July 20 — Day 13 — Lay Day in Portland— Zero NM

Here is Brewers from ILENE, with the dinghy dock around back to the right and the lobster house at the left, with the blue awning.
We found out the one feature that makes this much praised marina an undesirable one, if only for the use to which we sought to put it. Today was our lay day to visit Portland, the largest city after Boston on our cruise this summer. Portland has gentrified to the point where moorings are no longer available. So we came to Brewers with the idea that we would take Uber into the city. But Uber, having gobbled up all the small local taxi companies, does not serve South Portland well; and phone service here is rotten so reaching them was also difficult. Finally we stood at the Marina parking lot entrance and asked people if they were going to Portland. One lovely gentleman, a teacher with a 49’ ketch in the harbor thought about it and  said yes, but he had three stops to make along the way getting various things for his boat.  At one stop he got sandwiches for his people, and we got sandwiches for ourselves and paid for his as well, somehow compensating him a bit for his Generosity toward us.

We stopped at Hamilton Marine, a large well-stocked chandlery, to consider purchasing active AIS for ILENE. It was been recommended to us by Jim and Jamie in Manchester as socially responsible and for safety — so a little green triangle showing our position would show up on the chart plotter screens of other boats that have AIS. But the price, about $900, and the difficulty (for me) of installation, caused me to defer at this time. 

We visited the Portland Museum of Art for a few hours. Many beautiful things to see there. This one is called “After the Squall”.

And finally we had dinner at Scales, an upscale restaurant, where we scored the trifecta of oysters, crab fritters, and scallops with blueberry ice cream for dessert. A truly Maine dinner. 

And Lyft brought us back to the marina, no problems on the return leg.

Yesterday, with its short passage from Jewel Island was largely a land day, as was today. Tomorrow we return to the sea and in the evening, tentatively selected Pemaquid Harbor, in John’s Bay, where we have never been before, as our destination. 

Our neighbors here- working boats, in early morning light that caused me to think of Hopper.