Guildive Cruises Blog

Lots to report:

The State of Maine arrived two weekends ago and the Castine harbor has regained its worldly feel.  I enjoy having the ship in-port as I am a commercial sailor and love active large shipping ports.  The State of Maine is a modest reminder of the ports of great activity like New York, Hong Kong and Rotterdam.  Even ask anyone of her sailors and they will tell you the ports they visited on their two month voyage all interesting shipping ports.   Given the ships arrival we had a great sunset cruise with two parents of one of the Cadets and were able to view the docking procedure from a safe and curious distance, then put out to the Penobscot Bay for the splendor and beauty of day’s end on the Maine Coast.

Guildive had a successful day in Lincolnville on the first Monday of this month.  The Inn at Ocean’s Edge, Spouter Inn and Whale’s Tooth Pub have welcomed us warmly to Lincolnville and are sending guests with us on day sails.  We use the Whale’s Tooth Pub guest mooring to board passengers from the Lincolnville Beach wharf.  We are offering 2 day sails on Mondays in July and August.  Sailing Guildive over to Lincolnville is  extra work for the two of us.  We first had to approach the inns and guage if there might be enough interest to warrant sailing the 15 miles from Castine.  Sure enough though we were met with great enthusiasm and the first of our Mondays we even scheduled an extra sail to accommodate interest.  The wind was light in the morning but began to build Southerly and by the afternoon we were sailing great.  Our guest seemed adventurous and rightfully so as they had to get to Guildive via our little tender and a 5 minute small boat ride.  On our second sail I met a fellow Nova Scotian and we had some excited young sailors who helped set sail and command the boat.  With the third sail and a delicious meal at the pub Kate and I didn’t get back to Castine until 0100.  A late day but a memorable start to a new chapter in Guildive’s 76 year old history.  We are pleased to say that we will be sailing from Lincolnville Beach every Monday until September 1^st.    Well now back to sailing.

                       We are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel… well at least for now! The weather is shaping up really nicely for the rest of the week to get some bottom paint on and the stern tube in place, hurray.  Once those two big tasks are taken care of the rest is getting the engine back together and getting her in the water.  Then some more fun happens… rigging her up!

                   It was awesome to have a good friend, Marann, visiting from California last week.  Zander and I sailed with her when we were working on the Irving and Exy Johnson, two boats owned by LMAI – so she knows a thing or two about boats, which was SO nice she could just jump right in and help.  The first day we took in easy on her, as she was still getting over jet-lag, and she wrote a great blog entry about that day (the post just below!).  The next day we introduced her to the wonderful world of epoxy.  We were patching some of the sheathing that covers below the waterline so she probably mixed up about a gallon of epoxy that Zander and I spread around.  So by the end of the day we were all covered, I was doing some patch work below the keel which meant I was the lucky one to end up with it all in my hair (a little acetone wash and some serious brushing and I was all set to go).  After some great days of Guildive work we dropped her off in Baltimore to sail on the Pride of Baltimore, we are just trying to convince her to come back now when the boat is in the water!!!

                    The rainy weekend was great to get some indoor projects done, work on the new head down-below and the new bench we are putting in also the vinyl for the curtains was laid out and the border was pinned on, now they just need to be sewn.  Here is a picture of the new curtains taken from outside the boat (what Marann talks about in her blog).

New Curtians

                   So all in all things are looking up, so far.  We just need a few more hours in every day to get everything done.  We cannot thank my dad enough who has been putting in tons and tons of time to get some molding trim work done for the renovated heads, it will look great.  Also, we need to thank our friend Goldie who came down from the Sultana on his day off to help us paint – we are so lucky to have such great friends who like to do boat work!!

                      You can now join our (new) facebook page – Ketch Guildive  - and see some more pictures from last years season in Maine.

May marks the real push to be ready. We have begun a countdown of sorts and we are progressing as quickly as the sun rises and sets. We have prepared the bottom for our final coats of paint. In this preparation we have investigated some areas of interest and have managed to gain a valuable understanding of the hull and its condition that we are pleased to conclude is very sound given her age.

Kate and I have most recently given the hull inspection points a good cleaning and fitted a recovering layer of epoxy to seal it up for the season. With the help of our friend James we have set the new engine mounts under the engine and

have sent the propeller and cutlass bearing out for service. Another good friend Simon lent his skills corking two small seams on the bow.

Guildive is a community interest here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and all of our friends and family have been keeping close tabs on our progress. The maintenance continues, and all of our through hull-fittings and below the water piping has been renewed including hoses on the engine and generator too. Kate continues to garner Guildive with good taste and has been working on painting our stern-board and life-ring and in my night/rainy-day work have been slowly developing our webpage. Please keep following the blog but soon we will have a greater web-presence describing where and when we will be offering sailings aboard. We also are provisioning for our passage and have purchased an EPIRB and new life raft. I believe a week of good weather will find us very close if not sitting well and proud in the water. I also feel we should mention our first animal friend Frank the blind baby bunny rabbit that was found under the hull.

