Tales of Tasha     ......    20^th August 2012

Today we had a nice walk around Jewell Island.  We walked up to the WWII era towers where soldiers watched for possible submarine attack on Portland.  We saw the remains of a gun emplacement and a barracks building.  It made me think of my father’s stories about serving on Cuttyhunk watching for enemy vessels attacking Newport.  Our walk was punctuated by text messages from Tasha (more later).  After returning to the boat we lifted the anchor and managed to sail (yes, sail) northeast toward Snow Island in Quahog Bay.   We found a quiet little spot to anchor and took a dinghy ride around the area.

The whole area of Casco Bay is a mass of islands and ledges.  The chart is incredibly complex.  We had stayed off Jewell Island in our little boat and struggled with the navigation, with good reason.  Even with all our sophisticated electronics, we were struggling a bit at first.  There are so many islands and rocks to be seen that it’s perplexing.

Now back to the story of Tasha and her cross-country road trip.  Today she must have got up at the crack of dawn (aka ‘sparrow fart’).  She called us at 10 am Eastern to say that the mechanic reckoned that to fix the valves and rings would be at least 3K and “then you wouldn’t know until you got in there what else you might find”.  His proposal was to check around for a used engine with a view to a replacement.  I think of this as a heart transplant for Jane.  Many phone calls and text messages later, this is the path we are going down.  Tasha will hang out in Colorado until the car is re-powered.  Her two friends (taking the trip with her) have elected to fly back to college.  When the car is fixed (expected to be Monday or Tuesday) Tasha will drive back on her own.  This will put her back at Pomona a few days late for the start of cross-country training.  She is trying to explain her difficult circumstances to the coach.  I think she is showing pretty good resilience under these difficult circumstances. I spoke to her today and she was nice enough to say that she doesn’t blame me.  She even said that she had enjoyed the other parts of the trip….

I have some thoughts about a new name for Jane but just in case of jinxing the outcome I’ll hold that thought until she’s fixed

Gloria


Anchored off Jewel Island ... we rowed our dinghy "the big dumb dog" ashore