We were due for some bad weather, and of course we hit it on the way up to Castine. Trip called me up from down below and I could see the ominous skies as well as the lightning. We furled the jib and got two reefs in the main before it hit.
Our new radar is wonderful at helping us anticipate weather, particularly squalls headed our way. It was pretty obvious from the above picture that we were caught squarely in the middle of something.
Unfortunately what should have been a quick squall grew in size, as you can see from the next picture, but luckily it then also diminished in intensity. We never saw more than 25 knots of wind and it was just a lot of rain. And a great rainbow afterward.
We got into Smith Cove across from Castine to find only two other boats in the huge anchorage. Little did we know, one was Mary and Christian from s/v I Wanda. Trip has been talking regularly to Mary on the morning radio chat, but it was nice to finally catch up in person over coffee and cookies on their boat.
We had thought we had said farewell to Saphir the week before, as they were planning on heading to Canada. To our surprise they sailed into Smith Cove and invited us for Sunday dinner. It turns out Klaus was denied entry as he is German and the Canadians are only allowing US citizens right now. Canada’s loss was our gain!
We went ashore first to explore Castine. I still think Belfast is my favorite town in Maine, but Castine is a close second. You can walk the entire town in one day, enjoying one of the last remaining series of elm trees still alive in the US, the charming architecture, and the remnants of British and French control during the revolutionary war. We even found a market that has hydroponic greens growing right in the store!
Klaus and Katrin have a traditional sauerbraten and (homemade) spaetzle dinner every Sunday evening and we were the guests for this one. Two years ago they invited us along with Mads & Lotta of s/v Looma IV and it was so special to be back again.
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