Day 72, August 28 -- Potts Harbor to South Freeport 7 NM

In the morning, I did more cleaning while Lene did the laundry -- after our free blueberry muffins and coffee was delivered by Dolphin Marina. We did not get underway until 1:30 and used the genny alone on a broad starboard reach the whole way, with gentle winds and a tidal assist. We closed with a dark hulled sloop which was headed more west to our north, and took the lead, both boats using genoa only. We furled and motored into the harbor past Pound of Tea island (The price paid for it to the Native Americans)

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But I got a bit confused about the course to follow: which side of the second small island, to the right or the left, should we go.

We have been into South Freeport at least four times before and yet I was confused about which way to go.The water was in the 30-40 foot range so we just went to neutral and circled permitting the dark hulled boat to catch up and then we just followed him in. Easy.

We took a dock at the Brewers Marina in South Freeport in anticipation of the arrival of our niece, driven by her dad, Ken, who is not a boat person, making docks easier for him than moorings. Same procedure as when Ken brought his son, Mendy to us in Southwest Harbor, Mount Desert Island in 2013. But a failure of communications: They are not coming until tomorrow morning, having booked a motel room in Portland. South Freeport, the view out past Pound of Tea, is a pretty harbor.

We fueled up, 8.5 gallons since Belfast, and took 1.5 gallons of gas for the dink. The marina gave us a ride into Freeport, a couple of miles north, and we did the shopping that Lene was burning to do, mostly clothes for me and shoes for her, none of which were needed, but...
Another quiet evening.

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Day 71, August 27 -- Harmon Harbor to Potts Harbor -- 21 NM

10:30 to 1:45. A fast passage. We had entered what they call Maine's "Mid-Coast" during our passage from Tenants Harbor to Christmas Cove. Our next two nights, Boothbay Harbor and Harmon Cove, were also along the Mid Coast. Today we left that coast when we entered Casco Bay, in which Portland is the principal, let's say the only city. On the first of our four cruises to Maine so far, in 2002, (during a nor'easter) Casco's Portland was our first Maine landfall. The early part of the passage today was windless. Believe me, I tried; I threw up the genny -- but it was useless. Later I tried again and it gave us a couple of tenths. But at last, for over an hour, we sailed with just the genny at good speed over the open water (except for occasional lobster floats-- single ones, not toggled) across the open mouth of Casco Bay. Part of our speed was tide, pushing us from our port quarter. A mile from the harbor there is a very tricky narrow passage with one huge 160 degree turn and the wind somewhat blocked by the islands and behind us and the current pushing us out of the channel. Play it safe, Roger; use the engine -- to get enough speed to not be pushed sideways onto the rocks.

Potts Harbor has the benefit of being rather centrally located in Casco Bay, but from the looks of it on the chart and from what I had read, it appeared to be exposed in a blow and primarily used for lobster boats, not cruisers. But Lene checked it out in the website Active Captain and the newish Dolphin Marina and Restaurant in Potts Harbor had many rave reviews. The islands we had to get around to get here, and others, are reported to provide good protection in a blow. No blow occurred during our night there; perhaps Hurricane Harvey sucked up the entire continent's wind. Much of Dolphin's popularity comes from the extra freebie services for the same $35 per night mooring fee that others charge: they come out to your mooring ball in a launch and hand you the eye of your mooring, provide launch service, give out blueberry muffins and coffee via launch in the morning, have a great free shower and no charge for use of their washing machines, and provide kayaks and bicycles to boaters, all free. What else can you ask for?  Dinner was well prepared, nicely served in a room with a great view of many nearby islands (sorry, no pics)  and reasonably priced.

We spent the afternoon cleaning, in advance of the arrival of our niece tomorrow evening.

We will be back to Potts Harbor on our next trip to Maine.

Day 70, August 26 -- Boothbay Harbor to Five Islands to Harmon Harbor -- 11 NM and 2 NM

Fall is definitely in the air. It heats up by day but nights are in the 50's, including the low 50's.

A slow 11:30 start due to the short distance involved. But the 11 miles took four hours, so average speed was 3.5 knots. Part of the slowness was because the Admiral pleaded for me to use the small jib, not the genoa, which was not enough canvas with the leisurely winds. But she is a good mate in every sense of the word and I like to keep her happy. And we were in no hurry, with the primary attractions of Five Islands, on the east side of the Sheepscot River, being (A) the possibility of a free mooring and (B) a lobster at the Five Islands Lobster Company shack, the only business in town, other than a greengrocer about a mile walk away.

We passed this pretty light on Burnt Island early in the passage and later, the light on The Cuckolds.

