good news is that yesterday we arrived in the Hurricane hole I referred to with a picture of the chart a few days ago. Its an amazing place and gives us great confidence.
September 6th, 2019
LIFE ON PEARL
I give you CARRIE our clover named after Stu's Mum who recently passed away. Bed ridden, we bought this Clover in a Can as a gift to grow by her bed. She loved to follow our trip via numerous post cards and we sadly didn't get to give her the clover so she is now sailing the high seas with us in spirit.
As you can see BRIANNA is still going but needs feeding so we are keeping our eye out for a garden center which are none too common when sailing.
September 6th, 2019
SCALE
This shows the scale of the Wyoming with me standing in the bilges.
September 6th, 2019
DOUGAL
Theres only one name for this little fella - I name you Dougal (From the Magic Roundabout).
September 6th, 2019
BATH
We had a lovely trip up the Kennebeck River to Bath where we had a day exploring the excellent Maine Maritime Museum. I could go on and on but we really enjoyed the section on lobster where my many questions were answered. I certainly didn't know that they could live to a hundred years of age and grow to four feet in length. Females can walk up to a hundred kilometers to their nesting site!!
The other amazing thing was the size of the ship building business so far inland. During the second world war Bath built 82 destroyers. They also built fishing boats and Harold Vanderbilts famous Americas Cup yachts Endeavour and Ranger.
As we have sailed these parts I have often reflected that the trees we are seeing are not as mature as I would have expected and the answer lies in ship building. Hundreds of huge sailing ships were built in Bath and they hoovered up woodland in the process. This picture gives you an idea of their size thanks to the life size sculpture representing the six-mast, 426ft Wyoming which could carry 6,000 tons of coal.
Bath was built around ship building and in an old sketch of the town you can see the rope works that ran right through its center. John D Smith spent 45 years spinning 64,940,666 fathoms of thread walking ten miles a day totaling a staggering 140,850 miles. Half of it backwards....the equivalent of nearly three times around the world backwards.
The picture also shows the modern and busy ship building industry that presently exists to churn out US Navy ships. That's Pearl on a mooring to the far right.
September 3rd, 2019
RAILWAY
As you can see it was a pretty substantial railway which frames Pearl beautifully
September 3rd, 2019
SEGUIN LIGHTHOUSE
I am sat in Bath Brewery logged onto wifi to upload this blog having had a lovely day which started with a glassy morning as we motored to Seguin Island. It is a famous lighthouse and is only accessible during good weather. We just couldn't resist an unplanned stop and it didn't disappoint. Although it's still a working lighthouse the place is run by a charity with a great little museum and a volunteer takes you up to the light for some amazing views. These Lighthouses were often manned by a family and there was some lovely pictures of life on the island. They were replenished once a year with major supply from building materials to hundreds of tons of coal to run the steam fog horn. It was much more industrious than I thought with a light railway to get the coal to the top of the island. They even had a blacksmiths shop and of course a well-protected veggie garden. They hunted seal, fished and shot birds to keep food on the table.
September 3rd, 2019
THE BASIN
Top of our hurricane routine is make sure that on Friday we are tucked away in a hurricane hole and as you can see The Basin looks to be a good one. There are a couple of others but I think this one gets my vote.
