July 13 -- Lay Day in Booth Bay

We spent a good part of the day at the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden, a few miles NW of town. This is a new attraction here, having opened only in 2007 on a large tract that borders the Back River, which runs into Sheepscot Bay, to the west of Booth Bay. Our tour was with a large group and our guide, Wendy, did a good job considering this was her first tour. When she learns interesting things about the various plants she will make an excellent docent. At this point the discussion was more about the history of the institution and the various sections, usually named after the donors who contributed the funds to make them possible.  Here is the lily pond, not named after Monet. 

One Garden of the Five Senses, has fauna designed to delight each of those senses and a display of gardening tools that handicapped people can use. The lawn was set up for a wedding. Several sculptures, both large and small are set throughout. The place is very eco conscious.They are open year round with many volunteers and a cafe and gift shop. They have plans to develop a lot more of their acreage. A lot of thought and money has been devoted to the place but perhaps the best part of it is the almost-wild sections, leading down to the river with trails and signage about various plants and rock slab benches. Electric jitney buses driven by volunteers take people around. We liked the Meditation center, overlooking the river, with the huge basin cut into a block of granite, polished in part, like many peoples' counter tops.

Our jitney driver, after her shift, saw us waiting for a taxi and gave us a ride back to the YC.

I thought of other botanical gardens we have visited, including those in the Bronx and Brooklyn at home, the two filled with tropical plants in Guadeloupe and St. Lucia we toured in 2010, the one in Richmond VA which was so enjoyable because our friend Stan (who we visited when in Yorktown) was our docent and knows so much about the plants, and the one in Portland Oregon, which was much like this one with its wild, not yet "developed" parts and which is at approximately the same latitude.

Our dinghy finally got its name, with the application of the plastic letters we had purchased back in Block Island: ROJAY, a corrupted spelling of the French pronunciation of my name, Lene's pet name for me. Many dinghies also would say "t/t ILENE", meaning "tender to ILENE". But this Roger tries always to act tenderly toward Ilene, so the extra letters would be redundant. (Here she is, looking pretty at the YC:)

Another theory for not adding the extra letters on the dink, one which I discount, is that naming the dinghy after the mother ship notifies thieves at the dinghy dock that the big boat is vacant, making it more of a target.

Then a dink ride into town; much faster than a cab ride -- a shot across the water. I had formed a bad impression of this port when we had moored in its inner harbor

one night on the way home during our 2002 trip. But that night was cold and damp and almost dark and we came in at the end of a long day's sail and left early the next morning. Today, in the relaxing sun, I could see the town's virtues. We saw Midcoast Clock and Music Box Company and asked the proprietor, Roger, if he could replace the inside of our seven inch brass ship's clock. New, they run about $150 but I had guessed that most of that cost involved the heavy brass casing, not the "made in Asia" works. I dinked back to the boat, got the clock, and after dinner, and payment of a mere $35, she runs again. My next chore is getting the brass to shine again. The second hand did not fit and the tide hand did not fit either. We never needed or used either; the tide hand keeps track of the tide in only one port and we cruise to many places.

There are three restaurants here, under common ownership and located near each other which everyone is talking about and highly rated by Trip Advisor. The menus are different but similar, as are the prices. We chose the Boathouse Bistro. The food was adequate but not special and the prices were moderate.  Another quiet night. This sunny weather has been accompanied by light winds.

July 12 - The Basin to Boothbay Harbor via Sebasco Harbor Resort

A mostly photo journal today. Warm and sunny this morning and all day. The second of our three months trip has begun. As we left the Basin we caught this view of it from around the elbow to the left. Low tide, so it is narrower and shallower.

An egret, perched high above his or her nest, and then launching off to the right of the nest, partly camouflage by the tree:

We jibed our way down the New Meadow River and headed east, past Mark Island,

not named after our Mark. Our guests finally enjoyed three hours of fun sailing.

We spent only three minutes on the Sebasco Harbor Resort dock, dropping them off and filling three one gallon water bottles, before taking off for the 17.1 miles to Boothbay at about 12:15. First no wind, then wind in our faces. Here is Bald Head, the extreme eastern point of Casco Bay, over our quarter.

