Boothbay is a nice tourist town - full of quaint shops with lots of tempting goodies.
They love to use the colorful lobster pot floats as decorations of the Maine scene. Yeah, they're colorful, but you can come to dislike them when you're trying to sail through them!
We are trying to see some new places this trip, so we opted to visit the Maine State Aquarium in Boothbay. http://www.maine.gov/dmr/rm/aquarium/index.html Just a short dinghy ride across the bay and we were there. A whopping $3 admission, but the aquarium is only one large room. We were initially disappointed and thought "oh, well, supporting the state", but once we were inside, we were delighted. Each individual aquarium is filled with a variety of local fishes, plus good info on each of them.
There is the usual "touch tank" plus a special one with rays and cat sharks that literally lifted their heads out of the water in order to be petted!
Rain all night - blissful, gentle, cool rain. Saturday morning broke clear and we headed for the Penobscot Bay, our favorite of the Maine bays. We decided to go to Tenants Harbor and anchor in Long Cove. Never been there before, so it seemed like a good idea. We had a good SAIL the entire 24 miles, but weaved through constant colonies of lobster floats. For the first time, we actually caught one under the boat. It's not a pleasant feeling to see a long lobster float line being towed behind the boat in 60 degree water. Fortunately, the pot "popped" free as we got to the end of the rope. whew!!!! Good thing we were actually sailing for a change, without the propellor turning.
Entering the chanel into Tenants Harbor, we loved the sight of the South Island Lighthouse.
As we are anchored just past it (on the other side) we were determined to dinghy over this morning and explore it....until we learned that the island and lighthouse are owned by Jamie Wyeth and visitors are not welcome for some strange reason! Seems the family owns quite a bit of property in this region.
Our anchorage in Long Cove is beautiful and calm today. Maine blue sky, crystal clear northern horizon, it's like having our own little cottage "On Golden Pond".
We settled for a ride into the town of Tenants Harbor. Cute houses, a small grocery store, PO, fish house/restaurant, and Lodge of some sort make up the entire town. So, we bought aluminum foil, checked out the local art show in the lodge, and bought 2 meals worth of freshly, locally caught haddock for a whopping $9. Dinner tonight!
You know it's a small place when someone leaves a painted sign like this for the city grass mower.
Here is a nice shot of the harbor from land.
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