With these cold January days we thought we would share some warmth.  We love getting pictures from past passengers and just a few weeks ago we received these from Cameron Krier who was on a spectacular sunset cruise in September.  Unfortunately that night we did not have much wind, however, we did not lack in color!  We thought we would share a few shots!  All photos taken by Cameron Krier.

We are putting together our transit plans and have had lots of interest!  We still have a few bunks open for the second leg (Mystic, CT to Castine, ME — June 2nd till June 8th).  It will be a great trip through New England and Maine (and perhaps the possibility of seeing whales!).  The rate is $400.00 for the week so if you are interested please contact us castoff[at]guildivecruises[dot]com.  We can’t wait to sail with you!

First off, we apologize for being so slack with the blog since we arrived in Maryland.  The boat is doing great and Zander and I have been working hard with some winter maintance (and of course working our other part-time jobs — so our days have been busy).

So far the weather has treated us well!  After the last few winters with snow and then more snow we have only seen a few flakes this winter.  Actually it has been so mild that we are bubble-less!!  We have put temporary covers over the hatches to preserve the varnish and prevent leaks but otherwise we are free to the open air.  We just hope that February is as nice as January, fingers crossed.

Once we got back to Maryland we dove right into renovating the galley.  Our original plan was just to redo the tile work but of course one step leads to the next so we dove into the hand rails and drawers.  Lots to do but we are excited to have a fresh look!  Here is the old tile:

Starting the demolition:

Now with the stove/ oven out.  Of course we found some really ancient food when it was removed, but it feels good to have it all clean now!

As of now the galley still looks like a demolition mess so more pictures to come as it come together.

While the galley is a mess and we don’t have new counter tops to mess up Zander decided to repaint the overhead.  It looks FANTASTIC.  Thank you thank you thank you, Zander, all the work overhead is not easy on the neck and back but it looks great now!!  He has also been tinkering with the engine room, of course, always improving one pump/ valve/ and hose at a time.

Now for the big project of the winter.  The trip south really beat up our sails (as you can see blow) so we have been searching around to get a new Main and Genoa built.  We thought for a while that we may rework an old sail to fit the Guildive but of course being a unique boat its very difficult to get it to fit well… so it looks like a whole new sail, eek!!  Now Guildive will be a speed racer with her clothes.

We are just starting to put together the itinerary for the trip north.  We are revamping the trip so it will be a bit longer with time to anchor in the evenings and time ashore.  We have split the trip into two 1-week sections with a change off in Mystic CT.  The first leg will depart Annapolis Memorial Day Weekend and the second leg will depart Mystic June 2nd.   More details come come but if you have any interest in joining us or questions about the trip please let us know (castoff[at]guildivecruises[dot]com.

Well, you know it has been a challenging voyage when we were looking forward to the Delaware Bay (usually the most hated body of water of the transit)!  For the last 6 days we were faced with head winds, and not the light wind that is just an inconvenience but STRONG head winds.  The kind of head wind that causes big swells and is VERY uncomfortable.  The kind of head wind that doesn’t let anyone sleep because they are launched out of bed.  The kind of head wind that we were  lucky to have had dinner—thank you, Scott, for the one pot dishes.  And the kind of head wind that really proves the strength of the crew.  We have had a few mishaps… coffee explosion, a smashed pickle and pepperchini jar, and wet flour caking everything in the cabinet.  And…a few frustrating moments where we felt like we were never going to get there, and by there we just wanted to get anywhere!

After we left Fairhaven we were really excited for an easterly forecast as we went south.  We went outside the Long Island Sound so as to not be caught with the 30+ knot southwest breeze they were calling for starting a few days later.  We thought that we could make some miles, actually sail and not have to contend with the SW wind for the whole NJ coast.  All was well and good… we motor-sailed for a while to make some miles then day break on Wednesday we set a double reefed main, double reefed mizzen and a reefed stays’l.  We were going along great; all happy to be sailing then, POP!,  a burst of wind came along and popped our main upper backstay.  No one got hurt and we had the sea room to run down with the waves for as long as it took.  Unfortunately ‘with the waves’ meant almost backtracking for a few hours.  James and Zander hopped to and jury-rigged the stay while I took the helm guiding her down wind in 8-10+ foot seas.  James and Zander did a wonderful job with the fix but it meant that we were a bit timid to fully sail again.  So back on the engine to make up some miles… ahhhh the sound of the engine again!!!  We motorsailed for the rest of the day and night and were within spitting distance of the Delaware Bay (maybe 4 hours away straight line distance).  Well those 4 hours turned into 24 hours as the SW breeze filled in and the swell picked up tremendously.  We were fighting 18-20 foot swells barely making forward way.  Never did we feel we were in much danger but it was uncomfortable to say the least (for a long time).  We could not go straight to the Delaware Bay of course so we ran a little East of South for many many hours then set a triple reefed main and were able to make some way towards the Bay.  Finally a little before midnight we entered the bay and I think it was a very welcomed relief to everyone.  The boat settle down and with the SW breeze we were able to sail North West up the bay.  All night we took our time just under sail (triple reefed Main, and Genoa) and did NOT turn on the engine.  I think everyone got some good sleep for once!

