Day 71, August 27 -- Harmon Harbor to Potts Harbor -- 21 NM

10:30 to 1:45. A fast passage. We had entered what they call Maine's "Mid-Coast" during our passage from Tenants Harbor to Christmas Cove. Our next two nights, Boothbay Harbor and Harmon Cove, were also along the Mid Coast. Today we left that coast when we entered Casco Bay, in which Portland is the principal, let's say the only city. On the first of our four cruises to Maine so far, in 2002, (during a nor'easter) Casco's Portland was our first Maine landfall. The early part of the passage today was windless. Believe me, I tried; I threw up the genny -- but it was useless. Later I tried again and it gave us a couple of tenths. But at last, for over an hour, we sailed with just the genny at good speed over the open water (except for occasional lobster floats-- single ones, not toggled) across the open mouth of Casco Bay. Part of our speed was tide, pushing us from our port quarter. A mile from the harbor there is a very tricky narrow passage with one huge 160 degree turn and the wind somewhat blocked by the islands and behind us and the current pushing us out of the channel. Play it safe, Roger; use the engine -- to get enough speed to not be pushed sideways onto the rocks.

Potts Harbor has the benefit of being rather centrally located in Casco Bay, but from the looks of it on the chart and from what I had read, it appeared to be exposed in a blow and primarily used for lobster boats, not cruisers. But Lene checked it out in the website Active Captain and the newish Dolphin Marina and Restaurant in Potts Harbor had many rave reviews. The islands we had to get around to get here, and others, are reported to provide good protection in a blow. No blow occurred during our night there; perhaps Hurricane Harvey sucked up the entire continent's wind. Much of Dolphin's popularity comes from the extra freebie services for the same $35 per night mooring fee that others charge: they come out to your mooring ball in a launch and hand you the eye of your mooring, provide launch service, give out blueberry muffins and coffee via launch in the morning, have a great free shower and no charge for use of their washing machines, and provide kayaks and bicycles to boaters, all free. What else can you ask for?  Dinner was well prepared, nicely served in a room with a great view of many nearby islands (sorry, no pics)  and reasonably priced.

We spent the afternoon cleaning, in advance of the arrival of our niece tomorrow evening.

We will be back to Potts Harbor on our next trip to Maine.

Day 70, August 26 -- Boothbay Harbor to Five Islands to Harmon Harbor -- 11 NM and 2 NM

Fall is definitely in the air. It heats up by day but nights are in the 50's, including the low 50's.

A slow 11:30 start due to the short distance involved. But the 11 miles took four hours, so average speed was 3.5 knots. Part of the slowness was because the Admiral pleaded for me to use the small jib, not the genoa, which was not enough canvas with the leisurely winds. But she is a good mate in every sense of the word and I like to keep her happy. And we were in no hurry, with the primary attractions of Five Islands, on the east side of the Sheepscot River, being (A) the possibility of a free mooring and (B) a lobster at the Five Islands Lobster Company shack, the only business in town, other than a greengrocer about a mile walk away.

We passed this pretty light on Burnt Island early in the passage and later, the light on The Cuckolds.

But the 3.5 knot average speed does not tell the story. The first half of the passage was SSW out of Booth Bay, with the second half being NNW up the Sheepscot once rounding The Cuckolds, off Cape Newagen, at the southern tip of Southport Island. That large island divides Booth Bay from The Sheepscot River. During the first half of the passage we made more than 3.5 knots but once we turned west, preliminarily to turning northward, someone turned off the wind machine. (At that time we also saw another Saga 43 going the other way and hailed her on the VHF, but lots of boats do not turn on their radios and she was not near enough for me to see her name.)
The trip up the Sheepscot was s-l-o-w, with no wind whatsoever at times and lots of making only 1.5 knots speed over the ground, or less. Of course that is fun too -- trying to get every tenth of a knot out of your boat when there are precious few of them to be had. It was even more fun when we found another boat a quarter mile behind us who was, I assume, trying to overtake us. No way, small jib or not!

We did get a good mooring and I fixed a few things, cleaned a few things and lowered the dink in anticipation of the lobsters.

I do not know if this is true scientifically or, if so, why, but it seems that when a line in run through a set of blocks under load, many times, it gets twisted on itself and creates friction against the other parts of the tackle. Such was the case with our traveler lines and with the main sheet. So I took the lines out, untwisted them and ran then back through the blocks. We will see whether that improves their performance.

