“Maine, the last Hurrah!”

“Maine, the last Hurrah!” ….   20/21 June 2015

It was more than two months ago that Laurie Corron contacted us to enquire about sailing charters for this weekend as part of a celebration she was planning. Of course we said we’d be delighted to help, but at that time we had no idea about the extent to which Laurie would include us in their party. The story goes like this…. Laurie’s great grandfather was one of the original founders of Sebasco Harbor Resort. At some point the family sold the business and bought land and a cottage overlooking the ocean just around the corner from the resort. As time passed, the property transferred from one generation to the next until it was owned jointly by Laurie and a few close relatives. Whilst wonderful in many ways, managing the property as a group has proved challenging and so Laurie decided to sell out her share and host a party “Maine, the last Hurrah!” to celebrate all the wonderful time they had spent there.

On Friday evening we were invited for cocktails and dinner and had a great time seeing the cottage and meeting friends and family. I use the term “cottage” with some trepidation. Over the years there have been many extensions and the house now boasts five bedrooms and three bathrooms. There is a deck on the back that overlooks Casco Bay and the ocean, as well as a board-walk that leads down to a dock. I have never seen a more beautiful setting anywhere. One aspect I haven’t mentioned is that Laurie and her husband Roger come from Acton, MA, the town next to Sudbury where we live, and we already knew a few of her friends through the Concord Acton squash club. In fact we had by complete chance met Laurie once before. She won a prize in a raffle at the Sudbury Art Association – Art Around Town event last year and called round to our house to pick it up.

Saturday arrived with almost perfect weather – clear skies and light winds from the southeast. We got up really early (5.45 am) and had Cotinga on the dock by 7.15am. Our scheduled charters were not due to start until 10 am and 1 pm, but I also had two trips on the Ruth to run at 8 am and 4 pm – so it was a really busy day! Our sailing cruises both worked out fine. We had 5 people on the first and 6 on the second. We had worried about whether it would be too crowded with this many people in the cockpit, but we cleared the aft deck and put out a couple of camping chairs that increase the seating available and this worked out really well. I should say, they are extremely comfortable, a great location and we’ll be keeping them on board in the future! On both trips we sailed similar routes, westwards across the Bay and back, but we got further in the afternoon because the wind was stronger. I think that everyone enjoyed themselves.

In the evening we were invited to a clambake and dance at one of the function rooms at Sebasco Harbor. We had a tremendous feast – lobster, clams, Andouille sausage, salad , potatoes, coleslaw, clam chowder and blueberry pie. After dinner there was line-dancing with live music provided by three members of the party. It was a lot of fun and tremendous to see Gloria dancing when just a year ago she was just out of hospital after her fracture-surgery and no weight bearing for ten weeks. The whole event was a great experience and we returned to Cotinga just before 10 pm, tired but happy.

Mike

Photos from our morning sail ...