Acadia and places as we head back to Rockland

We’ve again been without reliable (or any) cellular or wifi for about a week.  The antennas aren’t allowed in national parks, so getting wifi around Acadia is hit or miss.  So far, we’ve mostly missed!  But today we are in Vinal Haven, back in the Penobscot Bay! Wifi is still available only through the ferry terminal when open or the library.  We can get the ferry terminal wifi while we're on the boat, but it's slow.  I'm giving that a try.

It was nice to be in Acadia again.  We rented bikes and rode on some of the 57miles of carriage roads built for guests of the Rockefellers and islanders between 1913 and 1957. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. financed the project.  Horse drawn buggies mostly used them then – now it’s a mixture of walkers and bikers.  So, these 2 bikers set off.

One of these two bikers thought she was going to die after walking her bike up long, long hills.  I could ride DOWN the hills :-)  but the long inclines were too hard for me. I told the bike rental place that I should get half my money back as I only rode the bike half the time!

Luke was a good hubby and rode slowly beside me or followed to make sure I would make it.

The views were beautiful.  The Bubbles and Jordan Pond.

A view of Bubble Pond.

The view from the rock where we stopped for our lunch.

The pond at the starting point of our bike ride.  Acadia National Park offers not only buses around the entire park, but also special buses to take riders and their bikes back and forth to the pond.  All for free, subsidized by the LL Bean Foundation.

To reward ourselves, we had the famous popovers at the Jordan Pond restaurant.  YUM!

A different day, I went to West Marine at SW Harbor to pick up some boat parts while Luke hiked a trail that I didn’t want to do (this would be the day after the bike ride/walk...).  The Echo trail starts at the quiet Echo Lake beach.

It climbs to a nice overview of the lake. 

Glad I didn’t go – here is part of the trail…. Note the ladders!  Too steep for steps! The first picture actually shows 2 sets of ladders to get up that section. Luke was clever enough to do the steep part on the way down!

There is a nice shore walk along the western side of Mt. Desert Island.  We took a short hike along it, maybe 2-3 miles, to see the rugged shoreline.

We also met up with friends we met last year, Mary and Dick.

They live nearby and have a CAR.  That meant a nice ride up to the top of Cadaliac Mountain instead of either hiking it (did it once…) or paying $52 for the privilege of taking a private bus to the top for a 15 minute stay.  You can see some of the many islands.

After a week at Somes Sound, we spent a night at the deserted Pond Island.  A narrow creek runs into the island.

And just as named, a pond!

Next, one of our favorite islands to hike, Buckle.  Dinghy on shore, waiting to float out at high tide and wait for us (she’s anchored)

This smaller island is where we picked muscles last year.

Fall is fast approaching in Maine.  Red leaves are already starting to drift down.

One the best parts of the walk around the island is the green door!  Right in the middle of the trail, it sits with the current message “will the last one out please turn off the light”.

Luke was the last one out!

Yesterday, at Carvers Harbor, we picked up a few groceries, had  haddock and fries baskets for lunch, and did a bit of walking around.  Planning to leave soon to go to Holbrook Harbor, near Castine, for a few days before our last run to Rockland to leave Latitudes for the winter.

Bar Harbor

Ahhh, we love anchoring in Somes Sound and using the buses to visit Bar Harbor and Acadia.  The buses are free, compliments of LL Bean, and use natural gas instead of stinky gas or diesel.

Although there are designated stops, the buses will stop almost anywhere that they can if you wave them down.  Our bus stop is at the Somesville library, across the street from the pretty little Historical Museum.

All bus routes start and end at the Village Green park in Bar Harbor.  It's a nice little square, and it is green.  At least this time of the year, it is!

Lots of blocks of stores, all vying for the tourist money,

It was a good day.  Pizza!

Ice cream! (are you seeing a trend here?)

We were successful shoppers, too.  Luke snagged 6 books and 3 or 4 music CD's for $3 from the town library's 1/2 price book sale.  Oh, and a haircut.

I found a brand new, tags still attached, $75 purse at the local thrift shop for $5!  Oh, and a haircut. and groceries.

Here is view of Somes Sound as we head back for Latitudes and Smokey.

She was ecstatic to be let out and into the warm sunshine.  She IS a cat...such a cat...

Last night we had high winds, almost 30 knots at times, and slept little.  Latitudes and our anchor did great and we never budged from our anchored spot.  Today, Luke took the bus to go off for a hike and I took the bus to go into SW Harbor to do a little shopping.  Back at our little library to do the blog.

We have reserved bikes for tomorrow to ride the carriage trails in Acadia.  Should be beautiful!

Eclipse!!!!

We didn't have the glory of a full eclipse, but here in Bar Harbor, we had about 64%.  It was still wonderful.

Luke rigged up the camera to take pictures through the little eclipse viewing glasses.  Here is pre eclipse.

And the 64% eclipse!

Latitudes is sitting in Somes Sound, just a short free bus ride away from Bar Harbor.  A lot of other folks think this is a great place to anchor and explore Bar Harbor and Acadia.  It is.

We plan to take a few days of our last couple of weeks in Maine to visit here, getting haircuts, biking in Acadia, visiting friends, meandering around in Bar Harbor, and eating PIZZA!

Jonesport

We awoke to clear, blue skies - fog was gone!!! In the length of time it took to look out the port window, get dressed, and make the bed, the fog had rolled in again!  ^$^##@@!*&$)  So, we waited it out. By about 10, the fog had lifted enough that we were comfortable moving from Mistake Island to Jonesport.

