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I went for my first cruise in 1994 when my friend Hans took the first cruise in his
newly launched Yacht AG.
The following year I sailed for 10 days along the coast of Maine from Trenton to Cutler with a friend. Our trip started by trailering Rosa from Portland to Trenton. We launched her at a ramp designed for seaplanes. Unfortunately the ramp wasn't steep enough to get the boat all the way into the water without sinking it in the rising tide. I tied a line to the trailer and let the trailer roll back on it's own while belaying it with the truck's hitch. Once in, we had a great sail. The first day we saw dozens of dolphin and a whale. We were stopped in Cutler by fog and the threat of a hurricane. Sheila suggested that we go to Moosehead lake, so I hitch hiked back to the truck and trailer, drove back to Cutler and we towed Rosa inland 4 hours and lauched in Greenville at the southern end of the lake. We sailed there for the remaining four days of our vacation.
Rosa at Anchor 
The picture above was from our first day at Roque Island. The fog rolled in soon
afterward and kept us at Roque Island for a few days. Smack dab in the middle of a cluster
of islands is a lagoon with a mile long beach. The island is privately owned and access is
only allowed at the beach. It's like being in the Caribbean except with pine trees instead
of palm trees!
Cooking in the Cockpit 
Eating and cooking was done outdoors as often as possible. Rosa has room for two to
sleep comfortably. We would keep a fairly casual schedule. We sailed about 20-25 miles a
day with a couple of lay days for weather or hiking. Every night we camped on the boat and
we usually were able to go ashore to stretch our legs every day.
Sheila fixing the Antenna 
The radio reception got worse the further down east we sailed. Sheila climbed the mast to fix the antenna in hopes of being able to hear the weather reports better. While she was able to right the antenna, we were just too far from the radio stations to be able to get useful information. We would buy newspapers when we could to get weather forecasts.
Bird's eye view of Rosa 
I passed the camera up to Sheila when she had finished repairing the antenna. This image is actually two images merged digitally.