The Twelve Weeks of Repower

Location: Vienna, MD
Position: N 38 28.949 W 075 49.409


On the first week of repower
My true love said to me
Are you sure we really need to do this?

On the second week of repower
My true love said to me
Label all the wires
Are you sure we really need to do this?

On the third week of repower

My true love said to me

Lift that engine out

Label all the wires

Are you sure we really need to do this?

On the fourth week of repower
My true love said to me
Now let's pull the fuel tank
Lift that engine out
Label all the wires
Are you sure we really need to do this?

On the fifth week of repower
My true love said to me
Oh my God! What is that smell?
Now let's pull the fuel tank
Lift that engine out
Label all the wires
Are you sure we really need to do this?

On the sixth week of repower
My true love said to me
Get down in the bilge and clean it!
Oh my God! What is that smell?
Now let's pull the fuel tank
Lift that engine out
Label all the wires
Are you sure we really need to do this?

On the seventh week of repower
My true love said to me
Change the toilet hoses
Get down in the bilge and clean it!
Oh my God! What is that smell?
Now let's pull the fuel tank
Lift that engine out
Label all the wires
Are you sure we really need to do this?

On the eighth week of repower
My true love said to me
Clean the bilge again and paint it
Change the toilet hoses
Get down in the bilge and clean it!
Oh my God! What is that smell?
Now let's pull the fuel tank
Lift that engine out
Label all the wires
Are you sure we really need to do this?

On the ninth week of repower
My true love said to me
Install the new fuel tank
Clean the bilge again and paint it
Change the toilet hoses
Get down in the bilge and clean it!
Oh my God! What is that smell?
Now let's pull the fuel tank
Lift that engine out
Label all the wires
Are you sure we really need to do this?

On the tenth week of repower
My true love said to me
What's the heck is "prop sing"?
Install the new fuel tank
Clean the bilge again and paint it
Change the toilet hoses
Get down in the bilge and clean it!
Oh my God! What is that smell?
Now let's pull the fuel tank
Lift that engine out
Label all the wires
Are you sure we really need to do this?

On the eleventh week of repower
My true love said to me
What? A new exhaust?
What's the heck is "prop sing"?
Install the new fuel tank
Clean the bilge again and paint it
Change the toilet hoses
Get down in the bilge and clean it!
Oh my God! What is that smell?
Now let's pull the fuel tank
Lift that engine out
Label all the wires
Are you sure we really need to do this?

On the twelfth week of repower
My true love said to me
Can we please go have fun now?
What? A new exhaust?
What's the heck is "prop sing"?
Install the new fuel tank
Clean the bilge again and paint it
Change the toilet hoses
Get down in the bilge and clean it!
Oh my God! What is that smell?
Now let's pull the fuel tank
Lift that engine out
Label all the wires
Are you sure we really need to do this?

Dolphins, Drones, and Delights

Location: Onancock Creek, Onancock, VA
Position: 37 24.666 N 075 45.567 W

You may be able to tell by our position and location that we're no longer at Zimmermans! Woohoo! Nothing against that fine institution and those fine folks, but it sure does feel good to be at anchor again! The second tuning of the propeller got rid of the singing, all systems were good and we were on our way on Tuesday, October 16th.

We are now busily scurrying around the Bay trying to put 50 hours on the engine. The number 50 is a bit magic for us: it's how many hours we have to have on the engine for it's first service, and after that, we can start picking our way South. The down side is that we don't get to sail since we have to run the engine at pretty high RPMs for the run in period. This results in some pretty fast travelling for a sailboat!

Today we were motoring out of Onancock Creek and Mark saw a big splash out of the corner of his eye. "Wow that was something big!!" Julie immediately leaped up and scoured the surrounding water. After a few moments she saw a dolphin... and then another playing in the entrance to the sound. She thinks this is far better than seeing floating scraps of carpet and pieces of pizza float by!

We must admit a sturdy, strong, smooth running engine is a wonderful thing. The new engine is running well and is a lot quieter then the old one. We don't think we'll ever get used to the drone of the engine running near full power all day, though, as we're sailors at heart and miss the quiet of being under sail.

Yesterday we went for a walk around the quaint old town of Onancock after our arrival. It's really pretty with old houses lining the creek and lots of history. We then went for a water side tour in the dinghy, and as we meandered our way back to our boats, saw a bald eagle sitting on top of a tall pole.

