Casco Bay Float-In

Dean Abramson · Post by **Dean Abramson** » Mar 16th, '09, 15:28

Hi Everyone,

The (ahem) Planning Committee has decided upon a date for the Casco Bay Float-In.

It will be held Sat-Sun, June 20-21, in "Harpswell Harbor," which is just NE of Potts Harbor on the W side of Merriconeag/Harpswell Sound. It's at about 43 45 20 N / 70 00 21 W.

We hope as many boats as possible will join in. Just plan on bringing a dish for the communal Saturday nite potluck dinner, and your favorite beverage. The potluck is the only "planned event;" the rest of the time is for just riding around in your dinghy visiting other sailors. Or hanging out on your boat with a Do Not Disturb sign up. Or something in between. No rafting is required (last year no one did). Laughing, tall tales, bad singing and camaraderie are encouraged.

We hope to see you there! It is a friendly group, and the more the merrier.

Melissa, Rich, Marvo and Dean.

Solmar · Post by **Solmar** » Mar 16th, '09, 15:45

Looking forward to it.

Debbie, Brian, & Clamshell

Cathy Monaghan · Post by **Cathy Monaghan** » Mar 18th, '09, 18:23

Thanks Dean, I've added it to the CDSOA's 'Fleet Events' page in the 'Northeast Fleet' section at:
http://www.capedory.org/events.html#NEFleetEvents

Cathy
Webmaster - CDSOA, Inc.

Dean Abramson · Post by **Dean Abramson** » Mar 24th, '09, 11:56

[img]http://www.mainephoto.com/folios/MagNemoCompFlat600.jpg[/img]

Carl Thunberg · Post by **Carl Thunberg** » May 26th, '09, 07:53

Now that Memorial Day has come and gone, it's time to get serious about our boating schedule for this summer. Here's one for the Mainers or half-Mainers!

mahalocd36 · Post by **mahalocd36** » Jun 17th, '09, 12:52

Note that Dean will be making a call on Friday afternoon as to whether to have this or not, though it sounds like some boats may be there regardless.

If anyone is interested that hasn't signed up (i.e. other than Len and the Carroll's) please let us know, and stay tuned to this board for an update on Friday afternoon.

Dean Abramson · Post by **Dean Abramson** » Jun 17th, '09, 13:55

Jeez, no one has ever granted me such powers before! Anyway, I never argue with Melissa...

What I will decide on Friday is whether the good ship Loda May is going to attempt to get there. I will share this info, and anyone who wants to join us is welcome, obviously.

If two or more boats are there, including us, we are going to claim the title of Float-In. And if it's just us, we may do that anyway.

Dean

Carl Thunberg · Post by **Carl Thunberg** » Jun 18th, '09, 07:23

Just so you know where my sentiments lie, my foulies are packed, and I'm game. Hey, this is June in Maine!

Dean Abramson · Post by **Dean Abramson** » Jun 18th, '09, 07:40

Now we are at:

Sat: Chance of Showers, Chance of precip 40%

Sun: Chance of Showers, Chance of precip 30%

We are gaining on it!

There is talk of an East wind. If that holds up, maybe we want to move over into Potts Harbor...?

My foulies are ready. Unless the forecast gets lots worse, we are going.

Dean

Carl Thunberg · Post by **Carl Thunberg** » Jun 22nd, '09, 07:56

Despite the uncertain and unsettled weather, we managed to have a great time, with lots of food and good cheer. We had a total of three boats that participated including CD31 Loda May, CD36 Mahalo, and RH36 Minke. We had an unplanned change of venue when Mahalo got some fabric wrapped around her prop, so we held the event in Falmouth. Minke and her crew (Len Kovit and me) did an unplanned circumnavigation of Casco Bay, which was a lot of fun. Great wind, foulies on, and the company of fellow Cape Dorians!

Dean Abramson · Post by **Dean Abramson** » Jun 22nd, '09, 08:17

Yes, we had a great gathering!

Loda May had sailed as far as Pott's Harbor, where we were having lunch at anchor, with plans to proceed to Long Cove (which had been substituted for Harpswell Harbor, because of a predicted East wind), when we heard about Mahalo's troubles.

