August 30 and 31 -- Cuttyhunk to Newport and Lay Day There, 26 Miles

First, let me note that this is the 600th posting to this Blog over the last eight years. The computer told me this.
We tried to sail but were about 25 degrees north of our direct course west and not going so fast even with full sails and the motor. After an hour of this Lene asked how long it would take if we motored along the direct route. So: in with the genoa and then steering on the route and the computer reported that our ETA was later, not sooner. Meanwhile, when Lene asked for me to reduce heeling while she cooked breakfast, I motored south of the direct course so that after breakfast, when we put out the big sail agian, we could beat toward the waypoint. Once rounding the mark to head north up into Narragansett Bay, the engine was no longer needed. But shortly thereafter the wind just about died.
 In any event the passage took about five hours. The harbormaster assigned us to a mooring on the eastern side of the harbor, rather than on the eastern side where we had always been before -- lots of room between boats but a longer dink ride than usual.
What is changed here is two additional new dinghy docks, One is at the northeast corner of the harbor and the other much further south than the one old dink dock in the heart of town, near the Seamans Church Institute. So the docks and no longer crowded. And the one at the south end is in a Sailors Visitor's Center (on the Anne Street Pier) which has rest rooms, showers ($1.75 for seven minutes of water), and  a large area with good free wifi. That Center is where the last three posts to this blog were prepared while Lene got her hair done and watched some of the US Open. We had planned to shower there but very dark and threatening skies, plus the forecast for rain chased us back to the boat to close the one open hatch and we showered in the cockpit instead. Too bad that it did not rain during the night. ILENE could use a rinse to shed her salty crust. We shopped both days, had a lunch at CRU, near the Tennis Center and saw BlackkKlansman, the new Spike Lee film. I checked the oil, the belts, the zinc in the refrigerator's condenser and the distilled water in the seven batteries. Everything seems to be OK.
Tomorrow we will reenter Long Island Sound, almost home.

August 28 and 29 -- Scituate to Redbrook to Cuttyhunk, 42 and 32 Miles

The passage from Scituate on Boston's south shore across the west side of Cape Cod Bay, through the Cape Cod Canal and to Redbrook is always problematic, consisting of three legs: to the Canal, in the Canal and from the Canal to the destination.. Last year it was our roughest ride of the cruise. The solvable part of the problem is timing the departure to arrive at the Cape Cod Bay end of the Canal when the tide has turned to ebb, the favorable tide. This was solved well with a 7:45 am departure with the tide turning fair at noon. We sailed, on a close reach and arrived at one pm. We were going very fast, 7.5 knots for  awhile, and Lene asked if we should depower the sails to slow down to not get there too early. But I replied "Let's put these miles 'in the bank' in case we slow down later", which we did. The forecast was for the wind to build in the afternoon , so we wanted to get the passage done before it got too strong.
Here is a photo of the entrance to the Sandwich Marina to the left and the local restaurant which we enjoyed while outbound. 
The second problem with this passage is that the prevailing winds in Buzzards Bay are from the SW while the ebbing favorable tide current is to the SW, causing big choppy waves close together. If there is no wind of light wind, this can be easily handled, but with strong prevailing winds, most every afternoon, the second half of the canal is very hard on the boat and its cats. I had always thought that the canal ran from Sandwich to the Mass. Maritime Academy near the railroad bridge.

This is the part seen in the photo with land on both sides. But the railroad bridge (I think it is always "up") is the midpoint of the Canal which also includes the more open waters at both sides of the well- marked Hog Island Channel, out into Buzzards Bay. And that part is where the water gets so violent. I took us out of the channel, to its side, a bit shallower, where the seas were less violent but Alfie gave a scream of frieght and was consoled by Lene. 

We had another problem within the Kingman Yacht Center, the marina where we have stayed four or five times before. We entered at near low tide with a full moon, making for lower low tides. We made it through the long twisting marked channel but in the mooring field, proceeding to our assigned mooring, with sails down, of course, and a lot of wind, we heard a knock and came to a stop. I was able to grab a different mooring so we were held roughly in place if we came off of whatever we hit, but while all the other boats close around us were facing the wind, we were broadside to it. Lene called the marina which sent out a man in a workboat with a powerful outboard. He used out spinaker halyard to tip us a bit, causing the "rock" to loose its grip on our keel. He explained that the moorings are large concrete blocks and in trying to reach our ball, we had contacted the block of the adjacent mooring. In such tight spaces we were going very slowly so I doubt much damage was done to our keel. But in tipping us, the halyard rubbed against and broke our radar reflector. We will need a new one. Not too expensive.
This was our third consecutive dinner with friends. Lee and Patty are from home. he is in my book group and we visited their home in Hyannisport two years ago and met them at Redbrook last fall. Neither two day friends not half century friends, but 21 year friends. I've been very guilty of late of failing to take enough pictures. Lene has been doing a good job as ILENE's Communications Officer and I would like her to become the boat's Photographer as well.
Next day was an all sailing day. We left the twisty channel at near high with an extra three feet of water under our keel and then covered the 18 mile "route" to near Cuttyhunk by four passes across Buzzards Bay, with our "track" measured at 29 miles. The first crossing was west, then south, west and south again. The first crossing was with main and Genoa but as you know we have to furl that sail to make each tack and Lene asked for the small jib on the remaining three tacks and we gave up some heel but not much speed with it. In Cuttyhunk, we took a mooring but did not lower the dink or go ashore. So I'm not a Gentleman afterall because Gentlemen don't beat to windward, but is was a lot of fun. Six hours underway, with 1.4 of them with the engine on.

