Marvelous Maine 2015 – Saying Goodbye

It is time for us to begin the trip south, but we intend to dawdle along the way.  Twelve miles due south of Northeast Harbor lies Long Island and the little village of Frenchboro.   

The weather vane welcomes us to Frenchboro

And the church at the top of the harbor which sports the weather vane

The (definitive) Taft Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast rates the many harbors and anchorages in the state on a one to five star basis.  Of the hundreds of listings, there are probably only a dozen five star destinations in the guide, and this is one of them.  It is remote, and the anchorage is not suitable in all weather conditions, but we have picked a spectacular day to head there.  There are only a few rental moorings in the outer harbor, and we are fortunate to score one.  We hop into the dinghy and head to shore.  About 80% of the island is conservation land and the remainder hosts homes for a few seasonal visitors and a small community of around 70 full time residents comprised of fishermen and their families.   

The village surrounds the harbor which partially dries at low tide - after all, we're in a region of 12 foot tides.

After visiting a small museum where we pick up a trail map, we begin a long hike to the south shore of the island. The beautifully maintained trails wind through dense pine woods where the moss on the rocks is so thick and spongy you can’t feel the hard surfaces below.   

The moss covered forest floor almost seems like a fairy land - enchanting!

A close up of a rock thickly frosted with moss.

Upon reaching Big Bay, we find a beach of large, smooth cobblestones as far as the eye can see. 

A vview from afar of the cobble beach.

Climbing the cobbles is a bit treacherous since they roll against each other as we ascend the piles.   

And the shoreline up close   - the cobble are between one to three feet in diameter

Butterflies alight a thistle along the trail

The hike continues further, alternating between forest paths and trails along the shoreline of Deep Bay.   

Deep Bay with more bays for exploring in the distance

We finally come upon an unmaintained service road that eventually leads back to the village.  We have been hiking for hours and never heard or saw another person – the only sounds are the waves breaking along the shore and the birds overhead. Back in the village, it is time to stop for an early supper at the Lundt Lobster pound.  If you order a lobster dinner, the owner grabs a big pot, heads down to the lobster pound/dock, fills the pot with water from the harbor, and grabs the unfortunate lobster, kicking and screaming, from the pound beneath the dock.  Fifteen minutes later, you have a lobster dinner set in front of you on the deck overlooking the harbor.  It just doesn’t get much fresher than that!  And as an added bonus, overhead, a bald eagle is being chased by several gulls.  

Burt enjoys his lobster with the mountains of Acadia is the far distance

 Frenchboro is a very special place, and we will return again when possible.

Our next destination is Burnt Coat Harbor on the south shore of Swan Island.  Again, this is a remote and quiet fishing village.  There are rental moorings available but not much infrastructure on shore besides private houses and lobster wharfs. 

One of several lobster wharfs at Burnt Coat Harbor

We explore the harbor by dinghy and come upon a ledge drying out in the low tide where seals are sunning themselves. They don’t seem frightened by the dinghy, so we can get quite close to say hello and snap a few pictures.   

Just another great day to chill out if you are a seal

Across the harbor is an outlet on one wharf the guide book says sells scallops. We head over there and fortunately find the owner’s wife.  Scallops are not in season, but they have some frozen and would be willing to sell them to us. Drooling, Burt orders two pounds at a remarkably cheap price.  Only problem is that they are frozen in one pound bags, so that night Burt “agrees” to consume an entire pound in one sitting – they are some of the best scallops he has ever eaten.

Moving on the next day, we return to Carver’s Harbor on the south side of Vinalhaven Island where we had stopped a few weeks earlier.  In a harbor of over 100 lobster boats, there are only three rental moorings and definitely no room for anchoring.  We grab an available mooring and watch as the two boats behind us take the remaining moorings – timing is everything!  As we sit on the boat, we observe a semi-truck being loaded with pallets of lobster crates,  A few calculations later, we figure the semi, now being driven onto a ferry, is containing somewhere around 10,000 lobsters. Trucks like this are loaded on to the ferry more than once a day. This is serious lobster territory! 

