July 2nd - Fireworks

Our trip started out with fog...as many of them have this year...but we had some afternoon clearing and actually saw the sun and blue sky. Our hopes were high for fireworks as we anchored in Gilkey Harbor with three other schooners but the fog came back as the sun set and all we really saw was colored fog.

We woke to thick fog the next morning and we made our way to Stonington. The sun did it's work and we had good visibility by the time we were near North Haven. The plan was for a lobster bake so we had to get to Stonington before the lobster co-op closed at 4:00...or so I thought. We had called the co-op prior to leaving Rockland to be sure they were going to be open on the holiday, otherwise we would have brought lobsters with us from Rockland. It turns out that we received erroneous information and the co-op was closed...no lobsters. There were several other people there looking to buy lobsters too but we were all out of luck. Thank goodness for cell phones and a husband ashore. Brian and Izze procured lobsters in Rockland and drove them up to us. We postponed the lobster bake until the next day. There was lots of talk of thunderstorms on the radio but they all passed to the north. Fireworks that night were great and we were treated to several small private displays as many of the islands around us were occupied by campers throwing their own celebrations.

We saw the fireworks being set up on Two Bush Island as we sailed by Stonington. There were lots of boxes!

We went ashore the next morning for our lobster bake on Russ Island and the sun was delightful. Three people even went swimming! Everyone got a little too much sun despite repeated application of sunscreen.

The Rosa Rugosa (sea roses) on Russ Island are beautiful and very fragrant.

We got underway just after 3:00 pm and sailed for several hours. The wind was coming from the direction we needed to head for our return to Rockland and it made for a long day. We dropped anchor in Hurricane Sound at 8:30 and I hoped for either no wind or a favorable wind the next morning so we could get back on time.

It was a beautiful sunrise with glassy calm water the next morning.

Vikesh took advantage of the opportunity to put a line in the water. Hannah caught a mackerel at the dock and Mike caught a mackerel during the trip. We used them later for bait in our lobster trap. Unfortunately we lost our trap and will never know if we caught anything.

We had an extra guest on the way back to the dock. I suppose he was hoping for some brunch.

We pushed back to Rockland in a bit of a swell and were treated to a song and dance arranged by Terry and Hannah with almost all the guests participating.

Terry: "What's the matter, Hannah? Why so glum?"
Hannah: "My trip on the Evans is almost done."
Terry and Hannah: "Sob, sob, sob, sob, sob."

Then each guest, one by one, joined the line until everyone was singing, "Sob, sob, sob, sob, sob."

Jackie posed with the brunch she prepared. The cherry tomatoes were stuffed with lobster and avocado...YUM!

We arrived only 10 minutes "late"and everyone gathered their belongings and headed out. There's nothing better than seeing someone put an "IHE" sticker on their car before they even leave the parking lot!

Mark took the prize for best t-shirt!