Five Islands, ME --- picture post card

Five Islands, Maine....this must be where they take all of those post cards of fishing villages in Maine. It was a short 20 mile trip from Snow Island through the many rocky islands, rocks, and zillions of lobster pot floats.

When Luke & I came around the bend in Sheepscot the river and saw the little harbor, we both just gasped. It's a tiny cluster of 5 islands, with a tiny harbor area, probably 350 yards wide and 200 yards deep. The yacht club, which may well just be the home-owners on one of the islands, generously offers 5 free moorings for visiting boats. The picture just doesn't capture the setting.

The town wharf is a combination of commercial (lobstering, of course) and tourist. There are 3 buildings on the wharf.... fried food shack, lobster shack, and ice cream shack. The pier is filled with picnic tables to eat at; nothing inside the buildings.

This seems to be a trend here. We have seen a few times the combination of separate buildings for the fried foods and fresh lobster. Folks bring their own wine or beer and a salad, etc, spread out everything nicely, and picnic on the pier. Very family oriented. It reminds me of going to a state park in VA and having a Sunday picnic, except that the main course is available at the park. Yes, that's us in long pants, flannel shirt, and fuzzy warm shirt, standing on the dock.

We explored the small Nature Conservancy trail yesterday, goes out on the rocks of one of the islands.

We also climbed the hill to a cute fresh food and flower market. We bought our first container of fresh, ripe blueberries :-) Straight from New Jersey.... oh, well... they are IN Maine.

And, of course, ate fried fish for lunch and lobster for dinner. Ice cream twice...

.gotta stop that!!!!

There are lots of lobster boats and a gazillion more lobster pots. The system here is to leave a long string of 15 or so lobster pots on the bottom of the ocean and link them together and have buoys at each end. Some sets of strings will go on with multiple buoys, meaning 75 or so pots all linked together. It's a mess to go through, but with a lot of care to not snag a lobster pot rope. That would mean diving in the cold water to cut it loose. We're not interested in that. Luke did it once in the warm Chesapeake water, for a crab pot that I had caught, and that was once too many!

After bringing in the lobsters, they are held in these floating boxes below, linked together like a train. The lobster distribution truck came by while we were at the pier. One fellow brings over the train and they begin to hoist in (via an electric winch) the holding boxes, two at a time, up about 20 feet. They get put into the truck and off they go to restaurants.

Today we are staying put at Five Islands. It's a work day. Yes, living on a boat is just like living at a house. There is still vacuuming to do, floors to wipe up, bathroom to clean, and maintenance to do. I defrosted the freezer today, joy, oh, joy.

Wickie is settled into a routine. He's up and in the cockpit most of the time that we are at anchor.

When we start the boat, he sits by the safety of his litter box, just in case he needs it for security, but generally doesn't get in it unless we really start heeling. He has discovered the space on top of our closet in the back berth. I've put his blankie there, and he often spends the entire voyage safely there.

Tomorrow we will sail up the Sheepscot River to one of the other harbors in the area. All of them get great review in the guidebooks as being quaint fishing villages.