August 31 We are now headed South once again and I have a lot of catching up to do. We spent 10 days away from Boundless. I think we both agreed that life off of the boat is more hectic with many more things to think about and do. It is also more expensive. I think I spent more on car fuel in a couple of days than I do on the boat for a full month. Well, enough rationalizing about our choice to live on a boat. We left Fishkill on Aug 20 after attending to a few family things and attending Nancy Smith's wedding. It was a great party orchestrated by Phyllis at the Locust Tree Inn. I also stopped at IBM to see how they were existing without me. It was a great chance to see many of my friends and to catch up on what we have missed. We took several canvas pieces that Pete Dayger made for us to make living on Boundless a little more comfortable. They'll help keep bad weather out of the cockpit when we are traveling and light/heat out of the spaces below deck when needed. Thanks Pete!! When we arrived back at the boat we found that we had some work to do on our 110v refrigerator and the water system pressure pump wasn't working.....oh well. I jury-rigged both systems. We spent a couple of days at the dock in Samples Marina in Booth Bay, Maine, cleaning and provisioning for our next few weeks in Maine. Faith loved Booth Bay. It wasn't all that crowded and the craft shops were exceptional with reasonable prices. We also had a free trolley to help us get around. On August 23, we left for points North. We started back to Rockland and diverted further East to Dutch Harbor and to Frenchboro on Aug 24. Dutch Harbor is a small harbor with only a ferry dock that allows access to some hiking trails in Acadia National Park on the Isle De Haut. We anchored near the mouth of the harbor with 5 or 6 other boats. The next day we arrived in Frenchboro early. It is a wonderful working harbor with nothing for tourists, just scenery and natural beauty. We met Diane and Alex on Ariel III, a 35ft Island Packet that has been their home for the last 8 years. We invited them for cocktails on our boat. On the way back to their boat they picked dinner.....Fresh mussels. They invited us over to share their catch with a nice salad. With all of their experience we wrote down almost everything they said. Anything to help us get down our learning curve. After a few drinks and many pages of notes we had a nice calm night at a town mooring. On Tuesday we headed for Southwest Harbor. Alex told us that a new West Marine had just opened and I still needed parts for the water system. It was evident that Southwest Harbor was the home of Hinkley Yacht Shipyard. These beautiful yachts and their 36ft picnic boats were all over the harbor. The Hinkley is a very pretty boat! We anchored just off of a new marina, down the street from West Marine. They had the parts I needed! I also called an electronics person and a refrigeration person. Net, it cost me $55 to get the wind gage system damaged by lightning in MA. and the refrigerator fixed. While this was being done we used the free bus service to visit Bar Harbor and travel around Acadia National Park. We did a short hike from Northeast Harbor to Jordan Pond. Like our bike trips it seemed as though it was all up hill. We spent a few days anchored in this beautiful Harbor getting the boat fixed and enjoying the area. Now it was time to head back to Penobscot Bay. We left Southwest Harbor on Friday Aug 27, to meet Pete and Donna Dayger who would stay with us through Sunday and my brother Ken who would join us for our trip to Long Island to meet Tom and Phyllis near Greenport. We arrived in Camden Harbor late in the day after several hours of motoring through many bays, passages, coves and some very exciting scenery......This is the only way to see the coast and islands of Maine. We couldn't find a mooring so we anchored far out in the harbor. We had dinner and waited for our guests to arrive. About 1:00am we got their call. They couldn't see much but their map said they were ten minutes from Camden. The fog was thick. I found this out quickly as I got out of my warm bed into the cold wet dinghy for a ride to the town dock in the heavy wet fog. I did bring a compass in case I really got lost. I left the security of Boundless and started for the mouth of the inner harbor and the town dock. I had a general idea of the direction I needed to go and after several minutes that seemed a lot longer, I could see the glow of lights from the town through the fog. I made it to the dock.....now to get back. We actually fit all 4 people and their luggage into the dinghy so I only had to make one trip. It would be slow anyway because of the visibility. We pushed off into the dark fog. This time I wouldn't have the lights of a town to guide me. I recognized a couple of boats and knew that I had started in the wrong direction. I made a course adjustment and hoped that I would be close. All of a sudden I saw a glow blinking ahead of us somewhere in the distance....it had to be Faith! It was! She had taken our 1,000,000 candle power searchlight and was blinking it on and off so I would be able to find our home in the dark......she is good! We packed everything into Boundless and bed down for the night. The fog was a little slow lifting Saturday morning. Pete fixed a great breakfast and we tried to get everything out of the way so we could sail towards Belfast, Maine to meet Diane and Alex once again. On the way we anchored in Broad Cove in Islesboro for lunch and bought 5 lobsters for $20 from a lobster fisherman near where we were anchored. What a dinner we had in Belfast. The winds were with us all day....it was nice sailing between the islands.