August 26 and 27 -- Portsmouth to Manchester by the Sea to Scituate, 40 and 23 Miles

Here is a view in the morning sun of all of the Isles of Shoals, at which we stopped while outbound. There we had a free mooring provided by the Portsmouth YC, while in Portsmouth proper we paid the reasonable $32 and thanked the members.
Not enough sailable wind from Portsmouth until Thatcher Island, off Cape Ann. This was the longer of the two legs of the passage. Sail up but not enough wind. We tried sailing off course on a close reach but not enough wind to make it worthwhile. Once around the Cape, we turned off the engine and sailed the rest of the way using the genoa at first and then the small jib and finally only the main. It was not clear that we would have a mooring at Manchester; the club did not answer their phone. But was saw "Sea Quester, by name, on the AIS and called them. Jamie used his influeence and got a mooring assigned to us, by name and lat and lon, in the outer harbor. This is acually the Atlantic, but the big bay, off of which Gloucester, Manchester by the Sea , Salem and Marblehead are all ports, is somewhat protected by a group of off shore islands. Half an hour later, the owner of the mooring came alongside and told us to get off his mooring. We did so, of course and called the club by VHF. It sent out a young man to point out another mooring to us. Jamie and Lori had worse luck: Someone unknown to them or anyone else at the Club had taken their mooring and left their boat. So they tied Sea Quester at the Club dock.

useful for off loading all the stuff that was aboard for their cruise.











Here are views from the Club of the inner harbor and the outer harbor.

They invited us to what are frequent socials on the club veranda. They bought me a drink chit and free soft drinks offered by the club whetted Lene's whistle. There were lots of tasty edibles some provided by the Club and others by various members. Had we known I would have whipped up something to make a contribution. They introduced us to their fellow cruisers and after an hour of this, drove us to a local eatery in town where we were one of three couples. And they got us back to the dock to make the last launch ride back to I
Next morning the wind was from the northwest, the best direction for a passage to Scituate on the Boston Area's South Shore. But not enough of it after the first couple of hours, so another motoring day. We passed through a constellation of freighters anchored out and saw the outline of Boston's skyline on our starboard beam through the haze. I took down the main without help from Lene, who was chatting with friends, gradually, without heading directly into the wind. And while doing so, noted a pretty white lighthouse. When the job was done, i looked at the chart and saw that the light was Scituate's and we had motered about 1/4 mile past the entrance channel.
We tooka mooring at the Satuit Boat Club, lunched, and took the launch to the clubhouse for showers. Then walked about a mile to town to provision. As much as I like sailing, I think Lene likes provisioning. We buy some groceries, especially perishables, nearly every opportunity and this was no exception. But we eat well and of healthy foods. We carried our bags only to the nearby Harbormaster's office where he called our launch which picked us up in town and took us to our boat.
A few hours later it was time to have dinner with Hugh and Arlene. He served with he on the USS HAmmerberg, ending in 1967, and they live in Boston. They came out to dine with us and we ended at the same place in Scituate where i had first tasted Lobster, Mac and Cheeese. And it wass just as good this time. Hugh had just come back from an Alaska cruise with kids and grandkids so we swapped Alaska stories and got caught up. We had not seen Hugh for about four years, when he visited NY with grandson Levi and toured Governor's Island with me, as reported in this blog. Hugh is a good sailor. So on two consecutive nights we dined out with quite different friends: Jamie and Lori whi we knew for two days and Hugh and Arlene who I have known for 51 years!

August 24 and 25 -- Five Islands to Jewell Island to Portsmouht YC, 22 and 50 Miles

We are really homeward bound these days with longer passages to eat up the miles. We had planned to stop in Portland. Lene loves the vibe of that city and I like it too. The Centerboard YC in South Portland, with launch service across the harbor to the heart of downtown could not accomodate us. We next tried for a mooring at Peaks Island, nearby, but $65 per night with no showers or launch service. Yes, we can aford it but I don't like to pay it. Portland is pricing itself out of reach for middle class sailors. It seems that whenever a port becomes known as a place for $uper Yacht$, it means that the people with big money have bought the place to the detriment of others. While we were enroute, toward Portland,with winds from the south predicted, we thought of anchoring in Jewell Island and cancelled at Peaks. The sail started as a motor passage but eventually the wind came up.
We have been to Jewell about six times with various guests and it is a great and convenient spot, with great hikes to interesting spots. We entered from the west, for the first time and were the second sailboat present. We put out 50 feet of chain The air was so quiet that though the hook of the snubber line fell off the anchor chain, we did not notice until hauling anchor in the morning.
This visit we did not even lower the dink to hike ashore. As we were getting comfortable a dink was  floating past us to the other boat, a Sabre 362 named "Sea Quester" (Nice pun in there!). Jamie and Lori were in it. Almost home from a one month cruise to New Brunswick with four other boats from their Club.. They spent the last fourteen summers before 2018 cruising Newfoundland. We asked if they wanted to hang with a line on ILENE and later if they wanted to come aboard. Yes. But they had to board from the side because the dink blocked access to the swim platform.

