Maine!

After a 7 am start we were faced with calm winds which meant using the iron genny (engine) for the next 16 hours! It was a beautiful day with the sun shining allowing us to catch some warm rays. The ocean was beautiful, just like glass but we were both surprised by how much garbage that there was floating out there... pop bottles, styrofoam, balloons, rope, plastic etc. It made us realize the need to be good stewards of our environment.
  The winds picked up for a couple hours allowing us to put the sails up and use the self steering wind vane and enjoy a nice haddock supper. About 9pm they died down again so the engine went on again. The night was very quiet with little to no wind but it sure did get cold out there. Around 1am the boat seamed to be slowing down and not getting enough forward momentum. Reverse seemed to work fine and we didn't seem to be dragging anything so Richard did a check of the transmission and found that it was slipping whenever we gave it any power.... Thankfully the winds were just starting to pick up in a favourable position so we were able to hoist the sails and maintain 4-5 kts.. what a blessing that was!
     Around 6 am, just as the sun was rising we started seeing the dreaded lobster pots, we were surprised as we were still in about 300 feet of water. Now we are not talking about some lobster pots... we are talking thousands of them...everywhere...with no channels to go through... we were both exhausted hanging over the sides trying to dodge these things!!! This went on for the next four hours until the Boat US towing service came in and towed us to the dock. The Boat US membership definitely paid for itself! Our US cell phone kicked in at this point so we were able to check in with customs so they were waiting for us on the dock when we arrived. All went very well with that as it only cost us 2 limes!
       We were able to get in touch with some transmission guys and after much research and many phone calls on Richards part we decided to get a new one as a rebuilt one may fail and a new one is warrantied and a whole bunch of other reasons that Richard told me that I have no idea what he means...  So hopefully it arrive on Tuesday then Richard will put it in and we will leave on Wednesday.
      We again were very blessed by this happening where and when it did, as Rockland is a beautiful town with lots to do and see everybody has been super friendly and helpful. The Harbourmaster at the Public wharf that we are staying at is super and has waived the dockage fees for us which is huge for us.