Guildive Cruises Blog

We are starting to feel the summer push, which feels great!  We are running multiple trips a day now and just loving every minute.  A few rainy days have slowed down the momentum of guests wanting to go sailing, but we use those days to travel further afield to deliver our brochures.  We just hope the phone keeps ringing.  However, we must say that the passengers we have had so far have been awesome, and a few returnees from last year!!  Two couples drove about 2 hours just to come sailing with us again… and they were there by 10 am!!!!

A few days ago we had the opportunity to take our small boat out with Guildive and get some photos of the boat under sail by Dyce’s head lighthouse…. great fun and now we have some Sweet Shots of Guildive! Here are a few, the rest you will just have to wait to see some of our printed advertisements!

So the coolest news that we have (from the last year – really) is Guildive was spotted from about 1.5 miles away from a man who had crewed on her in the 1960′s.  He was 18 at the time and sailed her when she was working as a charter boat in St. John’s.  He said that every boat he sailed on after that he would compare to how Guildive (at the time Sixpence) was, because Sixpence was a 10 in his book.  He had not sailed her in 41 years and we had the pleasure to sail the boat with just him and his partner Lolly on a nice windy day.  Not only did we get tons and tons of stories from him but some great photos that we had never seen, photos of the boat from the ’60′s, and hopefully more to come (of all places they live only about an hour away…. with fingers crossed, hopefully, there will be more visits to come)!  Zander and I have been on cloud 9 a since that day knowing that the spirit of the boat is with us and everyone else who has sailed her!  Now we just cannot wait to meet Dmitri (the previous owner to us).  Cool things happen….

We have been posting tons and tons of photos of our trips on our facebook page (Ketch Guildive) with some Sweet Shots taken by our passengers!  Check it all out….

Harbor Master Ben helping us out

Raul and Rafa looking out!

Trips are on a roll and it feels SO good to be sailing with passengers again.  We just started the other day and have had a few trips already.  Its still slow here in Castine as the summer crowd is just getting here and schools have just let out – but we are getting a few people.  The Maine Maritime Academy, located here in Castine, hosts a huge Guild school where people from all around the world can come and take classes on miniature art.  There are about 250 people in town for the school and a few escape between classes and check out the rest of Castine so the other day we had 2 ladies from South Africa, 1 from England, 1 from Canada, and 1 from San Diego come sailing with us!  During these days while trips are slow Zander and I have been filling our time with boat projects (a few we just didn’t get to this winter) and some restaurant projects.  One day we spent the entire day gardening, it was great to play in the dirt, something we normally do not get to do!  Our fingers are crossed that this week we will have a bunch more charters as our schedule is starting to fill in with booked trips – and our fingers are doubly crossed that the rain will hold off this summer and the sun will shine so people will want to go sailing.

by Haley Chutz, transit crew

           I’m honored to be posting on the soon-to-be-renowned guildivecruises.com/blog! I wrote this yesterday as we were approaching the harbor. 

           Guildive with her crew of five made it to Maine today and, after a stop in Lincolnville for lunch at the Whale’s Tooth, are making our final transit over to Castine. Even though it is raining, I can still see how beautiful Penobscot Bay is – deep blue water surrounded by lush hills, old wooden schooners and brightly-colored lobster pots abounding. 

           The transit came to a close this morning with Kate and I in the cozy wheelhouse at daybreak, cracking jokes as we played “Frogger” through those lobster pots in the dense fog. It was a surprisingly fast trip; we made it in five days! Instead of hugging the coastline as I have on past voyages to New England, we cut straight out across the North Atlantic and steered essentially the same course all the way from Delaware Bay to Penobscot Bay. This saved a lot of time and it was great to be out at sea, to shut down the engine and sail.

           Well, it was great for most of us. Parts of the ride were pretty rolly and poor Maggie was stricken with horrible sea sickness! In an attempt to share my love of sailing with my sister, whose previous experience  involved me prodding her onto a few harbor daysails, I convinced her to come along on the voyage. I probably should have known better, and this resulted in her feeling like she wanted to die and me feeling guilty. But we had a lot of laughs throughout. 

“Imagine our relatives doing this on the boat to America, but for months!” I teased. 

“Mamma Mia! Why did I leave Italia!” she retorted in a thick Italian accent as tears trickled from behind her sunglasses.

           Overall the trip was everything you could ask for – good weather, good sailing, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, good friends and conversation. (A few whales would have been nice though!) After living with Kate as she and Zander went through process of selecting and buying Guildive (then Sixpence) and seeing the incredible amount of work they have put into her, it was awesome to get to sail and see her fare so well at sea. It is clear that this lovely old boat has found its perfect owners, my friends have found the perfect boat, and in Castine, they are home.

Kate and Squiddy steer us across the bay. 

We made it to the Penobscot Bay, we are slowly making our way up the west side of the bay right now with plans to be in Castine by tonight. After leaving the Cape Cod Canal we had a long day of wind shifts, 3-6 ft seas, and scattered thunderstorms, much to the dismay of Maggie’s stomach.  But we did get in a good day of sailing, not always heading in the direction we wanted, so finally around 10 pm we fired up the engine and powered the rest of the way to the entrance of Penobscot Bay.  In Maine fashion the fog greeted us early early in the AM as we were trying to dodge lobster pots.  All in all it has been a great trip, thank you David, Maggie, and Haley!!!  Pictures to come, promise!

We made it from Easton and tonight around 11 pm we will be transiting the Cape Cod Canal.  Some good sailing, some good motoring, and of course some good motor-sailing.  There are 5 of us northbound, Haley and Maggie Chutz, David Shepard, and of course Zander and myself.  Our track this year took us from Easton, north through the C & D canal, down the Delaware Bay, and straight across towards Buzzards Bay… no NYC this time. We had some great S/ SW breeze 15- 20 kts so we set the sails right as we entered the Atlantic and had a great day and night of sailing.  Unfortunately, once the sun came up the next day the wind fell right off… back to turning on Mr. GM.  Guildive is doing great, I think she is happy to be back moving through the water and not on jack stands anymore, of course we have not stopped tinkering with the rig, sails, engine, electronics, etc. but thats just natural!!  The crew, well 4 of the 5 are happy, poor Maggie is testing her stomach and finding that it prefers to be on land but today she is moving around and even eating!!  I will post some pictures once we get to Maine as the internet reception is very poor, and we need to use the computer to get some weather.  Also check our facebook page (Ketch Guildive) in a few days for some more pictures.