They knew the Saga 43 because they had also made friends with Liz and Mark of "Saving Grace" who we met in Baddeck and who stayed in our apartment for a few days last fall while heading south. Jamie and Lori are nice folks with interesting professions, who live outside Boston and keep their boat at the Manchester YC in the tiny harbor of Manchester by the Sea. They declined libations but invited us to visit their Club and break bread with them two days later.
In the morning the air was so light that we put up the main while still on the anchor. Once clear of  Jewell, it was a one waypoint straight shot to the entrance to The Piscatawa River, in which Portsmouth, NH is located. The wind was almost sailable on a closehauled port reach, but not quite. The sails helped a bit but it was a motoring day. Lobster pots are not dense here but a vigilant lookout for them was required. Along the way, the shackle holding the block of the mainsheet to its traveler track gave way. I replaced it with a spare. This last happened in much heavier wind off Hyannisport in 2016 and should not happen! I have to get a more heavy duty shackle. Also, the Velcro strap that secures the starboard side long tube-batten at the top of the stack pack slid off and I shoved the tube back in and resecured it.
Once we got to the waypoint we turned to starboard we had a brief sail. But the water's in the river were ebbing strongly against the incoming wind creating very rough waves and with the course being a run, after one controlled jibe, we stowed the sails and motored the last two miles to the Portsmouth YC. Grabbing the mooring meant that Lene had to maintain a speed of about three knots in the water to inch forward while I tried to grab the bridle by boat hook-- no pickup stick. Third try did it. The Club is small and its $32 fee quite reasonable. We took in the launch, took showers, filled our four one gallon drinking water bottles and walked the few blocks to the store which was closed for a catering engagement.

The fuel dock opened early and we got to is earlier and fueled up before departing at 8 the next morning.

August 22 and 23 -- Harbor Island to Oar Island Cove to Five Islands, 5 and 17 Miles

Sp what happened to that lay day in the rain anticipated at Harbor Island? Well in the morning the weather report foretold gusts to 25 knots from the NW that night, which made Harbor Island unsuitable with its exposure to North winds. So we moved and looked for a better protected spot. The cruising guide suggested several nearby coves, but noted how chancy they were in terms of finding a space within them -- filled with lobster boats and private moorings, though you can ask and maybe there will be a welcome. That would be fine on a nice day; they were all near enough and if the answer is no, we could move on to another. But it was drizling already and foggy, though with almost a mile of visibility.
So we selected the Oar Island Cove, nestled between Hockock Point on the mainland to the NE and Oar Island to the SW. The cove is less than a quarter mile from where we had taken a mooring from the Audubon Society at Hog Island late in July. We had seen into Oar Is. Cove from there

and that there were many lobster boats but our trusty cruising guide said that there was room to anchor in 14 feet at low (24 feet at high) outside the lobsterboats. Another advantage of Oar Island was that our pink track on the MFD from Hog Island to Port Clyde ran right past Harbor Island, making it into the "route" to follow through Muscongus Bay which is beautiful with many small islands but which also has many underwater ledges. So it was a five mile lobster-dodging motor of following the breadcrumbs to the anchorage though it was five miles north when our objective was to go southwest, toward home. We did not like the first spot we dropped -- too close to the island, but the second was quite suitable. Oar Island Cove has a very muddy bottom, which provides a good holding power for the anchor but made lots of work for the salt water deck washdown pump. As I was finishing securing the boom, the snubber, the wheel, inserting the canvas connector between the dodger and bimini and closing the clear plastic front window of the dodger, the rain began heavily and lasted for three hours. A great opportunity to scrub the topsides of accumulated dirt and scuff marks with soap and brush - no rinsing needed.
After lunch I persuaded Lene to join me in a voyage of exploration of the area by dink. I lowered its aft and and let gravity remove the accumulated water through the drain hole. We looked at the place's "attraction"

the remains (ribs) of the 273 foot "Cora F. Cressy", built in 1902. When her sailing days were over she became a casino and finally a house of ill repute before being sunk intentionally at high tide. Her ribs remain and are used by the lobstering industry, which operates a big red factory.

We also visited the mainland dock of the Audobon Society, where people, supplies and food come to be ferried across to Hog Island, and spoke with a staffer there.

But the predicted strong NW winds did not materialize that evening.
The passage to Five Islands was a beautiful sailing experience. The winds were indeed from the NW and strong, but not to 25 knots. They were gusty making our speed quite variable, slow in the lulls and fast in the puffs. It came from our starboard side while we were heading south along the east coast of Pemaquid Pount.

We saw the lovely homes and the lighthouse that we had passed in fog on the passage from Linekin Bay to Hog Island.

