The next morning Curt came back to join us for our last short little trip into Portland, ME and there was no wind. Oh well, we motored in through the channel and found our marina - priced at our level, and immediately started cleaning the boat inside and out. A few weeks previous we decided it was time to list Libra for sale, the summer was coming on and we’d spent a good bit of time sailing this boat, if someone wants it, great, if not we’ll keep sailing along. Well someone was coming to look at it Sunday morning and since we were going out to music on Saturday night (Yonder Mountain String Band) we thought we better clean now ‘cause we may not be in any condition to clean Sunday morning.

Good thing we did clean the boat Saturday because after an amazing dinner at a Japanese restaurant, Pai Men Miyake, we danced the night away to Yonder ‘til the wee hours and proceeded to get completely lost while walking back to the boat. Absolutely no one we saw could give us directions, it was either “I don’t know where that is,” to “you can’t get there from here,” to “go away I won’t help you,” Nice. Finally we found a busy street and hailed a cab, climbing in I had that feeling that we were saved! “Where to?” “Portland Yacht Services Marina.” “I don’t know where that is.” Oh my god, really? From the Cabbie? Jennifer wanted to get out right then but I asked more questions and he knew where the ferry terminal was, thankfully, right next to the marina.

By the time we got things going in the morning and had the boat ready to show Scott and Cindy showed up and looked Libra over. We talked for an hour about this and that, sailing, the boat, our experience last night. They seemed to love the boat but are new to sailing so I wanted to make sure they really knew what they where getting into. It’s an old boat, boats take work, I gave Cindy all the lines (it’s going to be her boat, her dream) and she still liked the boat. So we took them for a sail, why not. Back at the dock things were still positive, I told them to talk it over and give us a call later if they wanted to make an offer - then we headed off to get some food. While eating we got another call from someone that wanted to look at the boat so we finished up and met her back at Libra. Nice girl, from Boulder looking for a summer home in Maine. She took a quick look and left. Boat brokering done with, Jennifer headed off to provision as I lazed around the boat. Portland was a great town to visit, convenient for showing the boat and had some great food and music but I was ready to go.



Monday dawned warm and sunny with no wind. I checked my email and found an offer from Scott and Cindy, guess they liked the boat! I countered and then we motored out through the islands of Casco Bay and found a recommended anchorage between Ministerial and Bates Island. While motoring along we got a message from Cindy, bad connection, but it sounded like they agreed to our counter, the boat is sold! Elated we got to the anchorage and tried to set the hook, twice we failed with the danforth, once we failed with the claw before it finally held and now Jennifer was worried about the anchorage - the boat is sold, we better make sure it anchors properly! So we relaxed a bit before pulling anchor and heading to the North cove on Great Chebeague Island and dropped our hook in the mooring field. It grabbed on the first try, relief. I spoke with Scott that evening and confirmed the sale and the agreement that we would deliver the boat to Rockport, Maine at the end of the month, clean her out and spend a week or so showing them the workings of the boat and giving them some basic boating skills before we take off in our van to complete the Maine Coast from the shore side - maybe even drive out to Halifax, who knows.

With all the possibilities out in front of us we had a few moments of confusion trying to figure out how this changed our trip. We still have 2 weeks, we can still meet up with friends in South Freeport, in Boothbay and in South Bristol, we can see the Kennebec River, the Maine Maritime Museum, we can run the inside passage (the back door) to Booth Bay, we can race the 8 meter in Boothbay, we can see Monhegan Island, and Penobscot Bay. This doesn’t sound like too bad a deal! We’re selling her for a bit less than we have into her, but I’ve always said to never pass up a buyer of your boat if the price is close to right, so here we go!