Escaping the heat wave

This past weekend was blisteringly hot, 95 degrees and humid both days. We were dripping sweat the minute we stepped outside in the morning. The kids were miserable, Tristan really wanted to turn on the air conditioning.

*Note – while we do have an AC unit on board, we have never operated it. We suspect it will draw a LOT of power. Plus, we have never lived anywhere with AC before, and really don’t feel we need to use it. We live on the water, typically a nice sea-breeze is all you need to cool down.

We invited my sister and her family to come aboard for a sail to escape the heat of the land. They were happy to accept.

So we set off with 4 adults and 5 kids, outnumbered for the first time. The older kids (8, 8, and 6) are all pretty self sufficient, so it was only the younger ones (1 and 2) that needed constant supervision though.

There wasn’t much wind, but there was enough to push us along at a nice 3-4 knots. A beautiful, quiet, cooling sail down the bay. Despite the cooling effect of the sea-breeze, the kids still wanted to go swimming. Tristan would swim all day long if we let him, even though he gets cold easily and Maine waters are not known for their warmth.

We sailed on a beam reach down the bay all the way to Little Chebeague island, where we decided to try anchoring again. As we would be anchoring for just the afternoon this time we felt more comfortable trying it out.

After a few tries, the windlass finally grabbed the chain and let it down. We dropped the anchor in 30ft of water, but by the time we drifted back we were in 50ft. Since we are still learning our systems, we don’t know how much chain we let out, as it isn’t marked, but we did catch.

Using both the lobster pot in front of us, and the rocky ledge behind us, we made sure we weren’t dragging. Once the anchor was secure, I put the boom out to the side and attached the swing, as Tristan has been wanting to swing over the water (and so have I) since we moved aboard.

Ben jumped in first to check the current, and then Tristan not long after him. While I did spend some time in the swing the water was a bit frigid for my blood.

We sat and enjoyed the beautiful day for a couple hours, before heading toward home. We almost made it all the way home on one tack. There was a lot of wind when we got back by the marina, so we took the sails down and motored the last little bit, rather than tacking back and forth to get there.

Docking was a bit scary, as there were other boats around this time, but I did manage not to hit anything, with some friendly help from a group of people on the dock.