Two young lobsters gave up their lives for our gastronomic pleasure and nourishment. With corn on the cob and cole slaw, dinner for two cost $35.

Back on the boat as i'm hauling the dink up on its davits, a lobster boat came by and the Captain said that he had passengers to offload at the dock but would need his mooring in a few minutes. I have never been chased off a mooring by its owner before, however politely, and the problem with such situations is that dark is usually, rapidly approaching. A thought flitted momentarily through my brain: How do I know it's your mooring? But I sure did know that it was not my mooring. We motored around looking for another, but then left Five Islands for its neighbor to the south, the large very well protected Harmon Harbor. It's narrow entrance is indicated by a single not-lighted red buoy and coming in at dusk with low tide we saw the rocks all around it. Not a good idea coming in after dark. (This is looking out next morning at near low. The red buoy is the little dot seeming to protrude below the rocks at the right.)

We had been in Harmon in 2009. Then a very nice lady waved us to use the large well maintained buoy, located off her dock:

She even gave us a ride the mile or so to the lobster Company. No lights on in her house and it was getting very dark so we just took her mooring. Thank you, nice lady!
A very calm night except for the dance music of the wedding at the hotel on the bluff overlooking the Harbor from the other side, a bit to the left of this photo.

Harmon will make tomorrow's scheduled passage to Potts Harbor in Casco Bay a mile shorter than previously charted
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Day 69, August 25 -- Christmas Cove to Boothbay Harbor -- 7 NM

Such a short passage, south out of the first harbor and then north into the next, that we motored all the way and never put up a sail. On the way south there was no wind and on the way north it was in our face. At the tip of the "V" we passed inshore of this unusual lighthouse.

Unlike Christmas Cove, which was a new harbor for us, we have been in Boothbay in 2002, in the harbor for one night, and in 2013 where we stayed at the Yacht Club for two nights and visited the then new Botanical Gardens. Christmas Cove is residential,; Boothbay harbor is commercial.  We learned in 2013 that the easy way to get from the YC to town is by dink. This time, Tug Boat Inn and Marina gave us a better price and made the long dinghy ride unnecessary. We took the free trolley bus to Hannafords, the supermarket chain of this area, to buy provisions before a superb lunch out at Kaller's Restaurant. Simple dishes, very well done at reasonable prices. If you come here, try a bowl of their lobster corn chowder. They didn't say so but our estimate was that the meat of a whole lobster was in it. Then I got a haircut, we drifted among the galleries, took showers and returned to the boat for the night.

Day 68, August 24 -- Tenants Harbor to Christmas Cove -- 24 NM

Another very late morning start. Tenants is guarded by an island on each side of its entrance. This is looking out.

We passed its lighthouse on the way out.

Another day of SW winds and we sailed about three miles south of our intended course before tacking to go west. Again sunny and warm on shore but cold when sailing close hauled at sea. The big difference today was less wind and so after a bit of motoring, we used the genoa and reefed main when we could sail, without engine and achieved speeds in the low six knot range. A beautiful sail, without the feelings of nausea Lene had experienced the day before, which I failed to mention; yesterday was our roughest passage of this cruise, so far. I loved it; Lene, less so.
One issue emerged: two of the mainsail's five battens, the lowest of them, came loose and crept back out of their pockets a bit. I watched to make sure they did not jump ship completely, and in the evening we put them and the reefing lines back in. I hope they cause no further issues. This is the last headland before turning north up into the Damariscotta River,  on the east side of which Christmas Cove is situated.

The Cove was discovered on Christmas day in the 1600's. It is small with a 35 yard entrance between the red triangle and the green square. Pic is at low tide.

They put ILENE on a mooring right in front of the marina restaurant, an ornament to the harbor.

We took a walk 3/4 of the way around the Cove and back, about two miles round trip. A cold quiet night.

Day 67, August 23 -- Hurricane Island to Tenants Harbor. -- 17 NM

The day started foggy but brightened. We left at 11:15 and arrived in Tenants Harbor at 3:30.

