Turning South

We arrived in Acadia Nation Park on Mount Desert, ME on Wed Aug 14th and this is where we intend to stay a while before turning south. The approach from Frenchboro is unfortunately really foggy and we are glad to have radar working among these small islands. We encounter a lot of boat traffic as we approach Southwest Harbor as lots of boats appear to be heading out. We have a little better visibility as we enter Somes Sound, the only fjord in the continuous USA and very impressive it is too. There are huge steep walls arising right from the edge of the sound and the water is over a hundred feet deep in places. Not quite as impressive as Alaska and Scandinavia but unique in these parts.

Somesville mill pond

Somesville bridge

The local village is called Somesville after its founder, it was once the center for the area with water mills cutting wood and grinding flour as well as a nearby quarry. We toured the library the small museum and a local art gallery. They were all very interesting and we enjoyed the quiet walk and peaceful surrounding but lamented the traffic which pours past here. We returned to Moosetracks and found Unicorn was in the harbor, a Swedish couple we had met at the SSCA GAM, we said hello and they invited us over for sundowners.

Ahh nice couple

The Park has a great free bus service that runs all over the island and centers around Bar Harbor. So our first trip was there as it is a bit of a pilgrimage for Liz as this is where several of her Moose themed tee-shirts are from. We found the first bus and were in Bar harbor around 10am. The “Cool as a Moose” store was just around the corner as we got out of the park visitor center. Liz spent a good time saying hello to all the Moose who are there awaiting new homes, they almost started a party for her but realized they need to be on their best behavior. Liz shopped as only she can, try on everything with a moose on it! So we came away with 3 tee-shirts for her birthday in a few weeks. The rest of the morning we walked the high street and shops again admiring the plethora of moose trinkets. We finished the morning with a walk of the Bar at Bar Harbor to the adjoining island. The tide was well out and we had plenty of time. We returned to a lovely lunch on the high street in downtown to people watch for a while.

Liz's favorite store

Their logo

Moose awaiting a new home

The next day we had a few bus rides to the lighthouse at Bass Harbor and walked down to the lighthouse and rocks below. A lovely spot with great views but unfortunately the lighthouse is now someone's home so you cannot tour it. After this we walked into Bass Harbor and on the way Liz found some blackberry bushes and stopped for several minutes while we picked some. We also spotted our only deer on the island while approaching the village. At the harbor we met some artists painting the scenery. When Liz was talking to one particular lady she mentioned our cruise and the Lady says “oh I live on Elbow Key in the Abaco’s”. It turns out she was watching Oliver and Cici’s wedding on the beach as her daughter friend was to be married their this year too. Again what a small world this is! We caught the bus back to Southwest harbor and had a picnic on the sea front by the coast guard station. After that we walked around town and visited antique stores and chandleries as well as a grocery store. Later that night we had Hakan and Anna over for sundowners & blackberry pie on Moosetracks and bid them farewell as they were leaving tomorrow.

Somes Sound

Well it is a national park after all so we decided to walk some trials, Devin let Liz choose and guess what.... she chose the highest and longest! So we caught the bus to the nearest point on the Cadillac Mountain North Ridge trail. It was a fabulous walk up the ridge in the morning and an easier rise than we expected. The height gain is only around 1,400 feet so much easier than the Munroe’s we were used to in Scotland. The views all the way up, at the top and going down were fabulous. We took the South Ridge path down as we had no car and could use the bus to return to Bar Harbor. The total trail was around 12 miles so it was a pretty vigorous day so we decided to stop a while in Bar Harbor and have ice cream before returning to Moosetracks.

Bar Harbor from N ridge

The South ridge

Our Mountain Guide

The park was a great deal of fun and we felt we could stay longer only a weather window had opened and we could get some North winds to take us SW so we decided to make the jump. We headed out to sea from Mount Desert in the SW winds which blow consistently around this time of year. The shift was due early evening so we kept close hauled to the wind all day. Unfortunately the shift didn’t arrive until near midnight and that was 6 hours of close hauled sailing and 40 degrees more to sea than we wanted. So each time we were contemplating tacking we got little shifts and made a nice arc in our course as we came around to a westward heading over several hours. Well all this meant we missed the Isles of Shoal as we couldn’t head far enough west. Ahh well we did make Cape Cod and Province town with a lot less motoring. It is also nearly 200 miles south from where we were and therefore we had warmed up quite a bit too!

