I’m back in Portland, Maine while my lovely bride is spending a couple of weeks with family in Barberton, Ohio. Last Friday, Cindy, Christy, and I drove a rental car from Annapolis to Barberton, with a brief stop-over in New Castle, Pennsylvania to visit our youngest daughter, Mariah. It was good to see her and her fiancé, Murilo, once again. I hadn’t been with Mariah since last year. On Saturday, we attended a great birthday bash for Cindy’s sister-in-law, Judy, and her son, Ben. Unfortunately, my time with our Ohio and Pennsylvania family was short, since I had a Sunday morning flight to Maine for work. My flight from Canton-Akron to Portland was another long trial. That’s two consecutive airplane trips in which I’ve had delays and flight cancellations. Fifteen hours after reaching the airport, I arrived, bedraggled, in Maine.

I’m working eleven ten-hour shifts over thirteen days this time around. As I write, four of the eleven are behind me. Tonight is my one and only overnight shift. I haven’t worked an overnight shift in years, and I am not especially looking forward to this one. But, the summer weather in Maine is gorgeous as usual (although this is the first day I’ve had much time to enjoy it). Today, I went for a two or three mile walk through downtown Portland (the largest city in Maine, although Augusta is the capital.) I had forgotten that we had visited the city on a Fall Colors Tour a few years ago, but all those memories came rushing back as I walked along the waterfront. I had clam chowder and a lobster roll from the Portland Lobster Company. I find I’m on a lobster diet when I visit Maine. I love the Red Claw Pizza (lobster) from the Portland Pie Company in Biddeford. I even tried the lobster roll from McDonalds, and it wasn’t bad!! I stopped by the Sweetgrass Winery and Distillery Old Port Tasting Room for a tasting. The Black River Gin was excellent!

Across the street from my hotel, which is in downtown Portland, is the Portland Museum of Art. Before returning to my room to relax before my night shift, I decided to stop in for a visit. The strength of this museum’s collection lies in its collection of 19th century American and European art, along with a number of fine, modern art pieces. One of my joys is visiting art museums as I travel.

So, I’ll be here in Maine for another nine days. Meantime, Beatitude is getting all new electronics, including chartplotter, radar, AIS, wind transducer, depth transducer, autopilot, and displays. I’m anxious to get back to see the results, although the marina has emailed me a few pictures. She was hauled out of the water today for that part of the job that required she be on dry land. She is also having her water maker repaired and a port-side holding tank thru-hull repair. During the electronics update, they discovered a potentially dangerous problem with my steering which is also being take care of. Now you know why I need to work for two weeks in Maine. I’ll hopefully provide another update or two before I return to Maryland next weekend.

Until next time…