We are travelling with our friends Mike and Helen who have been with us since the day we left Zimmermans. They are valiantly putting up with having to move on and motor for 6 hours every day - good friends, indeed! Today we are heading for their dock on the Coan River, back across the Bay, for a "lay day" on Friday, as bad weather is expected.

These are some of the great delights of cruising - friends, wildlife, finding new things to see, new places to visit, new people to meet...

Fair winds (or should we say "Fair RPMs"?)

Is there life outside Zimmerman Marine??

Date: October 10, 2007
Location: Zimmerman Marine (still) - Cardinal, VA
Position: 37 24.438 N 076 21.154 W

Unfortunately our sea trial has not yet happened. There are some problems with the exhaust back pressure and a singing prop shaft. Still, we love these folks at Zimmerman Marine so much we provided a homemade BBQ lunch for them all as a "thank you" for the support, friendship, and good will they've all given us during our stay.

This was, of course, before we found out that we still aren't actually leaving, yet. And now it's too late to ask them to give us the lunch back. Oh. Maybe it isn't, but, in fact, we don't really want it back .

We did tell them that if we don't get to leave soon we may have to crash their Christmas party! And, no matter what, we're definitely not going to start paying personal property taxes in Mathews County!!

Now we have to install a 3" exhaust all the way from the engine to the outside of the boat. Mark has to tear out some woodwork in the "basement" to make room. He and the mechanic will work on installing the exhaust tomorrow. Maybe we can finally get going then.


Date: October 11
The new exhaust was installed this morning in record time. We went out for a sea trial and, haleleujah, the prop pitch is perfect - we don't have to get hauled again to have it repitched - we had been worried about it but finally something went right!!

All we have left to do now is get the pesky little "singing" out of the drive train. It only occurs between 950 and 1100 RPMs in forward and the mechanic thinks it's just an alignment problem.

After that, we just have to rebuild the woodwork around the new exhaust system, re-stow all the stuff we haven't been able to stow down there while work was being done, hook the high water bilge alarm back up, do a few relatively simple odd electrical and plumbing jobs, and we'll be ready to motor up and join some friends for a get-together on Saturday at Little Bay. It will feel great to be away from the dock and "on the hook" at last!


Date: October 12
"Remember when we quit work so we could get some of the stress out of our lives, go cruising, and have some fun?"

"Yeah."

"What happened?"

"Hellifiknow."

The mechanic realigns the new engine - the singing is still there.

We have a diver remove our line cutter - the singing is still there.

We repack our stuffing box - the singing is still there.

We start grasping at straws.

The mechanic adjusts the oil level in the new transmission - the singing is still there.

We sacrifice a chicken and arrange it's bones "just so" - the singing is still there.

One of the guys says "It could be 'prop sing'", We haul the boat again and pull the prop.

As soon as it is off the driveshaft, Julie makes a mad dash down to the prop shop, 75 miles away. They'll only be there until 1:00 PM so, even though we don't know for sure that is the problem, she leaves right away just to be sure she can make it there in time.

Mark and the mechanic mount Rachel's old prop and put her part-way back in the water. No singing. We have finally found the problem! It's about time!! Mark calls Julie to let her know it's the prop for sure and that she doesn't have to turn around.

Julie returns with the newly "de-sung" prop and, even though there isn't enough water to launch, the guys put us in far enough to test. The singing is still there, but only over a 50 RPM range. It's better, but it's still there, annoying as ever.

So now Rachel is out of the water again for the weekend and will be re-launched sometime around noon on Monday. Julie will be at the prop shop when they open on Monday morning for the second (and we hope final) round of de-singing, this time by the owner of the place.

In retrospect, the hardest part of this whole experience for both of us is being sure we'll be able to leave one day, only to find out we can't the next. This emotional roller coaster has been going on almost non-stop for the last 3 months. Except for the last half of August - at least then we knew we'd be out until the second or third week of September while the new engine was being installed. Mark has actually begun threatening to go back to work to get a break from all the stress!!

On the up side we really do feel like we are near the end and since we did still have several other little boat jobs to finish up anyway, now we have the weekend to get them out of the way. Dare we think that we may be out of here at the beginning of the week?

Regardless of what happens next week, tonight we are focused on our tasty, candlelit dinner and a lovely bottle of wine aboard Rachel. We process the day, count our blessings, let go of our worries, and talk once again about the fun we'll have and the beautiful places we'll visit when we finally do get to go "out there". Life is good.

We're back in the water again!!

