Ocean Pontooning; Walking in the Woods

To better enjoy all that ocean near our new summer house, we bought a pontoon we found for sale in Friendship. It's a Beachcat, built by a small Florida operation. Unlike most pontoons, it's all fiberglass, and takes better to the salt water. It was owned by an older couple, thus validating my brother's calling these boats "wrinkle-craft". It had not been used for a couple years.

We washed it down, checked out the motor (a Honda 50 4 stroke) packed a lunch, and put it into the water in Friendship Harbor.

We then cruised around Morse's Island, Friendship Long Island, Cranberry Island then stopped and drifted for a while and we ate our lunch. Then back up the Medomak River, around Hatchet Cove, and back to the Harbor, taking about 3 hours.

The shakedown cruise was educational. We discovered that we need to take sweatshirts out on the ocean, though we didn't need them until the sun went in. We also found that the pontoon did quite well in the 2-3 foot swells that were rolling around that day. And that we enjoyed the experience very much.

I had brought along fishing gear, but we didn't take the time to fish. I get the feeling that it will troll nicely making it a good boat for fishing. It's a bit slow, compared to the Tracker, meaning that if the fishing is not nearby, it will take a while to get there.

The only downside to our trip occurred as we were maneuvering the boat back onto the trailer. The steering cable broke, weakened by corrosion and lack of use for two years. That is under repair as I write this, and we expect to get out on the water again this weekend.

Walking in the Maine Woods
When Paul, Liam and Amelia visited, we took a walk into the woods behind our house to see the work being done by loggers who have been working out there for most of the summer. The day was beautiful, and walking on the logging road was perfect.

This picture shows some of the logged area. They are leaving enough trees that the forest will be sunny and bright for a while. And they are chipping and removing all the brush, leaving the forest floor clean.