Out past the point the plotted course was west and a beat and it appeared that we could not make it without several tacks in tight waters if we followed the route plotted. Tacking the Genoa is a tough job in big winds. We also noticed that the autopilot, which we use so much of the time, seemed to not hold very well. Auto steers while we work lines together, one (me) cranking in the furler while the other (Lene) eases out the sheet. And without that third hand the plotted course was not a pleasant one. So a change of plans: instead of going west, north of The Hypocrites, and them southwest to enter the Sheepscot River to Five Islands, we turned southwest first and passed south the Hypocrites and by the White Islands before going more west and tacking to head up the Sheepscot. On the SW course, with the wind about 60 degrees off the starboard bow, we made eight knots. And while we were heeled, it was much less so than would have been the case before the keel was lengthened. I think the boat was tested today and passed the test.
Later we hit a lobster pot. Maybe it is harder to concentrate on avoiding them when there are fewer of them. An alternative potential theory: the lines leading from the floats down to the traps on the bottom, 80 to 120 feet below, are not vertical but slant because the wind and current pull the float along the surface of the water. So, maybe the new deeper keel catches the lines unless we give the floats an even wider berth. Who knows? I think we shook off what we caught, but will dive to confirm this in the morning. After the tack we put up the small jib rather than the genoa. With less power, facing the wind and the river's current and tacking upsteam at four knots, and knowing that there are only three available moorings in Five Islands, the free ones provided by the YC, we motored the last two miles.
The mooring field is created by five small off shore islands, tightly packed and has 35 feet of water at low tide. We circled around in in looking for the available moorings and found one. The attraction here is the Five Islands Lobster Company, where he dined at one of their outdoor picnic tables on the best "bugs" we have had this cruise.

 Lobster company left, then a bit of the Sheepscot,  ILENE center and the Yacht Club  behind her on one of the islands.
Then shopping to a small country store about 3/4 mile up the road for provisions. We dinked over to the YC to thank the folks there for their mooring. One undesirable feature of Five Islands. There is no potable water available other than in small bottles for sale. We have enough for two days, plus the water in our tanks and wil refill our gallon jugs tomorrow.

August 20 and 21 -- Belfast to Rockport to Harbor Island, 19 and 18 Miles

The first passage, to Rockport was rather boring—no wind, though I did run out the Genoa, twice, hoping for a bit. It was an ambulance run. Witty was ailing. What he needed was one of those subcutaneous fluid shots. We got an employee of Rockport Marine to drive us to the vet and the regular taxi service was less busy later in the day to drive us back. During the ride to and from the vet’s office, we finally got to see a bit of Rockport beyond a one block radius of the waterfront. But we declined the fine dining in favor of Lene’s delicacies. Dr. Edelbaum was very professional, friendly, successful and inexpensive and the Whitster now has a chance to use another of his nine lives.

But the next day was a fun passage to Harbor Island. We hoisted main and Genoa in Rockport Harbor, feeling some puffs from the port side as we headed south. But the wind was insufficient and we motored for the first hour at 6.5 knots, the sails doing nothing. Ah, but then we were able to turn off the engine and sail all the way to Harbor Island. We had the wind to port and it got to be a very broad reach as we reached the turn to the west in the narrow straight between Davis and Benner Islands. At this turn the excitement, though it was done rather well with Lene steering as i handled the sails. We gybed and left Penobscot Bay for Muscongus Bay with a very broad starboard reach up Muscongus Bay to the anchorage. I even tried wing on wing for a while, but the need to avoid a shoal area spoiled that. We had the tide with us all the way, south, west and then north, and we had the luxury to go slow, as slow as 3.2 knots for a while. We completed the passage between 9:15 to 2 pm. Yes, there are lobster traps everywhere in Maine but the infestation is not as great here as in the eastern Penobscot and the Mount Desert regions – and the floats are rarely toggled outside of those regions.

The anchorage at Harbor Island is actually the space between that island (to the right) and nearby Hall Island to the left. It is guarded by massive shoals to the south, only a bit of which are above water at high tide as here.

and hence protected except from Northern winds. The problem is that the area near Harbor Island is shallow, with ledges, a bit showing here.

So the anchor must be set seemingly dangerously close to the Hall Island shore,

though we had no problems on our second anchor drop With a lot of rain (but not wind) forecast for the next day, we were in 24 feet of water at low with 100 feet of snubbed chain and planned for a lay day. We were the only boat in the cove when we arrived, reminiscent of Nova Scotia,

but two other sailboats pulled in while we hiked on Harbor Island (the only humans on the rock) after dinking to the beach. It is a private island owned by the Lev Davis family, but they welcome boaters asking only for decent behavior regarding garbage, fires and pets. We went over to Harbor Islands west shore where Lene st on a rock while i explored a bit. She is seen only slightly but the sun on the water looks great.

Interesting rock formations on the beach; God is an artist. These layers are not horizontal, as you might expect, but rise vertically toward the sky! /the last of these has my shoe in it to give a sense of its size.