Date: October 5, 2007
Location: Zimmerman Marine - Cardinal, VA
Position: 37 24.426 N 076 21.139 W

Holy Molies! Has it really been almost three freaking months? Crikies!!

Today the wonderful folk at Zimmerman Marine put our Rachel back in the water.. We can't actually go anywhere until we get our final alignment and sea trial on Monday but we ARE afloat! Fianlly!! It actually feels a bit weird, but in the nicest sort of way!!

We apologize for the lack of info as to our status lately, but we didn't want to bore you with all the day-to-day tedium. Suffice it to say that we did you a really, really big favor by not being quite as communicative as we could have been.....

We just spent 10 days with Julie's brother and his family from England, along with both of Julie's kids and their families. It was a big family gathering and we all had a lovely time. Exhausting, but at least it was in a different (and nicer, actually) sort of way from just working on the boat!!
Update: The engine is installed, the new fuel tank is in. Whoopti-freaking-do!
Well, in, but not yet "installed" - We still have some stuff to do over the weekend - but we're so close to leaving the dock that "in" is good enough for tonight. If the repower gods are looking down on us we'll be ready to leave Zimmermans on Tuesday. Hot damn!

As we are such positive thinkers and we have really had such a wonderful time here, we are treating all the boatyard, staff and management, to lunch on Tuesday at 9:30am.
"9:30am" you ask with a certain amount of incredulity??

Yep. The guys here start work at 4 or 5am so by 9:30 they are ready for lunch - who are we to argue? Julie is making her famous crock pot BBQ with all the fixins and Mark is studiously staying out of her way and lending his assitance wherever he can. As any wise man/caring husband must do...

We decided to leave the new dinghy behind this winter - there's a new crack in the keel and we just don't yet have confidence in it's ability to handle full-time cruising. We're leaving it with friends in Deltaville for the winter and will pick it up in the spring. That'll give us a chance to mess around w/ it during the spring and summer and make a final decision. We're really hoping it works out because we really miss dinghy sailing. As well as Rachel sailing. As well as pretty much any kind of sailing we can think of. Thank goodness we have friends who have given us our sailing fixes over the last couple of months! You know who you are - seriously - thanks so much!
Whew. It's good to be back afloat.

What's in a name?

Date: August 25, 2007
Location: Zimmerman Marine - Cardinal, VA
Position: 37 24.446 N 076 21.203 W

Cruisers will many times refer to other cruisers by boat name rather than by person name. For example, we are sometimes called "the Rachels". Likewise, we often refer to other couples as 'the Liberty's', 'the Hobnobs', 'the Gambles', etc. It's not that we don't all know each other's names (well not always); it's just that it's sometimes easier to think of one name (the boat's) than it is to think of each person's name. Or maybe it's because in a group some people may not know the names of a boat's owners, and if you say 'the Rachel's', everyone knows who you're discussing.

At Zimmerman's they assign a "service coordinator" to oversee each job. While it sounds like just another layer of overhead, we've actually found it to be (like so many other things here) well thought out and quite useful. The 'service coordinator' is a salaried position, so none of their time is charged to your job. They interface with the technical staff who do bill hourly, management, the scheduler, and the owner to keep things running smoothly and to make sure everyone is on the same page. We've found the level of communication here to be excellent - we all know what's going to happen when, and who's going to do what next - it's really been a great experience on that level.

The day Rachel was hauled, a gal walked by and said "Nice boat name." We thanked her, whereupon she said "That's my name, too." We told her we're usually pretty bad with names, but figured we wouldn't have too much trouble remembering hers.

Once our problems were diagnosed and everyone realized we were going to be here a while, Rachel was assigned to be our service coordinator. That was kind of cute - Rachel being Rachel's service coordinator.

A few days later, she was sitting in the cockpit with us discussing the work that will be done. We had a question to which she didn't have a quick answer, so she made a call. Here's how it went: "Hi, Steve. This is Rachel. I'm on Rachel with..." (a sudden, slightly pained expression appears as she realizes what she's about to say ) "... the Rachels."

The Rachels
s/v Rachel

Sometimes dreams really do come true!

Location: Zimmerman Marine - Cardinal, VA
Position: 37 24.446 N 076 21.203 W

The morning of the scheduled engine alignment:
"I had a dream last night." she says
"You never remember your dreams." he says.
"Well, I remembered this one." she says.
"What was it about?" he asks
"I dreamed we had to get a new engine." she says
"You're not allowed to dream any more." he says.