But the 3.5 knot average speed does not tell the story. The first half of the passage was SSW out of Booth Bay, with the second half being NNW up the Sheepscot once rounding The Cuckolds, off Cape Newagen, at the southern tip of Southport Island. That large island divides Booth Bay from The Sheepscot River. During the first half of the passage we made more than 3.5 knots but once we turned west, preliminarily to turning northward, someone turned off the wind machine. (At that time we also saw another Saga 43 going the other way and hailed her on the VHF, but lots of boats do not turn on their radios and she was not near enough for me to see her name.)
The trip up the Sheepscot was s-l-o-w, with no wind whatsoever at times and lots of making only 1.5 knots speed over the ground, or less. Of course that is fun too -- trying to get every tenth of a knot out of your boat when there are precious few of them to be had. It was even more fun when we found another boat a quarter mile behind us who was, I assume, trying to overtake us. No way, small jib or not!

We did get a good mooring and I fixed a few things, cleaned a few things and lowered the dink in anticipation of the lobsters.

I do not know if this is true scientifically or, if so, why, but it seems that when a line in run through a set of blocks under load, many times, it gets twisted on itself and creates friction against the other parts of the tackle. Such was the case with our traveler lines and with the main sheet. So I took the lines out, untwisted them and ran then back through the blocks. We will see whether that improves their performance.

Two young lobsters gave up their lives for our gastronomic pleasure and nourishment. With corn on the cob and cole slaw, dinner for two cost $35.

Back on the boat as i'm hauling the dink up on its davits, a lobster boat came by and the Captain said that he had passengers to offload at the dock but would need his mooring in a few minutes. I have never been chased off a mooring by its owner before, however politely, and the problem with such situations is that dark is usually, rapidly approaching. A thought flitted momentarily through my brain: How do I know it's your mooring? But I sure did know that it was not my mooring. We motored around looking for another, but then left Five Islands for its neighbor to the south, the large very well protected Harmon Harbor. It's narrow entrance is indicated by a single not-lighted red buoy and coming in at dusk with low tide we saw the rocks all around it. Not a good idea coming in after dark. (This is looking out next morning at near low. The red buoy is the little dot seeming to protrude below the rocks at the right.)

We had been in Harmon in 2009. Then a very nice lady waved us to use the large well maintained buoy, located off her dock:

She even gave us a ride the mile or so to the lobster Company. No lights on in her house and it was getting very dark so we just took her mooring. Thank you, nice lady!
A very calm night except for the dance music of the wedding at the hotel on the bluff overlooking the Harbor from the other side, a bit to the left of this photo.

Harmon will make tomorrow's scheduled passage to Potts Harbor in Casco Bay a mile shorter than previously charted
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Day 69, August 25 -- Christmas Cove to Boothbay Harbor -- 7 NM

Such a short passage, south out of the first harbor and then north into the next, that we motored all the way and never put up a sail. On the way south there was no wind and on the way north it was in our face. At the tip of the "V" we passed inshore of this unusual lighthouse.

Unlike Christmas Cove, which was a new harbor for us, we have been in Boothbay in 2002, in the harbor for one night, and in 2013 where we stayed at the Yacht Club for two nights and visited the then new Botanical Gardens. Christmas Cove is residential,; Boothbay harbor is commercial.  We learned in 2013 that the easy way to get from the YC to town is by dink. This time, Tug Boat Inn and Marina gave us a better price and made the long dinghy ride unnecessary. We took the free trolley bus to Hannafords, the supermarket chain of this area, to buy provisions before a superb lunch out at Kaller's Restaurant. Simple dishes, very well done at reasonable prices. If you come here, try a bowl of their lobster corn chowder. They didn't say so but our estimate was that the meat of a whole lobster was in it. Then I got a haircut, we drifted among the galleries, took showers and returned to the boat for the night.

Day 68, August 24 -- Tenants Harbor to Christmas Cove -- 24 NM

Another very late morning start. Tenants is guarded by an island on each side of its entrance. This is looking out.

We passed its lighthouse on the way out.

Another day of SW winds and we sailed about three miles south of our intended course before tacking to go west. Again sunny and warm on shore but cold when sailing close hauled at sea. The big difference today was less wind and so after a bit of motoring, we used the genoa and reefed main when we could sail, without engine and achieved speeds in the low six knot range. A beautiful sail, without the feelings of nausea Lene had experienced the day before, which I failed to mention; yesterday was our roughest passage of this cruise, so far. I loved it; Lene, less so.
One issue emerged: two of the mainsail's five battens, the lowest of them, came loose and crept back out of their pockets a bit. I watched to make sure they did not jump ship completely, and in the evening we put them and the reefing lines back in. I hope they cause no further issues. This is the last headland before turning north up into the Damariscotta River,  on the east side of which Christmas Cove is situated.

