Moving on to Maine

We’re in the second half of July, and it is time to begin the trip north to Maine.  We get lucky with currents through the Cape Cod Canal and are able to make the jump to Provincetown in one long day.  Welcoming us to the harbor is the Kymer Nicol, the state boat of Delaware. It spends several weeks each summer in Provincetown, and we are fortunate to see it under sail in the bay on a windy evening.   

The Kymer Nicol under sail

We drop anchor tucked in away from the wind, next to a very attractive houseboat.  Provincetown in an artsy place, and the style of this nicely maintained houseboat reflects this.  

Our next door neighbor

 Our favorite pastime in Provincetown is biking into the National Seashore on paved bike paths that wander along the coast and through steep dunes.

The bike trail in the Cape Cod National Seashore

Race Point Lighthouse from the bike trail

The path north from Provincetown to Maine takes you through the Stillwagen Banks, otherwise known as the summer home to many whales.  They claim they are out there, but we never see them when we cross this stretch of ocean on our own. I resolve to change that and take a whale watching tour on a commercial boat.  No problem finding whales with the experts as we see around 40 whales, including finbacks, minkes, and humpbacks.  They are everywhere and they are BIG.  We see mothers with young, groups hunting together cooperatively, and random spoutings far off in every direction.  I make careful note of the location where this all takes place, and the next day my observations pay off.  We travel slightly west of a direct path to our destination in Maine and come across a solitary finback whale and a group of humpbacks.  I thought the whales looked big from the 150 foot commercial tour boat, but they look REALLY BIG when they are within 50 feet on your 44 foot sailboat.   

Look carefully and you can see three whales - a mother and baby being followed by a third

The tail flips are particularly exciting

Other than a surprisingly large group of fishing boats at one location well north of the Banks, we encounter nothing else unusual on the way north. On our return trip south, though, we pass closer by the same group of fishing boats that have congregated near a sea mount coming up from the deep ocean waters.  When we arrive there at dusk, we see masses of sea birds and another collection of whales on the hunt.  At times they swim directly at our boat and dive at the last minute. The naturalist on the commercial tour suggested keeping the motor going at all times on small boats to let the whales know your location, and now that suggestion makes all the sense in the world. This mount attracts fish of all sizes, and later we find out that the fishing boats are looking for blue fin tuna, a prize catch here on the east coast.

So we pull into Rockland, Maine mid day. Rockland isn’t one of our favorite places, but we stay here for five days repairing the flooring under the aft head which we discover, while underway, has rotted out from moisture.  Rockland has the supplies we need, and the weather has turned cold and rainy, so we aren’t missing out on anything special. With the head sitting out on the back deck, we certainly don’t look up to Bristol standards!  Between chores, we partake of the annual Rockland Lobsterfest with friends one evening and spend part of another day touring the Farnsworth Gallery, a repository of many works of the Wyeth family.  It doesn’t take long in Maine to understand the inspiration behind these famous works of art – the paintings are a perfect reflection of the natural environment of Maine.

With repairs completed, it is time to play in Maine.  We travel to many of our favorite places – Camden, Castine, Stonington, Acadia National Park – and try a few new stops including the Wooden Boat School and Roque Island, far up the “Lonely” coast, near the New Brunswick boarder.  Rather than writing up a day by day tour, I am going to try something different and do more of a photo essay from the over 1000 beautiful pictures that Burt has taken.  Maine is supremely picturesque, and it seems like an appropriate tribute to all this visual beauty.

The vistas in Maine are stunning. Sometimes shrouded in fog, sometimes aglow in brilliant sunlight, they are breathtaking. At sea level, you look up to the high hills/ mountains in Acadia and behind Camden.  From the tops of these vantage points, the views extend across the waters dotted with rocky islands.

The Bubbles loom high over Jordon Pond in Acadia National Park

Looking down on Camden Harbor from Mount Battie

Jordon Pond from the Carriage Trail

The view from the Amphitheater Carriage  Trail - Long Pond and the open ocean in the distance

The beach at Roque Island at low tide - beaches in Maine are very rare

The view over Frenchman's Bay from the Around the Mountain Carriage Trail

Somes Sound, the only geologically true fjord on the East Coast - from the Around the Mountain Carriage Trail

Lunch on the lawn overlooking Jordon Pond

Sunset at Roque Island

Water is the common denominator in Maine.  We gaze across oceans, bays, inland lakes, and waterfalls. The constant presence of water can transform the everyday into something more visually interesting.

The crystal clear waters of Jondon Pond - the source of drinking water for all the communities around Acadia

The mill stream cascades under buildings at Camden - my favorite place for morning coffee is marked by the blue umbrellas

Lilypads at Duck Pond in Acadia

Grasses reflected in the waters of Jordon Pond

Waterfalls near the Duckbrook bridge in Acadia

With such a rocky and intricate coast line, lighthouses are everywhere, perched on projections into the ocean and welcoming sailors to protected harbors.  Despite ease of navigation these days with very accurate electronic charting, the lighthouses are all still operational and provide additional assurances where just one mistake can have drastic consequences. 

