August 5 and 6 -- North Haven to Seal Bay to McGlathery Island, 6 ans 13 Miles

Wedid not get underway from North Haven until after lunch, after the 1 p.m. matinee and motored the short distance though we did put up a headsail for a good part of it. We had not visited Seal Bay since our first 2002 Maine Cruise on the Tartan 34. That time we were with a group of about seven Tartans led by the dealer for them on his own boat, Joe, now in Florida. He shepherded us into the Bay, which is a salt water lake, at the NE corner of Vinal Haven Island, created by a number of smaller islands, the largest of which is Penobscot Island, off which we eventually anchored. The place is quite sheltered becuase the passages between theislands are so narrow. It is the most beatiful place, with granite boulders and ledges arising from the sea, topped with conifers. But it has many islands, some of which are underwater at higher tides, so you must have a lot of local knowledge of trust your chart plotter. Man standing on rock: only the white part shows at high tide. next is to the left of the top, showing the underwater beach by which he accessed the rock at low tide by dink.

We were secure with seventy feet of snubbed chain in 25 feet of water at high. In the morning we explored the waters further into the coves by dink and spoke with the folks on other boats before raising the dink and hoisting the anchor to make for out next stop.
That is when the trouble occurred. The anchor came almost all the way up, easily, no mud. But at the last minute, it twisted and its shank got stuck sideways between the stanless steel plates that guide it up and down. The shank is a long bar of metal aout 3/8 of an inch thick an tapering slightly but perhaps 2.5 inches wide. it was jammed so it could not come all the way up, though it was well out of the water, but more sig tnocantly it would not go down -- the anchor could not be used. What to do? First lets get out of here into the open but calm waters, half a mile outside of Seal Bay and far from any rocks. Then the rubber mallet came into use but several hard raps did nothing. at theis point we shut down the engine and drifted. Lene brought the WD 40 which I sprayed liberally. Then the mallet moved the anchor and it came loose. At this is the point of the big problem. Its 45 pounds fell about three feet before its chain stopped its further fall. But my right hand was holding that chain and was dragged down and was cut by the staniless steel sheet guiding the anchor. A deep diagonal gash across the back of the knuckle of my right index finger. Lene brought water, hydrogen peroxide, Bacitracin and a big band aid. And with the memory of the advice that Mendy had given when he sailed with us to elevate the hand, these measures staunched the bleeding.
Underway again for the passage across Eastern Penobscot Bay and through Merchants Row to McGlathery. And the wind came up and the Genoa took us at about six knots on a beautiful sail without the noisemaker.
McGlathery Island was a new port for us. The anchorage is a small bay set into the island's northern end but there were other boats present and we picked a spot  near the east side. There is a beach at which to land a dinghy but with my finger we let that go and did not lower the dink. During the first four hours we rested up there the pink line of the MFD's display of our track showed us dragging very slowly about 60 feet. It turned out to be a quiet night, in terms of the wind, but what troubled me was that while we had put down eighty feet of snubbed chain in 20 feet of water at low, the bottom sloped lower as we moved further from the island, making our scope short at the anchor's new location. So before dark we lifted and reset, to a spot where other boats had vacated, further to the west side of the Bay. In the process we discovered what may have been the cause of the dragging. The anchor brought up yards and yards of broad leafed seaweed which I poked and pulled at with the boat hook  to shake it off before resetting.
Our night at McGlathery was not a pleasant one. For one thing, a mosquito had infiltrated the boat. The other was that my finger was throbbing a little, indicating to me that there was infection. Ilene checked the internet, AT&T only, not Verison (needed to do this blog), and learned that there was a medical clinic in Northeast Harbor, our next stop, but only open until noon. So we made plans for an early departure and spent a restless night. There are so many great anchorages in Maine that I have to say that McGlathery Island is not one of my favorites.