We planned to follow the green diagonal line I drew on this chart, for the longest stretch of the passage, heading SW but the wind was from that direction forcing the orange zig zag. Seventeen NM is the distance by the shortest logical course; we did more than 20.
I got a strange sense of satisfaction when our track crossed the original waypoint at the beginning of what the chart calls "Two Bush Channel." Where do they get these names? I didn't see any bushes. I had installed the remaining parts of the mainsail before we got underway and we used reefed main and small jib, which was plenty of sail (lots of heeling)  in the face of strong winds, eight to ten foot high incoming ocean rollers, adverse tide and the need to frequently swerve to avoid lobster pot floats, especially on the first westerly leg.
As we approached the point at which we tacked west again, a large black hulled ketch crossed our bow, perhaps a half mile ahead. He kept going west and when we tacked, we were chasing him, but pointing higher than he did. we were on his starboard quarter and ended up on his port quarter, and then moved up and passed him. A secret pleasure that all sailors enjoy, even cruisers.
At the end of the four hours I was rather physically and mentally wiped out; I'm not as young as I used to be. But it was the happy exhaustion that causes a good night's sleep after consuming all ones energy doing what one loves to do best. Turning off the noisemaker and hearing the swoosh of ILENE doing what she loves to do best thrilled me. On a grey overcast day the big rollers can feel threatening but today, though cold, it was sunny and not scary at all.
We were last in Tenants in 2009, with Bill and Sandy.
A funny incident while trying to get to our mooring in the harbor: We had been told to look for the green ball and found only one, but with another boat on it. The lad came out and showed us our mooring; it was white -- but with a small round green inflated ball as the toggle with which to pick it up using the boat hook. In a harbor festooned with lobster floats of every color of the rainbow, the green pick up ball was not noticed.
I discovered that while the reefing lines worked well, they had been run wrong precluding use of the new zipper until rerouted.

We went ashore looking for Luke's Lobster Shack, but it is closed on Wednesdays so we ended at the Happy Clam, where Lene had a lobster and I had an entree from the German side of the menu.  In tourist places with a short summer season, I don't understand closing for even one day. They never close during the season at block Island. They had a pretty good little general store and lene bought some more food.
Pretty sunset.

Day 66 August 22 -- Rockland to Hurricane Island -- 9 NM

The spot on the dock where we debouched our mainsail was taken by a big schooner from Nova Scotia so we landed at an adjacent dock after negotiating around this trimaran (53 feet long by 43 wide).

Ned came over to say hello and chat a while. Doug Pope delivered our sail and helped me lift it from the dock to the deck. Cliff, from the trimaran helped me get it from the deck to atop the boom and its tack attached. The new zipper is much stronger than the old broken one. I put in some pins and battens but as afternoon approached with its stronger winds, I still have some pins, some battens and the reefing lines to reinstall. Thus the mainsail is not operative yet, but we had worn out our free dockside welcome  so we backed off and headed for Hurricane Island using the genoa. Two reasons for Hurricane. They have guest moorings and we have never been there The mooring field is on the eastern side of the island, which shelters it from the prevailing southwesterlies. We sailed SE with SW winds, battling tide and using genoa alone, at speeds of 7.2 to 2.8 knots. The need for frequent swerving to dodge lobster floats kills boat speed as well as sail trim.

It was hazy which developed to thick fog as we passed the White Islands to port, headed east between them and and then south along Hurricane Island's west side.There is a big Outward Bound camp here and we had hoped to explore the island's trails by foot. But the fog kept us aboard. I was worried that we would not be able to find the moorings but the fog thinned a bit, temporarily, and we got on.

Here is me forward fiddling in fog with the flag halyard.

The weather deteriorated with strong winds from the SSW,  which were blocked by the island, and waves and rain. The cruising guide had warned that it can get rolly here and we had a somewhat uncomfortable night and wet night. In the middle of the night I awoke with a start of fear: I had put the mooring penant's eye over the windlass capstan because the line's diameter was to thick to fit on the cleat. What if the eye jumped off the capstan? So I got up with a flashlight and a short piece of strong line and lashed around the eye of the penant, closing it on the capstan.