August 17 - 19 -- Bucks to Belfast and Two Lay Days There, 17 Miles

We had planned to visit a couple of coves in Northwestern Penobscot Bay and the town of Castine before Belfast, but Witty is sick and we needed to get his anti nausea drug. He is not seasick; it is an aspect of his bowel disease! Our vet in New York City had faxed information to a Belfast vet, so Belfast got moved forward in the schedule.
It seemed like a day for sailing at last - wind from the south and our course mostly west. Even in sheltered Bucks harbor we changed our fenders from one side to the other to face the wind when approaching the fuel dock. Once out of the harbor, we put up full main and Genoa and were making a nice 4.5 to 5 knots until the wind, which had seemed so promising, died; so the diesel engine had to work for a while more with little help from the main. But the wind came back, the genoa came out and we sliced west across the north end of western Penobscot Bay at speeds approaching 7 knots with no noise and virtually no lobster traps. This was only about an hour and a half but it is episodes like this that remind me that ILENE is worth the trouble she puts me through.
On the mooring in Belfast and the dink lowered and Witty in his carrier ferried ashore, we asked and with a modest gratuity the Assistant Harbor Master drove us to the vet.  Witty was definitely looking sickly but the local vet had an emergency with a rescued bobcat and could not see him, making an appointment for Monday morning instead. She did sell us his medicine and it appeared that the worst of his crisis was over.
It rained hard the first night and Saturday until about 11 a.m. I pumped the water out of the dink dried its seating pontoons and we dinked ashore in light drizzle. We did food marketing both at the IGA and later, at the Coop, which is much nearer, organic, and more expensive. We took in the weekly indoor farmers market and found our way into an interesting and packed lecture at the public library by the head of Tufts University’s philosophy department about the nature of consciousness. The prof. lives on Deer Island in the summer, the south shore of Eggermoggin Reach. We dined out twice: at a Laotian place and a place serving pub type food. We did a lot of window shopping in various galleries and took in a movie each day, “Mamma Mia” on Saturday and “Sorry To Bother You” on Sunday.
This is a small old town with a sense of its history. Last year we happened to be here during their annual Harborfest, which was enhanced by our hanging out with our friends, Bill and Sando.  This time our visit accidentally coincided the same event again, but our friends had not gotten back from Nova Scotia. Maybe they can join us in New York on their drive back to North Carolina.
The festival had the same events, including the building of wooden boats, but we did not attend those events this time. The fact that it was such a busy weekend for the town, and the New York Yacht Club Cruise was in town, meant that to accommodate us, the harbormaster had to assign us to a different mooring each night, not a tremendously big problem, just a short move. She is very helpful. Here we are in the center of the picture very conveniently close to the huge dinghy dock with room for lots of dinghys.

I took a tour of the huge shipyard with a travelift capable of handling 440 TONS!  It had a 56 foot catamaran whose season ended a bit early this year: the starboard rudder and prop were all chewed up. It can happen to any of us.

The town has its one traffic light at the historic corner of High and Main Streets.

The slope of the streets is quite steep for several blocks from the waterfront. The older houses front on the street but they have multiple attachments added in the back making for long skinny houses.

Maybe a zoning or tax issue? The historical society was closed on Sunday when I tried to find out.








We talked with the mate of the Bonnie Lynn, a steel charter schooner which she and her husband had built 17 years ago. A pretty vessel with all of its sail handling lines easily seen.

An original wooden bridge across the Passagassawakeag River, which flows past the town’s north side, was replaced by a concrete railroad bridge, which is now a scenic walking bridge.

Route 1 is elevated and passes just upstream from the walking bridge.

Witty seemed to get better during the weekend, so we had cancelled the 9 a.m. appointment on Monday and decided to push on. But Sunday night he seemed to deteriorate again and Lene asked if we could cut short our cruise by a few days, to which I agreed.  The fact is that we have had rather little wind this cruise compared to our past Maine cruises and I fear that Mother Nature may be storing up her energy to whack us pretty hard on the way home. So planning a few lay days into the schedule is prudent.

August 14 -16 -- Lay Day, Thence to Frenchboro and on to Bucks Harbor, 11 and 23 Miles

The lay day was in Spurling Cove, Great Cranberry Island; it was entirely due to fog. It lifted slightly in the late afternoon, from not being able to see the adjacent moored boat, to being able to see to shore, perhaps 200 yards away. So we made a visit to the island by dink and got groceries in a remarkably well stocked tiny little store by the ferry dock. They had most everything on Lene’s shopping list -- and delicious soft ice cream cones too. But a longer walk on the island - to its town center - was not appealing in the remaining fog so the day was quiet with reading, writing and lazing about.

Next morning was the same, fog wise, but by 11 a.m. it had cleared in Mount Desert Island’s Great Harbor -- to more than a mile -- so we departed for Frenchboro on Long Island. (Our plan to visit there last year as our first stop in the U.S. upon returning from Nova Scotia, was thwarted by the U.S. government’s stern warning: “Don’t set foot off the boat until we inspect it!” So instead we had stayed aboard, on anchor, in Long Island’s uninhabited Eastern Cove, before checking in at Northeast Harbor of MDI the next day.) This time, once underway to Long Island, the fog rolled back in. The eleven miles took more than three hours because (a) we motored slowly and (b) we got caught, acually twice, on lobster lines! I had been complimenting myself on not having been caught even once during our two or three weeks in Maine in 2017 and so far this year -- and then twice on one short passage. Lene was stationed forward to look out for the floats and there was no wind to speak of so it was another motoring day, but the current was running, stretching out the pick-up toggles’ lines, 20 to 30 feet from the fixed floats to which they are tied. In fact, for some pairs the fixed float was sometimes dragged under water by the current and hence invisible. Driving a boat with many of these pairs of floats about is like those video games where you drive a car and obstacles keep popping up in front of you all the time. And since you cant see where you are going in the fog, you have to keep an eye on the compass too.

We had towed the dink due to the lack of wind so I did not have to lower it to gain access to the swim platform. So, the drill: turn off engine, lock the prop, get naked, lower and climb down the swim platform into the sea, take a deep breath, bob under the boat to the propeller and strip the loops of tangled lobstering line from it.  The first time I got us off in three “bobs” and I had climbed aboard, toweled off, dressed, lifted the swim ladder and we had gotten underway again. The second time it took about seven such bobs. When we approached Frenchboro there was a remarkable temporary clearing of the fog for the last mile.
we saw this tug and tow which had hogged the center of the harbor entrance before getting underway next morning.