Somes Sound Fjord

Whales on the way south

Sunset arriving at Provincetown

Provincetown is on the vey tip of Cape Cod and is perhaps most famous for the first landing of the Mayflower pilgrim's. Indeed it was here all the men signed the Mayflower Compact the first self governing document in the USA. We enjoyed a nice walk along the causeway in the harbor to the beaches on the outer bank and then found a huge surprise. We didn’t know this was the nudist beach area! So we crossed over the back to avoid most of it and walked a mile to the car park and firm trails as opposed to crossing the marshes. After an unplanned much longer walk than intended we had a very late lunch and enjoyed some of Provincetown.

Walking the causeway

P-Town lighthouse

The next day was the Provincetown parade and carnival. Well for those that don’t know this is a very gay pride type event with some very revealing costumes and floats. We decided to go in early and tour the Pilgrims monument and museum first. The monument sits on the highest point in town and affords great views of the Cape it is build of Maine granite which was hand cut on site in 1907-10 and stands 252 feet high, the tallest all granite structure in the USA and modeled after the Torre Del Mangia tower in Siena, Italy. It was quite a hike up but easier as they had ramps not stairs a lot of the way. The museum was a lot larger than we thought too with many exhibits of local life and a local hero Donald MacMillan who was a great explorer of the Artic. After the museum we descended the hill to watch the carnival, I think the pictures tell you more than we can, it was a blast and very entertaining.

Pre-Acts



Cesars Palace



Circ de Solei



Contrasts?



Elvis is alive



Old show girls




Young show girls

Our Favorite



Next years theme - Comic strips



After P-Town we got great wind to beam reach across Cape Cod Bay at 6-7 knots to the Cape Cod Canal, we dropped sails once in the canal as it winds a lot and is pretty narrow for tacking. We rushed through again at over 9 knots due to the current. We turned off again at Onset to anchor for a few nights and explore the places we missed in our rush going north to Maine. The town is small but a shopping mall is only a 2 mile walk out from the dock. So we walked out to Wal-Mart and did a little shopping to top off groceries and also replace our now defunct backpack that the zippers had all corroded on. We stopped in town on the way back to check out the laundry for a run tomorrow as well. The following day we did the laundry and in the afternoon we chilled out. We waited for a good tide to leave Onset and therefore left after lunch but not before we took the opportunity to fill diesel and water and pump out as the diesel prices are good here.

So on Sunday afternoon we tacked in brisk winds down buzzards bay. Now this is pretty special too as we both learned our USPS navigation course on charts of Buzzards Bay and here we are sailing it! So we had a great sail into Hadley Harbor, surrounded by lots of private islands in the Elizabeth Island chain.  The owners have allowed you to use free moorings and the dinghy dock on Bull Island. So we choose to stop here but we found it still pretty full even after the weekenders had nearly all left and we dropped the hook in the outer harbor to give ourselves plenty of room and by morning we were the only boat there! We spent 2 nights here and visited Bull Island which is really very small and not much exercise but the weather was overcast and eventually turned into 3 inches of rain on Monday night into Tuesday. We were prepared to stay another night but it managed to clear enough for us to make slack tide at high water and leave through Woods Hole to Martha’s Vineyard. Woods Hole was much easier to navigate than folks had lead us to believe and it was extremely easy with this minor current running through it, I guess that USPS course paid off in spades!


Hadley Harbor

So here we are in Lake Tashmoo behind Vineyard Haven to explore Martha’s Vineyard and wait for a window to cross New York Bay into the Delaware river. We want to explore these island for a bit so the weather window is not a huge concern.

Swans in Tashmoo

Well summer is coming to a close for us and we are headed south, we hope you have had a good summer and are looking forward to fall as much as we are. We have a few events on the East coast and will be planning to do both remaining SSCA GAM’s so we hope we can meet lots of our friends along the way.

