shakedown cruise to Pulpit Harbor on the Isle of North Haven

ahoy! We shoved off from Journey's End Marina on Saturday, June 30th and sailed 12 miles to what may be one of our favorite spots since starting our cruising last summer. the entrance is noted by the Pulpit rock with a 100 year old osprey nest on top! on our sail over we refreshed ourselves with the chart plotter and radar, checked our battery usage, used the sails to be sure things were rigged correctly and that things had been restored to their rightful places since the mast and all shrouds and stays had been removed when the mast was unstepped for winter storage inside. the boat was dropped into the water on Wednesday June 27, and Friday morning we were shoving off the docks as other boats were being dropped in and space was needed. David did nearly all the work while I shopped for provisions. How he put the boat back together so fast is a mystery to me! We found the refrigeration which worked like a champ last year was running but not cooling. we had a slow leak so a new valve was ordered and would be in the following week. we stayed our first night out on a mooring in Rockland Harbor. The weather is so cool at night that sleeping is heavenly! I enjoyed awaking before sunrise to see the day begin. I captured it on the camera! pulpit Harbor was a great place to take inventory and stow gear and start relaxing. we started to walk the 2.5 miles into the town of North Haven on Sunday morning when a nice man from Mass. Offered us a ride and tho it was cool, we decided to take him up on his offer and walk back after church for exercise. we arrived at the church and enjoyed a service led by a most reserved Baptist priest with a talent for classical music and conducting. That Sunday was the last Baptist service to be held in that church for the summer. The small summer Baptist congregation would move up to Pulpit to a small church and allow the summer Episcopalians to use the larger church. we were interested in attending as we had met Fr. Fred Emrich at the Navigator Motor Inn earlier in the week while having breakfast there. He told us he had summered in North Haven for the past 40 years and served as the summer priest. We sailed back to Rockland after 3 great nights in Peaceful Pulpit harbor. We pumped out and took on water and laid alongside to load on 5 new deep cell batteries as we realized they had surpassed their expectancies. Luckily, a man was driving up to Rockland this very morning to drop something in town and he could bring the batteries from Westport a few hours drive away! After doing some more provisioning, a shower and a load of laundry we dinghied back to second wind out moored now in Rockland Harbor. The refrig part turns out won't be in today as expected . It should arrive by Friday, so we will enjoy the 4th here with Kathy and Herb Stackhouse at their home in Sprucehead eating lobster! oh well, someone has to do it! Cindra, David and Lulu