Since we were back in the Portland area, we decided on a weekend sail with James & Jenny followed by dinner on their boat at Cliff Island, one of the many anchorages just a few hours from downtown Portland. Despite the call for little to no wind, a breeze did pick up in the afternoon and we had a lovely day seeing Maine at its finest by water, sailing in tandem between Littlejohn and Chebeague, up around Little Whaleboat and Whaleboat. We finished with a series of tacks to take us down past Stave and into Cliff Island where we dropped anchor.

We put on our finest formal gear (ie. whatever was clean), grabbed a bottle of wine and some chocolate, and headed next door for cocktails and dinner. Jenny made a fabulous linguine with clams, with the addition of pesto which I would have never thought of but is now being added to my dinner staples. After several hours of good wine, good food and great catching up, we dinghied back under a typical star studded sky.

The next morning our favorite yacht pulled in to the entrance of the harbor and dropped anchor. Trip tells me I’m great at looking at any stranger or strange boat and coming up with a crackpot theory – so here it is: Nearby Hope Island is up for sale for a mere $7.9 million, complete with it’s own 10 horse stable (unknown if horses included) and a tavern, and a helipad. I think these folks dropped anchor around the corner so to speak so they could inspect a possible purchase incognito. Trip rolled his eyes but couldn’t come up with a better story.

As commoners who were only visiting and couldn’t afford the local real estate, we instead dinghied ashore for the only excitement that the island gets – the daily ferry visit. We walked down to the southern end of the island, watched the passengers getting off or on ferry, inspected the local general store (Jenny was right – you can’t get much more than a can of beans) and got ice cream. The day was complete.