Pamela Staveley and Michael Sieracki on Cross Point Road are bragging these days. Daughter Hannah won Second Place in the Lincoln County Spelling Bee. She and Kelly Ward, both 6th graders, were the Eddy School contestants. Leah Lemont, who goes to the Wiscasset Middle School, was in Third Place. She is the daughter of David and Gwen Lemont, who also live on Cross Point Road. First Place was won by Hannah Garthoff, a home-schooler from Jefferson.

Takes me back to my first spelling bee, freshman year at Lincoln Academy, and the word I crashed on was “codicil.” Coming from New York state, and being aware that Mainers were notorious for not pronouncing “r’s” in words, I spelled it “cordicil.” Ah, well. Did better the next time. Remember, the Silver and Bronze medals mean that you really made the Gold medalist sweat!

Gertrude and Pat Allen report their granddaughter and her husband, Susan and Toby O’Brien, are visiting over the weekend from Andover MA.

L. K. Gagnon, who is now coordinator of membership services for the Maine Audubon Society, is the youngest daughter of Barbara Gagnon on Fort Road.

Last Saturday, Tom and Susie Stephenson Blackford on the River Road feasted the 2002 jovial crew of Tom’s replica privateer “Increase,” a 100-ton 22-foot lapstrake cutter. The original, captained by Samuel Tucker out of Bristol, on a one-time expedition in 1813, captured the British privateer “Crown” off Pemaquid Point. Tom’s vessel was launched in the spring of 2000, and for the last two summers, has been sailing the rounds of historical re-enactments of the period between the French and Indian Wars and the War of 1812. This year Tom expects to be present at “The Battle of Fort Edgecomb,” June 8-9, and in September at Fort William Henry in Pemaquid. He has also sailed the “Increase” at Lake George and Lake Champlain events.

And so, singing “Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum,” I remain moored at 234 River Road, 633-2978, and bonesukl@midcoast.com.