Days 55-56, August 11-12 -- Eastern Cove to Northeast Harbor and Lay Day There -- 11 NM

Two knots of wind from the south was not enough to move us north at the five to seven we are accustomed to go; so we motored, without putting up any sails. The course to the entrance to Western Way, from around the eastern side of Long Island is even easier than the one around its western side -- fewer shoals to dodge. But both are over miles of lobster trap strewn seas. Approaching the Western Way:

The western way is the grand thoroughfare into the waters south of Mt Desert Island and north of the Cranberrys  (Big Cranberry is under the forks tines, below). The large bay thus formed includes the two busy harbors and towns: Southwest Harbor and Northeast Harbor, and the much larger but less densely populated Somes Sound. Think of the way that Northport, Centerport, and Huntington Harbor are all approached from Long Island Sound through Huntington Bay. For most folks, coming from the west, The Western Way is their entrance to Mt. Desert Island.

Fork tines point to the Western way; spoon handle to Southwest Harbor; green knife blade to Somesville harbor at the top of Somes Sound; red thing to the "Eastern Way". North of the Western Way, at the tip of the steak knife, lies the busy moneyed Northeast Harbor, full of affluent people, both the residents and the boaters. This guy passed us on the way in.

We tied up inside Clifton's fuel dock at noon, the time we had told Customs and Immigration that we would be there. But they were having a busy day, including a cruise ship in Bar Harbor. Officer Smith did not show us his friendly smiling face until after two. He asked for passports and ships papers, asked if we had brought in any citrus and what we had purchased abroad (about 1/6 the allowable amount) and said we were cleared. "Do we get a number, some document?" "No; Welcome; You're in!" This was so different from when we came in to Fort Lauderdale from the Bahamas in 2012. Then they made us get off the boat and indeed to take a cab to their office to check in.
We refueled and took a floating dock. Such docks are moored fore and aft, take two boats, and use so much less room than individual moorings on which the boats swing. They also make it so much easier to essentially be moored fore and aft as compared to trying to tie up to a line stretched between two pilings.
Our neighbors, Neil and Nancy, out of Newburyport, MA, who gave up sailing for their Grand Banks trawler a year ago.

Later, Light Dancing had acquired an additional temporary passenger.

Most of our time here was spent cleaning and I changed the engine oil and filter and bought new oil to have as a spare.







A beautiful scene followed by detail views of ILENE at left and our dink in the lower right.

We walked through the residential neighborhood of older style mansions and had dinner at "The Colonel". On the lay day it rained all morning but we had a nice lunch off the boat with Barbara, a friend from Manhattan in whose Mt. Desert Island home we had dinner in 2013. By dinking across the harbor and tieing up to a public dock. you are set up to hike to Asticue Gardens on the far side of the bay. That would be a good plan and a reason to come here again, during our next Maine cruise.