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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| The bike trail in the Cape Cod National Seashore |
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| 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.
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| Look carefully and you can see three whales - a mother and baby being followed by a third |
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| 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.
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| The Bubbles loom high over Jordon Pond in Acadia National Park |
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| Looking down on Camden Harbor from Mount Battie |
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| Jordon Pond from the Carriage Trail |
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| The view from the Amphitheater Carriage Trail - Long Pond and the open ocean in the distance |
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| The beach at Roque Island at low tide - beaches in Maine are very rare |
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| The view over Frenchman's Bay from the Around the Mountain Carriage Trail |
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| Somes Sound, the only geologically true fjord on the East Coast - from the Around the Mountain Carriage Trail |
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| Lunch on the lawn overlooking Jordon Pond |
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| 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.
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| The crystal clear waters of Jondon Pond - the source of drinking water for all the communities around Acadia |
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| The mill stream cascades under buildings at Camden - my favorite place for morning coffee is marked by the blue umbrellas |
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| Lilypads at Duck Pond in Acadia |
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| Grasses reflected in the waters of Jordon Pond |
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| 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.
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| Along the rocky shores of Eggemoggin Reach |
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| Marking the entrance to Frenchman's Bay and the town of Bar Harbor |
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| The lonely lighthouse at Petit Manan Island on the way to Roque Island |
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| Mistake Island, just south of Roque Island |
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| Just south of Mount Desert Island- you can see the mountains of Acadia in the distance |
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| 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.
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| Barren island just south of Roque Island with a solitary home |
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| Rocky shore along the Eggemoggin Reach |
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| Shoreline along the Ocean Cliffs hike - Acadia |
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| Breakers striking the shore along the Ocean Cliffs hike |
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| Large rock fall along the Jordon Pond Carriage Trail |
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| Rocky passage along the Roque Island Thorofare |
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| Shoreline of Smith Cove near Castine |
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| Sand Beach in Acadia abruptly ends in rocky clliffs |
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| 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.
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| Camden's inner harbor from the grounds of the library |
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| View of Northeast Harbor from the hiking trail up to the Thylia Gardens |
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| The anchorage between Camp and Hell's Half Acre islands - a short dinghy ride from Stonington |
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| Sunset from the above anchorage |
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| 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.
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| A sense of scale - just outside Southwest Harbor a boat under spinnaker (similar in size to ours) encounter something a bit larger |
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| The same boat anchored off Little Cranberry Island with Acadia in the background |
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| Wooden boats in Camden Harbor |
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| Camden beauty |
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| Camden again - the beautiful wheel on the dark hulled boat is a trademark of the Brooklin Boat Yard |
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| At the dock at Wayfarer Marina, Camden |
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| Big classic boats in the outer harbor at Camden |
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| A Concordia Yawl at Camden |
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| A Friendship Sloop, the original Maine lobstering boat, against the backdrop of Acadia |
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| Another Friendship Sloop near the Cranberries - many of these boats are over 100 years old |
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| A schooner anchors under sail near Camp Island |
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| Small boats at anchor off the Wooden Boat School |
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| A class underway at the Wooden Boat School |
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| Vela under sail - one of the Wooden Boat School's boats |
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| 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!
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| Beware - lobster pots are everywhere waiting to ensnare your prop |
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| The lobster cooperative at Stonington |
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| The commercial dock at Little Cranberry Island |
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| A lobster boat picking up pots |
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| Unpacking the goodies at Stonington - it is not unusual to see women working on board although it is very strenuous work |
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| 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.
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| A summer home along the shores of Eggemoggin Reach with Acadia in the background |
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| 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 |
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| Another home along the Eggemoggin Reach |
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| An interesting home at North Haven, design to suggest to prow of a boat |
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| 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.
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| The bridge at Duckbrook |
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| Bridge along the Jordon Pond Carriage Trail |
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| Bridge near the amphitheater |
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| Small bridge near Jordon Pond House |
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| 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.
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| Flowers in a garden at Stonington |
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| the Amphitheater garden in Camden |
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| A flower bedecked bridge over the mill creek in Camden |
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| Thylia Gardens near Northeast Harbor |
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| More flowers from Thylia |
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| The moss garden at Thylia |
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| Overview of Thylia Gardens |
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| 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!
