Note: In 2010 Butch Fuller of Greenwood accompanied a friend on a sailing trip up the East Coast. Following is a five-part series of the logs of that two-week trip.

Sunday, April 18

I usually get up early in the morning, but not this early.  It is 4 a.m. and still dark.  My friend, Bruce Parker, had asked me a few days earlier if I would like to go to Charleston, South Carolina with him to pick up his 35’ sailboat, and help him sail/motor it back up to Maryland, on the Chesapeake Bay.  Depending on the weather, we were going to go “outside” for the first two days and nights, and then wind our way up the Inland Waterway, the ICW.   This sounded like an adventure that I couldn’t pass up.  I love doing things that are new, and also, that have the chance of supplying a few adrenaline rushes.  This sounded like it could be just the thing.  I was a little apprehensive, but told Esther that I didn’t want to be sitting here a few months from now saying I wished I had done it.

So, here I am heading down to Bruce’s house on Twitchell Pond to meet him at 5 a.m. to start the first leg of our trip.  We were going to leave my truck at Rich and Lonnie Schneider’s, in Port Republic, Maryland, and then continue on to Charleston, South Carolina, with his truck, because he had a skiff there he wanted to haul back to Maine.  It was a 12 hour trip, hence the early start.

After stopping twice to gas up, and to grab a bite, we arrived at their house about 5:45 p.m.   Rich wanted to put a heavy trailer on my truck if he could make it fit, so I could haul it back to his summer home on Indian Pond in Greenwood  for him.  I told him he had a week or so to get it on and secured, and I’d be glad to haul it for him. Lonnie prepared a delicious supper of Italian spaghetti.   Went to bed early as we were leaving early the next morning.

Monday, April 19

Got up early and had some coffee and cereal and started our second leg.  Beautiful scenery through Maryland, many old tobacco farms, and winding roads.  We were going to leave Bruce’s truck at his Niece, Stephanie‘s and her boyfriend Jack‘s, and spend a couple days while we prepared the boat and got supplies.

We arrived at their house in Charleston around 3:30 p.m. Met Stephanie and Jack, very friendly, nice people.  We all went out to supper and had a good time.  Came back to the house and went to bed.  I woke up about 2:30 in the morning feeling quite sick.  Fearing that I was about to throw up, I  quickly thought about all the white rugs they had throughout the house, and the fact I had to find my way downstairs and to the bathroom.  Frantically, after stumbling around to find the light,  I looked around for something to use.  Seeing nothing, I dug into my luggage and found my laundry bag.  I sat for about an hour and nothing happened, then all of a sudden I felt better and went back to bed.  It wouldn’t have been a good way to impress our gracious hosts. I suspect it must have been from the very greasy fish and chips I had for supper.

Tuesday, April 20

The boat yard opened at 8 a.m. so we went shopping for food and other supplies to stock the boat.  We spent $180  on food, took our supplies to the boat and stowed them away.  Then we put up the headsail and wound it up, filled the water tank, cleaned hoses, checked the life raft and did other general work.

I wanted to see the Confederate submarine, “The CSS Hunley”, but they don’t show it during the week, as they are still working on it. You can only view it on weekends.  We went to a museum anyway at about 4 p.m., where we saw a replica of the Hunley in front of the building. After we toured the museum we went back to the house to get ready to go out for supper at the restaurant that Jack manages. It’s a French restaurant, but Jack assured me they also had the best hamburgers around.  Being my favorite meal, I had to try it.  He wasn’t lying.  It was the best burger I have had.  About 2 inches thick and cooked perfectly medium.