August 21 and 22 -- Snow Island Back to Portland and Lay Day There

After about two and a half hours, both of us cleaning our summer home, we got underway at 11:30 for the 22 planned miles to Portland. We got on the mooring there at about 3:45 after a somewhat shortened course. The first part of the trip, we went 210 degrees on the compass, constrained by the sides of Quahog Bay at first and then the underwater reefs extending several miles after the land ended. And the wind was from 210. So during a rare stretch not infested by lobster pots we let auto steer and raised the main in anticipation of sailing to the west when the constraints ended. Then we shut the engine and sailed with main and small jib for a while, until boat speed dropped to 3.9 knots whereupon the genoa was deployed instead of the small jib. This gave us six or seven knots the rest of the way until 100 yards from our mooring at Portland Yacht Services.
Our course was two less than the projected 22 miles because we took ILENE through two passes. The first of these, Green Island Passage, is marked by a red and a green buoy. It is somewhat south of what had been our favorite Casco anchorage before this year, Jewell Island.

Jewell has an amazing rock formation, vertical strata of pink granite, called the Punch Bowl on its NE side (off photo to the right) and then, after a hike through the woods, a climb to the top of the WWII concrete observation post nearer the southern end, visible in this next photo. But I don't get it; couldn't the U boats use the prevailing fog to sneak past the tower?
Next are Junk of Pork to the left and Outer Green Island to the right, taken from Green Island passage. Where do they get these names?
   Three miles later came Whitehead Passage, between Cushing Island and Peaks Island, which we shot through at 7.3 knots against the tide with full main and Genoa. With the wind 60 degrees off our port bow we had fifteen degrees free to our left and a lot more to our right -- plenty to account for any sudden current changes. 
Once on our mooring we showered and  went to the movies -- The Butler -- with Forest Whitaker and Ophrah Winfrey, a retelling of the story of the civil rights movement through a fictionalized account of one poor plantation boy who became a White House butler to all of the presidents from Eisenhower through Reagan.
In the morning, Lene got together with some friends early and then we searched for a breakfast place. We had been to one whose name I recalled as Grumpy's. We had eaten there the morning after our harrowing overnight to Portland in 2002 but everyone Lene asked said they had never heard of it. But when I have been to a place I can usually find it and I took us to its door; except it was named "Silly's," so "everyone" was right. I'm terrible on names and faces but good on places. But Silly's which we remembered fondly, was closed for breakfast except on weekends. It was a lot like the Grumpy's near Back Bay, Annapolis -- many coffee mugs, no two of which matched, and good standard breakfasts. We continued on toward Whole Foods to provision and stumbled onto the Portland Pottery Studio Cafe just down the street. They bake everything, including the bread and make their own jams as well. I was about to select a mammoth thick slice of Blueberry pie when I spotted the artichoke and spinach quiche, bottom.  Lene's quiche had cherry tomatoes and cheeses. The cafe shares space with a pottery studio, each bringing in customers for the other. Don't miss it it you are in Portland for breakfast out!
Half way home from Whole Foods with a lot of food,we stopped in a salon and I got a haircut. After lunch aboard, Lene headed back there for a pedicure while I went to the Portland Observatory atop Munjoy Hill, the eastern end of town.

Not a lighthouse but a wooden signal tower with a telescpooe by which its entrepreneurial owner could spot ships miles out and, before radio, by signal flags alert the longshoring companies to muster their men to unload as soon as possible.









This is the view out past Portland Light, the tiny white vertical off to the right.

Looking south along Congress Street:

I also explored the Carlson and Turner Book Store, these are such wonderful places to explore and this one has a very gentle old hound to keep the proprietress company.












"First Light"

was docked here at Portland Yacht Services through our 2008 visits here and now again in 2013. We were docked right behind her then. But now we have a new app called "Ship Finder" It was recommended by Ernie, past Commodore at the Harlem YC and also by the Master of The Corinthians. It picks up the feeds from the satellites of all boats with the new AIS, Automatic Identification System. All commercial boats more than a certain length are required to have AIS, and it is optional for smaller pleasure craft as well. Boats with AIS continually broadcast their name, nationality, position, course and speed, as well as their length, beam and draft. Shipfinder picks up this info and shows the location of the boat on a chart on the iPad. Clicking on that dot brings up all of the aforesaid info. So now we know that First Light is registered in the Cayman Islands, 102 feet long, with a 20 foot beam and nine foot draft. Useful, when big ships approach out in open seas or around the bend in constrained rivers -- to be able to call them on the VHF by name. This App: $6.95; no need to buy an expensive passive AIS box and install it.
This bronze statue in the marina appears to be a conquistador, perhaps Senior Casco, after whom the bay was named?

Nope, it is the founder of Portland in 1671, then called Falmouth, George Cleeve. There was no conquistado; no Senior Casco -- the name is either a Native American word or from the Spanish word for helmet, the shape of the bay.
Dinner was at "Fore Street" at 228 Fore Street and the most expensive dinner of the trip. Lene did the booking: you have to get on line, outside, in person, before five to reserve a table, first come, first served. Our reservation was at 5:45.  When we left two hours later, you could get a reservation if you were willing to wait two hours! The food was excellent as was the service. New menu every day, based on what is caught, picked or foraged that day. We were seated next to Roger and Mary from Memphis Tennessee.

Roger is a semi retired PhD-Physician, who also spent 20 years with the Navy and Marine Corps working his way up to the highest warrant officer level while getting a good education. He was a sailor too, so we had lots to talk about. But Lene was nauseous later that night, so the high marks have to be knocked down a notch.