If the inverse of “Down East”, the direction we have been
traveling for almost a month, is “Up West”, that must be where we are
headed. We have a decent stretch of
weather with winds not exclusively out of the southwest, so it seems prudent to
begin the trip south. Leaving Mount Desert
is difficult as we have enjoyed it so much.
We feel a bit melancholy, and others with whom we are occasionally
cruising say the same. So, we take a
small hop just four miles south to Little Cranberry Island. This small island is one of only a handful of
Maine islands
that are inhabited year round. Here there
are few facilities for tourists, and the harbor is full of lobster boats.
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| Waterfront at Little Cranberry Island |
Biking through the island, we find the mosquitoes
out-number the residents exponentially; it is a true blood letting, and we beat
a hasty retreat back to the boat despite the efforts of the proprietor of the
local restaurant, armed with various bug sprays, who wants us to stay for
dinner. We are safe from the little monsters on the boat and enjoy a beautiful
view northwards towards Mt.
Desert.
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| Our final view of Mt. Desert Island |
The next day we have a glorious sail through the Deer Island
Thorofare, a rock strewn and relatively narrow passage between islands.
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| Vistas along the Deer Island Thorofare |
Upon entering Penobscot
Bay we find ourselves sailing along
with one of the classic Maine
schooners that ply these waters.
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| We're crossing tacks with this beauty |
Our overnight is in Pulpit
Harbor, a protected but crowded
anchorage on the east side of North
Haven Island.
Just after dropping the anchor, a huge schooner arrives in the harbor and
somehow shoe-horns herself in next to us.
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| And our neighbor in Pulpit Harbor |
We have one last evening happy hour
with three other couples we have been with off and on; we are all heading in
different directions now. A layover day
in Rockland
gives us the opportunity to re-provision, do laundry, and pick up fuel for the
trip south.
An early departure the next morning takes us out of Penobscot Bay along coast line we never saw when
we came in in a dense fog. Maine is certainly
gorgeous when you can see it, although we are still cursing the numerous
lobster pots.
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| Lighthouse on a rocky isle along the Atlantic coast |
Our next destination is Linekin
Bay, the site of my earlier
experiences in Maine. Back in the late 1950’s my family vacationed
at the Linekin Bay Camp, a rustic resort that focused on small boat sailing. This
is where I had my first real experiences sailing, and I want to return to see
if it is still as I had remembered. The
bay is much more developed, moose do not roam in the woods, and all the wooden
boats have been replaced by fiberglass Rhodes
19’s, but otherwise it was quite the same and, happily, well maintained. We enjoy a dinner at their deck restaurant
overlooking the bay.
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| Linekin Bay Camp |
From Linekin Bay it is a short hop to Boothbay, but we do it via a
detour to Squirrel
Island which lies just outside
the bay. Squirrel Island
is privately owned and the home of many large, well maintained “cottages” dating
from the late 1800’s. Fortunately, the island provides a free visitor mooring,
and we are welcomed ashore by fifth generation residents that point us in the
direction of a few interesting sights. There are no cars or bikes allowed on
the island; instead there are numerous walking paths, both concrete and boardwalks
constructed out of teak, that go along the rocky cliffs and between all the
homes.
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| The walking paths at Squirrel Island |
Community facilities include a tea room, now closed for the season, a
library, a non-denominational church, a small museum, a post office (only open
6 hours per week), and five beautiful tennis courts that were once home to the
US Lawn Tennis Tournament, probably about 100 years ago.
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| Church for the community at Squirrel Island |
Someone lets it slip
that Morgan Freeman was recently there, so you get the gist. We head into
Boothbay for the night. The town is a
bit too touristy for us, but we do rendezvous with our Australian friends for
the cruise further south.
The beautiful weather is holding up, and we have an
enjoyable sail down to Jewell Island in the outer reaches of Casco
Bay.
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| Another one of the many lighthouses along the Maine coast |
Jewell is an unimproved Maine State Park,
and we drop anchor in a narrow harbor and scamper ashore to do some
hiking. The island once hosted a World
War II outpost responsible for sighting enemy ships and submarines off the
coast and calling in guns and destroyers to deal with the threat to Portland. We climb a
remaining observation tower and are rewarded with a panoramic view of Casco Bay.
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| View from the tower on Jewell Island overlooking other islands in Casco Bay |
There
are many other trails that beckon us to walk through fern and moss carpeted
forests and along rocky shorelines.
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| The rocky coast along Jewell Island |
We
spend too long in this land of ten foot tides and return to find our dinghies
high and dry, a long way up the shore. Looks like the guys have a bit of a
problem on their hands!
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| Andrew and Burt contemplate our dinghy predicament |
Another hop takes us further down the coast to the Isles of
Shoals, a group of rocky islands about five miles to sea from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
We tie up at buoys maintained by the Portsmouth Yacht Club. A gentleman on one
of the neighboring boats tells us that with the southern breeze, we are in Maine, but if the wind shifts to the north we will be in New Hampshire. We head
ashore to explore Star
Island, one of the many
isles. It features a huge old, historic
hotel that is now home to a conference center for the Unitarian Church. We are allowed to walk through the rickety
hotel (no smoking allowed, for obvious reasons) and along their many hiking
paths. The view over the ocean and into
the harbor is spectacular.
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| The anchorage at Isles of Shoals |
Across the
way, on another island, is a marine research center operated by Cornell University
and the University
of New Hampshire. We would like to visit the facilities, but it
requires advanced reservations, so that will have to await another trip.
Our final stop is in Beverly,
MA at a yacht club where friends we made in
the Bahamas
are members. It is a good opportunity to
pick up a mooring, do a little cleaning and maintenance, and make arrangements
to visit Boston,
just a short hop south.