I will say that with all the ups and downs and side to sides we did with the huge swell everyone stayed in great spirits and laughs were had by all – most of the time!!  It was great to see everyone fall into their own role on the boat and saw what needed to be done.  Scott and Holland were in the wheelhouse looking out, Sue and Russ holding down the galley and keeping us fed up in the wheelhouse, James and Zander making sure that everything stayed in its place so we were not jury-rigging in the middle of the night, Juliane plotting away on the chart, and Zander and myself ‘wrestled the bear’.  We certainly passed off the helm when our arms needed a break as it was very physical.  Yesterday certainly proved the strength of the boat and the engine but I think we are all looking forward to a shower, full meal and a full nights rest!  This morning we turned on some tunes in the pilothouse and out on deck, and everyone pitched in to give Guildive a much-deserved bath before hitting the C&D canal; Zander even vacuumed out the galley cabinets (a once a decade occurrence).  Guildive is now nice and clean, and cruising in the calm waters of the canal, so I think she is feeling good!!!

Its one thing to get my perspective on the scene but here is one from Sue!

Challenging? HA! Think bucking broncos, howling winds, drenching spray and bodies lurching from pillar to post!

Looking back, Tuesday was a relatively calm day. Some of us had just gotten our sea legs and considered the light chop of Monday’s seas our baptism into ocean-going travel. That seemed a fair enough assessment Wednesday morning, when the sky was relatively clear and those of us who slept overnight woke to the sound of the rest of the crew making jokes in the pilothouse. Capt. Zander was at the wheel, Capt. Kate had just gone to bed after the overnight shift. The weather was breezy and some of us newbie’s were asking whether the sea ever got any calmer.

Then all hell broke loose—but rather slowly. A light drizzle began to fall and the Guildive began to lurch a bit. Amidst the babble came a quiet question from James:

“What’s that cleat attached to?” he asked, indicating a cable that seemed a bit loose. Zander glanced in the direction of the cleat, frowned and said to Scott—“ Wake Kate up and tell her to get up here.”  Just about that time, the waves began getting bigger.

Kate appeared in the hatch, took in the situation and strode [not easy to do in Crocs] to the helm and began wrestling with the wheel.  She literally wrestled the wheel for the next three or four hours, as the weather worsened.

Meanwhile, Zander and James kept ducking in and out of the engine room, returning with lengths of chain and various bits of nuts and bolts.  My first indication that something was wrong—other than the fact that Zander called in Kate immediately for back-up—was the fact that James and Zander asked Holland to hold a wet towel as they worked on the chain on deck, in case something sparked. The two of them knelt for quite a bit, forging a fix-it for the whatsit that had broken. [Those are my technical terms—there may be others that are more accurate].

The reassuring thing to me is, I didn’t realize what a catastrophe a broken stay might have been—Kate and Zandar remained remarkably calm and professional. I’m sure that’s why those of us in the crew who had no clue also remained calm.

Thursday dawned with a beautiful blue sky, puffed with clouds. No rain and, while it was chilly at first, it seemed there could be a nice day of—if not sailing, at least motor-sailing—ahead. As I said before, HA!

