... visiting with bill in milbridge, his friend, john, invited us to enjoy a little across the waves outing in his lobster boat ... i was excited for a lot of reasons, one being that it would be good practice for the cruise mike and i are taking this fall ... after boarding and setting up a cozy lounge area, we were soon chugging across a relatively calm narraguagus bay ...
... i'm rather nomenclature disabled, so usually after a first meeting i only recall names when i remembered to work hard to do so ... this day i was having so much fun that, well, it ended up i had to get some help from bill ... my apologies for any mistakes, and, if you do find an error, please let me know via the little comment box ...
... madelyn seemed to disappear into the endlessness of the sea ...
... madelyn seemed to disappear into the endlessness of the sea ...
... i know it was probably supposed to be a secret, but the stars of a very famous tv show were with us on our voyage ... here's "kelly," who has clearly perfected the skill of traveling incognito ...
... retired from acting, "jill" has taken up hat modeling ...
... still cool and calm, i think "kate" enjoyed a day being away from the hustle and bustle that comes with being a celebrity ...
... the island in our wake is a place that defined bruce's life ...
... until recently an isolated outpost dedicated to the safety of all who risked sailing this rugged and dangerous coast, now the lighthouse is a residence with an automated beacon ...
... turns out katie's from louisiana, and, small world, lived not far from where we lived while pa was overseas ...
... bruce and kathleen are of the friendliest couples i've ever been lucky to meet ...
... along the rocky shore of petit manan the gulls were having a little party ...
... this photograph isn't ever to make the cover of audubon, but i could care less because i got to snap a picture of a puffin ... way cool ...
... cap'n bill ...
... father captaining his son's boat, john's sure hands meld jason chipman's craft to the sea so competently that it becomes hard to imagine one without the other ... it is easy for me to believe that his grandson, wesley, will someday do the same ...
... from the sea can be seen things not visible from shore ...
... 7,000 years ago the maritime archaic, the "red paint people," negotiated these waters in search of swordfish ... were any of those ancient mariners to be suddenly time-warped onto the deck of john's boat, or he back to the wooden hull of one of their superbly hand-crafted craft, i think there would be naught but handshakes and smiles, and lacking even a single common word still they would perfectly understand one another ...
The sea is never still.
It pounds on the shore
Restless as a young heart,
Hunting.
The sea speaks
And only the stormy hearts
Know what it says:
It is the face
of a rough mother speaking.
The sea is young.
One storm cleans all the hoar
And loosens the age of it.
I hear it laughing, reckless.
They love the sea,
Men who ride on it
And know they will die
Under the salt of it
Let only the young come,
Says the sea.
Let them kiss my face
And hear me.
I am the last word
And I tell
Where storms and stars come from.
CARL SANDBURG