Found under the hull

We were keeping a kind eye out for Frank as well as searching for a better home for him but before we found one he took leave and similarly we will take ours soon with just as much faith in the world. All the best, The Guildy’s

December 22, 2008

            Sub-zero weather has reached Maryland and the North Fork of the Tred Avon River.  Morning though toasty in our cabin with our Reflecks stove revealed skim ice across the river.  The affect on Guildive was to dampen her motion in the gusts of westerly wind.  We had a restful sleep but always mindful of the weather with our concern mostly for frozen pipes!  We have found Guildive to be a champ as she fired up without hesitation thanks to a space heater in the engine room and ample insulation throughout the boat.  We are very thankful to all the work her past owner had put into maintaining our new charge. 

            Here is a brief history of Guildive previously know as Sixpence, Istar II and originally launched as Restless.  Guildive was built in 1934 and numbered hull 664 by the Wheeler Shipyard of Brooklyn, New York for Stuyvesant Fish.  She has had 9 owners one of whom we are proud to state, the United States Coast Guard under the United States of America War Shipping Administration through the years of 1942 to 1945.  As with all vessels of a grand age we are keen to record and celebrate her past and look forward to meeting people who have accompanied her and know of her passage.  Guildive is a fine example of William Hand Jr.’s design grace but she has been adorned with additions over time and so is a vessel alive with character and vigor.  We have chosen to celebrate her vigor and spirit by offering her the name Guildive a noun used in old French Caribbean Islands to name a rumm distillery. 

Spirits Up!

The Guildy’s

N 38º46.20′ W 076º05.63′

It has now been a week since the boat was moved from the Severn River to Easton where she will be for the winter.  We have begun at full speed to get her ready for winter.  Within the first 24 hours of moving her we stripped her sails, booms, life raft, anchor and all 4 shots of anchor chain.  All in a voyage of discovery.  Over the weekend we have some friends visit and ate our first dinner aboard, and cranked up the diesel heaters to get some warmth into the boat!  Thank you to Haley who stayed to help on Sunday as we started to design and put up our winter cover, made of PVC piping and clear shrink wrap.  We wanted a structure over the whole boat so we could work on her decks and cabin tops, but also have plenty of ventilation and a little bit of standing room.  We were under some pressure to get the cover on as the week turned into rain and the plastic we were using cannot be shrunk in the rain.  So Monday was a big push for Zander and I, eventually turning on the spreader lights and working late into the night to finish all the plastic.  As the last bit was being shrunk the rain started, with smiles on our faces, happy to have completed!  For the next few months Guildive will be a bubble boat to be revealed in the spring with some new shine.  With the last few days being rainy we took the opportunity to clean out several of the compartments, engine room, paint locker, line locker, and a few others.  Lots of stuff but all of it we are very excited about exploring where it goes and how it works.  Today we got a call from the past owner, who owned the boat for 30 years, which gave us a chance to answer many of our questions from the past week!  All of our conversations with him have solidified our thoughts about how great a boat she really is and how much we are looking forward to taking her into her next adventure.

Next week will be another exciting one as my brothers come home from College just in time to give us a hand with some bigger projects, and hopefully ones that will make a visual difference.   We will be posting pictures so please check back often and follow our progress.

~The Guildy’s

December 11, 2008 Transit Day 

0910 off the dock departure for Easton

Crew 3 Todd Kana

Kate Kana

Zander Parker

Underway M.E. 1000 RPM, Navigational lights burning brightly all instruments functioning.

0950 Severn River Bridge, speed 6.3 kts, 1050 rpm

,1030 set stays’l, throttle to 1200 rpm

1055 Thomas Point light, course S, speed 7.4

1133 Bloody Point, course 220, speed 7.5

1155 North End of Poplar Island, struck stays’l

1215 Abeam R 84 Course to 190, speed 5.9

1320 Abeam Sharps Island Light

1335 Abeam G 7 Course change to E to enter Choptank River

1439 Abeam Choptank River Light. Course change to enter Tred Avon River

1625 All fast at The Boathouse at Easton Point.  

We spent the rest of the evening tidying up the boat, returning and retrieving tools and materials used for the transit.  Our transit a total of 45 miles was routine as far as sea travel goes, with overcast skies, rain, light seas and mostly commercial traffic.  We spent our time getting a good feel for how the helm reacts with is swift and how she rides through the ocean.  She can make good time with our top speed of 9.5kts she may go faster yet but we were not pushing for any speed records just charging up Mr. GM to scare the cobwebs out.  Our transit up the Tred Avon is narrow but Guildive does seek deep water and we had no problems following the channel a good thing as the channel is as narrow as a garden snake.  Guildive looks great in Easton but mostly because both Kate and I are still viewing her through our future vision.  The work will come naturally and by spring Guildive will glitter with new paint refreshed bright work and all the trimmings that will prepare her for our sail north into Penobscot Bay.  It is our hope to have updates on a weekly basis if not more frequently but we will work that out as the time progresses.  

Spirits Up!

The Guildy’s