The Cove was discovered on Christmas day in the 1600's. It is small with a 35 yard entrance between the red triangle and the green square. Pic is at low tide.

They put ILENE on a mooring right in front of the marina restaurant, an ornament to the harbor.

We took a walk 3/4 of the way around the Cove and back, about two miles round trip. A cold quiet night.

Day 67, August 23 -- Hurricane Island to Tenants Harbor. -- 17 NM

The day started foggy but brightened. We left at 11:15 and arrived in Tenants Harbor at 3:30.

We planned to follow the green diagonal line I drew on this chart, for the longest stretch of the passage, heading SW but the wind was from that direction forcing the orange zig zag. Seventeen NM is the distance by the shortest logical course; we did more than 20.
I got a strange sense of satisfaction when our track crossed the original waypoint at the beginning of what the chart calls "Two Bush Channel." Where do they get these names? I didn't see any bushes. I had installed the remaining parts of the mainsail before we got underway and we used reefed main and small jib, which was plenty of sail (lots of heeling)  in the face of strong winds, eight to ten foot high incoming ocean rollers, adverse tide and the need to frequently swerve to avoid lobster pot floats, especially on the first westerly leg.
As we approached the point at which we tacked west again, a large black hulled ketch crossed our bow, perhaps a half mile ahead. He kept going west and when we tacked, we were chasing him, but pointing higher than he did. we were on his starboard quarter and ended up on his port quarter, and then moved up and passed him. A secret pleasure that all sailors enjoy, even cruisers.
At the end of the four hours I was rather physically and mentally wiped out; I'm not as young as I used to be. But it was the happy exhaustion that causes a good night's sleep after consuming all ones energy doing what one loves to do best. Turning off the noisemaker and hearing the swoosh of ILENE doing what she loves to do best thrilled me. On a grey overcast day the big rollers can feel threatening but today, though cold, it was sunny and not scary at all.
We were last in Tenants in 2009, with Bill and Sandy.
A funny incident while trying to get to our mooring in the harbor: We had been told to look for the green ball and found only one, but with another boat on it. The lad came out and showed us our mooring; it was white -- but with a small round green inflated ball as the toggle with which to pick it up using the boat hook. In a harbor festooned with lobster floats of every color of the rainbow, the green pick up ball was not noticed.
I discovered that while the reefing lines worked well, they had been run wrong precluding use of the new zipper until rerouted.

We went ashore looking for Luke's Lobster Shack, but it is closed on Wednesdays so we ended at the Happy Clam, where Lene had a lobster and I had an entree from the German side of the menu.  In tourist places with a short summer season, I don't understand closing for even one day. They never close during the season at block Island. They had a pretty good little general store and lene bought some more food.
Pretty sunset.

Day 66 August 22 -- Rockland to Hurricane Island -- 9 NM

The spot on the dock where we debouched our mainsail was taken by a big schooner from Nova Scotia so we landed at an adjacent dock after negotiating around this trimaran (53 feet long by 43 wide).

Ned came over to say hello and chat a while. Doug Pope delivered our sail and helped me lift it from the dock to the deck. Cliff, from the trimaran helped me get it from the deck to atop the boom and its tack attached. The new zipper is much stronger than the old broken one. I put in some pins and battens but as afternoon approached with its stronger winds, I still have some pins, some battens and the reefing lines to reinstall. Thus the mainsail is not operative yet, but we had worn out our free dockside welcome  so we backed off and headed for Hurricane Island using the genoa. Two reasons for Hurricane. They have guest moorings and we have never been there The mooring field is on the eastern side of the island, which shelters it from the prevailing southwesterlies. We sailed SE with SW winds, battling tide and using genoa alone, at speeds of 7.2 to 2.8 knots. The need for frequent swerving to dodge lobster floats kills boat speed as well as sail trim.

It was hazy which developed to thick fog as we passed the White Islands to port, headed east between them and and then south along Hurricane Island's west side.There is a big Outward Bound camp here and we had hoped to explore the island's trails by foot. But the fog kept us aboard. I was worried that we would not be able to find the moorings but the fog thinned a bit, temporarily, and we got on.

Here is me forward fiddling in fog with the flag halyard.

The weather deteriorated with strong winds from the SSW,  which were blocked by the island, and waves and rain. The cruising guide had warned that it can get rolly here and we had a somewhat uncomfortable night and wet night. In the middle of the night I awoke with a start of fear: I had put the mooring penant's eye over the windlass capstan because the line's diameter was to thick to fit on the cleat. What if the eye jumped off the capstan? So I got up with a flashlight and a short piece of strong line and lashed around the eye of the penant, closing it on the capstan.