Summer in Maine

Our first stop from Booth Bay was Tenants harbor, a nice harbor and a good anchorage just outside which was very well protected and much more scenic. We took the long dinghy ride into town to visit the local store called Cods End which is pretty famous in these parts for selling lobster and fresh bread. We decided to look around town first and walked out to the new library which was literally just being finished and was absolutely fantastic. We enjoyed several local magazines and free internet and had a good look at their local artists exhibits. We then had lunch at a local restaurant and Devin had his first Lobster roll a must try dish in Maine. Then we walked off the lunch with a walk to the east side of town and the lobster boat docks. We attempted to by from the boats but they weren't back yet, one guy did steer us to the local store where his excess lobster are sold daily. We walked past on our way back and bought one large bug at $3.35/lb a good price. We then bought fresh bread at Cod’s End which looked delicious. That night we cooked the big bug and watched as indeed he turned bright red. Yum what a delight, very similar to the Bahamian lobster but very different to eat having to extract more meat from the claws and legs.

Tenants Harbor

 

Big Red Bug

From Tenants harbor we made our way to Cradle Cove on Islesboro to await the upcoming SSCA GAM. We arrived a couple of days early so we explored the island from Dark Harbor boatyard who were kind enough to let us use their docks to tie up to. It is a lovely island with private residences and some lovely pastures and woods to walk through.

 

Then came the GAM, we moved over early and visited or were visited by a few boats we have met on and off in the Bahamas or locally. At last we got a chance to meet Mary and Christian on s/v I Wanda, who we communicate with on the SSCA nominating committee. On Friday evening there was a dinghy raft up behind s/v Windpower in Broad Cove where everyone brought appetizers to share and we passed them from dinghy to dinghy. The weather stayed cloudy and the rain stayed off at least until all the appetizers were gone! On Saturday the rain started first thing so we all anxiously waited for a call on the radio and low and behold the weather radar showed it clearing up so we were on. We again had a pot luck lunch and truly it was fantastic with lots of very nice dishes and some stunning deserts. We enjoyed a few talks on the lawn of Dick and Kathy’s cottage which overlooks the cove. This is a great event and truly a local flair which made it very special for us.

 

Dinghy Raft Up at SSCA GAM

SSCA GAM Islesboro 2013

 

At the GAM Denis and Pam from s/v Glide played Santa and brought over all our packages that we had been ordering. It was great to get them but of course it means more work for us to fit things. We moved back to Cradle Cove on Sunday to join Denis and Pam along with 3 other couples for a spot of home making on their cottage. Pam and Denis have been building the cottage for 4 years and are getting along great but there is still plenty of things they wanted to do so we all pitched in to give them a hand. Devin shingled the remaining part of the porch that was behind the shed whilst Denis and Sid worked inside paneling the loft room. Later everyone was pitching in while we finished off the porch and then sat down to a great dinner prepared by the ladies. It is a lovely cottage in a great location and they are sure to have many very peaceful summers here.

 

Devin squeezed in at work

Denis & Pam's cottage

 

After work socializing

Getting ashore in Cradle Cove with Pam

 

 

After Cradle Cove we headed to Pulpit Harbor which is renowned for it’s great sunsets and some nice walks around the island of North haven. We were lucky enough to meet Jim and Joanne from s/v Heather who had also been at the GAM and we enjoyed drinks and snacks on each others boats as well as some nice walking around the island together. The sunset did live up to reputation as I hope the photo shows.

 

Pulpit Harbor sunset

Classic wood in Pulpit Harbort

 

Our next stop was Camden as we had the wrong cable for the radar and we needed to collect the correct one and return the wrong one. Denis and Pam agreed to meet us and ferry us around by car to get our errands done. It was a great help and again we are so grateful for all their help. We took a mooring for the first time as the harbor was really totally consumed by moorings. The town is a honeypot for tourists and probably a bit busy for us but we enjoyed the parks and the opportunity to window shop and visit a local pub.