When we got on a rental mooring (they are no longer free but a very reasonable $25) I had a chill and was shivering. I got naked and into bed under the quilt, Lene cooked up a can of soup for me and within half an hour I was OK again.

The lobster shack, Lunt’s Deli, was closed this Wednesday for a “crew change” so no lobster. And the wonderful moss-covered trails that we so love to hike were not appealing in the fog. So we went to the town library, now open 24/7 during the summer and has good wifi. I counted and it has 300 linear feet of books, quite large for such a tiny town. That is where the last two or three posts to this blog were done. We met a teenage boy with two of his friends, playing video games in the library. He is one of the three students in Frenchboro’s one room schoolhouse.

The biggest surprise of the day was when we returned to ILENE. There had been a blue hulled boat on the mooring next to us when we arrived, but it had left during the time I was warming up. And then it was back again when we returned from the library. But no, it was a different blue hulled boat, and its crew, were coming to it by dink and hailed me: “ROGER!” It was Rick and Claudia and their two year old son Dylan of s/v “Charisma,” a Hylas 44. They have been living aboard the past two years and are fellow Harlemites. So two Harlem boats enjoying an accidental rendezvous on a very remote Maine island in the fog, what are the odds! In any event we had blueberry pancakes the next morning. We were hailed by three men in a runabout. "Would you like a free cup of coffee?" Lene said yes and it was good. They are the entire staff of the Lobster Butter Brewing Company and sold they coffee for $15 per bag. But it was not ground and lene offered to buy a bag if they took it and another bag of non-ground coffee from us and ground them both for us. Actually, while they grind on the island they market and ship to stores in other Maine cities. Their income, they said, was the pleasure they get from living on a very remote island.
We got underway for Bucks Harbor at about 11. The route was north of Swans Island, through Casco Passage across Jerico Bay and through Eggermoggin Reach. No wind at the start, but it came up and could have been a very pleasant beat up the reach, albeit against the tidal current, except we had to do laundry. So yet another motoring day. We passed this pretty boat with its passengers and others who were beating up the Reach. So the view that we dont follow a fixed schedule and hence can avoid beating by waiting out the fog or storms is not totally accurate. We could get a lot more sailing in if we were not governed by a route. This day, to get to Bucks, we travelled mostly NW, where the wind was coming from. If we were not trying to go to Bucks, but could go to a different port, southwest of Frenchboro, we could have sailed. But of course we had been through the southern part of that area in Northhven, vinal Haven and Mcglathery and wanted to get to the ports in the northern half of Penobscot Bay.

In Buck’s Harbor, before dinner at Buck’s Restaurant (reservations are needed because land people drive to it from miles around) while Lene did the laundry, I dinked out to s/v “No News” a Freedom 30.

This is Ken and Camille’s boat and they are Harlem alums. They keep their boat these years in Maine, in Buck’s Harbor, during the summer, and live aboard her, and store her after October in Brooklin, Maine, at the other end of Eggermoggin Reach. I spent a pleasant time chatting with him but Camille was napping. A nice cozy boat to which Ken has vented a propane heater. So two lobster pots was the negative but meeting two Harlem boats sort of balanced things out.

August 12 and 13 -- Winter Harbor to Roque Island and Return to Great cranberry Island, 36 and 43 Miles

We had visited Roque Island with Bennett in 2015 and this private island has not changed. I had recalled that the beach was covered with flat sea scoured pebbles but on this visit the pebbles were at the eastern end, with sand covering the rest of the wide beach. Maybe my pebble memory was erroneous.This is a natural crescent beach, which looks like the one at Orchard Beach, near the Harlem Yacht Club, except Orchard Beach was artificially created by New York’s park Czar of the 1930’s, Robert Moses. (Another Moses reference is coming up; wait for it!) Also, Roque’s beach is a lot bigger. I measured the straight line distance from one end of the crescent to the other, on the two nautical charts with dividers): Orchard Beach -- .52 miles, Roque Beach .98 miles.

But Orchard Beach may have 100,000 folks on a nice summer day while Roque had the people from nine sailboats plus a Giant Schnauser named Moses. We met his owners, Brian and Shelly of s/v “Aria,” a Hylas 46 while walking on the beach after dinking in. They invited us to a sing along -- and BYO communal eat along -- on s/v “Iolare”, a 46 foot Valiant, sailed by Ralf and Kelly. The fourth couple was Richard and Janis, who also had a sailboat in the 40’s range, like ILENE. It was Ralf on guitar, Brian on banjo and Shelly on vocals; and a good time was had by all. I took a good picture of the seven of them on Iolare but it came in upside down and I don't want you guys to sprain your necks. So I will send it to Ralf who can probably invert it and share it with the others.

This jaunt had the two longest passages of this cruise in Maine: 36 miles from Winter Harbor to Roque and 43 from Roque to Spurling Cove at the north end of Great Cranberry Island. I have a new method for measuring the lengths of passages, thanks to the MFD. It records the length of our "track" -- the pink line that follows the path we have taken from the stern of our boat, fairly accurately. So track length at the end of the passage minus track length at the beginning equals the length of the passage, to the nearest hundredth of a mile -- but we round.

We took different routes out and back, except when curving past the south side of Great Wass Island and its neighbors, where we kept about 800 feet from the massive rocks in over 100 feet of water. Outbound, coming from the north, we passed north, inside Schoodic Island, and through the "swash channel" in Petit Manan Island’s bar. We went south of these tight spots on the way back, because The Cranberry Islands are south of them. Here is Petite Manan Light.

