Boothby Bash

Well, it’s been a couple of incredible weeks with the Boothby clan. Whenever Rick’s family gets together it’s a high energy event, and this time around was exceptionally so.

Upon arriving in Portland, the first order of business had to be meeting up with Dick, Rick’s dad. Dick is a Maine native and octogenarian who belies his age by at least twenty years, and other than a little less height (and considerably less hair), is the obvious genetic source for his son, particularly his smile. Dick has heard a great deal about our new boat, but has yet to see it in person so we pick him up at the dock with a plan to take him out for a spin around the Portland Harbor. He is obviously very excited and comments on how much bigger this boat is than the Alberg, but these exclamations of size pretty much stop upon boarding Valkyrie and going below. I’m suddenly aware that we haven’t been very careful about what politicians call “managing expectations”. Seeing the boat through Dick’s eyes makes it seem like a very modest craft, and perhaps not quite up to the task of accommodating all members of the family for an important event he has planned for the following week. Oh well, we’ll just have to make it work when the time comes.

Dick is a graduate of the Maine Maritime Academy who served with the Navy in the South Pacific during the war, and proves that he still has the right stuff by taking the wheel and heading us out past Fort Gorges to Portland Head Light. He and Rick chat about various things and eventually get around to probably the most talked about and controversial topic in the Boothby family – beans. Baked beans that is. Not being a Mainer myself, I have to admit that I don’t share in the family fascination with this humble dish, but whenever they get together the big question of the day always concerns the “authentic” recipe used by Rick’s grandmother, Pauline. Everyone claims to know the right one but no one agrees with anyone else. Who knew there were so many ways to make baked beans? None of them, by the way, involves opening a can which is the way my family always did it.

After our brief outing on the boat, we take Dick to a seafood restaurant just down the street from the Centerboard Yacht Club and get a table outside. I can’t resist ordering my first lobster of the summer, and it is fantastic!

After a busy few days, seeing friends at Rick’s fortieth high school reunion, and then doing laundry and re-provisioning, we take off for a four day sailing trip. This time we’re joined by Rick’s sister and brother-in-law, Barb and Jeff Perry who live here in Cumberland and have taken time off from work in order to go with us. The sleeping arrangements are a bit cramped but the Perry’s are remarkably adaptable, and they are such a fun couple that we know it’ll be worth it. The first night out we pool all of our spare change and play a highly competitive poker game in the cockpit.

Our plan is to head north up the Maine coast to Mt. Desert Island and beyond, but in the morning of our first real travel day I manage to thwart that plan pretty quickly by getting seasick. Welcome Aboard, Barbie and Jeff! We’re forced to abort that plan and go for the much less ambitious destination of Southport Island, near Boothbay (no relation).

Unlike the old Alberg, Valkyrie's engine propeller has a nasty tendency of getting fouled with floating plastic line and debris, and twice Rick has to dive overboard with his handy knife and clear it. After Jeff joins him on one of these expeditions we celebrate by using the shot glasses that Walter generously left behind when he sold the boat to Rick. Tequila Slappers!

Nature sightings are abundant on this trip – we see seals, harbor porpoises, terns, etc. I am astounded by the osprey nest situated high up in the top of a tree. I’ve become so accustomed to osprey nesting on the top of channel markers that I had almost forgotten that there must have originally been a more natural setting for these birds.

The most unusual thing we encounter is an ocean sunfish. Mola Mola, or “head fish” as it is sometimes called is a huge bony fish that has no tail. It looks a lot like a giant fish head with fins – hence the name. About six feet long and about the same in width, this fish tends to lay over on its side and lazily swim along close to the surface, soaking up warmth from the sun. With no natural predators, this guy is totally unaffected by our boat and we get right up close to him. The look of this thing is so weird that it takes me a while to get my head around which body part goes where.

