Island Sail

Hi again... its me :o) I don't have much to report in terms of Island Sail... except that I sent out invitations to everyone to join up on Island Sail's new Google Group team space. I am eager to hear ideas from program leaders about how the group space can be useful, to improve Island Sail. My past experience tells me it will be a growth process. What we accomplish this year, harvesting and organizing existing knowledge from Island Sail into these information and communication tools, will provide a foundation that will promote many rich opportunities in coming years.

I have spent the past two days "out to sea". I own a 2o' Sea Hunt, center-console, fishing boat. Moving from Michigan to Vermont and then from Vermont to Maine didn't include moving a boat. I bought this boat last August... as soon as I knew we were moving to Maine's coast. Getting settled somewhere makes it hard to keep up with the demands of a sailboat... but I wanted to get out on the ocean and this was a good option for making it quick & easy. I live on the Union River in Ellsworth - right across from the boat launch in town. It is an easy haul around (less than a mile) to pop the boat in and enjoy a beautiful ride down the river, into the ocean bay between Mt. Desert Island (Bar Harbor) and the Deer Isle peninsula. A trip up and down the river with a spin out to the ocean makes you feel lucky to be alive. I have a wicked streak going of not catching a fish on my new boat... not for lack of trying. I did catch my first fish of the year earlier in the week, but it was on a charter in Boothbay, on Tuesday (Mackerel). I still have not caught a striper. We went to Boothbay on Monday and Tuesday - making it our third-annual trip to Boothbay for the Windjammer Festival. If you have never been, I highly recommend it.

I went out last night on the boat from 7:30 - 11:00 pm. It was the night before full-moon and the moon lit up the river, making a special ride. Today, I struck out in the morning and rolled around in a blowing west wind until early afternoon. The dog loved it... sleeping in the front seat for most of the trip. I marked a lot of fish and had fun using the GPS to look back on all of the tracks I had made in the ocean since last year... no spots marking fish caught locations. Maybe I will find someone in Vinalhaven that can teach me a thing or two about fishing.