This small passenger liner, "Independence" came out from the Kennebec River, presumably after a visit to Bath, and passed behind us.

We had decent wind off our quarter once we turned north around Southport Island up  Boothbay, after passing this pretty lighthouse so we turned off the engine and sailed.
But the wind died and when we got to moving at less than two knots, we motored the rest of the way.

From the YC we hitchhiked to the supermarket and took a cab back.

Lene dining al fresco on the feast she made for us.

Alfie enjoying herself exploring her "patio".

July 11 -- Sebasco Harbor to The Basin

Well here on the far eastern side of Casco Bay, the day did not go as planned. I get to make blueberry pancakes only when we have guests because they are not on Lene's food plan. My first attempt was thwarted in South Freeport when our new English friends could not make it. I had promised pancakes to our guests today. But while we have the blueberries and everything else -- not the pancake flour. Drat!

Our plan was to sail to Snow Island, where I have never been before, about 10 miles away, up one of the rivers. It was expected to be much like the Goslings - unspoiled.  BUT: 1, no wind so motoring and 2, a killer fog. We can sail out of fog if we need to, but it is dangerous when it is as thick as it was this morning, so why sail into it. So after scrambled eggs with blue cheese, home fries with regular and sweet potato and bacon, we sat around hoping the fog would burn off. At noon we decided to use our guests' car to visit Bath Maine, which we had visited in 2008, for four days. It is a lovely town where the main industry is the building of military ships, including the USS Hammerberg, DE 1015 in 1955.It had four bookshops. It is only eight miles by car, though a lot further by water, up the Kennebec River.  I thought that if we got back, even as late as 6 pm, if the fog had lifted, we could still sail to The Basin, only 3 or 4 miles up the New Meadows River. From here we could safely retreat to bring our guests back to their car, even if it was foggy. But at noon, just as we were about to depart, so did the heavy fog, and the day eventually got sunny and hot. The Basin is a natural "hurricane hole" sheltered from the waves by being entered through a passage off the New Meadow River with a ninety degree elbow.

This entrance is much narrower than it looks, especially at low tide, when the shallow parts at the sides disappear, yet look how full of lobster pot floats! The right turn is to the left, at the end. We had come here in early September '08 to hide out from a passing hurricane and ILENE veered and danced on her anchor for a few bad hours in the middle of the night in heavy wind and rain, while I sat in the cockpit ready to start the engine to relieve the strain if need be. Today, however, it was windless. I stood in the dink and was able to clean off most of the black vertical streaks on her sides caused by dirt that washes off the deck though holes in the toe rail. They said that the water here is warm enough to swim, but it has been a cold spring and I did not test this out. Kyle, climbing the swim ladder, did. (Note cats' ladder by his left arm.)

We explored portions of this saltwater "lake" that were later uncovered as rocks when the tide went out by dink. It has several long arms or coves and a few lovely homes and a dozen or so boats moored by their owners who live ashore. As far as we could tell, we were the only boat with people aboard at night. We spoke to a fisherman, a kayaker, a lobsterman and to the owner of this lovely low aspect ratio sloop, Sorceress,

formerly a working fishing boat. Unlike ILENE, this boat's sails run a lot longer horizontally, at their bottoms, as compared to their height.
Tomorrow, we need to drop off Mark and Kyle at the resort by noon and I plotted a course for the Boothbay Harbor YC, only 17.1 miles further.
Lene cooked up a delicious dinner of pasta with the meatiest red sauce and sauteed zucchini.
So a great day after all, though it did not come down as planned

July 10 -- The Goslings to Sebasco Harbor

I cleaned the boat from about 7 to 1 with a break for breakfast and several others to set waypoints for Lene. She helmed the boat ninety percent of the way. This was unusual, but explicable because she would rather helm than vacuum. Our course was a big curve: southerly, then east and finally northerly. The wind helped us on the first part, and we flew the Genoa, on a close port reach. The easterly portion was dead into the wind and the northerly (with favorable tide) was too short to bother unfurling sails again. The current was strongly against us most of the way, especially in the narrow spots heading south and south east. We made the fifteen miles in a bit under four hours, arriving on our mooring about five minutes before our guests, Kyle and Mark, arrived by car from a small town near Burlington VT. Immaculate timing.

