Hanging with friends

Back at the Ledges, we're joined by Bruce Campagna and Sandra, who biked down from Laconia, NH to say hi. As you can see, Bruce has perfect hair - I never liked that guy. Oh I love kidding around - I just can't get enough of me. Great to see everyone.

Here we are chicks and guys - Lenny, Lori and Jenée; Denny, Rick and Jimbo. I'm recapping my treatment and prognosis for the gang while they hang on every word. Gosh, it's great to be with close friends.

Here's Rick and I at his favorite breakfast spot - Pat's. Great breakfast place in Salisbury. Rick is quite cuddly and has very soft hands for a man, but I digress.

We arrived The Ledges to a great welcoming committee. The cottage is on the water and the area about a mile offshore is a popular fishing spot called "The Ledges". Amazing! The state of Massachusetts named this area after Rick and Lenny's cottage!

I'm sitting at our marina contemplating the tide when one of my ole pals, Ricky Bourne calls and asks Jenée and I up to his summer cottage in Salisbury, MA. Our other west coast pals, Denny and Lori Puddester are coming out to join up with Rick and Lenny at their cottage named - The Ledges. I figured if they're naming their cottage, we gotta go! I always visit named cottages.

Watch out for the Jungle Cat!

Back aboard Jungle and feeling great. Don't be fooled by the fur on the bottom of her paws folks, this is one dangerous cat! She's looking at this string like it's wild game. Katie rules! Can you tell we are having a slow blog week? Now excuse me while I go clean my ears with a power drill.

Back in Beantown

This marina will be home for the next few months, we like it. Wish me luck on tomorrow's surgery (Tuesday, Aug. 10). I'll send cool pics of my neck scar soon - fun times. Until then!

Here are some of our neighbors at the marina.

Jenee walked to the top of the Bunker Hill monument to take this photo. I'm back on the Jungle in the distance rooting her on and waving. What, can't see me?

Here is the aft end of the Suez tanker. The Tug in the rear has engines in reverse to help keep the monster ship centered.

In the marina early the next day, I hear this rumbling as the biggest tanker I've ever seen (1000+ feet lumbers by with a full escort of 4 tugboats and 2 coast guard armed escorts. Very impressive. I couldn't fit the whole ship in the viewfinder.

On our second day back, we're joined by brother Bob, Karolyn, Laura and Kelly. We're taking a ferry from Charlestown to downtown Boston waterfront. Karolyn and Bob are both graduates of USAF flight school in Texas. Karolyn is a former Air Force pilot and United airlines pilot and now focused full time on my beautiful nieces. Bob still flies for United and the Air National Guard. Bob flew F16's for many years, including multiple tours in Iraq and is now finishing up his career on A10 Warthogs. As for me, I'm focusing on beefing up for my surgery and follow up treatment where I'm expecting to lose 30+ pounds - mission accomplished!

The Shipyard Quarters Marina in Charlestown, MA (Boston) is straight ahead. As mentioned before, we're a couple of minutes walk from the USS Constitution.

Back in Boston - home again.

More from Monhegan Island, Maine

With Monhegan Island off our stern, we set sail for Boston - a 24 hour trip. As I write this we're in our Charlestown (Boston) Marina. More on that later.

The admiral standing atop Monhegan Island. I didn't mention the weather - 72 degrees, low humidity, sunny. What you may call a "chamber of commerce day".

Jungle resting in the harbor. We pulled in, grabbed a mooring ball and went in to see the harbormaster to check if was OK. He also runs the fish market where we had lobster rolls for lunch so we're good.

Did I mention the 70 miles of hiking trails. Well, we covered 600 yards of it and it was a snap!

Pretty much unchanged through time. We almost skipped the stop at the island and sailed straight to Boston. We all agreed it was probably the best stop on our New England tour.

The views are one of a kind.

The scenery is spectacular.

The buildings are all in that early 1900 cottage look. The stores and homes all look the same and everyone is friendly.

We're loving the island.

The places we get to see by sailboat are unbelievable. To all my New England friends (OK, that's my Mom and Dad but I'm working on it) this place is a must visit for a weekend overnight trip. Bring your hiking shoes and stroll the island and visit the shops and artists. They have a large inn on the island - check it out on line. You will not forget this trip. The Southwest Harbor Master said I had to see this place, he was right.

Southwest Harbor, Maine

Here's a shot from the top of Monhegan. Nice people on this island. A ferry runs out everyday in the summer from Port Clyde. We were the only visitors that brought their own ride on this day.

The crew is enjoying the visit on a spectacular day.

The harbormaster at Southwest told us about an artist colony on an island 9 miles off the Maine coast. We set sail for Monhegan Island (not to be confused with Mohegan Casino) and we found paradise again. Here is Jungle moored between Monhegan and Manana Is.

Garrett brought the dinghy around from the other side to pick us up. Earlier in the evening we had dinner on the other side of the peninsula, so it was great of Garrett to bring the dinghy around to pick up ole Jimbo.

We sailed overnight and arrived Southwest Harbor on Mount Desert Island, Maine. Very picturesque including this visit to the Claremont Hotel, built in 1884. Southwest Harbor is located at the mouth of Somes Sound the only fjord on the east coast.