Camden and the Windjammer Festival

We arrived safely in Rockland, did all of our chores and errands, and took time to visit the light house at the entrance to the harbor. It's on a 1 mile long jetty, built over 18 years back in the late 1800's.

Yes! It's warmer here!

As we left Rockland, we decided to take a detour to Camden, 6 miles north, to see the schooners arriving for the Labor Day Windjammer Festival.

The steel schooner Angelina sailing in past Curtis Island Light House, into Camden Harbor.

As we got to Camden, we realized there was a good anchorage to be had, so we decided to stay for Labor Day.

Camden is a cute little town, centered around the city harbor. This is one busy city harbor. Just look at the crowd.

The schooners were all beautiful. Almost all of them are commercial vessels, taking passengers for cruises lasting from 1 hr to several days. We were able to board them and take a tour yesterday. As beautiful as they are from the water, the topsides spacious enough, but the cabin accommodations are tight and somewhat spartan once aboard.



Also in town for the festival was the USS Whidbey Island LSD 41 Navy transport ship.

They were offering free tours of the ship, so we took the ferry over to the ship and did the tour. Amazing. She can carry 2 hover craft or (I think) 8 tanks, plus a normal crew of 315 sailors.

Sometimes they transport Marines, taking on over 600 of them. oh, boy, I just bet that's fun.... 900 people in a space designed for 300.... The ship is most recently back from a tour in Somalia, protecting commercial vessels from pirates and actually rescuing 48 hostages from 7 different ships that had been boarded by pirates.

Just look at this view from her bow.

A few years ago impressive self defense armament had been added to the Whitby Island. It includes anti-missile missiles, close in anti missile Gatling guns, and IR and Radar directed anti surface cannon. A 20 ft armed patrol boat was constantly circling the ship. Reference was made to the SS Cole incident as the basis for the armament and tactics.

Mt. Battie is in Camden Hills State Park. It's the second highest mountain on the Atlantic coast, the highest being Cadillac Mt. that we climbed in Acadia. It's right here, at our anchorage. This one is only a mile hike, starting in town. Turns out, the "trail" goes up several hundred feet of rock face, steeper than we wanted to climb (and come back down). We took the challenge and went up about 1/3 of it, but decided that was enough. Beautiful view of the Camden harbor area from where we stopped, though.

And little Wickie has found yet another new favorite place to sleep. He's almost always there....wonder why.....

Fog, lobster, Castine, and Wick goes to Paris

Monday was the foggiest of days --- we sat at Burnt Coat Harbor, on Swan 's Island, patiently waiting for the fog to lift, which it didn't do until very late afternoon. While we can travel safely in fog with our GPS/chartplotter and radar, we do like to be able to see the scenery. The fog lifted too late for us to go anywhere else. We used the time to dinghy to shore to the one place that was open - the Loberstermen's Co-op. It's the warehouse for the lobstermen. They also sell lobsters individually, so we bought a couple of fresh 1 & 1/2 pound whoppers (2 dinners) for a whopping $18. Wickie was pleased.

Tuesday dawned clear and beautiful and windy. We set out for Holbrook Island, where we anchor to dinghy over to Castine (remember where Paul Revere was disgraced?). About 1/2 way, we took a 4 hr. layover in Stonington to wait for the current to change to our advantage, pushing us up the Penobscot Bay. Getting to be hum-drum by now, another beautiful schooner sailed by as we were at anchor.

It was windy and choppy the whole way. When we finally turned into our protected harbor, the wind disappeared, the water flat, and it was the wonderful anchorage we remembered.

In fact, it was so flat and still that Wickie decided he'd been an "inside" cat long enough and decided to finally explore the boat. We let him, as it was so calm. He carefully and diligently wandered around the entire boat, checking out all the smells and little places (including the end of the anchor locker, which scared me). Now that he's "discovered Paris, we can't keep him down on the farm". He wanders out anytime the boat is still. He seems pretty sure-footed, but we keep a careful eye on him. Not sure who is going to jump in after him if he falls....