Kyle is in real estate there and Mark is a writer. Lene met them in New York and they have sailed with us out of City Island and been to dinner parties at our land base in the city. About three years ago they moved to VT, got married, and we have not seen them since.

After they got settled in we lunched in the cockpit though it was foggy, damp and dreary all day in this small cozy harbor of the Sebasco Harbor Resort.(Mooring here for $40 per night is a bargain compared to room rates from $179 to about three times that much.)

Visibility was adequate but we and our guests decided to just chill out on the mooring for the afternoon rather than do any more sailing.

After lunch I enlisted Kyle to ride up the mast in the bosun’s chair to the first spreader to reinsert the line used to hoist the club burgee through the small block attached to the underside of that spreader. (Too busy hoisting him to take a picture, sorry.) That line had chafed through near its end and the burgee had fluttered down onto the deck. All fixed.

Before dinner we went ashore in the old wooden fishing boat that serves as a launch here to look at the resort. It has a variety of cabins and larger structures that serve as guest rooms, a large, warm, salt water swimming pool set on a point of land protected by a seawall, a nine hole golf course, a convention center (a large group from around the world who work for Phillips Electronics was having a meeting), a small fitness center with showers (which we used), a croquet set on the lawn, a kayaking school and two restaurants, set one above the other at the waterside in a yellow building. (Note how low tide is.)

We had dinner in the lower restaurant; lower in elevation and pricing. Returning to ILENE, we played cards before bedtime.

July 9 -- Falmouth Foreside to "The Goslings"

First a nasty little job: we still had some pink propylene glycol antifreeze in the bilge together with a wee bit of oily stuff, salt and fresh water, and a lot of grit and grime -- and a resulting smell.  I should have done this in May. This diary does not omit the nasty bits of the sailing life. Removal of the salon table gave access and now the bilge is sweet!  Then a trip to shore to take showers. ILENE has two indoor showers, plus a third outdoor shower in the cockpit, but so far we have not used them, showering at the various marinas and Yacht clubs where the hot water supply is endless and cleaning soap scum is not needed. The Portland YC, founded in 1869, fourteen years before the Harlem, has very nice showers including stacks of their soft fluffy white towels. And while ashore we went up to the main road and turned right to visit  Falmouth-Foreside’s county store (dish washer detergent) and then went the other way to the Handy Boat dock which had a lovely restaurant and a ship store (boat soap). Normally our almost daily shore excursions are in the afternoon, after the passage, but not today.  I mentioned lobster, mac and cheese in Scituate posting, thinking it was a new invention because I had never eaten it before. But since then I have seen it on other menus. Today’s new treat, for me, was a BLT with a layer of scallops added. Yum.

Then it was off for the nine miles to the Goslings. We started on motor due to light wind but after a few minutes, the motor died! I called Lene up on deck to take the wheel, put up the small jib to try to give the possibility of steerage so we would not drift onto the rocks, and after a few minutes, shifted to the other fuel tank and she started right up with no problems for the rest of the day. I have to shift back to the first tank and try to run the engine while on the anchor before we get underway again. It is scary when things go wrong and I don’t know why. Today I "rebooted" the engine!

We changed to the genoa to help the engine and were close hauled on starboard tack the whole way, heading NE. But it was slow, about 4 knots, against a weak tide, and I made the mistake of towing instead of lifting the dink on its davit bar. I did this both because I am lazy and because the risk of big waves here in the protected bay with good weather is very remote, so tipping the dink over was not a concern. The downside however is that we are towing a big sea anchor. I have put the dink up on the bar for tomorrow’s passage.

The Goslings are two tiny islets just east of the south end of the larger Lower Goose Island. (Geese beget goslings, get it?)

This is a somewhat sheltered anchorage area in a naturally beautiful setting. There are about 30 moorings here,some visible with the only other boat here when we arrived. All but two are empty, and there is room for other boats, like us, to anchor. We were in 18 feet of water at low tide so we put out 100 feet of snubbed chain. On a nice weekend day there may be 50 boats here. Tonight though, just four. One enters from the east side through the gap between tiny Irony Island to the south and a reef called Grassy Ledge, to the north.

