July 22 – July 28, 2024; 15080 nm and 1947 days after departure from La Rochelle

The big goal with our friends was to have them aboard and take them for a few days to our favourite spots in Maine. Show them how living on a boat looks and feels like. A kind of a real live-aboard experience😁. The only obstacle was Anjas inner ear. The part where the human balance mechanism resides. Would it keep up with its conflict of balance caused by Altimate’s erratic motion on the water? That was the big question, as Anja had unfortunately made some bad experiences, even though years ago. Therefore, to make it an easy and relaxed approach, they had booked a hotel to not have the pressure of being forced to cope with potential seasickness. Smart and relaxing for all of us!!!
So on their arrival day we all agreed to take it slowly. After a couple of hours catching up in a café we took them for a first short visit on Altimate. Just to show them how squeezed yet comfortable we live and more important how both of their bodies would response to Altimate’s motion. But first we had to get to Altimate. The weather was quite nice and warm but for the first time since we had arrived at Rockland the wind was blowing. Not that much but enough for building up little wind waves. Usually not a problem as we can easily plane in the dinghy with the two of us. But packed with four people we can just move slowly and sooometimes that can get a little wet. Still protected from the piers all was good but the last quarter of mile was different. Cheeky little waves made their way up high against our dinghy splashing us with f…ing cold water. (That, by the way, convinced brave Anja immediately from deciding not to have a dip in the water. She was keen on doing so … but the cold splashes were already enough to change her mind. We had told her…😉) With the result that we, and of course especially our dear friends arrived soaking wet on Altimate . Not what we had planned and surly not what they had expected for their first visit. Yet all in all I’m pretty sure they thought it was a fun experience. Welcome aboard Altimate, welcome to cruisers life!!!

Well it turned out to be indeed a short visit as soon Anjas inner ear started to complain and made her feel uncomfortable. Not a problem! I jumped in the dinghy and brought her back ashore immediately. Only the two of us to make it a fast, planing fun run. The best part was, as soon as we were moving she felt already better!!! Yeah a good sign! Maybe we just needed to keep moving to get her inner ear in balance.
The evening we spent ashore in a bar and enjoyed a typical American dinner with some cool beverages while -of course- catching up on some last years ongoing. The next day was forecasted without any wind and rather ugly weather. So instead of us given our friends a nice sailing tour we were the ones who got spoilt. They took us in their rented car to Camden, a small picturesque town about 10km north of Rockland. A bit of a shame for our friends but especially nice for us. Such a luxury to have a car, being comfortably driven and have the opportunity to explore the surroundings!! (Of course I shouldn’t have, but deep inside I was a liiiiittle bit thankful for the weather.) En plus we also stopped at a supermarket to take advantage of the car and with it an easy peasy shopping. So nice to -just a long the way- get things done. (Our last grocery shopping took us half a day.) Pure luxury!

However the next day would have been, we needed to do a shit-run (excuse my language but I couldn’t think of a better way to name it). Wondering what that means? Well, it actually literally means what it says. In the US it is a must to use a blackwater tank if close to shore. If that tank was full of our delightful body excrements it obviously badly needed attention. One way was to call a pump out boat which sucks out all the collected contents of the tank. The other option was to move further away from shore, at least 3nm and then release all the good stuff to the sea. As we had not found a pump out boat in Rockland we were forced to go for the shit-run. The good part of that run was that it would take only about an hour if just going out for that previous explained purpose. As the weather was still rather bad and a proper overnight trip was not an option we still asked Anja and Stephan if they would like to join despite the unromantic reason and no wind conditions. Like that, they could experience a short sailing trip and if all went well we could even extend it to a longer expedition. Said and done! Stephan was anyhow seaworthy and Anjas balance organ seemed to have a great day. Maybe it was distracted by the many sea birds we have luckily seen (Stephan was a real master of birds he could name all of them!!!) or the curious dolphins which kindly stopped by to say hello. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter, we just enjoyed the moment and took advantage of Anja inner ears good mood. We even anchored outside close to the breakwater for a nice late breakfast stop including yummy freshly baked bread. And if poor Anja didn’t have caught a stupid cold, we probably would have stayed much longer. (No, no, no she did not catch that cold from our wet dinghy ride!!! She got it from a much too chilled AC in a restaurant in Boston!)

That successful trip convinced us to finally go for an overnight trip the next day. We were all excited and very much looking forward to it. It could have been so nice! But guess what? The stupid annoying Maine fog turned up again. Of course in a very dense appearance and the forecast promised it would stay the whole day. A white wall with a visibility close to zero! Thank you fog! No way of moving, no sailing trip that day. Well, at least we could go for another excursion ashore. This time we were taken about 30 lm to Belfast, to another neat little town further north the coast. Of course we had again a fun day, but hey the plan was that WE would take our friends to some nice places and not the other way round. It was a bummer but fortunately our last day turned out to be great. The fog had completely disappeared, the sun was shining and a nice breeze was blowing. All we needed for a perfect sailing day. Finally we had the chance to show our friends a bit of our boat life. From lifting the anchor to setting it, to slow pace sailing and being surprised about the different temperature ashore and on the water, to just enjoying the nature, to preparing food, to storing away everything while under way, to using the toilet and and and. All the little things which are normal for us but new to non sailors.
Our trip brought us to Pulpit Harbor at North Haven Island. There we relaxed a bit, enjoyed the pretty bay and had salads for lunch. After a couple of hours at anchor it was already time to head back to Rockland. Luckily the breeze was still blowing and Altimate smoothly sailed us back the 10nm to our previous anchorage. After setting the hook we happily shared the tradition of having an anchor beer/wine/rum… 😁 before we started our farewell bbq dinner. Cheers!

Much too soon it was time to say goodbye. Anja and Stephan had to drive back the next day to Boston to catch their flight to Germany. For us it was also time to move on. We had reached our goal Maine and now time made us going back south. And as the weather forecast showed a rare yet good window to go south we had decided to take the opportunity. So after dinner it was time for a last big hug and a last ride back to shore. Thank you Anja and Stephan for 5 special days😘!!!!
Early next morning we were off heading back to Cape Cod, Provincetown.