Sitting on an island off the coast of Maine, not that far from the mainland but you can only get here by boat – so “off the coast”.
This will be my fourth winter on this island in what I used to think of as the ‘frozen north’; a place I have come to love despite the snow and ice of the winter months. A place I feel more connected to than that warm state known as Florida where I lived for 11 years. BUT, I do miss the voyaging which was once so central to my life. I miss being a ‘homeless bum’, traveling the world with no fixed address, meeting new people in places where I didn’t speak their language.
Last year, I got one of those phone calls that I used to get on a regular basis, “Hey, Roman, you available for a delivery?” Was I ever.
A New York attorney, an experienced racing sailor, had bought a Marten 49 in Tortola, BVI, and needed the boat to be sailed to Newport, RI. I was recommended by a couple of friends and despite my advanced age, the lawyer decided I could do the job. He sent me the pre-purchase survey and it looked like the boat could be made ready for the trip with just a couple days of boatyard labour. Three weeks later, I was installing a new toilet one hour before we let go the dock lines and set off from St Thomas USVI for Bermuda.
At first, there were just two of us working on the boat in combination with the guys at Nanny Cay but that number became five as the remainder of the delivery crew arrived. Long hot days on the boat and long nights of imbibing at the beach bar and we finally had the boat ready to sail. Then there was a problem with one of the crew being unable to control those long nights at the beach bar and he had to be put on a plane before we set off.
The ‘professor’ lectures his students as Summer Storm (ex-Defiance) sets off from St George, Bermuda.
Once we set sail, we had a smooth voyage with no mechanical problems and no extreme weather situations – other than no wind at all for a couple days. We delivered the boat into New England Boatworks of Portsmouth, RI for a makeover for the new owner. My recommendations filled six hand-written pages – I think most of them were heeded.
So, I titled this post, “Dreams of Future Voyages”. What does that mean, you may ask; after all, I have here written only about a past voyage?
The Lady and I are thinking about flying over to England in the autumn of 2018 to look at Contessa 32s, with the plan to sail the boat back across the Pond. The 32 is a relatively small boat with an extraordinary record for being exceptionally seaworthy. Crazy, huh?
As the Anchor Drags 