I took a seat on one of the “settees” in the pilot house and was immediately drenched with a freezing spray as the Guildive dipped into a valley between waves. I haven’t seen that much white-water—well, I’ve never seen that much white water. The waves frothed in every direction. Luckily by then, we mostly had our sea legs and were able to fortify ourselves with various types of motion-sickness drugs; better living through chemistry.  There must be some famous bucking bronco ride in Texas that, on it’s highest setting, would rival the waves, but I can’t think of anything else that might compare to the experience. We took turns guessing the height of the waves. Personally, having been through Drake’s Passage twice, I can say these were not waves to sneer at.  Fortunately, we didn’t have to contend with traffic as there was no one else visible. It was a heck of a ride—maybe not the adventure the Captains intended, but certainly one that gave me new insight into the travails and travels of early New World explorers.

We wrote these posts as we were transiting the nice and calm C&D Canal.  All excited to be in the Chesapeake with Annapolis just a full day away.  There is no sailing allowed in the Canal, not even motorsailing (our favorite) so of course we all turned on the familiar sound of the engine.  After many days of listening to the engine in every sea condition all of us became very used to the usual sounds… well just after we exited the TIGHT section of the canal the engine starts loosing power!  NOT NOW ENGINE!  We are still following buoy to buoy with very shallow sections on either side and we have a tug and barge staring us in the face.  Never do these mishaps happen in a convenience place, never.  We set the genoa right away and crossed the shipping lane (really the only direction the boat would go being at the whim of the tide).  Sailed across and sailed onto the hook just outside of the channel.  We settled the boat knowing that we were not going to play chicken with the tug and barge then James, Holland and Zander attacked the engine.  Determining that we had air in the fuel we went about fixing and getting the engine back and running.  It was a good practice run in anchoring because we have settled the boat for the night in Still Pond knowing that we all needed some rest.

We are here, tied up in Annapolis… thankfully!

After many flight delays and a delayed start due to weather we are off… into the swell.  Unfortunately the wind and the swell are not in our favor, at least , for the first part of the voyage.  We tried sailing some but we were making miles (really fast) in the wrong direction.  Maybe if we were sailing to Nova Scotia or Europe we would be a rocket ship, instead we are off to Maryland – like it or not!  We have 6 passengers and span many states, Russ and James – from Maryland, Scott – from Florida, Holland – from Texas and Juliane – from Maine.  All up for an adventure with a great spirit, lets hope the weather gets better so we can get sailing and not just motoring.

A blog by Sue …

Aboard the Guildive, Monday Oct 17^th.

6:30 pm. A lovely sunset already over the horizon, with tropical colors of deep purple, mango and tangerine.  Clear skies with just skiffs of clouds to the north.

The sea is finally calm,  with swells of only 2-3 feet. .  When we left Castine yesterday the winds were gusting to 30kts (I think) and the waves were 7-9 ft. All through ;yesterday and much of today, the ride felt like a roller coaster attraction missing only the loop-de-loops (my stomach provided those). One learns quickly which side of the boat is better for throwing up over the side.

So far Russ – a retired banker and a longtime sailor, has been the only passenger to attempt lighting the stove, making coffee, boiling eggs and otherwise doing a yeoman’s job of providing us with sustenance.

Now that the waves have settled a bit, those of us with seasickness have most regained control of our gag reflexes. With the weather bright and clear, I think we’ll begin having fun now!!!

Currently we are exiting the Cape Cod Canal bound for the Rhode Island Sound.  The sunrise is exquisite and now that the boat is not going up and down with every swell moral is great… and we are eating GOLDFISH (a special Canal treat, and they are something other than saltines and ginger snaps)!

Just stopped in Fairhaven to fuel up an extra few gallons to make it home with no worries.  Fairhaven was where William Hand and Davis had his office … Guildive feels good to be home!  Thanks David Mitchell for the warm welcome into Fairhaven.

When the forecast for today and tonight say GALE warning with 12+ ft seas at our nose we stay at the dock.  So much for making plans ahead of time…

We were going to depart first thing this morning and get some miles under our belt but instead we are doing some light boat projects and walking around Castine while we wait for the wind to settle.  All week they are calling for southerly breeze 15-20+ knots!  That wind would be great if we were going north, but we are going south!!  Very lumpy and bumpy so we have stocked up on ginger snaps, saltines, and ginger ale.

First off we would like to apologize for not posting in a while.  We wrapped up our season and it ended with a bang – great weather the last few days of the month!!  We would like to thank everyone for your support this season and we look forward to next summer.

The first week of October we went up (by car) to visit Zander’s family in Nova Scotia and GOT MARRIED!!  Hurray!!  It was a beautiful small ceremony on his property with his parents, my parents and Zander’s sister and her family.  It was just what we wanted, nice and simple!