While in Mistake we had spotted a large white building or ship or something. As we neared it, we discovered that large round salmon pens have been put in the waters near Jonesport.  The white something is the mother ship associated with the pens.  I guess they do some sort of work there, keeping track of all sorts of things to do with the pens. We assume that the mesh coverings are to keep the salmon from jumping out or the seagulls from jumping in.

It is a pretty big operation.

Lots of the little islands along the way had houses on them.  Some are new and nice, others are remainders of earlier times.  It must have been hard - no electricity or running water or outhouses or shelter from the elements...

When we got to Jonesport, we tied Latitudes up to a mooring "raft" - a large 6' x 20' open metal grate, floating and attached to a large mooring ball.  Two boats can moor up here, one on each side.  Then off to town, with one big objective.

It wasn't the view of the harbor, although it is a nice view of the various boats.  Latitudes is in the picture, too!

It wasn't the church, although the church is without it's steeple this year.  Hopefully it is under restoration rather than blowing down. This is where we had the great lobster dinner last year and met nice folks.

It was PIZZA!!!  Just a couple of blocks down the main street is an old gray wooden building, used previously as a store.  They still sell a few essentials, but it is a pizza shop.  mmm...good pizza!

Today was nice, but windy.  We did a bit of boat maintenance and laundry.  Luke got this wonderful picture of the harbor as the evening light was changing.

Hurricane Gert is sending wind and rain our way on Saturday even though whatever is left is offshore.  We will  take showers at the marina tomorrow and then head about 10 miles eastward to a sheltered cove to wait out the next two days. I think one more stop even further downeast, and then we'll begin our trip back toward civilization We have to!  Our electric blanket died!!!

Downeast to Mistake Island

We waited out the early morning fog and finally decided to make the run from Allen Cove to at least Little Cranberry Island at Acadia.  The wispy fog that was more like a haze changed within an hour to the damned "visibility limited to 1/3 mile or less", as NOAA describes it, fog that we hate.  So, we took refuge in Goose Harbor, on Swan Island, anchored, and waited.  About an hour later, all looked ok, so we left again.  As we passed Bass Harbor the wisps of fog were still evident around the lighthouse.

Latitudes was making good time, so we decided to go past Little Cranberry and continue to the Schoodic Peninsula.  As we  neared the entrance channel to Mt. Desert, the fog reset and looked much worse in the distance. So, a detour to Little Cranberry, another anchor, and this time, lunch.  Early afternoon showed clear skies, so we once again set out.  The skyline of Mt. Desert was on our port side.

The bank of clouds that you see grew, and became an announcement on NOAA weather radio of a line of severe thunderstorms, 60 mph winds, quarter sized hail, etc. Of course its location was defined by Main counties. Luckily we had cell coverage, whipped out our weather radar and concluded it would pass just to the north of us -- which it did. No more fog, but as we rounded the tip of the Schoodic Peninsula, the winds picked up. Not bad for our voyage, but making it much harder to locate the lobster floats.There are 3 coves along the peninsula, so we're great for finding a place to anchor the the night, right? No.  The first cove was filled with lobster boats and floats.  The next cove was beautifully clear of any signs of lobstering but too shallow for Latitudes to swing at anchor at low tide.  So, onward we went, to the last cove, Prospect Harbor.  We finally found a suitable anchoring spot there.

The harbor has both lobster boats and sail boats, all moored near the lobster processing plant.

The lobster processing plant was revitalized from a fish processing plant to lobsters in about 2013.  In 2015, they employed over 150 folks, with plans to built housing to enable their workforce to grow to   almost 250.   I love seeing independent American plants succeed!

Early the next morning - no fog! - we left the little channel, leaving behind the Prospect Harbor lighthouse with her pinkish morning glow.

Finally, we are really going to a favorite, Mistake Island!  En route, we passed the Petit Manan lighthouse, commissioned in 1817.

"Manan" means "island out to sea". For a great little history about the lighthouse, please see this webpage

http://www.newenglandlighthouses.net/petit-manan-light-history.html

According to the article, this is considered one of the foggiest places in Maine...we believe it...

And now, Mistake Island!  Mistake has always been a deserted, beautiful island, like so much of the Downeast area.  There is a deserted Coast Guard hut and automated lighthouse on the island.

A channel between two rocky islands takes us into the anchorage area for a visit to Mistake.

Much to our dismay, we found that the lobster men have decided to put their pots in the entry channel and anchorage area.  We didn't have this before. But we carefully made our way through and then even more carefully chose a spot to anchor.  Dinghy down, and off to the island.  That is the Coast Guard hut and dinghy landing spot on the right.

Not the beset dinghy spot, but it works at everything but low tide.

Tick spray and off along the boardwalk to the seaward side of the island.

You know what is along the boardwalk??? Wild blueberries!!!

And a real treat, something we've never seen, a black mink!

(obviously not my picture...but Luke has a video of it's rear end scampering away from us...)  This semi-aquatic mammal eats fish, frogs, crustaceans, rodents, and birds.  Here is a good link to learn more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_mink

Here is Moose Peak lighthouse on Mistake Island. I can't resist several pictures.

The lighthouse is powered by solar arrays these days.

We are TOTALLY fogged in  today, but hope to go to Jonesport, Mechias for the Blueberry Festival, Cross Wildlife Refuge Island, and Rogue Island before we leave Downeast.