Day 65, August 21 -- Rockport to Rockland -- 6 NM

Rockland, Rockport and Stonington (which we visited on our 2013 Maine cruise. Is Maine just a big set for The Flintstones?  Actually, a lot of the granite from which New York City's iconic pre steel and glass buildings are built was quarried in Maine and shipped to New York by sea. The purpose of this return visit to Rockland was to finally get a new and improved, stronger zipper sewed into the top of the stack pack which covers the mainsail when not in use.
In very light adverse wind and adverse tide we motored the six miles and tied up to the town dock (free dockage for up to two hours). We were here at 8:30 and Doug Pope carted off our sail, in its bag, an hour later. We took a town mooring for $30/night, here on the west side of the harbor, rather than a free one, or anchoring over by Ned, in the NE corner. We did so because in the afternoon, after charting and other boatwork we dinked ashore to visit the Farnsworth Museum. I spent only three hours there, which was not nearly enough. In 2013 I saw the permanent collection and did not have time to get back to it.The placarding shows how intently the collection is focused on artists who were born or worked in Maine. I saw a large exhibition of paintings by or of women and one on the tapestries and oils of  Marguerite Zorach. But the greatest emphasis was on the Wyeths.

When we got back to the dinghy dock, the tide was out and our dink, especially the prop, was stuck in the sand and shells. So my sneakers got a salt water bath; we were fine.
Lene got our galley stove's broiler working again for the first time in several years. And our sail is done and will be delivered tomorrow morning. Another very quiet night on the mooring.

Day 64, August 20 -- Belfast to Rockport -- 20 NM

Underway from 10 to 1:15. The first part was with no wind. Then we motorsailed with wind that was not very strong but in our face. The last half the wind came up strongly and we were able to sail without the engine; the southerly winds had come to westerly. Neat seeing a pair of passenger schooners heading north passing by the lighthouse at the southern tip of Rockport Bay.

Rockport's harbor is much smaller than Rockland's  and the most picturesque on Penobscot Bay's west side.






Here is the approach to the entrance when the Bay narrows down to the Harbor:

It is deep from side to side and there are no anchoring spots that are not too deep. Once moored, I got to work on stripping the mainsail from the mast and boom, so the zipper on the top of its stack pack can be replaced tomorrow in Rockland, five miles away. The stripping process took me two hours and I had to cut two of the cotter pins that hold the clevis pins which hold the sail to sliders in the mast (but we have lots of spares for reinstallation).
We dinked in to pay our mooring fee but got there too late. We will phone in our credit card number tomorrow. The showers here, actually there is only one, is open to the public, boaters and non-boaters alike, but costs $1 for seven minutes of hot water. Lene and I were able to both shower in seven minutes of water. We have showers aboard but got into the habit of showering off the boat long ago and finding the shower is now part of our ritual.
Rockland Marine is known for its care of wooden boats and there are many here in the harbor. including this beauty in the yard.

How many coats of varnish?
The town is high above water level at the inner tip of a narrow "V" shaped harbor.  We ate at "18 Central" a new business in the same place where we ate in 2013. But the chef who owns the new place was formerly the chef in the old place, and uses spices very innovatively. So now we have been in Rockland twice, but have not seen "the town" other than this one restaurant and a theater down the block, where we saw a modern dance performance in 2013.
For transients who live aboard and want to sleep in, the exit of the fishing and lobstering fleet at 5:30 a.m. would be annoying - noise and wakes. But Lene slept through it.

Days 62-63 , August 18-19 -- Islesboro to Belfast and Lay Day There -- 9 NM

An all-motoring day, with zero wind. With steady 2000 rpms on the engine, our speed varied between  5.8 and 6.6 over the bottom. It varied because (A) various streams of water entered the Bay, (B) we got closer and further from the shore and (C) the tide changed.
We fueled and watered and were assigned mooring number two, right off the fuel dock, the closest to town by the friendly harbormaster, Kathy, who has held the same position for many years and celebrated her daughter's wedding the week before. In the afternoon I did a lot of charting -- the distances between each of the places we might want to put in between now and Friday, September 1, in Portland. It includes some new ports for us and some familiar ones. It includes our time with our niece, Yael, visiting from Israel. We are looking forward to exposing her to the cruising life in Casco Bay, ending in Portland. The challenge is that she keeps strictly kosher. But she has told us that we are more worried about her food than she is.
The rain did come in the afternoon and evening -- steady and slow, but we went in, showered, and met Bill and Sandy for a long leisurely dinner at Delvino, very Italian in its food and wine. I liked the food but Lene had problems with the pasta and Bill with the service. They plan to leave their trawler, Lucille, with inside heated storage this winter in Belfast's huge Front Street Shipyard. No need to drive Lucille back and forth to Oriental, NC. Instead, her summer cruise will be between Belfast and Shelburne Nova Scotia. An expensive, but alternative way, leaving more time to live aboard. Their car is here in Belfast for them to drive to N.C. One potential positive side effect is that we might hope that they will put in to NYC on the long car ride and let us show them around. We had breakfast with them at the local breakfast place and visited "Lucille",which is a Defever, not a Nordhaven, as previously misreported, the day we left.

