Summer Cruise, 2011: The Musical!

Not much of a story arc, more a series of tenuously connected vignettes...

Cast:  Himself; Herself; Things One and Two; various bit players on and off stage; a cat

Setting:  Harbor Road Veterinary Services; S/V L'Hérétique; Penobscot Bay


Overture (T-minus one week to T-minus one day):

Fly to Florida; spend three days visiting family and seeing the sights; fly home; spend one day at work; spend one day in Portland presenting at the Maine MEP conference; arrive home to discover one of the cats has had what the vet eventually described as a "neurologic event."

Act One, Scene One (Saturday). 

Curtain opens to reveal regular veterinarian is not available; on-call vet provides splendid, compassionate response and recommends hospitalizing cat to see if a bit of hydration and antibiotic could get her over whatever is going on.  Ka-ching. 

Himself and Herself finish packing food and clothing for seven days and load up the S/V L'Hérétique.  Thing Two exits stage right to board his schooner.

Remaining characters sail to Pulpit Harbor on North Haven.  Wine is consumed by those of legal drinking age while characters sing a ballad about a glorious sunset over the Camden Hills.

Pulpit Rock.  The osprey nest on top is at least 150 years old.

Act One, Scene Two (Sunday).  Aboard L'Hérétique;; cool and overcast; no wind.

As curtain rises, L'Hérétique is motoring north to Castine.  Characters note irony of using the engine on a sailing trip.  Receive phone call that cat appears to be recovering. 

Unidentified large biting insect attacks Thing Two's shoulder, resulting in unprecedented histamine reaction, including widespread hives and throat constriction.  L'Hérétique motors faster.

Arrive historic Castine; allergic reaction has calmed.  Cast disembarks and explores town.  Receives phone call that Grandmother has been readmitted to hospital with various ailments.  Returns to L'Hérétique, where more wine is consumed.

Act One, Scene Three (Monday).  Aboard L'Hérétique; decentish weather.

Characters re-fuel L'Hérétique at the dock in Castine, singing a light-hearted ensemble with boatyard workers about the comedies of parallel parking a 28' sailboat, then set out for Bucks Harbor at the top of Eggemoggin Reach.

Receive phone call that cat is released from cat hospital.

Once moored, characters observe the arrival of several schooners, including Thing One's.  Thing One rows over to L'Hérétique, drinks a quarter of the week's supply of milk, and rows back.  Himself and Herself celebrate with wine.

Act Two, Scene One (Tuesday).  Aboard L'Hérétique; cold, rainy, virtually no wind.

The soggy trip

Characters opt for longest sail motor on the worst day, weather-wise, of the week.  After a soggy trip down the Eggemoggin Reach, L'Hérétiquearrives at Mackerel Cove, Swan's Island and anchors as a high pressure system pushes the rain out to sea and the sun breaks through the clouds.  Cast joins hands and sings a spontaneous hymn of thanksgiving.

Thing Two catches and eats a fish.  The other two drink wine.

The sun breaks through

Act Two, Scene Two (Wednesday).  Aboard L'Hérétique; sunny, light winds.

L'Hérétique weighs anchor and sails - sort of - to Merchant Row, dodging thousands of colorful toggled bouys over some of the most active lobstering grounds in Maine, whilst the characters join in a clever patter song about how cruising yachtsmen ought, at all costs, to avoid pissing off Stonington lobstermen by tangling their gear with sailboat props.

Beachcombing on McGlathery

The L'Heretique drops anchor off of McGlathery Island and the characters foray into the thicket of spruce and blowdown in search of trails; hours later, scratched, grumpy and footsore, they return to their vessel.

Act Two, Scene Three (Thursday).  Aboard L'Hérétique; the day dawns thick-a-fog.

Herself awakens early and from the cockpit sings a quiet morning ballad describing her longing for land after five nights of cabin leaks, poor sleep, and wildly inaccurate weather forecasts; the refrain touches upon her nostalgia for the days when she was still charmed by sights of porpoises, harbor seals and ospreys.

After breakfast, the characters decide to stay put until the fog lifts; meanwhile, they take another crack at McGlathery Island, having somewhat better luck at finding a trail but ending up scaling some impressive boulders in order to get back to L'Heretique. 

In the late afternoon, they weigh anchor for a quick late-afternoon run across to Vinalhaven.  On a falling tide, Himself pilots the boat up a shallow, narrow, tricky passage to the head of Winter Harbor; Herself nearly has a heart attack when L'Hérétique's keel scrapes the bottom.  Himself tells Herself she needs to relax.  Herself has two large glasses of wine and spends the rest of the evening fantasizing, sotto voce, about marriage to someone normal.

Act Three, Scene One (Friday).  Aboard L'Hérétique; actually kind of a nice day.

Himself awakens early and from the cockpit sings a quiet morning ballad expressing his longing for another week of sailing.

After breakfast, the characters pile into the dinghy and motor up the shallows to the very mouth of the harbor, where a small river empties under a bridge.  They stow the dinghy and hit the road, singing an enthusiastic trio about how nice it will be to visit Carver Harbor which looks, on the nautical chart, like it should be just a hop, skip and jump away.

Swimming in the quarry

More than an hour later, they give up and hitchhike the last few miles with a friendly native.  They have lunch, visit the bookstore, and swim in the quarry before hitching back to the dinghy and returning to the vessel for wine and a second night in this anchorage.

Act Three, Scene Two (Saturday).  Aboard L'Hérétique  fog, of course, but plenty of wind.

L'Hérétiquesails home.  Really sails.  Characters rendezvous with Thing Two at the schooner wharf and all head home and the act closes with a joyful ensemble about terra firma, the cat, the happy news that Grandmother is home from the hospital, and a hell of a lot of laundry.

Curtain.