She tells The Crew about the dream at breakfast:
"You're not allowed to dream any more." says The Crew.
"See? Told you!" he says.

Later in the day she tells The Mechanic about the dream:
"You're not allowed to dream any more." says The Mechanic.
"See? Told you!" says The Crew.
"She never remembers her dreams." he says.
"Anyway, it was just a dream." she says.

Waiting for 'The Part' to arrive so that the Mechanic can determine if 'The Problem' really is in the transmission, they fill their days with busy work. The Crew goes home on Thursday. 'The Part' arrives the following Monday. The Mechanic dives into the basement and works his magic. The diagnosis is not good. The transmission's output shaft bearings are definitely shot and the output shaft itself is also worn and may be bent!?!

We rejoin our protagonists as The Mechanic tells them the news:
"$3,000 to rebuild the transmission?" he asks.
"And that's only IF they can find the parts?" she asks.
"You're not allowed to dream any more." he says.
"See? Told you!" says The Mechanic.

Assuming we can find an output shaft, we could do the rebuild. Unfortunately we'd still be stuck with an engine and transmission that are almost 30 years old and are pretty darned hard to find parts for. Not a good scenario if something were to break, especially somewhere "off the beaten path".

We think paying about 1/4 the cost of a repower to rebuild the transmission and get the drive train set up correctly is probably throwing good money after bad. So we've deciding that we should bite the bullet and get a new engine and transmission. Ouch.

Who said dreams never come true?? They are big fat liars and deserve a good WHACKing!! On the other hand, some dreams don't come true. This is the second year in a row that we've dreamed of going to Maine and the second year in a row that we aren't going. What a bummer. Very disappointing.

When we get down and out like this Mark likes to bring out his fake Scottish accent. "Och, aye, lass!" It always works - the 2 of us end up laughing and feeling 'no so bad!'. Last Saturday we went up to Deltaville to have dinner with friends at the "yacht club". After dinner we all went out for a cocktail cruise around the creek. Mark stood on the aft deck sipping Scotch ("Well, maybe 'sipping' is an understatement..." she says) reciting Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabberwocky ) in his bad fake Scots accent with his hair blowing wildly. We all laughed heartily - thank goodness we still both have a healthy sense of humor!!

Even though Zimmerman's is out in the middle of nowhere (from their web site: "Inconveniently located on the beautiful Mobjack Bay in Mathews, Virginia. We're not close to anything... except our customers.") and hot as blazes right now, we really like the people here and we are making new friends, despite Mark's bad fake accent.

It is SO hot and humid here. We borrowed the yard's loaner car and picked our van up last Monday after we realised we were going to be here for a while. A lovely but quick two-day trip to Blacksburg to visit our daughter Charlotte and her family and pick up the window air conditioning unit followed. Now we are at least a bit cool aboard Rachel.

The dinghy rebuild is progressing well. We've taken her out for a bit of "gunkholing" the past two days and she seems to be fine again. we're hoping to finish up the sail rig in the next day or so - at least then we'll be able to get out and do some sailing this summer!

Dreaming of being cooler ("No! Nononono! Remember? You're not allowed to dream any more!!" he exclaims)

Sigh....

Location: Zimmerman Marine, Inc. - near Matthews, VA
Position: 37 24.446 N 076 21.203

When you live on your boat, you have to become a bit philosophical about things. Patience is a virtue. All things come in time. Even sailing trips to Maine. Hopefully.

We stopped in here on Tuesday July 25th to have some drive train vibration we've had for a while diagnosed. The mechanic, Chris, came out to the boat on Wednesday morning and took a look. He couldn't be sure at anchor, so we took a spin up the East River during which time he diagnosed a fairly severe alignment problem and possibly a bad cutlass bearing. He decided we needed to haul so he could thoroughly inspect the drive train.

The yard is really busy and we couldn't get on the haulout schedule until Monday July 30th. Luckily, the anchorage is beautiful and there's usually a nice breeze. We made use of the downtime to begin repairs on the dinghy. It's coming along nicely with one more coat of paint required before we put the two halves back together and take her out for a sea trial.

Zimmerman's is not a "do-it-yourself" yard, but as they are really busy at the moment they've been letting Mark do as much of the work as he can. Mark's been relearning his old mechanic skills down in the "basement" in 90 degree humid heat. Chris will decide what needs doing, Mark does it and then Chris will return to test, diagnose, offer Mark advice and loan us the tools we don't have. It has turned out to be a win-win situation and Mark is learning a lot about our 30 year old engine and it's associated bits.