One of the lobster wharfs in  Vinalhaven

 

And the many boats that call this place home

And it is here at Vinalhaven we say goodbye to Maine.  The next morning, once we have sufficient light to see the many pots in the water, we point the boat south to Cape Cod.  The water is glassy as we motor offshore in the company of harbor porpoises, various birds, and an encounter with two of the supposedly rare sunfish.  Twenty four hours and 143 miles later, we arrive in Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod.  We spend two days here recuperating from the voyage and enjoying this lively town.  It is Carnival Week with all the “unusual” that you can imagine.  (Burt was sad to have to pass up an evening at Drag Queen Bingo and the Carnival Parade the next afternoon!?!) But we escape the crowds with a bike ride out to the National Seashore.  The beautiful bike trail winds through beech forests and over the huge dunes that comprise this end of the Cape.   

A view from the paved bike trail that winds through the dunes

We take a wade in the water at Race Point and then ride back to the concession on the beach, closer to town, for a late lunch overlooking the water. 

The restored lifesaving station at Race Point, Cape Cod National Seashore

It takes us two days to make the passage through the Cape Cod Canal and on to Newport as the currents are not timed to our liking.  After heading down Buzzard’s Bay with wind on the nose, we pull into Cuttyhunk Island at dusk for the night.  The next morning dawns with a thick fog, and we pick our way out into the Bay and through the congested commercial traffic lanes. Eyes are glued on the radar and AIS, and the fog horn is blaring as we cross paths with large boats that only become faintly visible in less than a tenth of a mile.  Relaxing?  Not really.  The fog lifts as we approach Narragansett Bay, the wind comes up, and we have a great sail into Newport, a mecca for all things nautical.  Newport can be great fun, but this time our only goal is to reprovision, do laundry, and rent a car for a day so that we may have one last visit with Bryan and his family.  Isabella celebrated her first birthday a week earlier, but we want to want to help assemble our gift to her and see how she manages this slide/treehouse combination.  While it won’t be a permanent fixture in their living room, we get it put together (too buggy to do so outside) and watch as she explores the structure and eventually learns to climb the stairs and descend the slide.   

Isabella concentrates on refining her sliding technique

Our cruising life is wonderful, but the downside is missing so many of the special moments in our grandchildren’s lives.

After returning the car well after dark, we leave at first light the next morning for the Chesapeake.  There have been very few opportunities to head south as the southwest winds have been relentless.  But, this is one of those rare times we see north component winds.  We head directly from the mouth of Narragansett Bay, along the south shore of Long Island, to Cape May at the entrance to Delaware Bay.  At times we are 60 miles offshore.  We only encounter commercial traffic when crossing the traffic lanes to New York City.  At one point a decent northwest wind kicks in, and we have a great reaching sail at speeds closing in on 8 knots for around six hours.   Otherwise, it is an easy motorsail.  We reach Cape May earlier than expected and head into the harbor to wait a few hours until the currents change in Delaware Bay.  At sunset, we fire up the diesel and head back out, covering the length of Delaware Bay during the night hours.  The Delaware is one of the most boring passages we make all year, so doing so in the dark eases some of the pain.  And this time, we are only passed by three commercial vessels during the entire trip – a new record for us.  We enter the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal at daybreak 

A quiet morning on the C&D Canal

and two hours later we are in the Chesapeake. Another 40 miles due south lies our destination, Annapolis.  The trip has taken us 53 hours, and we have covered 355 nautical miles.

The Pride of Baltimore with the Bay Bridge in the background, welcomes us to the Chesapeake.