 

Well it was time for a workday on Moosetracks, we had all the parts and needed a nice calm anchorage somewhere to get down to fitting everything. We choose Perry Creek as it is stunningly beautiful and very protected. The radar and chat plotter took all day to fit as removing cables and running new ones is never a trivial task. But it is all up and working so we are back in business again and just as well as fog is forecast again! The next day we deserved a rest and as it happened Jim and Joanne came into the creek as well as Rik & Linda on s/v Mystery from the GAM. We enjoyed evening company with them on Moosetracks. The following day we hiked a trail on Vinalhaven with Jim and Joanne to the highest point which gave us great views out over Penobscot bay, as well as picking fresh blueberries along the way.

 

Jim, Joanne, Liz & Devin at the peak of Vinalhaven

We have to put in a mention of the lovely house boat on Perry Creek, it featured in a show on extreme house boats and is apparently now all over the internet. We thought it was a delightful place in a truly awesome setting, we stopped and chatted to the owners who built it and tow it here each year. It is built on a 16’ x 40’ platform and the house is 12’ x 20’ with a large downstairs room and a loft. They keep lovely flowers around the porch and really make the place look like paradise.

 

Houseboat on Perry Creek

Our next stop was Merchant harbor which is in Merchant Row a large archipelago of beautiful islands. We saw several seals on the way there and pass one island which had a large group of seals basking on the sun heated granite boulders. The harbor was delightful and well sheltered for the S-W winds forecast so we had a very pleasant night.

 

Seals enjoying the sun heated granite

That brings us to where we are now, in Frenchboro on Long Island. It is a small fishing community which first started around 1800’s at around 19 people. It prospered for a quite a while on fishing and forestry so the population grew to 197 in 1910. The Main Coast Heritage Trust bought 1,000 acres of the island in 2000 for $3M and then was donated another large tract later and now has 70% of the island in it’s care. The island therefore has some great trails and good access for boaters. We were lucky and got a free mooring for a couple of nights as the government have not yet formally approved the moorings. The trials are a delight to walk and with local support from landowners they cover the total perimeter of the island for over 6 miles of trail, most of which we walked. We met a local school teacher on her walk and had a chat about the island. She told us the school had 6 children last year but in her 15 years was as low as 1 pupil. It seems that island living isn’t as easy as people think and the lobster industry although thriving is not enough to keep it thriving. The school teacher also told us her eldest is now going to have to go to the mainland for next year and that this meant they might have to leave Long Island for a while, a shame as this is what causes many to never return. It all tells the same story as the Island Institute talk did at the GAM, island life is under constant pressure and needs careful nurturing.

 

Frenchboro Harbor - high tide

 

Frrenchboro Yacht Club

Well we are off to our final destination before turning south again, Acadia National Park was the furthest point we intend to go on the Maine coast. After this we will start to head South and West before the cold weather can catch us, after all summer is very short up here!

 

There are a lot of lighthouses in Maine so here are a few we sailed past in GOOD weather.

 

 

 

 

 

We hope you all have lots more summer plans and a bit longer to enjoy them!

New England to Maine

We left Port Washington after our 2 free nights on the mooring and made a short stop also at the free town dock. We have got to say this place is a model for cruiser friendly and we felt we repaid their hospitality by shopping and eating out here, a fair trade indeed.

Our next stop was intended to be Port Jefferson but the wind gods were testing us. We got 15-20 with 25 knot gusts against us on the incoming tide. So our tacking angle was way over 100 degrees and that meant a lot more distance to cover and we couldn’t make it before dark. So we picked our back up stop of Northport Harbor and anchored in the lee of the wind in a calm bay for the night. The next morning we were up early and the wind had died so we motored into Port Jefferson. This is the antipathy of Port Washington, lots of moorings and not even a town dock for free. So we anchored out by the Sand Breakwater and walked the beach for the afternoon. We met a lovely couple on s/v Blue Dog, Shannon and Lee who are living aboard and working from the boat. This means they have kept pretty much to the US coast so we had to tell them about the Bahamas to whet their appetite and get them to consider the clear and warm waters next year. They were very keen to hear about the internet connection options so they can work there, so you never know?