The high point of our little voyage is meeting up with Rick’s aunt and uncle – Barbara and Frank – at their cottage on Southport Island. We are treated to showers and then a delicious dinner of lobster rolls while enjoying their spectacular ocean views. Aunt Barbara is an extremely vivacious, well read and interesting person and she acts as a lightning rod for discussion at any family gathering. Of course, the topic of beans still manages to come up once or twice. I manage to get a great picture of Frank seated on the deck of their cottage, but I’m disappointed to discover that I have no pictures of Barbara. Rick tells me that she mysteriously tends to find something to do in the next room whenever a camera makes an appearance.

When we return to Portland we leave the boat on a mooring and all four of us drive up to the family “picnic grounds” at Turner. There is no cottage on this little parcel of wooded land, but located right on the edge of Pleasant Pond, it makes for a great place to camp out. Barb and Jeff help us out with some camping equipment and we are joined by their son Ross as well as Rick’s two brothers, David (nicknamed Woody for some unknown reason), his wife Bonnie, and Jim. Jim drove up from Annapolis, MD and brought his daughter Rachel as well as my son Dewey. Dick doesn’t actually camp out, but he spends the better part of two days with us, canoeing, kayaking, swimming and sitting around the campfire (talking a great deal about beans).

The family is scandalized to hear from Dick that Pauline’s “secret” baked bean recipe can easily be found on the internet (Cooks.com?) - exactly the same as his hand written copy. It is of course IMPOSSIBLE that this is the real recipe. The Boothby beans take all day to cook, and whenever someone in the family passes through the kitchen they surreptitiously add another spoonful of brown sugar or molasses to the pot. By the time the beans are ready to eat everyone exclaims that they are the best yet, but the recipe has been altered by so many people that no one knows exactly what went into that latest batch. Hence the intensity of baked bean discussion.

After two nights of camping on land, Rick and I are anxious to get back to the boat. We bring the Annapolis/Baltimore contingent of Jim, Rachel and Dewey for an overnight on the water and we have a great time swimming to shore at Jewel Island and doing some exploring. It’s wonderful to have Dewey with us; I don’t have to feel guilty leaving him in Baltimore, at least for this week. Rick and Jim set him to work at the wheel, and later on they rely on him as a lookout for lobster pots and buoys that we want to avoid. Rachel sits up on the foredeck looking amazingly glamorous, just like a movie star. On the way back to our mooring we get treated to a real surprise – The Pride of Baltimore! What are they doing this far north?

Back on solid land, the Boothby's convene once again at Barb and Jeff's house for a Mexican dinner. We are missing a few people from these family gatherings. Barb and Jeff’s daughter McCall is living and working in Denver now that she has finished college, and Jim’s wife and their other three kids are busy working or are in school and can’t be with us this time. But there is a much more noticeable empty seat, formerly filled by Carolyn, Dick’s wife and the family matriarch who passed away two years ago. There was a memorial service soon after her death, but her ashes have remained in a canister at Dick’s house. Carolyn lived in Maine for most of her life and she loved to go for walks and picnics along the shore. Dick would like to spread her ashes in the waters that she knew so well, using Rick’s boat to carry the family for a simple private ceremony. It’s going to be a tight squeeze with so many people but we can work with that. The only real problem is that the boat is rather difficult to get in and out of and could be the scene of a nasty accident for someone who is approaching ninety. With mixed feelings, we discourage Frank and Barbara from attending this part of the proceedings and plan to meet up with them afterwards for the signature Boothby dinner – ham, brown bread and of course, BEANS!

The day starts out ominously cloudy, but just as we reach Great Diamond Island the sky clears to a beautiful blue. We all gather in the cockpit and each person takes a moment in turn to speak about their memories of Carolyn and what she meant to them. Dick has been working on his speech for weeks, yet his desire to give his wife the perfect sendoff caused him to awaken very early this morning and completely re-write the whole thing. There are tears of course, but also laughter – Carolyn would have loved it. Then Dick casts a handful of ashes into the sea along with a fistful of cut flowers, and one by one, Carolyn’s four children do the same. A sublime tribute to a wonderful person.