The Maiden Voyage of the Twining, Fri. July 10

The morning was very exciting as Bob saw (and then so did I) first one pileated woodpecker and then two. He was very surprised at their size but when we checked the bird book, it confirmed what we were seeing. Two of them worked the tree across the yard and provided quite a show for us.

Bob spent most of the day working on preparing the dinghy for its maiden voyage. At three o'clock (big mistake here) we set out for parts unknown. Tom, the owner of the cottage, was here to check on something and watched Bob and me as we set out. Of course, Bob fell into the muck as he watched.

While Bob worked on the boat, I tried painting a card (watercolor) with a scene that I captured in one of the many pictures we've taken in Maine already. The first attempt was atrocious and the second was atrocious but in a different way. What if my lobstermen article is just as bad? Maybe wanting to have some kind of talent isn't the same as actually having the talent. I know that I'm very rusty painting with watercolors and my first attempt went wrong when I was painting the same way I did with oils--I'm almost afraid to try again. I watched some watercolor tutorials on you-tube but I lost my patience since our signal is so weak up here and it had to load for at least 40 seconds after I viewed about 30 seconds. A 4-minute movie ended up taking 25 minutes.

The maiden voyage OUT went very well--it was so beautiful and we saw a flock of seagulls feeding on what we could only guess was fishermen's discards. We also had an osprey hunting overhead.The temperature was perfect.

Now my husband is very bright, but sometimes, he is surprisingly not so bright. Like today when I asked him how long the battery charge for the boat motor would last. He didn't know. Then, he said, "I think we should be starting back." I said, "Why?" and he said, "The tide is going out." You have to understand that near our cottage, where we launched the boat, when the tide goes out--it goes out far and what remains is MUCK--wet mud and clay. Also, when it goes out, the starting waters (near shore) are very shallow. As we were coming in, we hit shallow water so the motor wouldn't be able to be used. We started paddling but then Bob's paddle blade fell off and we couldn't find it in the water. We were still at least about 140 feet from shore. We were pretty much stuck so he used the old Constitution anchor trick--he threw the anchor ahead of us and then pulled the boat forward on the anchor line. The anchor was very heavy and that worked for a while until I said, "This water is only about two feet deep. Why don't we get out of the boat and just pull it?" We did this but once we got to the muddy part, the boat was exceptionally hard to pull and that combined with the fact that we were up to our calves in mud and didn't have much traction made for a muscle-building, cardio workout. Bob fell once and was covered with mud. I fell twice and at that point we weren't laughing. We got the thing pulled close enough to the steps to the cottage to tie her to the rail but Bob knew that he had nothing left to go out and get the motor and the 65-pound battery. That he would save until tide came back in (yeah, right I thought).

We came back to the cottage and Bob made pizza for dinner. I read mostly.

At 4 AM Bob got up and pulled the boat to shore (and boy--is it covered with mud!). He fell twice and this morning, he is marveling at the fact that his body isn't any more sore than usual (so maybe he isn't as old as he acts after all--for some reason, Bob equates old age with being out of shape--but I think we had trouble yesterday because we're out of shape, not because we're old--but what do I know).

It looks like we have to get a few things in town this weekend--Bob wants to start a wood carving and he's missing one or two tools. We also have to get new paddles since we never did find that paddle blade which probably sank into the muck.