By chance our visit coincided with Belfast's Tenth Annual Harborfest, a three day celebration of many things nautical.

Our boat is moored about fifty feet from Buoy Red Nun 6, in the heart of the harbor. Before we were dressed the committee boat, a trawler, was tied to "our buoy" barking instructions into a loudspeaker for the rowing challenge: two heats with three boats in each heat, manned, or in one case, womaned, by six or eight oar weilders. The starting line was our buoy and away they thrashed, way down the harbor and back.

Belfast has a well organized farmers market, indoors, every Saturday, at which we got some food.
Then it was the annual wooden boat contest. About eight teams of two people each were given the plans for a wooden rowboat to be identical to each other, about ten to twelve feet long, plus a stack of boards and a fenced off rectangle of workspace under a big white tent.

Some of them had clearly done this before.

Each team brought a variety of power tools  and fast setting marine grade glue. Within two hours they had constructed their boats, with the winner to be selected on the basis of three factors: speed of construction, quality of construction, and how well they did in the afternoon's race.
Next was a tour of Front Street Shipyard, actually a talk and questions to a man carrying the control panel for the mammoth travel lifts: "largest this side of Rhode Island."

I stayed around after and looked in on the long term boat projects underway in the yard.
















This boat, seen in the background of the adjacent photo, has a fifteen foot draft.

The 134 foot steel brigantine "Corwith Cramer" was built in 1957 as a school ship. She was in (and I do mean in) for a four month overhaul.

Her masts are very long.

The wheels of the travel lift are really big -- all 16 of them. need to be to lift 880,000 pounds!

In the afternoon Lene and I walked the mile to the local supermarket and bought another $150 in groceries, with prices a lot lower than in New York. Bill had offered to pick us up for the ride back in his car but we decided to take a cab. Except the cab company said he would be with us in about 90 minutes; Belfast is not like New York. At home there is a cab on every corner (except when it rains). But a gentleman named Skip, whose wife passed about twelve years ago, leaving him with their now older dog, stepped up. He used to help on deliveries of Hinkleys. Lene won the better seat though -- in the back with the cute little old dog, Abby. I tried to give Skip $10 for his gas which would also have been less than the price of the cab, but his refusal, while pleasant, was adamant.

Not that much has changed here since the only other time we sailed here, back in 2009. "The Old Professor" used book store is still in business though the professor in question has had to replenish his stock after his original purpose of disposing of his personal library had been completed. A very fine selection of good new and used books. Nearby is a store selling new books, at which David McCullough was signing copies of his latest book. Maine continues its tradition of being well served by independent book stores.

Day 61, August 17 -- Rockland to Warren Island Cove, Gilkey Harbor, Islesboro -- 14 NM

Started a few minutes after noon. Reefed main and small jib were used, appropriate for the strong westerly gusts in the harbor. But we were under-powered most of the trip, did not change sails and started motoring when speed got down to 2.5 knots. Lobster trap coverage was light on this clear, bright, sunny, summery, day and we ended covering the miles in three hours, mooring to mooring, on a clear, warm, bright sunny day with wind out of the east during our sail NE. We were in no hurry on this short pleasant passage.
We had never before been to Islesboro Island, ten miles long, in Penobscot Bay. On its west side, is Gilkey Harbor, largely formed by Seven Hundred Acre Island, lying off Islesboro's west coast. But Gilkey itself is too large to provide shelter and several of its coves serve that purpose. The one we selected is formed by Warren Island lying NW off Seven Hundred Acre Island. Warren is a state park and seven free moorings there are provided. Only two were occupied and we took a vacant one in deeper water, lowered the dink, sprayed ourselves with insect repellent (having been warned that mosquitoes swarm there), dinked in to the dock and walked the trail largely around the Island. About an hour's walk. Signs say that wood is for sale at $5 per day. Is that per person or per campsite? Several campsites are available, some with sleeping sheds, but only one was occupied, by two men with their tent and canoe and the men sleeping in hammocks. We were there in the late afternoon when the tide was low, exposing the beds of seaweed that skirt the island. That is not sand.