We will spend a week in Annapolis on a mooring ball near the Naval Academy. With the exception of the weekend, it is quiet here as it is late enough in the season that tourists are not overrunning the place.  We have dinner with some of our cruising friends who are also in the area and bike or walk the historic streets. For example, a bike trip to the grocery store entails starting just outside the Naval Academy, riding past Revolutionary War era row houses, past two of the mansions owned by signers of the Declaration of Independence, past the State Capital Building, and across a creek where the Naval Cadets often practice rowing. We get numerous errands accomplished, Burt recoats some exterior varnish, and we begin to prepare the boat and ourselves for what comes next. We will move about 15 miles further south to Hartge Yacht Harbor, where our mast will be removed and the boat hauled into a large, climate-controlled painting building for the three to four weeks it takes to awlgrip (repaint) the hull.  We estimate the current surface to be about 15 years old, and the paint is beginning to fail.  Come October we will be beautiful and shiny again.  Meanwhile, we will stay in a cottage on the grounds of the yard for the duration, with the exception of a week trip to Ohio and Wisconsin to visit family.  In the four plus years that we have been living aboard Exuberant, this will be by far the longest time we have spent ashore.  We wonder how we will sleep without some rocking at night!

Marvelous Maine 2015 – Acadia National Park

Northeast Harbor in Acadia National Park is my favorite destination of the year.  Not only do we have great access to the park with frequently scheduled free shuttle buses, it is also on the quiet side of the park, allowing us to be removed from the hoards who visit Acadia, the second busiest National Park in the system. Upon arrival we are assigned a floating dock that is anchored at both ends to the sea floor.  The dock allows a boat to tie up on either long side, and as an additional benefit, ours has a water outlet.  We use this opportunity to wash the cockpit, deck, and topsides with fresh water – we haven’t been at a dock with water since early May.

The view over Northeast Harbor

Our first excursion is to the nearby Thuya Gardens.  We take the dinghy across the harbor to a dock

One of the gems we often see at the docks, probably homemade - what else would you do in Maine in the winter?

and proceed to hike up a steep trail to the top of the cliffs and the location of the gardens.  We stop here every year, but this year we believe the gardens are at their most spectacular.  In Maine the growing season is short.  Thus, if your timing is right, all the flowers will be in bloom simultaneously – there is no early, middle, or late season. And we have struck the jackpot.  Burt is a madman, taking over 400 pictures of the gardens and individual flowers.  I will spare readers the complete photo tour, but here are a few of our favorites. 

A portion of the perennial/annual formal garden

Besides the formal gardens, there are surrounding niche gardens including a Japanese meditation garden, a butterfly garden, and a small garden composed of various varieties of mosses placed artistically among the rocks.

Our time in the park will be extra special this year as son Bryan and his family will be joining us for a long weekend. It is well after midnight when they arrive and try to phone us to tell us they are awaiting us in the parking lot.  Only problem is that cell service is sporadic and our boat is surrounded by high hills.  The call doesn’t come through, and our only hint they have arrived is a text message sent prior to entering the park and headlights on a car in the parking lot.  Burt heads off in the dinghy to rescue our guests from a cool, foggy night.  Everyone get tucked into bed, tired but happy to have arrived.

We have limited time with the kids so we must pick out a few highlights for their “park experience”.  The first day we pile Isabella into a backpack and head out to the Otter Cliffs hike.  

Dad doesn't look tired yet, but just wait!

We hop the shuttle bus for a quick drive through of Bar Harbor and then on to the trail head.  This is a lovely hike starting at a sand beach and heading along the cliffs that guard the southeastern shoreline of Mount Dessert Island.  

An interesting cobble beach tucked along the cliffs

 

A view back towards our starting point

It is a beautiful day so the crowds are out, but once you get away from the trail heads, it isn’t too bad.  After a several hour hike, we hop back on the shuttle bus to the Jordon Pond House.  We have late lunch reservations for a table on the grassy lawn that overlooks Jordon Pond.  With the mineral rich blue water and mountainous shoreline, you might think you are in the Rockies.  We enjoy a lunch that includes the historically famous Jordon House popovers while Isabella is just happy to be able to crawl and practice her walking on the lawn.

Practicing right in front of our restaurant table

The next day, we rent bikes for our guests and cart them to Jordon Pond on the shuttle.  We plan to tackle the challenging “Around the Mountain” carriage trail which I think would be better named the “Over the Mountain” trail.  Isabella gets antsy in her bike seat with an uncomfortable helmet on, so we take frequent stops to give her a break while we enjoy the scenery.  At least, that’s my excuse for all the stops along a 12 mile ride that goes almost to the top of one of the park’s highest mountains. And it is here that Isabella really begins to walk independently.  With an entire hoard of cute twenty-something girls watching, she has an audience that cheers on every step even though every step is taken barefoot on a gravel path.  It has to be painful but her pride conquers all.   