During the week we've eliminated several theories and now have the problem narrowed down to either a bent or worn coupling or a bent transmission output shaft or a bit of both. The coupling is the cheaper of the two options so, even though it will take a few days, we've decided to go ahead and order the parts and see how much that improves the problem.

That's where we are now. The coupling halves are due in next Monday, so we'll be here at least until then. If it's good news, we should be back in the water on Monday or Tuesday. If it's bad news, we'll then need to make a decision whether to buy a used transmission or have ours rebuilt.

Shep, our extra crew member for the trip, came aboard last Sunday. The poor guy got to spend one night on the water then left Thursday afternoon after spending most of his time here living in the heat on the hard and doing miscellaneous boat jobs. He was a real trooper, maintained a good attitude even during our frustration and disappointment, and will be welcomed aboard again.

Our experience here at Zimmerman's has been great. Everyone we've met has been courteous, helpful, and friendly. The yard is clean and the staff is very professional and willing to help. The workmanship we've seen has been top notch, too. Communication seems to be the watchword here - a valuable but, unfortunately in our experience, not all that common commodity.

Our awnings have been a Godsend. It's been really hot and humid and, being a working boatyard not a marina, there's no pool here. The haulout guys were nice enough to put us at the end of the yard near some trees, so we receive some good shade during the most brutal part of the afternoon. If we're going to be here much longer, though, we're going to have to go get an air conditioner. We should know whether that's going to be necessary on Monday.

We're in pretty good spirits given the circumstances, and are using our time here to take care of
some other boat jobs that hadn't made it up to the "A" list yet.

Dinghy Distress!!

Date: July 25, 2007
Location: East River, Mobjack Bay - near Matthews, VA
Position: 37 24.445 N 076 20.308 W

We got back from England at about 1:30 AM Sunday, slept a few hours, then spent the rest of the day running errands and doing some last minute boat jobs.

We left the dock right after high tide on Monday morning to take advantage of the tidal current to help get us out past our friend's boat. Everything went as smooth as butter (no bumps or scrapes, nothing broke, and nobody got hurt - the textbook definition of a successful arrival or departure from a dock) and we dropped anchor about 100 yards downstream. We dinghied back in so Julie could make one last run to Deltaville to pick up some parts we'd ordered and Mark went back to the boat to finish up a few "must do" chores before we could leave for our trip to Maine.

We raised anchor at about 6:30 pm Monday and, with a high tide at 8:30 pm at Smith Point and predicted Northerly winds of 10-15 mph, we looked forward to a nice downwind run to Mobjack Bay. Rachel has been having some drive train vibration issues, so we made an appointment to have her checked out at at a highly recommended boatyard here. Unfortunately, wind was from the south, not the predicted north, at 15-20, gusting to 25 making it dead on our nose the entire trip down the bay. The 66 mile trip ended up being 87 miles with all the tacking and ended up taking just over 19 hours to complete!

Before we left, we tried test hanging the new dinghy from the davits and think it'll work, but it's going to take some refining. We'd had great success towing it from Deltaville to the Coan and on a trip across the Potomac to St. Mary's, so we decided to tow it on this trip with plans to stow it on deck for the passage from Norfolk to Block Island. It was pretty choppy on our way down, especially from about 10pm through about 3 am - even Rachel was pounding on some of the bigger sets of waves. In the morning we noticed some water in the dinghy and decided to heave to and bail her out. Oh my.

There are two bulkheads that bolt together when the forward and aft parts of the dinghy are assembled. Apparently between the pounding and the tow line jerking, the plywood actually tore at these points allowing a couple of seams to open up. By the time we stopped to bail her the bow section was only hanging onto the stern section by the bottom two bolts - the top two were almost completely broken free from the forward section. We managed to tie it all together to stabilize it, bailed her out and finished the trip.

When we got here she was full of water again. Turns out the water wasn't splashed in - it was running in through cracks in the bulkheads created by the same pounding that split the plywood bulkheads. We hauled her up on deck and took her apart to assess the damage. It's all fixable, but will take time. So now, if we want to go to Maine this summer, we have to make arrangements to leave her here somewhere until we get back in September when we'll have time to make repairs. Sad to say, we're thinking she may not be tough enough to be a full-time cruising dinghy. We have a couple of months to cogitate and decide what we want to do with regard to a tender. Good thing we saved our little 8' inflatable when we sold Raven and brought it along "just in case"!

