Guildive Cruises Blog

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.