Moments later she let go of Beth's hand and took off on her own to the applause of her audience.

What a joyous occasion for us to witness the “first steps” in person when we are usually so far away. But I digress.  Our ride takes us to spectacular overviews of the park, along woods with waterfalls, and over some of the historic carriage trail bridges.   

One of the many Carriage Trail bridges built and donated to the park by the Rockefeller family.

We enjoy a picnic lunch overlooking Somes Sound, the only geologically true fjord along the Atlantic seaboard, as wild blueberries grow at our feet, waiting to be picked for dessert. 

Our lunch stop with the view of Somes Sound below

We conclude the ride back at Jordon Pond, exhausted but pleased we were able to experience the park in the solitude of a trail that few ever attempt to challenge; crowds are not an issue on the “Around/Over the Mountain” trail.

The following morning everyone gets going early.  Bryan wants to get through Boston before the afternoon rush hour, but there is still enough time to head up Cadillac Mountain, the highest peak in the park, for a quick look/see.  We all pile into the car and take the steep access road to the summit.  It is a treat for us as there is no shuttle to the top, so without a car, it is inaccessible to us unless we are up for some serious climbing. The day is perfect and the vistas are outstanding.  To the west, we can see Somes Sound, to the east we look down on Bar Harbor, and to the south we see the rocky Mount Dessert shoreline with the many outer islands of Downeast Maine in the distance. 

The view south - the concrete walking path along the summit protects the sub-alpine vegetation found here above the tree line.

It is a fitting conclusion to our family’s visit to the park.  We are dropped off at the bottom of the access road where we pick up the shuttle back to Northeast Harbor and where the kids begin their long drive back to Rhode Island.  It has been a wonderful few days sharing this remarkable place with our family.

We spend a few more days in the park, biking along the carriage roads, a pastime of which we never tire,

The view from a bike path looking up Eagle Lake and the mountains near Jordon Pond.

and stopping by Bar Harbor on an otherwise foggy day.   

A boat anchored off Bar Harbor as the fog rolls in

The Park is the highpoint of our summer cruise, but it is also the point where we begin to think about turning south.  At the higher elevations we start to see the Aspen trees turning yellow, telling us September can’t be all that far away.

Marvelous Maine 2015 – Penobscot Bay and Eastwards

Our stop at Camden gives us our first taste of civilization in Maine.  Camden is a favorite destination with its scenic harbor surrounded by the high Camden Hills, visible from miles away.   

Charming Camden Harbor

Upon arrival I head in to do laundry while Burt takes a hike up Mount Battie where he is rewarded with a stupendous view over Camden and surrounding waters. 

The view of  Camden Harbor from Mt. Battie

And treasurers found on the way up

That evening we are joined by Polly and Denny Davis, friends from Mansfield who have a summer cottage nearby.  We have promised them a dinghy tour of the harbor to witness the arrival of the boats participating in the feeder race for the Eggemoggin Reach Race.  We time our visit to Camden each year for this event as it brings in a wonderful collection of wooden boats, each more beautiful than the next.  The problem is, there isn’t much wind, so when our guests arrive there are only a few boats that have made it to the finish. But in addition to the racing sailboats, there are a number of larger traditional yachts accompanying the racers and providing more luxurious accommodations. 

Cangardia and Whitehawk at anchor in Camden.  Both of these beautiful boats are completed projects of the International School of Yacht Restoration in Newport.

The fog thickens as the afternoon wears on, and it is well past sunset when the last racers arrive. The next morning dawns sunny, and we enjoy a breakfast at a local deli that sits atop a mill stream and waterfalls emptying into the harbor.  The harbor is gleaming with varnished wood as we stroll along the docks admiring this amazing gathering of boats. 

Three beauties along the docks - Juno belongs to George Soros.

More eye candy.

It is a quick trip across Penobscot Bay to Isleboro Island and protected Gilkey Harbor. 

We are greeted by a fleet of Dark Harbor 20's having a race in the harbor.  These boats were designed specifically for the yacht club here in Gilkey Harbor.

We are attending the SSCA Downeast Gam held for the past twenty-five years at the home of Dick and Kathy deGrasse.  This will be their last year to host the Gam as they are passing the mantle on to other volunteers.  Come evening, the festivities begin with a dinghy raft up/happy hour in the middle of the harbor. The next day we all congregate at the deGrasse’s for a potluck lunch, sea shanties by a musician from Mystic Seaport, and a talk from the skipper and admiral of Angel Louise who just returned to the States after a four year circumnavigation of Europe. How did they circumnavigate Europe? They started in London, traveled canals and rivers from the Netherlands to the Black Sea, and returned to London via the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean. They very well may be the first cruising boat to complete such a passage.

We return to our boat for what should be a peaceful night, but the weather gods think otherwise.  Suddenly, very dark clouds descend upon us, passing right overhead. 

Storm clouds advance

The boat swings violently, and looking up we see three nascent waterspouts.   

Water spout forming right in front of our boat

With over sixty boats anchored in the harbor, this is not a good thing.  But, the clouds pass over us, rapidly heading northeast, and we see only a short shower and winds around 30 knots.  

Sunset after the storm

The Blue Moon rises over one of the mansions at Gilkey Harbor

The next day we hear about the carnage to our north.  About five miles further up island, trees have been uprooted and electricity is out.  The winds were clocked at over 60 knots. And another five miles further, in the town of Castine on the mainland, straight line winds reached hurricane strength and streets are impassable due to fallen trees. The next day we take a bus trip through Isleboro, witnessing the storm damage, and seeing the many mansions that dot the shoreline. Kristie Alley and John Travolta are two of the “rich and famous” who have summer homes here. 

View from the lighthouse on Isleboro looking towards the Camden Hills

We depart the next morning for a spirited sail around Isleboro Island and on to Castine. Burt and I just finished the book The Fort by Bernard Cornwell which chronicles the Penobscot Expedition, the first naval battle of the Revolutionary War and one of the United States’ worst naval disasters, compliments, in good part, to Paul Revere who was court marshaled afterwards.  It all took place at Castine and in surrounding waters. We hike from the British held fort along the ridge where the land battles occurred, and glanced over the waters where eighteenth century naval ships stood their ground. 

Hiking along the ridge where the land battle occurred

The hike concludes at Dice Head Light where American troops ascended the steep cliffs to encounter the British. 

The lighthouse at Dice Head

Besides an interesting walk through history, we are treated to beautiful vistas over the Bay and nearby coves.  Late afternoon, another fog bank rolls into our serene anchorage in Smith Bay, just across the river from Castine proper.

Fog rolls in at our anchorage in Castine

  

In the morning we still have spotty fog, but we head out into Penobscot Bay anyway – our skills at navigating in fog have definitely been sharpened by these experiences.  Along the coast we encounter one of the Camden Schooners underway. It is a thrilling sight to see these boats, some over 100 years old, under sail. 

One of the schooners based in Camden

Many sport more modern accommodations below decks and take guest on week long adventures in these waters. We depart Penobscot Bay eastward and head into the scenic Eggemoggin Reach which separates Deer Island from the mainland. We intend to stop at Centre Harbor to explore the Brooklin Boatyard, builders of many of the Spirit of Tradition wooden boats we see in New England, but the harbor is packed tight with moorings, all of which are occupied due to the unsettled weather we have been experiencing.  Instead, we go about five miles further to Swan’s Island and Mackerel Cove. Although packed with lobster pots, there are few boats competing for anchoring room, and we have a spectacular view of the mountains of Acadia in the distance.    

A small schooner anchored near us

The fog begins to roll in at Mackerel Cove

The fog rolls in at nightfall, but we have a comfortable evening listening to the gulls, osprey, and loons. In the morning we pick our way through the pots and head north to our favorite destination of the summer season, Acadia National Park. 

Fisherman at work as we leave Mackerel Cove

Our nemesis as we head to Arcadia