Back home on Rachel

Date: July 13, 2007
Location: Docked on the Coan River, Chesapeake
Position: 37 56.652 N 076 28.883 W

We arrived back to Rachel on July 7th. Wow has it just been a week we've been back?

After a lovely, albeit too quick visit with Mark's family in Maine, we were hoping to get Rachel ready and take off to points North for a month or two.

Unfortunately Julie's mum passed away on Monday after a short hospital stay. It is always distressing to lose a parent, but there is also a sense of relief that she will no longer be suffering from the debilitating Alzheimers with which she was afflicted. The funeral is next Friday, so we'll be flying to England and will be gone until Sunday, the 22nd of July. We are still getting Rachel ready to head North, it just won't happen until we return at the end of next week.

It's been so hot that the half finished awning job has bubbled up to the top of the priority list ! Julie has been down below sewing and up top measuring for a couple of days and the awning is now 3/4 finished - functional and creating a lot of much needed shade, but as always, there's more to go.

Mark is busily preparing Rachel for our next offshore adventure from Norfolk, Virginia to Block Island, Rhode Island and then on to Maine via the Cape Cod Canal. We're rustling up some crew so we won't have to do all the night shifts ourselves, although we are trying to make it sound more attractive than it actually will be .

Apart from that, we're having a great time taking dinghy rides, watching the osprey feed their babies in their nest across the river, watching a spider build it s web on our bimini supports, etc.

Wow! Are we really the same people who just quit our jobs and moved onto our lovely boat 3 months ago?

"No! Get off the computer, stop waffling on, and get back to work !"

"Ow!"

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel

Farewell Azores!

Location: Air Sato, enroute to Boston
Position: High above the Atlantic

The highlight of the festival on Terciera for us was a parade re-enactment of a year in the life of a grape. During the day on Thursday, several sections of the parade route were dressed up with grape vines, leaves, low walls, etc. We couldn't figure out what the parade was going to be that night other than recognizing the word "vinho" in the program.

What a great parade! Locals dressed in traditional clothing sprayed, cultivated, propped up and finally harvested the grapes. The acting was great with old guys twisting kids ears, to make them work. Sitting and eating lunch in the fields and sharing grapes, olives, wine, and bread with the parade attendees. A fake fight, interupted be a "bystander", who was then made to drink more wine. An ox cart, a donkey cart - both left little surprises on the pavement for further entertainment as following parade members and attendees stepped in or barely missed them. A drunk sitting under a vine with his jug. We love this place, have we mentioned that?

The following afternoon we managed to catch up with one of the folk groups that performed in the parade a couple of nights earlier. They were playing music at a gazebo in the park. After their performance Mark bought a CD of their music and asked (in Portugese) if the vendor spoke English. This was followed by a request, in English this time, for an explanation of the costumes we'd been seeing. Much discussion ensued, ending with a "talk to her - she teaches English at our school". Once we established communication with the school teacher, we were in. They clustered around us and every question was answered. Those not understood were discussed and an answer was eventually forthcoming. You learn that, even though you don't need to know Portugese in the Azores, a little effort goes a very long way!

The last night of the festival we saw what was arguably the best firework display we have ever seen directly overhead. Ever. Really. And to top it off, we had ring side seats lying on Liberty's bow. It was synched to music similar to that played at "Cirque De Soleil". Mark, being a "fireworks purist", didn't think he'd like that at the beginning, but by the finale he was sold! It helped that the display was absolutely (in Mark's words) "fan-freaking-tastic". We have no idea how an island with a population of about 16,000 was able to afford it!

This morning, our last day, we sadly said goodbye to our wonderful hosts. We couldn't have asked for more welcoming, friendly, and supportive hosts for the trip.

We rented a car with another couple we'd befriended (the "Hobnobers" if you recall) for a last drive around the island and were not disappointed.

Cows in the road. Cow shit all over the car. Riotous hydrangea, lily, rose blooms. Biscoites ("Biscuits") bathing, lava, and grapes.

One of the most intriguing things we saw was a fountain in the shape of a lady with a duck on her head. We have no idea what the significance is, however. The guide book had a picture with a caption "famous duck fountain" or somesuch, but no explanation of what it represents or why it was built. The strangest part is that it's sort of in the middle of nowhere - a small picnic area has been built around it.

Our stay in the Azores ended when our friends finally dropped us at the airport for the flight to Boston. On arrival, we've rented a car and will drive up to Harpswell, Maine for a few days to visit with Mark's family.

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel