Dasein and crew are back safe and sound from Cruise 2006!

The cruise was a resounding success. We had great weather for the whole trip, with only two days of rain and zero days of fog out of 18 days on the water!

9.5 Nautical Miles | Portland Yacht Club

There's not much to report from this final day. I slept in til 0730, then enjoyed a lazy breakfast of fried eggs and thick-cut sourdough toast. And, of course, coffee. The weather wasn't great—cold and grey—so I decided to just get ready and head out. By 0815 I was underway, powering in basically still air.

20.0 Nautical Miles | Ash Point Cove (Potts Harbor)

Though I could have easily gotten back to Falmouth today, and part of me wanted to do so, I decided that I should savor the last night of the cruise aboard. I decided that I wanted to get close to home so that I could relax in the morning and then have a short jaunt home so that I could get in at a reasonable hour. My first thought was Cliff Island, but the weather forecast for overnight was calling for northerly winds at 10-15 knots which would be untenable at Cliff.

12.7 Nautical Miles | Harmon Harbor, Sheepscot River

Now that I was practically back in home waters, I felt that I could afford a short day, since I didn't really need to be back to Falmouth until Friday. After tossing some ideas around, I decided to just poke on over to Harmon Harbor. Harmon Harbor is a remarkably peaceful and friendly spot, and its a great place to stop on the way to or from Casco Bay.

21.9 Nautical Miles | Witch Island, Johns Bay

The weather forecast was calling for increasingly strong southwesterlies as the day went on--exactly the direction I would be going in all day. After toying with a few options, I narrowed my choices down to two: Harbor Island or Witch Island, depending on just how strong the wind had gotten when I reached Davis Straits.

31.1 Nautical Miles | Long Cove, Tenant's Harbor

It was time to start working my way back towards Falmouth. Too bad the clouds were clinging to the hillsides, spitting rain. After waking early and seeing the dreary weather, I rolled over and got another hour or more of sleep.

Lay Day | Bucks Harbor

The family portion of the cruise was over and it was time to think about heading back towards Falmouth. I still had six days before I needed to be home, but I didn't want to have to put in too many very long slogs into a southwesterly to get there. But the forecast for the day was for "rain, heavy at times, chance of precipitation: 100%" so I wasn't planning on going anywhere until the next day.

17.5 Nautical Miles | Bucks Harbor

With rain in the forecast for the entire day on Sunday, it was time for us to get back to Bucks Harbor. NOAA was calling for strong winds out of the southwest, and since it was still blowing at 15 knots in Mackerel Cove, and had done so all night, we were inclined to believe them.

11.8 Nautical Miles | Mackerel Cove, Swans Island

We had planned to head down to Frenchboro, Long Island from Northeast, but the weather forecast called for heavy rain all day on Sunday, the day we were going to return to Bucks Harbor. I told Heather that we could go back to Bucks Harbor on Sunday, but I was going to spend the trip down below. With this in mind, we decided that it might be better to head somewhere closer to Eggemoggin Reach so that we would have a reasonably short day on Saturday to return to Bucks.

Lay Day | Northeast Harbor, Mount Desert Island

Gavin was up early. He wanted to ride the bus. After trying to ignore him for a while, we eventually gave up and dragged ourselves out of bed. That's the royal "ourselves." Heather had already gotten up.