July 17 - Stonington, Deer Is. to Frenchboro, Long Is.

Too much excitement today. After a leisurely breakfast a big beautiful three masted schooner, Victory Chimes

had pulled in next to us and anchored to take its passengers ashore for an hour. We had last seen her in the Eggermoggin Reach around labor day 2008. We raced her then, though she did not know it, and we won.

When we got ready and raised the anchor -- it came up only part way. We tried to unhook it from the bottom by using ILENE's motor, powering forward and then back, sort of like trying to rock your car out when stuck in the ice. No luck. This was a new experience for us. We needed a diver and made calls. Anson Bell agreed to try to help. I lowered the dink, went in to town to get him, watched him don his drysuit, all the while wondering how much this was going to cost us. He said his charge is based on the amount of air he has used from his tank. After his first dive he came up and said "You are caught on another bigger anchor and if you give me a piece of line and a float, this job will cost you nothing!"

It seems that the owner of the larger anchor would pay $1000 to get it back! A win win solution for all! I took him back after the anchor was up, while Lene circled on ILENE, rejoined her underway, rehoisted the dink and we were off.

But this time, after exiting the Thoroughfare but still amidst rocks, I drove us onto a lobster pot line. How do you know when this has happened? Well you slow to half speed and can see a line dragging from the back. So we tried to turn in a circle to shake it off our rudder, which was made difficult by the genoa, but eventually, after a few exciting minutes, it shook loose and we were on our way again.
But winds were light and we had a way to go so we raised the mainsail too and had up full sail. But later, for about a half  hour, out of nowhere, after which the wind died so we had to motor, we had 23 to 25 knots of wind on our beam, while dodging lobster pots. We were overpowered and heeling too much and my little anti-heeling tricks were not helping. So we furled the genoa. Then the wind subsided, so we put up the small jib. Then the wind died so we motored the last four miles.

Frenchtown is the only community on Long Island, which is not very long. It has 40 year round residents which doubles in the summer. So everyone knows everyone. No hotels and one deli. The deli maintains half a dozen moorings available to visiting boats -- for free!

The people who live here are lobstermen and their families. The town is built around a niche in the island, with a small island off from its mouth providing protection, like a natural seawall. The inner end of the bay dries at low tide. This is where the church, school and library are situated. Yes, they have a public library that used to be open 24/7 but some kids did a bit of vandalism and now they close at five. It is small, but on a books per capita basis, it is huge! They manager left the place open for us to lock up after ourselves when we left. The library has a good internet signal and I worked on the blog there. No airport either; you come on your own boat or this daily ferry.

I came here twice in 2008, once with Lene, and it is one of my favorite spots. They have trails in the woods. At home such a trail would be worn to dust by thousands of feet. Here the moss that you walk on is two inches thick!
And at some other parts of the trail, if you look to one side there is the conifer forest primeval while on the other the side the ocean is crashing on the rocks. But we are not hiking this time. ILENE is the last boat to the left, with the deli in the foreground. From the mooring, on a clear day, the mountain of Mt. Desert Island is in the background about 20 miles away.