We entered Roque through The Thoroughfare, the marvelous hidden entrance in the SW part of the land mass

but left through the gap between  Double Shot Island on the east side of the chart, and the island next to it, shown off the side of this chart.










We passed Red Head, dotted with hundreds of white seagulls,

(and Black Head too), the light on Mistake Island

and about a thousand toggled lobster floats. Try as I might, I could not maintain close enough attention to avoid all of then and nicked several of them with our propeller, but did not get stuck on any of them. On the way out, after heading north into Chandler Bay to reach Roque, we saw a seal, swimming nearby, a small one. His head looked like a lobster float. They floats bob under the water when pulled by current, like he did. He rolled over looking like a sleek piece of wet driftwood. That he seemed to leave a wake was not unusual because the currents cause seaweed to be caught on lobster floats so they look like trailing manes. But this guy definitely gave us the once over and then dived. Five minutes later a pod of 6 to 8 porpoises played along side for a few minutes, the first I can recall seeing so far north. On the way back, at about the same spot, we saw about 30 such seals, not swimming as a pack, but playing as individuals. I just finished reading Jack London’s “The Sea Wolf” in which most of the action, and there is a lot of action, takes place on the “Ghost” a sealing schooner, whose crew killed seals for their skins (prized by women of fashion) like Captain Ahab’s crew killed whales for their oil.

Our anchorage was peaceful and serene in 22 feet at low with 90 feet of chain out. And the geography of the Archipelago of islands that comprise Roque, which you can see on the chart, is such that there is also another large harbor on its northern side in case the winds are from the south.
Here is the whole beach from its pebbly eadtern end, followed by me on the sandy section with ILENE in the background and showing the gaps between the lesser islands through which we exited.

 

The sandy beach has a steep slope and the retreating waters during the ebb etch an interesting pattern in the sand.

Only a tiny percentage of pleasure boaters who make it to Mount Desert Island, go further, to what is called The Bold Coast -- no services and very few bots, sort of like Nova Scotia. The only problem with this particular excursion was the lack of wind. We motored the whole way, more than 12.5 hours. Outbound there was flat zero wind, no need to even put up the main to stabilize because there were no waves either. On the return trip, the wind was at our back at approximately the speed of the boat so the American flag hung listlessly. It was cold when we picked up the free guest mooring that the town of Great Cranberry Island maintains. I'm just stating the facts, not bragging to our City friends for whom some natural air conditioning might be welcome these days.

August 10 and 11 -- Somesville to Winter Harbor and Lay Day There, 18 Miles

A “sound,” I had always thought, is a body of water separating a smaller body of land from a larger one: Long Island Sound separates Long Island, New York from the mainland of the North American continent. If that definition is correct, Somes Sound is not a sound but a bay, cutting deeply into Mount Desert Island, a cul de sac, but with a lovely harbor at its terminus.

We left Somes Sound as we had entered, on broad reaches. Coming in we were pushed by south winds and departing pushed by north winds. We sailed under full main and genoa at about six knots, more in gusts. We passed the 140 foot Rebecca, which was being motored north, starboard to starboard. Once out of the Sound and into the Great Harbor of MDI we gybed to port and picked up better wind on beamier port reaches, though the wind was blocked somewhat by the Island itself. We passed he light on Beat Island, right in the Harbor. When we achieved nine knots, briefly, it was clear that we simply were flying too much sail. ILENE was heeled, but not at all like she would have been before the keel augmentation.  So we replaced the genoa with the small jib and continued across Frenchman’s Bay the wide body of water that separates Mount Desert Island’s eastern Bar Harbor side from Schoodic Point, which is considered the eastern end of the Mount Desert Region. We were zipping right along except for about 20 minutes during which God turned off his wind machine, leaving only the waves but not the propulsion.

Our destination was Sand Cove in Winter Harbor, on the east side of Frenchman’s Bay. This port had been scheduled as the first port of call of the Corinthians 2007 Cruise, our first Maine cruise aboard ILENE. But the port was scratched in 2007 due to rain and I had wanted to come here ever since.  Sand Cove is the largest and westernmost of the three coves at the northern end of Winter Harbor (so named because supposedly it does not freeze over in winter).

The Winter Harbor YC has its clubhouse and mooring field in Sand Cove. A very lovely club it is; not posh but rather old fashioned and rustic with large social rooms of wicker furniture, and an active program of racing. Founded only three years after the Harlem, they are proud to be the home of the “oldest complete continuously-raced fleet of sailboats in the country” a fleet of nine matched Winter Harbor 21s, all of which float on adjacent moorings in front of the clubhouse

and they are actively raced each week of the season. They have a pool that guests like us can use and a snack bar type lunch, with self busing of your dirty dishes and an automatic 20 percent tip. Good showers and launch service and an unusual rule: no internet is allowed in the clubhouse. So the posting of this blog will have to wait. We started to walk to town but were picked up by Hop and Marianne, long time members who told us a lot about the history of the place. Apparently, up until about ten or fifteen years ago, an influential member had caused the Club to get a reputation as being “not friendly to visiting cruisers”. Quite the opposite of that is true these days. And, for example, the launch operator drove over to the IGA to pick us up with our groceries.