Now we are in the throws of preparing the boat for the trip south. We have 6 others joining the two of us, and they all arrive today.  We will depart tomorrow mid-day and our fingers are crossed that the forecast changes a bit to make the motion on the boat a bit smoother.  We will post when we can about our adventures!

We survived Irene!  It brought some wind and rain and a sleepless night but luckily not too much else!  Saturday we spend clearing off our dock – moving everything onto the back deck of the Restaurant so it wouldn’t end up in the water with the rolling motion of the floating dock.  With an easterly wind the dock where we usually sit is very uncomfortable!!  Saturday night after our last sail of the day we lashed our sails down, cleared the deck of anything loose, took down the flags and made sure we were ready to go first thing Sunday morning.  Sunday we woke up bright and early and scooted off the dock to Smith Cove.  The cove is right across the harbor so not a far transit and is one of the best places to seek refuge in storms like this.  We, however, were not the only ones with that thought…. we motored over to the cove (which is normally pretty empty) and weaved our way through many many many boats (all with multiple anchors out).  So needless to say it was tricky finding the best place to lay the anchor (or two).  We went pretty far into the cove and hunkered down for a while as we watched the breeze build.  We were around some boats with shallow drafts so their swing rate was different than ours keeping us on our toes.  We were in a great spot if the wind was going to stay in the easterly direction but once it changed to a southerly direction we knew we had to get out of there!  With all the boats in the cove and the southerly wind filling in around midnight the thought of ‘running the gauntlet’ in the dark was not appealing.  The last thing we wanted to do was get stuck on other boats stretched out anchor chains especially the mega yachts!!  So around 4pm we hauled up both of our anchors we had laid down (thanks Dave for the help) and got out of there and settled in by Nautilus Island (where we were mostly by ourselves).  We were able to scoot a bit closer to the shore decreasing the windage so we felt a bit better about it all.  Our wind instrument is pretty close to the deck and we were consistently clocking wind 25kts through the night and we could hear the howling in the rigging (easily 40kts up there at times)- so we took turns getting up and checking on it all through the night.  All was well and she was sitting pretty.  A southerly breeze is nice and comfortable at the dock with the T/S State of Maine acting as a break wall so about 5 am we hauled back and headed home to get some sleep.  Today we are reassembling and getting everything back to its proper place (and scrubbing the MUD that is all over the deck now from the anchor!).

Unfortunately with all the rain the pictures didn’t turn out too well.

Many guests ask how we found Castine and the answer is that Zander attended the Maine Maritime Academy here in town.  Its always nice to have guests that know the academy or are alumni!  A few weeks ago we were sailing from Searsport and one of our guests, Bob, was a MMA grad from 1952 (the 10th graduating class!).  It was such a treat to hear stories of old and new having both gone through the MMA experience years different.  In Kathy’s words (Bob’s wife) “Honestly, It would have great to have a tape recorder with me that day, he having graduated in MMA”S 10th class and you Zander in 2004.”

Hopefully we can take them sailing sometime from Castine – ‘home’ waters for Bob and Zander!

The rest of our sails have been anything but ordinary!  We had some magnificent full moon sails under the sky coated in stars and of course a beautiful moon providing just enough light on the harbor.  On one of our day sails we had a woman who has never been sailing… it had always been on her bucket list and we had a beautiful day with a perfect wind.  We got her behind the wheel for a tack so with a big grin and lots of laughs we all had a fun day on the water.

Life is good!

The rain is passing and the moon will be full on Saturday night!  Join us for a fantastic evening onboard under the moon and the stars. We are offering a full moon sails Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights from 8:30 till 10:30 pm!  Call 207.701.1421 for reservations!  Can’t wait to see you on the water.

We have been busy these last few weeks with the sunshine.  Today is the first rainy day in a while so we are taking a chance to catch our breath.  We have had some really fun trips these last few weeks with many returning faces and some new ones too!  We also have a future captain of the Guildive.. Mr. Jaden!  On board he learned how to set the sails, steer, and tie knots… and of course looked through the pirate treasure box…I think he is all set for his first command!

Jaden - the Future Captain of Guildive

Hopefully this rain is not around for too much longer as we have lots on the books for the next few weeks (but we are sure glad to have a covered pilot house!).