July 11 -- Sebasco Harbor to The Basin

Well here on the far eastern side of Casco Bay, the day did not go as planned. I get to make blueberry pancakes only when we have guests because they are not on Lene's food plan. My first attempt was thwarted in South Freeport when our new English friends could not make it. I had promised pancakes to our guests today. But while we have the blueberries and everything else -- not the pancake flour. Drat!

Our plan was to sail to Snow Island, where I have never been before, about 10 miles away, up one of the rivers. It was expected to be much like the Goslings - unspoiled.  BUT: 1, no wind so motoring and 2, a killer fog. We can sail out of fog if we need to, but it is dangerous when it is as thick as it was this morning, so why sail into it. So after scrambled eggs with blue cheese, home fries with regular and sweet potato and bacon, we sat around hoping the fog would burn off. At noon we decided to use our guests' car to visit Bath Maine, which we had visited in 2008, for four days. It is a lovely town where the main industry is the building of military ships, including the USS Hammerberg, DE 1015 in 1955.It had four bookshops. It is only eight miles by car, though a lot further by water, up the Kennebec River.  I thought that if we got back, even as late as 6 pm, if the fog had lifted, we could still sail to The Basin, only 3 or 4 miles up the New Meadows River. From here we could safely retreat to bring our guests back to their car, even if it was foggy. But at noon, just as we were about to depart, so did the heavy fog, and the day eventually got sunny and hot. The Basin is a natural "hurricane hole" sheltered from the waves by being entered through a passage off the New Meadow River with a ninety degree elbow.

This entrance is much narrower than it looks, especially at low tide, when the shallow parts at the sides disappear, yet look how full of lobster pot floats! The right turn is to the left, at the end. We had come here in early September '08 to hide out from a passing hurricane and ILENE veered and danced on her anchor for a few bad hours in the middle of the night in heavy wind and rain, while I sat in the cockpit ready to start the engine to relieve the strain if need be. Today, however, it was windless. I stood in the dink and was able to clean off most of the black vertical streaks on her sides caused by dirt that washes off the deck though holes in the toe rail. They said that the water here is warm enough to swim, but it has been a cold spring and I did not test this out. Kyle, climbing the swim ladder, did. (Note cats' ladder by his left arm.)

We explored portions of this saltwater "lake" that were later uncovered as rocks when the tide went out by dink. It has several long arms or coves and a few lovely homes and a dozen or so boats moored by their owners who live ashore. As far as we could tell, we were the only boat with people aboard at night. We spoke to a fisherman, a kayaker, a lobsterman and to the owner of this lovely low aspect ratio sloop, Sorceress,

formerly a working fishing boat. Unlike ILENE, this boat's sails run a lot longer horizontally, at their bottoms, as compared to their height.
Tomorrow, we need to drop off Mark and Kyle at the resort by noon and I plotted a course for the Boothbay Harbor YC, only 17.1 miles further.
Lene cooked up a delicious dinner of pasta with the meatiest red sauce and sauteed zucchini.
So a great day after all, though it did not come down as planned