Classic yacht at Port Jefferson

Our next stop was Groton where we had some SSCA friends to meet, Suzanne and David on s/v Sans Cles. We took a free mooring ball at the harbor entrance which was a bonus and used the SYC dinghy dock as our friends are members. It is a lovely place with the University of Connecticut having a large campus on the waterfront which you can visit to see their marine research in action. We walked the grounds and toured the old mansion in the grounds and had a chat with a student about the marine buoys they maintain. The walk was made more special by the little poetry capsules that we stopped at which amused us no end. We finished our visit with a cook out on the SYC grills with David and Sue, they had a wonderful feast for us which went well with the great the conversation about the SSCA and our respective cruising plans. The night went well past our normal bedtime as we toured Sans Cles and discussed lots of boat projects for Sue and David before they leave later this year.

University of Conneticut

The University Police building - beautiful

Fantastic Inside too

Enjoying the University Campus

Campus Poetry capsule

UConn Bouy

 

After our discussion with Sue and David we had decided to make two stops before going on to Maine to meet up with Tug, Monique and CALM. No CALM means their four children not a rest at all! So our first stop was Dutch Harbor, RI, a nice anchorage in a pretty harbor with easy access to the town dock. We dropped the hook and went into town. We saw an amazing collection of buildings on our walk which included the top of the old ferry. Then we bought some provisions and Ice Cream before returning to Moosetracks. We had emailed a couple we met his year in the Bahamas about seeing them in Newport only to find they now live near Mystic, where we just left. However Ted was keen to show us Newport as it is were he grew up and Dutch Harbor was were he kept his boat. So Ted and Ginnie from s/v Firecracker met us at the town dock and took us for a ride. First stop was West Marine for a few replacements of chaffing lines. Then we toured Newport in their car, it is a wonderful town with so much history and luckily for us Ted was born and raised here so knew a huge amount about everything we drove past. Thanks for making it so special you guy’s. We finished the evening with a fantastic seafood meal in downtown Jamestown.

LIS lighthouse near Newport

Dutch Harbor - Old ferry remains

 

Out with Ted & Ginnie

The next day we moved to Newport, RI and again it’s a wonderful cruiser friendly place with a reasonable choice of anchoring places and a large mooring field. They have lots of town docks for a large waterfront area and the main one even has showers you can use for a small fee. We certainly felt Newport was big and popular with lots of tourists even on weekdays. We took a walk around the historic district and visited several museums of Newport history and there is a lot of it! The Newport Artillery was closed when we got there, but at the historic Mill site they were having the Black Ships festival and the cannons and men of the Artillery were there and about to have a live firing salute. It was fabulous to talk to the Artillery men and to see the cannon actually fired. We took video and posted a snippet here on YouTube Cannon firing. We stopped for a beer in the oldest tavern in the USA from 1673, just because it’s historic of course, and then had lunch for the same reason at the Fastnet Irish pub. The next day the Artillery was open and we took the video for them on a USB stick and they gave us a personal tour of the museum which is excellent and has 128 uniforms from around the world as well as lots of cannons and other artifacts. We walked around a bit more of town and visited the International Yacht Restoration School where they are restoring wooden boats, the largest being the Coronet, and talked with students who are working on the restoration projects. Then we returned to Moosetracks for lunch and to cross the harbor to see Fort Adams in the afternoon again a lovely historic site but a little neglected. Newport was a wonderful stop and we would come again and do more if time permitted but we have a weather window so onward we go.

12m Americas cup boat in Newport Harbor

Firing a real Paul Revere Cannon

The old library in Newport

The International Yacht Restoration School

The Newport Artillery Museum

Airfoil sailing in the harbor - this was stunningly fast!

The oldest tavern in the USA - The White Horse Tavern

Fort Adams

President Kennedy's personal yacht

The next stop was Onset, a quiet little town just before the Cape Cod Canal. We were only taking advantage of the harbor to anchor so that our timing was right for the canal as again they have HUGE tides and the current really does rip through the canal at nearly 5 knots. So we got up early to catch the tide and after hailing the Canal Control we found the bridge open but trains scheduled between 7-11 am with no definite times. So we took the hint and were off before 6:30. The tide was at Max Flood and we had a magnificent ride for nearly 10 nm with 10 knots average speed and a peak of 11.1 knots which is a new record for Moosetacks.

