September 2
        
        The engine has certainly gotten a workout these last couple of days. From Booth
        Bay to Provincetown there has been no wind. At least we don't move fast enough
        to spend a pile of money in a day. The weather has been great. No fog, cool nights
        and nice days. We have had some neat experiences even though we were running
        the engine. 
        
        The other day we were overtaken by a huge pod of dolphins. They were all around
        the boat for over 15 minutes. Usually these encounters are short. Faith stood on the
        bow and watched as many as 15 animals at one time riding in and under our bow
        wave. They would jump and dive all around the boat. A hard experience to top!
        
        Today we knew we would be traveling across a shallow bank (100') about 10 miles
        from Provincetown that is known to be frequented by whales. We left Isles of
        Shoals ME. early this morning. Shortly after we left we saw two whales swimming
        side by side...What a site! A few hours later we saw another. We also saw a shark
        that had to be 20ft long...a great white? We still hoped that we would see a few
        more whales. About 12 miles from our destination we started to see more of these
        large magnificent animals. I am sure we saw over 100 animals. They weren't just
        there for us to see, they were putting on a show! We watched them
        feed....launching themselves through the surface and back down in a tremendous
        splash. We saw them trying to clean barnacles from their flippers by laying on their
        side, extending them straight up and slapping them on the surface several times.
        We saw tail slaps and many doing everything the dolphin were doing but not under
        our bow. At any one time we could look around and see up to 20 animals sunning,
        jumping, diving, slapping, etc. What a day! We could not believe the number of
        animals in a relatively small area. How can we top this? 
            
        Sunday morning we visited with our friends and toured their boat and another
        brand new Island Packet 43. Nice boats! We started our sail back to Camden. On
        the way we saw this huge sail coming towards us...maybe it was the "J" boat that
        was anchored near us in Camden....it was! This is about 120ft of pure sailing
        machine. Long, sleek and beautiful with thousands of yards of canvass on a sloop
        rig. The wind was 15 to 25kts with almost no waves. She was eating up the
        distance between us quickly. Everybody dove for their cameras. She was beautiful!
        You could see the spray off of her bow as she sliced through the water. We had a
        chance for a couple of pictures and she was gone. 
        
        
        
        
        
        She is turning! She is coming back....can we beat her? Trim the sails! Put up the
        stasail! What else can we do? We ran parallel for the rest of the trip to Camden but
        she was docked and well settled before we could even see the harbor.....oh well. 
        
        We pulled into the harbor and said goodbye to our friends. We had shared a great
        weekend on the water. It is great to have friends!
        
        On Monday we left for Booth Bay Harbor. What a sail! 6 to 9kts all day! A great
        beam reach. We showed Ken the town, had dinner and enjoyed a quiet night in
        Maine. We were ready for our trip South!
        
        I hope all is well with you!
        
        More to come.