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You are welcome to apply any part of this article to your own personal use. Please do NOT publish any part of the article or apply any part of it to any non-personal use without the express written concent of the author.
Last Monday morning we finally managed to find an Internet facility where we could post to our web site. It didn't turn out to be the town library. They were a bit skittish about viral infections so they required that we purchase any diskettes from them and then we weren't allowed to put them into their computers if we had inserted them into any other, such as our own. That meant that we wouldn't be able to transfer the updated web pages from our computer for uploading via theirs. However one of the staff pointed us to a real estate office that provided public Internet access. We easily found the office only a few doors away from the library and posted our updates in a matter of a few minutes after walking in.
From there we headed out to Southwest Harbor, the location of the Hinckley boatyard. Hinckley is known for building high quality sail and power vessels. We were unaware of their service department until several people recommended that we check them out. They all said that the Hinckley Service Department was excellent. We found them to be better than that.
Judi Wilson, one of several Assistant Service Managers at Hinckley, took us under her wing on Monday afternoon when we took a mooring and went in to inquire about service. We were having difficulties with our engine-driven refrigeration system (the freezer wouldn't freeze). Judi arranged for a visit by their refrigeration mechanic that very afternoon. Alden, the mechanic, confirmed that the expansion valve for the freezer was not functioning properly, sending Judi to the phones to order a replacement. After some hair pulling on her part, it was finally put on a truck Tuesday morning for delivery Wednesday just before noon.
So at noon on Wednesday we were at the Hinckley service docks. Alden stepped aboard and went to work. Since we had to evacuate the entire system to do the replacements, we took the opportunity to replace the old Freon 12 with a new refrigerant that's more ozone-layer friendly and runs about 10% of the cost of Freon.
On Thursday Alden was again aboard, this time balancing the system. Having difficulty, he did some more diagnosis and discovered a clogged check valve. This he removed, cleaned and reinstalled... which required evacuating the system again. But this time all seemed to work.
While Alden was working we noticed that one of the breaker switches in our electrical panel was tripping at too low a level. Casually mentioning this to Judi, she sent their electrician over to us within 15 minutes. Jerry, the electrician, confirmed that the switch was worn out, found a replacement in his shop and installed it in about a half hour. All this happened while Alden was taking his lunch. Now, that's what I call service!
By Friday morning Alden was pretty much finished with the tweaking of the system and sent us on our way.
Our friend, Karen was in Mt. Desert at the same time. While no longer living here, she was a local landscape architect for many years and knew a lot about the place. During those hours when the technicians weren't working on Volant she either drove us around, giving a running commentary on this garden or that garden, or loaned us her car so that we could run some errands on our own.
Through Karen we also met some very nice and interesting locals. One night we had several of them for dinner aboard Chez Volant, a new restaurant in the area that was going to be open for only one evening, had a fixed menu and a fixed price ($0) and the service staff would get insulted if you offered a tip. It was a fabulous meal. After drinks and hors d'oeuvres in the cockpit, the entre (crab casserole, red and green beans, and a tossed salad) was served in the saloon. Desert was strawberry shortcake with whipped cream. The crab was crawling along the sea floor only a day before, the shortcake was baked that very evening, and the beans and strawberries were also quite fresh. It was a delightful meal to share with delightful people.
Since Alden had given us our leave on Friday morning, we quickly arranged to pick up Karen and Ellen (another friend of Karen's) for a weekend mini-cruise. The winds were too light for sailing on Friday, so we motored from Southwest Harbor to a pretty nice anchorage in a well-protected bay formed by Opechee Island, Black Island and Pond Island. On Saturday the winds picked up so we were able to sail from Opechee Island up Blue Hill Bay to Allen Cove. The winds were so accommodating that we were able to sail from anchor to anchor without using the engine for a single instance. On Sunday we returned to Mt. Desert Island at Northeast Harbor.
There are so many islands close by that it would take ages to visit them all. We had a small sampling, and liked it. The views are striking, the waters protected, the anchorages frequent.
If only there weren't so many damned lobster trap buoys right in the middle of the channels... This is the season of "shedders." That's when the lobsters shed their old shells and hide in rocks and ledges for protection until their new, larger shells harden. Their hiding places are much closer inshore than their usual haunts. To catch shedders the lobstermen have to lay their pots in those selfsame rocks and ledges. Consequently rocky sections of the cruising grounds are speckled with thousands upon thousands of lobster pot buoys.
On the other hand, those pots bring in wonderfully delectable treats. Coming ashore at Northeast Harbor this afternoon we walked the few blocks to our local lobster store and picked up two live "bugs." These we took back to Volant and steamed for a scrumptious dinner.
Tomorrow morning we have to go back to the Hinckley yard. The engine-driven refrigeration system is still not working at 100%, and requires some additional fine tuning. This we expect will take only a few hours. From there we're off to our next adventures as we continue our explorations.
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