Cape Cod Canal

We had decided to head straight for Maine while the weather window was available as Tug and Monique were only in Maine for 1 week and we didn’t want to miss them all. So we left the canal straight for Booth Bay area on a non-stop overnight trip. Unfortunately our radar which was playing up was now dead so this was going to be a fun one. We were pleasantly surprised though how little traffic there is up here and virtually nothing was around all day on AIS or visually. The largest collection of boats were all together on a whale watch in the Massachusetts Bay! So as night fell we kept vigilant watch and again saw almost no traffic. The watch got exciting quickly around 11 pm when Devin heard a May Day call. The USCG got the location from direction finding and put out a Pan Pan which Devin hailed them to repeat. It turned out it was 22 nm away however another boat was on AIS closer and we passed on their details. A larger 100 ft sailing yacht was 11 nm away and responded saying they were 55 minutes away. 5 minutes later a sheepish voice came on the radio to declare all was OK. It turns out their catch of fish moved in the hold and water started coming aboard, they obviously worked pretty quick to get it moved and stop the water coming aboard. So after 10 minutes it was all over and the USCG told us all to stand down. It really seems people need to use DSC more in radios as the ship did not give a position. We are glad Moosetracks has DSC on both radios with GPS co-ordinates provided when it’s an emergency it’s a lot more accurate and much faster.

The rest of the trip was thankfully uneventful and as expected; mist, rain and fog greeted us as we approached Maine some 30 nm miles out. However visibility was not less than 1/4 nm so we felt good but put on the automatic fog horn as a precaution. We did the 140 nm in 26 hours so a good average and only 6 hours motoring until through the canal and the wind built up. Now its time to relax and catch up on sleep.

The view everyone gets of Maine is FOG - Love Cove

The next day the sun came out and the fog lifted enough to see where we were. It was a beautiful set of bays behind a island and known as Ebenecook Harbor where Love Cove is one of it’s bays. We took the dinghy into the local Marina to see the local Island Packet dealer Norm Pierce who hails from here. We had a great welcome and chatted to Norm about all things IP and the upcoming Rendezvous. Unfortunately we would miss most of it and gave our regrets as Tug and Monique and the kids were due at the same time.

Ebenecook Bay

Booth Bay

So we left Ebenecook bay and moved to Booth bay harbor to await Tug, Monique and CALM. They arrived as we returned from looking around town and took a mooring ball near us. We spent the next hour catching up on their cruise and our travels. We then spent the rest of the afternoon walking around town and seeing the local attractions in town. Liz and Monique arranged dinner and games aboard the “Furly B” as their boat was called and had a great time with the Graves. The next day we spent at the Maine State Aquarium which is on the edge of the bay, it is a wonderful place with lots of hands on exhibits and talks by their education department. The kids had a really fun time and we all learnt a tremendous amount about lobsters and star fish as well a tour of the laboratories. After such an exciting morning we took the dinghies over to town to enjoy lunch with a harbor view. The kids really enjoyed the restaurant lobster tank which again was hands on and we could only get them away with a promise of ice cream (no not Devin’s fault). We had discovered the most delicious ice cream factory in Booth Bay and everyone wanted a second chance. After our trip to town we moved to Ebenecook bay again so Furly B was nearer home for the next morning. We enjoyed dinner aboard with Tug, Monique and CALM with games to finish off a wonderful day. So the following day with a bit of sadness and much love we said goodbye to the Graves and waved to them as they left the harbor. It was a special few days and ones we will treasure for a long time.

No one had seen Blue Lobster before!

The shark touch tank

The main touch tank

The Graves on "Furly B"

We spent the rest of the day doing needed jobs on Moosetracks and visited a fabulous museum at Love cove before moving back to Booth Bay to catch the end of the IP rendezvous. We had a lovely breakfast with the group and met several locals who were very generous in sharing their knowledge of local anchorages we should not miss in Maine. It was a wonderful group and they do truly love Norm and his wife Mary up here that’s for sure.

Love Cove Museum

Fantastic donated items inside

Inside the boat shed

 

Great hosts Norm & Mary

Well we are off to Islesboro to the SSCA GAM on Aug 1-2nd and to pick up our new Radar and Chart plotter, then find quiet spot to fit it afterwards!

We are hoping everyone’s summer is in full swing and your getting time to enjoy it too.