A powerboat from Searsport was at the dock. We visited that town and its museum in 2009. Their transmission failed when their prop caught a lobster pot. They had been cut loose by a diver who was planning to tow them home tomorrow.
Several windjammer schooners ply their trade at Warren Island.

Beautiful "Olaf" with lots of bright shiny wood was at the dock when we returned to the dink.



Larger "Mercantile" came in later and anchored near us. They both take their passengers to a campsite for a clambake and lobster roast dinner. Mercantile stayed the night.

Back aboard ILENE I raised the dink (for the second time today), some cooking, dinner and reading before a calm night's sleep. Mainland Islesboro is ILENE's backdrop, with the ferry landing just to the left.

Tomorrow's planned passage to Belfast will be early to avoid the stronger tidal flow and the forecast rain.

Days 59 and 60, August 15-16 -- Buck's Harbor to Rockland and Lay Day There -- 20NM

A late start, waiting for the fog to lift, and it did -- but it came back, though only a few short lengths of the 20 miles had the dangerous killer type fog, with at least 1/4 mile visibility the rest of the way.
Fog is like big puffy irregular clouds on a sunny day that the wind moves across the sky; only with fog the wind moves the clouds along at sea level.
We were underway for four hours essentially heading a variety of courses around 230-240 degrees magnetic (with lots of dodges for lobster pots, though they were absent in the early part of the trip and not nearly as numerous as in the Mt. Desert Island region). We motored the whole way and only put up the small jib part of the time. We wanted as much visibility as possible both for other boats and for lobster pots. We threaded between, but could not see due to fog, several smaller islands: Beach, Big Spruce, Little Spruce and Compass while heading down the eastern part of Penobscot Bay until we cleared the ledges off the south end of long, thin, Islesboro Island, which largely divides the eastern and western parts of the northern part of the Bay. Then we crossed the western part of the Bay to the lighthouse at the end of the 7/8 mile long breakwater that protects Rockland Bay and Harbor from most winds.

Later in the day I got an email from my navy buddy, Hugh, about his experience at Beach Island many years ago. I replied that we had sailed right past it but could not see it in the fog.
Unlike the coast of Nova Scotia, there are lots of boats out on the water here, sail, fishing, windjammer tours and ferries, and the airwaves were full of the chatter of folks trying to announce themselves to avoid problems in the fog. We blew our air-can fog horn in the bad parts and I must say that the crew does not like the noise. Alfie scrambled below.

Ned had given us the exact position of  his mooring off Jameson Point in the northeast corner of Rockland Harbor and I had placed it in the chart plotter as a waypoint. Ned and his wife Carolyn were introduced to us by their Florida neighbors, Elissa and Len, when we were in Fort Lauderdale in 2015. Elissa is Lene's HS classmate; she thought we might like to meet her sailing friends, who, she said, have a house and boat in Maine. And proving once again how small the world is, Ned is the brother of Harlemite Gene, who has befriended me at City Island. The only other time I have seen Ned and Carolyn was at the Harlem, for a memorial service after the very untimely death of Ned's nephew a couple of years ago. Ned had invited us to drop by if we were in maine. Further coincidentally, Elissa and Len are currently house guests of Ned and Carolyn here in Rockland.

Ned moved his 42 foot Jenneau, "Namaste," to an adjacent mooring to free his mooring for us.

Shown here, left to right, are the beautiful waterside condos on the bluff, one of which is Ned and Carolyn's, Namaste, the dinghy dock seen under her forestay, and the land end of the seawall.