I went exploring, by dink, first to the north end of the west Gosling, where I cut the engine and rowed onto the beach to say hello to a group of two families led by Jim Tyler, left, camping out here in tents. You can see how low the tide is.

The Goslings' owners allow campfires on the beach, but bring your own wood, the island does not have enough of it. I did not stay for long because the tide had not reached dead low and when it did there is a sand bar between the two Goslings which might have barred the dinghy’s return. Next stop was off Grassy Ledge, where about 100 seals were lying on the rocks. Here is one group of them. I wonder if they mind that fishermen steal their food, or vice versa.

I cut the engine and rowed closer but they became afraid and jumped into the water. A home cooked dinner and a good night’s sleep.

July 8 -- Chore Day at Falmouth-Foreside

We didn't really have a plan and so the day got planned for us. We started thinking about the fact that our propane must be running low (there is no gauge -- the stove just shuts down when you run out) and that it may be more difficult to find places that will fill our bottle as we get further down east. So a cab ride to Portland and back, which cost five times the cost of the two gallons of propane. When I shut the valve, detached the tank from the hose that feeds it to the galley stove, there was nothing left. So then it was a mater of cleaning our gunk and rust from the propane locker as well.

Once in town we also visited both Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, (see I told you Lene has a supermarket obsession) plus an auto parts store to get five quarts of engine oil to be ready for next time and a drug store for a gallon of distilled water for the batteries. Back at the boat after lunch at Whole Foods, I checked out the batteries and brought up some cat food which are stowed down there with the batteries and again sanded down the edge of the door between the pullman berth and the salon. It fit in the winter when the boat was on land but when its hull is cradled with water the shape changes. Reinstallation and testing by pulling a dollar bill between door and jamb (thanks for that trick, KC) I have very little left to sand down before we will be able to close the door -- good idea with company coming in two days. Lene whipped up a very excellent and eclectic diner. Did I mention that it rained off and on several times today with differing intensities?

July 7 -- South Freeport to Falmouth Foreside

First a good word about L.L. Bean. In 2008 we bought a pillow to accent the salon. It was made of Sunbrella fabric, the same used for the dodger and bimini -- tough, outdoor stuff. But in the last five years, it had lost its brightness to grime. "Buy a new one!"" said the Admiral, they are only $30.00". But this year the color scheme ran toward orange and I had noticed that at one of the four sides there was a seam of running stitches for half its length at the center: see left side of pillow in photo below. So I picked out those stitches, picked out the stuffing material, which was loose fluffy synthetic stuff, and after laundry, restuffing and restitching, here it is as good as new.

While I was at it, this turned into a sewing day: I whipped the ends of five lines, including the new end of the painter that attaches the dinghy to the boat. It was almost frayed through where it had been attached to the dink’s D ring. It is now a foot shorter, and still plenty long enough. And some of those whippings were for two new short lines I have been using: one to tie off the boom to one side so it does not swing back and forth while on anchor and the other to secure the wheel from spinning in such circumstances. And finally the old blue sunbrella bag that covers, sorta, the folding cockpit table when it is not being used had an open seam. All fixed!

 

Cuteness break>

Our passage today was only nine miles from South Freeport to this bay side Portland suburb. I put up the main before leaving the harbor but it was a waste of effort because the wind varied from zero to four knots, mostly at the lower end, so the sail did no appreciable work. Normally its being raised at least helps stabilize the boat against being rocked by the waves. But today: No waves! The prettiest thing we passed was this home on the side of Littlejohn Island.

It overlooks about half a mile of water -- between that island and the larger Great Chebeague Island. But everyone passes right in front of this home because there is a string of rocks extending out from the other island, right in front of it, marked by a red buoy, that narrows the passage to less than 100 yards at this point. Classic understated elegance!

Our destination was the Portland Yacht Club, with 300 members who keep their boats on moorings. They have a two year waiting list for new members, the only game in town. On one side is the municipal mooring field and on the other a field operated by the local repair place. A sailing center, 99 percent of the boats are sailboats. We had a pretty good dinner at the Club. The house is about 100 feet above sea level, with a panoramic view, to the east, overlooking the fleet. First to the left, then to the right:

The restaurant does not have a license to sell alcohol!!! So I had two free pints because the law does not prevent them from giving it away.