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.

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