A Tale of Two Chemists: Away with the fairies

Away with the fairies … Thursday 6^th September 2012

The forecast was for big swells (pig swills as we prefer to call them) and so I took a Stugeron after breakfast. This is an over the counter sea-sickness remedy from the UK which we used to think was better than most… While there was some swell early in the day leaving the Castine area, this diminished a lot when we got into the Muscle Ridge Channel (yes you are right—we have been here before), and we covered the 37 miles in a little over 5 hours motor sailing. Once we anchored in Long Cove outside of Tenants Harbor, I was overcome with a desire to sleep. Mike was keen to explore. We put the motor on the dinghy and zoomed off to town. We landed at a dinghy dock, tied up and were met by a friendly guy named Stuart who asked us lots of questions - were we off the yacht moored opposite? (no), did we plan to use the showers and laundry? (no), could we move our dinghy to the end? (yes). He seemed a little bemused by our arrival, but heck it's the town dock so off we went. Our wander around town led us past the Country Store and down to the Town Dock. Clearly we weren’t tied up in the right place at all and we later apologized for our confusion to Stuart, who apparently is the manager of the Tenants Harbor Boatyard. Mike then formulated a plan that involved walking to the bakery to get bread and a cup of coffee, then back to the country store for some provisions then back to the boat… My sleepiness had returned with such a vengeance that he had to explain all this to me three times. Finally having accomplished these tasks we went back to the boat. I was dropped off (in disgrace for being so out of it) and Mike went off to take photos. Mike returned and we went back to town for dinner. At dinner he had to keep repeating the options to me - first the beer choices, then the starch vs. veggies. So it went, I was still like a sleepwalker or as Mike would say “away with the fairies.” Maybe Stugeron aren’t better than the regular stuff.

What was better than expected was dinner. Right next to the bakery (closed) was a restaurant/bar advertising ‘Happy Hour’. The chef had spoken to us on our first trip to town and persuaded us to come back for dinner. The menu featured American or German specialties. Mike had the Schnitzel which had a great flavor. I had … (if only I could remember what it was called - I’m blaming that sea-sickness pill). Whatever the name, it was beef wrapped around bacon, pickle, onion and mustard simmered in a brown sauce—fantastic. We even had Mike’s camera but our enthusiasm for our food was such that no thought was spared for capturing an image on film. Mike may have thought he was less confused - but his understanding of the starch vs. veggie options turned out to be way off - so he was probably a little out of it also.

Gloria