Captain Watson

43 50 N
069 42 W
At anchor
Sheepscot River, ME
Midnight

Good Evening All,

It was quite an eventful day here aboard our (and your) little schooner.
As you read yesterday we struck sail and motored along slowly last night in a thick fog. By thick I mean at times we could see less than 600 feet.
The mate had a 1/2 hour of clear air this morning and then it socked in thick again. In spite of this we set main, jib and flying jib just after breakfast and sailed off making between 7 and 9 knots. As noon approached the wind began to go light and come from the SW instead of the south as it had been. By 1230 our speed had dropped to 5.5 knots so we called all hands and hung the patch on her. This means to put all the sails up.
Maintop men Jayme and Luke struggled a bit but succeeded in setting the main top'sle. Foretop men Ryan and Mason got the fore top'sle set for the first time this year. They revived the old rivalry between masts by setting it in less time than the main top. It was a complicated thing as well because we had set the fisherman stay'sle first. As the foretop was being set we burst forth from the fog under full sail and there was nobody there to see it. Standing 80 feet in the air on a five inch wide moving timber is no easy feat. Wrestling with a large sail while doing it is harder. Next time you set up your tent at the camp ground get you kids to pretend they can't step off the spreaders!
With most of the crew taking time to go aloft and admire the view we had a great afternoon. Among all the comments I heard, the best was realizing that the price of admission for today was scraping the deck by hand earlier this spring.
As supper approached thickening dark clouds appeared on the horizon and the US Coastguard began issuing thunderstorm warnings. We quickly struck most sail and motored around the worst of the rain and wind on our way here in the Sheepscot River. After anchoring I gave the crew a gift that John R from Martin's River had left for us. Thank you John! A bit for Neptune, a bit for the ship and the rest greased the winches.
We have turned back our clocks to local time and set the anchor watches and I'm going to turn in. Steaming up the river tonight with fireworks everywhere and small boats going around in circles was enough for me.

Stay well

Phil Watson