To join you must own a home in the community and you may wish to join the adjacent community nine-hole golf and tennis court club as well. Very few of the members in their directory list the Winter Harbor area as their primary home. Rather, they live in Florida, North Carolina, California, Boston, New York, DC, etc., except in the summer when they live on Grindstone Point where the Club is located, and frankly there is not much to do in this neighborhood other than the activities that the club provides.

We had planned to spend the night as a good hopping off point to Roque Island, this summer’s furthest destination, and the longest passage since we arrived in Maine. But we learned that the town’s 56^th Annual Lobsterfest was being held the next day so we added a lay day in Winter Harbor. We missed the blueberry pancake breakfast and were too pooped to stay for the parade and fire works, but enjoyed the other activities. There were lobster boat races in the morning.

Lobstermen work hard and it is rather lonely work. But today in fourteen different classes, based on fuel and size, they raced and had a whale of a good time doing it.

We could see the races from our mooring but saw them better, closer, from our dink. These boats are made for dependability, but not speed. Yet the races, for each class, were drag races over a straight course for about a mile. No engines were blown and no one was hurt.

Then came the lobster dinner with communal seating.

It included the lobster, corn on the cob, cole slaw, chips, beverage and a great slice of blueberry pie: $20. Or if you feel hungry (like Ilene was) add a second lobster for $5 more.

Finally, we visited the craft fair and Lene bought a few things. We just lucked out that our schedule coincided with the festival.

August 7 - 9 -- McGlathery to Northeast Harbor to Somesville Harbor, 20 and 6 Miles

I've been told that diesel engines like to be run hard every once and a while -- to burn off deposits that build up at slow speeds. ILENE's engine got her workout between McGlathery and NE Harbor. We departed at seven and from a call to the clinic learned the last availableappointment was at 10:30, not 11;45, shortening our window. We saw no wind more than two knots so it was up to the engine. Our course took us across Jerico Bay, through the Canso Passage, across Blue Hill Bay, through the dredged channel off Bass Point (here is Bass point Light and it shows the smooth waters)

and then along the south coast of Mount Desert Island to the Western Way where we turned north and through the Great Harbor into Northeast Harbor, a long thin bay in the northeastern corner of the Great Harbor. Good tide or at least not adverse. Lots of lobster pots and here they "toggle" them, which requires dodging both ends of each pair.  during our 20 miles we passed close to thousands of them and only nicked one. The channel through the shoals off Bass Point is said to be dredged to a depth of fourteen feet, plenty for us if we stay in the channel. It is marked by a pair of red and white buoys, one at each end. Stay in line between then, like we did, and you will have no problems. It was easier on a day like this when there were no side winds. Waching the depth though it and we saw no less than 22 feet of water.
We took a mooring from Clifton's Dock. This is the fuel dock at which we waited for two hours last year for an agent of customs and immigration to "inspect" ILENE. Lene had called them and after we had lowered and started the dink and drove it to the dock, the manager drove us the five minutes to the clinic in her jeep-like car. The doctor on duty applied plastic strips which he "glued" on. He said they will fall off in ten to fourteen days and I'll be ok.
In Northeast Harbor we went to the only-game-in-town market, and paid the exhorbitant prices charged. We dropped off four days of garbage, took showers, visited the hardware store and lovely rare used book store and some gallerys and ate lobsters. "Rebecca," 140 feet long, was at the dock for the several hours it took her to take on 2500 gallons of diesel. Acres of gleaming varnished teak topside!

In the morning we brought ILENE to the dock for a more modest drink of 11 gallons of diesel and full water tanks. Since Boothbay she has burned .62 gallons of fuel per hour. Returning to the mooring we discovered a leak from the cockpit shower when the fresh water pump was on and fixed it.  Then we dinked over to the public landscape architecture. The estate, with a lovely though not ostentatious wooden house, overlooks the town from the east side of the harbor.

The house is open to the public, which asked not to handle the books in its library.

The gardens, one could see, required a lot of gardeners time to keep looking perfect ech day. They had many flowers and a section in milkweed. That is what monarch butterfies like to eat and they were present in both caterpillar and butterfly form.

We motored out of Eastern harbor and then, with the mild wind still from the south, were able to sail on very broad reaches up Somes Sound to Somesville Harbot at its head, two gybes required. I think this is our fourth trip to Somesville. I like the fact that we always find a free mooring here and Lene likes the Adadia Repertory Theater, about half a mile away. We saw Sacha Masha etc, a comedy by Chris Durang. A silly little story that gives its actors the opportunities to turn in larger than life, over the top performances. Two ladies gave us a lift on the way back to the dock at 10;30 P.M.
We had planned go three miles south to stay on our anchor at Valley Cove on the west side of Somes Sound, with its hike to the top of Flying Mountain that we have done several times before, but that was always in nice weather while today had a lot of rain. And I had fallen way behind in the blogging, so we kept the boat in Somesville and took the free public bus to Southwest Harbor where I used the wifi in their library to get caught up. We also had lunch in the Easyside Cafe, a lovely little family owned diner with great food at good prices served by members of the family and others. The only mistake I made here was eating so much that I had to turn down the blueberry pie, which was calling my name to me very loudly.  I am going to publish this post before the day and night are over, because we are heading east tomorrow to Sand Cove in Winter Harbor and then to Roque Island, for two days each, and I may not be able to post again until we get back to MDI.