Along the rocky shores of Eggemoggin Reach

Marking the entrance to Frenchman's Bay and the town of Bar Harbor

The lonely lighthouse at Petit Manan Island on the way to Roque Island

Mistake Island, just south of Roque Island

Just south of Mount Desert Island- you can see the mountains of Acadia in the distance

Owl's Head light, just south of Rockland

The coastline of Maine is built from a variety of rocks.  Cliffs abound, passage ways are rimmed in stone, and vegetation has difficulty getting a foothold on the steep hills.  The glaciers had a field day shaping this environment.

Barren island just south of Roque Island with a solitary home

Rocky shore along the Eggemoggin Reach

Shoreline along the Ocean Cliffs hike - Acadia

Breakers striking the shore along the Ocean Cliffs hike

Large rock fall along the Jordon Pond Carriage Trail

Rocky passage along the Roque Island Thorofare

Shoreline of Smith Cove near Castine

Sand Beach in Acadia abruptly ends in rocky clliffs

The shoreline along our "Downeast" passage to Roque Island

Harbors give refuge at night.  Sometimes they are packed with moorings, but other times they provide solitude.

Camden's inner harbor from the grounds of the library

View of Northeast Harbor from the hiking trail up to the Thylia Gardens

The anchorage between Camp and Hell's Half Acre islands - a short dinghy ride from Stonington

Sunset from the above anchorage

Sunset at a placid outer harbor at Camden

Maine is all about boats.  With the pleasant days of summer, they are underway in abundance, and they come in all sizes and shapes.  We position ourselves in Camden harbor to see the conclusion of a feeder for the Eggemoggin Reach race, the premier event for wooden boats in Maine.  If you happen to want a newly built wooden boat, many of which are formidable racers, you would have one built at the Brooklin Boat Yard; if you want to build one yourself, just head about a mile further east to the Wooden Boat School where master shipwrights give classes. 

A sense of scale - just outside Southwest Harbor a boat under spinnaker (similar in size to ours) encounter something a bit larger

The same boat anchored off Little Cranberry Island with Acadia in the background

Wooden boats in Camden Harbor

Camden beauty

Camden again - the beautiful wheel on the dark hulled boat is a trademark of the Brooklin Boat Yard

At the dock at Wayfarer Marina, Camden

Big classic boats in the outer harbor at Camden

A Concordia Yawl at Camden

A Friendship Sloop, the original Maine lobstering boat, against the backdrop of Acadia

Another Friendship Sloop near the Cranberries - many of these boats are over 100 years old

A schooner anchors under sail near Camp Island

Small boats at anchor off the Wooden Boat School

A class underway at the Wooden Boat School

Vela under sail - one of the Wooden Boat School's boats

The State of Maine, the training ship for the Maine Maritime Academy in Castine - we were able to take a tour of her

Downeast Maine is synonymous with lobsters. Other than tourism, lobstering anchors the economy.  Generations have fished these waters, and young people who have no interest in lobstering need to leave the area to find gainful employment. If you have any interest in the biology of lobsters or their social impact, two books we have recently read tell it all and are highly recommended – The Secret Life of Lobsters and The Lobster Gangs of Maine. And for those who love to eat lobsters, they come pretty cheap if you deal directly with the lobstermen.  A friend offered $30 and an empty bucket to a lobster boat they were passing and ended up with six good sized lobsters!

Beware - lobster pots are everywhere waiting to ensnare your prop

The lobster cooperative at Stonington

The commercial dock at Little Cranberry Island

A lobster boat picking up pots

Unpacking the goodies at Stonington - it is not unusual to see women working on board although it is very strenuous work

Sorting and packing lobsters at Stonington

Buildings come in all shapes and sizes – from wind blown cottages along a rocky coast to palatial homes of wealth summer visitors.  Most are crafted from cedar shakes, but we see some interesting architectural details indicative of the woodworking tradition of Maine.

A summer home along the shores of Eggemoggin Reach with Acadia in the background

A view from the gracious library at Camden - much of the stacks area is underground in the lawn seen above, done to maintain the architectural integrity of the building

Another home along the Eggemoggin Reach

An interesting home at North Haven, design to suggest to prow of a boat

Steeple on a church in Castine

One of the high points of our visit to Maine is bicycling the carriage paths of Acadia National Park.  The fifty some miles of paths cross a number of architecturally designed stone bridges, none of which are the same.  They are intended to compliment and enhance the natural surroundings.  All are a generous gift to the American people from the Rockefeller family – a true national treasure.  

The bridge at Duckbrook

 

Bridge along the Jordon Pond Carriage Trail

 

Bridge near the amphitheater

Small bridge near Jordon Pond House

The waterfall bridge

Summer is short in Maine and so is the growing season.  People make the most of these brief months by planting flowers, and by August gardens are a riot of color. It seems that everything blooms simultaneously.  

Flowers in a garden at Stonington

 

the Amphitheater garden in Camden

 

A flower bedecked bridge over the mill creek in Camden

  

Thylia Gardens near Northeast Harbor

More flowers from Thylia

The moss garden at Thylia

Overview of Thylia Gardens

More gardens from Stonington

So now we make a quick dash back to Rhode Island, leaving what are my favorite cruising grounds of the year.  And why are we in such a hurry to leave when the weather is at its peak?  One word – Isabella.  Born August 16, 2014 to son Bryan and daughter-in-law Beth Preston in Charlestown, Rhode Island, she is the first girl to be brought into the Preston family since 1953!