Mahalo managed to return to her home mooring, but Rich's underwater-with-wetsuit attempts to free their prop proved unsuccessful. So they were stuck there.

So Loda May and Minke headed back to Falmouth to rendezvous with Rich and Melissa. I got to use my cruising chute to good effect, the first time since Lenny helped me learn to fly it last season.

Rich was a grillmaster extrordinaire (as usual), serving up barbecue jumbo shrimp on the skewer, to complement others' offerings of fresh guacamole, special potato and rice dishes, English tea biscuits, an enhanced salad, and brownies. Beer, wine and rum completed the consumables.

Present were Melissa and Rich, Lenny and Carl, Marvo and I, and our friends Peter and Jan. An excellent time was had by all.

Dean

mahalocd36 · Post by **mahalocd36** » Jun 22nd, '09, 09:36

We appreciate the solidarity the fellow CapeDorians showed in our plight!

As Dean mentioned, we all had every intention of meeting up somewhere other than Falmouth Saturday. There was little wind when we left our mooring and were motoring happily along in 47 feet of water at 6+ knots when the boat makes an odd sound and jerks around a bit. The first thought (after what was that? Did you do that? I didn't do that) was obviously a lobster pot (being in Maine and all) but I thought I had avoided them. (Plus they don't use toggles in Casco Bay) The boat slowed down but not stopped as I've heard happens when you get caught on one. I got it into neutral, we tried reverse (which made a lot of bubbles but we moved nowhere) and found we could motor as long as it wasn't too fast (higher RPMs just shook the whole boat and didn't make us go any faster). Since we had some steerage (sluggish but worked) and could go 3-4 knots (still no wind) we decided the safest thing to do was to go back to our mooring from where we were. (If we were further away we probably would've found a place to anchor or pick up some other mooring). Rich checked the shaft, etc from inside the engine compartment and everything was fine, and it wasn't getting overheated.

Back at the mooring Rich donned the wetsuit and weights, and snorkel gear. We've had a ton of rain here lately and the usually murky water was downright muddy. So, by the time he could find the prop, he was out of air. He went down a few times, tried to get whatever it was off - some sort of fabric wrapped around our prop very tight. It seemed to me like hiring a diver would be a safer choice than repeated "dives" in the muddy water with a sharp knife, especially as the wind started to pick up and the boat was moving around a bit.

Due to the weather we haven't had the diver out there yet, maybe wednesday. Curious what it is - shirt? Sail? Flag?
We definitely had bad luck of happening to catch something that was floating at 4-5' feet under to get sucked into the prop.

Anyways, after letting Dean know what happened they all decided 3 boats are better than 2 (Plus, well, we had the grill

) so they came to Falmouth where we all enjoyed much wine, food, rum, and great company!

Len · Post by **Len** » Jun 22nd, '09, 19:27

Prior to the float- in Casco Bay had 4 inches of rain in twenty four hours. An all time record. Not only was the water cold (as we have had precious little sun this month) but the color can best be described as "mud" (to be non profane). It was not your ordinary clean but cold fluid. Rich was certainly braver than necessary. He could easily have cut himself rather than the wrapped prop. Not only does he know how to fix things, he tries hard to fix- em. Hats off to Rich. In the end all including Rich had a good time.

bottomscraper · Post by **bottomscraper** » Jun 28th, '09, 10:23

mahalocd36 wrote: Back at the mooring Rich donned the wetsuit and weights, and snorkel gear. We've had a ton of rain here lately and the usually murky water was downright muddy. So, by the time he could find the prop, he was out of air. He went down a few times, tried to get whatever it was off - some sort of fabric wrapped around our prop very tight. It seemed to me like hiring a diver would be a safer choice than repeated "dives" in the muddy water with a sharp knife, especially as the wind started to pick up and the boat was moving around a bit.

Due to the weather we haven't had the diver out there yet, maybe wednesday. Curious what it is - shirt? Sail? Flag?
We definitely had bad luck of happening to catch something that was floating at 4-5' feet under to get sucked into the prop.

The diver arrived on Friday. It turned out that what I thought was fabric was really a large piece of heavy duty black plastic. It was removed and everything works great now.

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