More Maine, more fog, less internet...

We have  been back to Rockland for 3 days - the first time we've had internet since the last post!  SO, again I'm catching up.  Alex, these pictures are for you because we KNOW you'll get back here.

We spent about a week in Somes Sound, our anchorage for a visit to Acadia Nat'l Park.  We spent one day doing the shore walk, in the fog.

Thunder Hole was at it's best - big claps of "thunder" every time the incoming wave hit the rocks in the narrow inlet.  You can see the spray just above the end of the inlet.

With my  most excellent experience at bicycling the Carriage Trails last year, I opted to stay on the boat while Luke went.  He left foggy and early to pick up his bike and then spent most of the day on the trails.  The waterlilies are in bloom along the trail, covering some of the ponds.

Some ponds had white lilies, some had yellow

Flowers and bees were everywhere

It remained foggy on the water, but Luke had some sunshine inland.  There are still wisps of fog in the distance.

When Luke returned to Bar Harbor, he found that the bar between the town of Bar Harbor (hence the name!) and the little island offshore was uncovered at low tide.  Folks were exploring the long, narrow bar of land while the tide was out, with fog in the distance.

The next day we took the buses to Jordan Pond for a walk and popovers - again in the fog...

Here is the picture of The Bubbles last year, in the bright sun.

And this year in the fog

We did take a walk in the woods along the shore of Jordan Pond

This is the house that Rockefeller had built for his gate keeper...senior park folk live there now.

We did take two days to go to Winter Harbor, located on the Schoodic Pensulia.  Friends Mary and Dick live there and we wanted to see them.  So, we left Latitudes and Smokey at anchor in Somes Sound and took the ferry for the 45 minute ride to Winter Harbor.  Yes, it was foggy.

The fog lifted a bit during the ride, but you can see the line of it along the shore.

Mary and Dick gave us a great tour of the area, including these amazing cliffs

The next morning we took the "boardwalk" to the beach at Corea, still on the Schoodic Peninsula.

The large flat rocks were perfect for our lunch that Mary packed.  She even packed a "mud sling" drink for the two of us to share! And more fog...

The harbor  of Corea is like all of the others in Maine - full of lobster boats, with the fog bank in the distance.

Back to the boat and Smokey, we were able to leave the next day, as the forecast for was for just areas of fog.  We made the 16 mile run to the Long Island, home of the town of Frenchboro. 

About 75% of the island is set aside as a nature preserve.  Trails across the island lead to the beaches. 

First, "Big Beach" composed of basket ball sized granite rocks.

Then the large rock beach with the typical Maine granite boulders.

Last year we met Tennie and Joe.  Joe is a third generation lobersterman from Frenchboro.  His dad and granddad still go out each day! He and Tennie have been together about 3 years and she works as his "sternman".  We visited with them a bit and then, the next day, caught up with them after we went to  Swans Island, at Burnt Coat Horbor. They were bringing in the days catch.  Their sweet 8 month old great dane goes fishing with them every day.  Yes, that is fog behind them.

Schooners soon began to fill up the anchorage with us. This is the steel hulled, fairly recently built, schooner "Angellica"

Finally, the next day, SUN shinning on the Burnt Coat harbor! We've had fog for about 13 of the last 14 days, at least 8 days of solid fog, all day long! Even the Mainers are complaining about it!

We went to shore to walk to the lighthouse at the channel entering the harbor.

The view from the lighthouse. Yes, there is a wisp of fog out there.

After 2 days, we left for the small island of Buckle.  This is one of our favorites - we go here to walk the island every year.  The shore is mostly rocky.

But some parts of the shore do have grass.

This little island is just off Buckle.  We've collected mussels from there during low tide - yum!  But this year there is a widespread warning about collecting the mussels, something like red tide, so we left them alone.

So we're now back in Rockland for a few days.  We've used this time to do laundry, get groceries, and drive to visit both Boothbay and Searsport .  Pictures from those days will follow.  This is enough for now!!!

Cross Island (submarine communications!), Jonesport (amazing model RR!), and puffins, puffins, puffins (puffins!)

We found a new place to explore - Cross Island.  Luke has wanted to go there since last year when boating buddy Dick told him about it.  A mere 17 miles from Canada (directly eastward, Grand Manan Island), Cross is the nearest we can get to an amazing piece of Cold War history. These are the vertical support towers, nearly 1000 ft high, of the Very Low Frequency (VLF) radio array used to communicate with submerged submarines.  For the techies - it transmits at 24 kHz with an output power of nearly 2 mega watts, apparently one of the strongest radio transmitters in the world. For some details, please see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLF_Transmitter_Cutler   I'm sure this is now replaced with satellite communications, but still remains as an alternate.

The towers, with their red flashing lights present an eerie backdrop to the threatening grey cloud bank at dusk.

On our way to the island, we encountered a relatively new Maine business, salmon farming.  There are 2 companies here, each with 3 or 4 of these large pens.  For size reference, look at the 2 orange figures on the left side - they are men working on the netting that covers the pens.

Cross island is a MITA property - the Maine Island Trail Association. That means we can hike on the island.  The old dock leaves something to be desired...a dry landing space at high tide.  It was almost high tide when we got there and we barely made it to the higher dock.   The dinghy was tied to float, and float she did - right over the submerged dock.

Fat, sweet-tart blueberries were everywhere!

The only remaining trail on the island that we found lead past on old (and still used) outhouse to a rocky beach.

We did find one more path, but it ended quickly at an unkept (and unsafe) bridge over a creek.

After the tide went down, we got back in the dinghy cruised around part of the island on water. The other end of Cross.

And a nearby island.  Beautiful, beautiful Maine!

Next to another favorite place while we are down east, Jonesport.  We took a raft mooring at Jonesport Shipyard, in the harbor with all of the lobster boats.

This old, well restored home graces the town dock.  Some of Maine's wildflowers fill the yard.  Remember this house - she's going to come up again in the next picture!

The kind boatyard owners lent us their car to go to Michas (the nearest larger town) for groceries.  On the way back, we stopped in at a sign that says "Maine Central Model Railroad".  This amazing HO gauge (1/87 th scale) model railroad is in a shed outside of the home, the "train yard' being about 30 x 40 feet .  This is only about 1/4 of the set up. It is so filled up that you have to wander through narrow aisles to  see it all. See  the red Victorian house in the bottom left? That is the house above.  Every building in this model was built by the owners, Helen and Buz.  It took them 20 years to complete this set up.

A town wharf.

Buz died 6 years ago, but Helen still shows his favorite "joke" in the display....a hunter "taking a crap" while a bear approaches and his rifle  (the little red handle to the left) is jusssst out of reach.

Here is Helen at the controls, running the tooting, puffing trains for us.

This is all free, just asking for a small donation.  Sadly, the future of this wonderful model RR is in question.  Helen is 84, and admits she can't keep it up much longer.  There isn't a good home waiting for the wonderful work they have done.

We always knew Maine had fog, but boy, has she lived up to it this year!  fog,fog, fog.  As soon as we got an OK (not great) day to make the 9 hour trip from Jonesport to Acadia, we left.  Our big excitement en route was to again pass the Petite Manan lighthouse with puffins.  This time we really saw them!  What more can I say... puffins, puffins, puffins!!!

Puffins with fish for the babies!

Puffins joyously bathing

And puffins just floating with the tide.

Next blog, Acadia National Park.