You could have knocked me over with a feather. When I went to the office to pay for another night, the guy said our boat's picture was in the paper. I thought he was joking, but he handed it to me. Sure enough, there was the Jofian on her side! I could scarcely believe my eyes. The local newspaper had actually printed a picture of the Jofian in her humiliating position! It was a good picture, but they had the write-up all wrong. They said she was fifty feet long and from Wilmington, Delaware. They said the Coast Guard sent out a boat to "rescue" us, but the crew had already been taken ashore by a boat from the marina. I phoned the paper and gave them the facts. At no time were we in any danger whatsoever. No one took us ashore. Roy went Royaking, and I sat contentedly on the boat reading until the tide came in. It will be interesting to see if they print a retraction tomorrow.
We also received a surprise from Mother Nature today. We knew that people go to Maine in the summer to cool off, but we weren't prepared for the cooling off we got today. The morning started out sunny and warm, as it had been. We planned on renting a car and driving out to Highland Lake, where Roy spent four or five summers when he was a little boy. I phoned Enterprise to have them deliver a car, but they were overwhelmed with business and said they couldn't deliver today, but if we'd go to the Pine Tree Shopping Center, they'd pick us up there.
Roy and I went to the nearby bus stop and waited. In due course of time, a South Portland bus came along and took us across the bridge to Portland. The fare was only fifty cents apiece, and we got free transfers. A very nice lady in a wheelchair told us where to catch a bus to Pine Tree. It was a different bus company, but they accepted our transfers. We also picked up a bus map and schedule.
While we were waiting for the bus to the shopping center, the sky suddenly got dark, the temperature plummeted, thunder boomed, and rain came down. We had some protection from the rain, but no jackets or umbrellas, so we were glad to get on the bus. The rain was still coming down when we got to the Pine Tree Shopping Center, so we scurried to a nearby Burger King and ate lunch. We decided it wasn't the greatest day to go walking around a lake, so we canceled the car reservation and went bus riding instead. Rode the bus back to town and took a bus that went out past Back Cove into the suburbs. When we returned from that ride, we took another bus to the Maine Mall, which turned out to be a huge shopping center. Wandered around there for a while and bought a few things.
It was getting late and we were getting cold, so we decided to return to the boat. Had a hard time finding the bus stop, but after following the periphery of the mall for a while, we finally saw a bus stop sign. Waited about twenty minutes. We'd no sooner gotten on the Portland bus than we saw a South Portland bus. If we'd known the South Portland bus went to the mall, we could have taken it back instead of going all the way to downtown Portland and then catching another bus to South Portland. We picked up a copy of the South Portland bus map and schedule at the Metro center, so we'll know next time. Luckily, we didn't have to wait for the South Portland bus; it arrived as soon as we reached the stop.
It sure felt good to be back on our nice warm boat. The wind was really howling by then, and rain was still coming down but not very hard. It was so cold, we actually turned on the heater. In August!
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