Left Portland early in the morning, November 4 - that would be Friday. We're having a hell of a time keeping days and dates straight, so if there are some anomolies in my account, just remember that we are in an alternate universe at this point, and not entirely subject to the normal flow of time.

Take Sunday for instance. We sailed through deep, dense fog from Portsmouth to Scituate, and we spent a week out there that afternoon. I thought we'd ploughed through some pretty thick stuff at home, but whoo-wee, this was a pea-souper. Two 28 mile courses, with only two buoys to let us know that we were where we thought we were. We were, thanks to the radar and the sharp eyes of the crew, but getting into Scituate was a nail-biter. It's got a very narrow channel, and visibility was nil. But the captain found the way, and we had a quiet night. An hour or so after got in, the fog lifted, and we saw the town and the stars.

Backing up a bit -- we ended up staying in Portland longer than we figured. Bud from Portland Yacht Services had a very thorough look at the Espar heater, and was well up on the complexity and cussedness of the damn things. Apparently the newer models are even more complicated, and require space-age diagnostic tools. Well, line me up for one of those, not. Bud found several reasons why the beast wasn't working and corrected them, but came to the pessimistic and realistic conclusion that it may not work reliably. It worked that afternoon - we tested it twice - and failed to work that evening. My, you should have heard the language.

So the next day, we walked all over Portland -- first to Hamilton Marine for a Force 10 propane Cozy Cabin Heater, then to various other marine and propane and propane accessories retailers to get the bits and pieces to hook it up. Thursday night we toasted our toastyness and made ready to leave Portland.

Portland to Portsmouth (and you wonder why I have trouble keeping the itinerary straight -- we might stop in Stoneington tomorrow night, which is a place I figured we sailed by several days ago, but no, this one is in Conneticut, not Maine) was, if I recall, another pretty day along the Maine coast, though rolly. Portsmouth harbour offered no obvious place to tie up alongside, so we picked up a mooring and rolled, and rolled and rolled. Portsmouth to Scituate was the foggy thing I mentioned earlier. I'm typing this part of the blog in the Scituate laundromat (Sunday). We got up early, figuring we'd try to make it to the Cape Cod canal, but we were socked in again with fog, so we dinghied ashore and did the grocery shopping, and then another trip for propane fill-up and laundry. Third trip, wine stock-up and music store for a kapo.

Another twist we hadn't thought about: Apparently our propane tanks are illegal here -- they have newfangled safety stuff on their tanks. The fella at the grocery store was very accommodating and filled them anyway, although Randy had to do some rapid calculations to get around the metric measurements. Looks like we'll probably have to buy new tanks, since we're using them for everything: the Cozy Cabin Heater (I just love the sound of that), and the stove, and they both suck through a fair bit of propane.

A "picture this" moment: We're parked in Scituate Saturday night after the foggy ordeal, get supper on the go and just for a laugh, I suggesting trying the Espar. Randy refused to touch it, but I switched it on. Ha. Blasts of heat all over the boat, so we had showers with the lovely hot water we'd produced from all that motoring in the fog. I used the Espar Snazzy Hair Dryer and Styling Appliance Attachment for the first time. Don't imagine that that will be a regular occurance. And at some point down the road, I look forward to telling you the ingenious things we do to cool down the boat and get good air circulation through all the open hatches.

Laundromat chat: "I don't care if he looks like a Greek god, any guy with that much baggage is just bad news." And then there's this really friendly guy who has tried to chat me up repeatedly. He's incorporated, apparently, likes the Dutch (they're so smart), thinks the war in Iraq is bad cause it's really all about us having to decide whether we want to die, and thinks that slavery is not a bad idea for people who would be going to jail anyway. Some people like to be slaves apparently. Boys-o. Thank god his laundry is done and he's left. Since he left, I've come up with some really stunning responses to his suggestions. Ain't it always the way.

Scituate to Onset was good sailing in the morning -- our first full-sail day until we got close to the canal when it got reeeeaally breezy. Took on diesel at Sandwich (start of the canal), and then a lovely motor through the canal and out into a honking, honking wind, so we motored to Onset and picked up a mooring. Pretty town, what we could see of it from the water. Too breezy to launch the dinghy and be assured of being able to get back to the boat. Left early this morning, and beat ourselves silly heading down Buzzards Bay (aka Busted Bay). Short nasty chop, wind on the nose, so we had a very slow day. I coulda walked here faster.

Lovely to get to Cuttyhunk and find that we can tie up at the dock and have power and water. What a pretty place. Randy and I went for a walk to the top of the hill (see pictures). On the way back, the school bell rang, and we turned around to watch the door of the one-room schoolhouse, and two kids came out.

Tom's waiting to get online and interact with people who aren't us, so that's it for now.