August 23 — Day 45 — Castine to Long Cove — 33 NM

 Today was poorly done — by me — though not dangerous and all hands — and paws — are safe. It was the negative side of cruising. Bet you never thought you would ever hear me admit that there even is a downside to cruising. But even with the luxury of what will be approximately a two month cruise, our days aboard are finite and we had to go today. We committed the cardinal sin of agreeing to meet friends on future dates. We made matters worse by a delicious breakfast in Belfast and hence did not get underway until 10:05, after the favorable tide had ebbed away leaving us adverse flooding tidal current during virtually the entire six hours and twenty minutes of the passage. Our route took us from the north end of Penobscot Bay, along its west side, to its south end - homeward. We passed Camden, Rockport and Rockland, all great ports we have visited before. I had elected the short logical route, through the Owls Head and Muscle Ridge Passages which wend their way among islands off the shore. We have travelled that route both north and south on prior cruises. Here is Owls Head Light.

We passed several more of the schooners; perhaps a dozen of them operate out of Camden taking tourists out for day sails or week long cruises. But they were going east or west enjoying the wind while our course was south, into it. 

The island passages we transited focused the current and the wind, which grew to 18 knots apparent, in our faces and forced us to furl our sails. The wind would have been great for sailing, with reefed main, had we been willing to tack, outside those passages, but the Admiral did not want to, and on a long passage, tacking makes it longer. Lobster pots were not prevalent in the northern part of Penobscot, the lobsters having presumably decided that the cooler ocean waters are preferable, but were abundant toward the end of the six hours.

We were headed toward Tenants Harbor which we have also visited on past cruises. It is crammed with moorings, one of which we planned to rent. They take up all of the acreage and thus prevent anchoring. It also has a few places in which one can eat. But the Cruising Guide mentioned  adjacent Long Cove, with tons of room for anchoring, in waters of the appropriate depth of eight to 13 feet and a good mud bottom for grabbing anchors. And we had never been here before and had lots of food, so… we anchored in 18 feet of water at a spot charted as eight feet at low, with sixty feet of snubbed chain. 

These pictures show first a portion of Tenants Harbor from ILENE, across a shoal barrier that separates the Harbor from the Cove, and then the vast open area in the Cove.