Lene had shipped three purchases to Ned's house and they met us near the dinghy dock and gave us their car and use of their dock cart to bring those packages and the groceries we bought in Hannaford's supermarket to the dink at night. We also had dinner at a local brew pub. "Haddock Rockefeller" was innovative but sadly, not very tasty. And we saw the new movie,"Dunkirk" which had been so hyped that Lene was disappointed in the reality. Our only mistake was failure to leave a light on aboard ILENE, which made it a bit difficult to find her in the grocery laden dink on a dark (but not stormy) night. Such a light was not required by law because we are in a mooring area, but would surely have made it easier to find ILENE.
Next day we stayed aboard in the morning and cleaned. I blogged, taking advantage of good wifi signal to catch up, and Lene made a lot of reservations for moorings and docks and dinners in Belfast, South Freeport and Portland, and ordering some new rugs from L.L. Bean, to replace and augment our existing ones. We dinked ashore and walked the length of the seawall.

At the far end we mounted the lighthouse's platform and saw this wakemaker

send big waves over the seawall, which is less than a foot above sea level near the outer end at high tide, which is when we were there. The tail end of that wake is seen splashing over the breakwater in the photo above.


We saw yet another windjammer

from the platform under the lighthouse at the far end.

Next was a delicious dinner with interesting conversation at Ned and Carolyn's lovely home with Elissa and Len and a fellow resident of the condo community, a sailor, Bette, also in attendance. But my camera was out of juice so no photo of our friends, sorry.

Day 58, August 14 -- Somesville to Buck's Harbor -- 27NM

Twenty seven miles today -- five and a quarter hours. No wind at the start and them from the SW, in our faces. We exited Somes Sound and the Western Way. I saw small dolphins and then I saw that one lobster float was moving! No, not a lobster float but the head of a seal! I swerved to avoid him and he dove to avoid me. No contact, no foul. We transited the channel that crosses the bar off Bass Light.

It seems so narrow until you get there and have sailed over it before. Fifteen feet is plenty of water if you stay in the channel which is straight and marked by a red and white at each end. Go close to the near one and then get your course over ground to go to the other -- piece of cake. Then we crossed Blue Hill Bay where this windjammer was going the other way behind a rock ledge.

We transited Casco Passage, another slot that looks narrow until you get there but is wider than it seems on the chart and well marked. As we got near Eggemoggin Reach, one of about three major wide passages connecting the Mt. Desert area with the  Penobscot Bay area, our course was NW and the wind was sailable.

Out came the Genoa and with changes in wind and in our direction while dodging lobster traps, we made anywhere from 7.4 to 3.5 knots. We had no rush so the 3.5 was pleasant. And once into the Reach, no more traps. I wondered why: (A) by law, (B)  the lobsterman don't want to go so far from their docks or (C) the lobsters don't like living in the Reach. The Marina said the answer is "C".

Elsewhere in Maine's waters the lobster floats are so thick that they preclude use of automatic pilot and require constant mental exertion. It is just a straining experience. Hmm... three floats: Is the fourth, the second one of the second pair but missing or drawn under water, or is it a pair and a single? And which two comprise the pair? A question that is made more problematic by the fact that the lobstermen generally do not paint both floats of the pair the same color. You have to dodge, but which way? If the current is flowing from port to starboard, you better dodge to starboard because in going the other way, the current will drag you back into the traps. It is a puzzlement. But lobstering is a huge part of the economy of Maine.

Here in Buck's Harbor, Lene noticed it first --  another boat came past and took the mooring next to us: "Stern looks familiar. Windows, same. Double forestay solent rig. It is another Saga 43!" she said, and she was correct. Bill and Marilyn aboard "Loon", three years younger than ILENE, up from Oxford, Maryland.

Loon has been across the pond and back, serious open ocean passage making. We dinked the hundred feet over to Loon and got acquainted with her people. He is an attorney and she a feline geneticist for the NIH, studying diseases in cats to learn more about them in humans. Nice interesting people. She is a cat lover and was interested in our crew.

Then, I'm in the outdoor shower, lathering my body but my head stuck out above the privacy enclosure.I hear "Roger!" Its Ken, from the Harlem YC. He and Camille now keep their 30 foot Nonesuch, "No News" in Maine and drive back and forth to NYC.Sadly, even though we are both on vacation, our "schedules" prevented us from getting together; wait til the Going Out of Commission dinner at the Harlem in October.

This was our third visit in Buck's Harbor and again we ate at the excellent little restaurant behind the market and were not disappointed. We have been disappointed in the wifi and cell phone service in Maine so far. It was better in Nova Scotia. Pretty harbor, this its western half in the evening calm.