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.