Here's one of the reasons we like Holbrook Island anchorage --- the sunset, with the only other boat in the whole anchorage with us. We also saw two eagles in flight.

Today we're headed to Rockland (as I type). We've got laundry to do, a haircut for Luke, stuff from the marine hardware store, a few groceries, and a general delivery post office pick-up. Nikki checked out my yarn stash at home for me, pulled a few skeins, and has sent them to Maine to enhance my yarn stash on the boat :-)

The Terrible Toggles and Burnt Coat

I don't think I've mentioned "toggles".... they are the bane of our existence here in northern/down east Maine. The plain old lobster pots are bad enough. But as you get further north and down east, the loberstermen add a special touch --- they attach an additional small float called a "toggle" to the lobster float. We think the purpose of the toggles is to support the "pot wrap" or rope from the float to the lobster trap -- often 100 + feet down. The toggle and float may be anywhere from 3 to 20 to 30 feet apart, and are attached to each other by a rope approximately 2 ft under water. Now, our propeller is waaay more than 2 ft under water, so you can guess what would happen if we ran between a float and it's toggle. And believe me, the propeller doesn't cut the rope, the rope wraps around the propeller and stalls the engine -- dead! - not a good thing. These toggles don't "color match" their floats, either. It's a real art to decide who belongs to who, based on which way the current is going at the moment. If you get into a few and they are nice and symmetrical, it's ok. But get into a field of several hundred and ohhh, what a pain. And! if the tide is high or the water rough, the darn toggles can go completely underwater and you can't see them at all! At least, not until you are on top of them, and then it's too late.

Here's a nice set of float/toggle... The float has the stick in the middle and the toggle doesn't.

Here's a nasty set, with the toggle (white one at the bottom of the picture) almost submerged...

So, all of that introduction done, we left SW Harbor, bimini repair complete, and headed back southwest. It was a rough trip. The wind was dead into us, at about 20 knots. The current was dead against us, too. We had the boat speed through the water at about 7 knots, but we were only doing about 5 against the wind and current. The sun was in our eyes. The lobster float/toggles looked like someone had thrown a huge box of multicolored confetti into the water, hundreds of them, miles on end. The water was high, so a lot of the toggles were underwater, making it almost impossible to second guess which toggle went with which float. We struggled for 2 hours and retreated into a port along our way, Frenchboro (remember the little place with 30 families on the island, but 1 little 6 chair restaurant with good lobster rolls? :-)

We used the afternoon for projects and general housecleaning.

This morning we left with less wind, the sun behind us, the current in the right direction, tide in our favor, and the lobster floats more organized. Much better.

Our goal was Burnt Coat Harbor on Swan Island. We arrived in the late morning, passing the old lighthouse at the point. The Coast Guard donated the lighthouse to the island for a park. It's electronic, so no one lives in the house - it's a little dilapidated. The island is working on restoring it. The last lighthouse keeper lived there with his 9 kids...

We climbed around onto the rocks in front of the lighthouse --- very nice, relaxing against sun warmed rocks.

Here's the view we had.

After the lighthouse, we walked to the abandoned quarry. The quarry lake has been converted to a swimming hole. Fresh water, much warmer than the ocean! There were several groups out there swimming. Of course, they were sharing the ol' swimming hole hole with a big group of seagulls that were using it for bathing. Still, it looked pretty refreshing.

A walk around the old quarry on a nice wooded path and then on top of the rocks shown above and then back to the boat. Tomorrow we plan to anchor in the group of islands called Devil, Camp, and Bold. They are just outside of Stonington, the town where all of the pink granite is mined.

Cutler - the Big Turn Around - and Mistake Island

We had a wonderful sail to our final Down East location, Cutler. You can see the Canadian island of Grand Maman from there. We'd been on a similar parallel to Nova Scotia for some time, but not close enough to see it.


As we approached Cutler, we could see the large aray of VLF antennas on the island. They are no longer in use, but are pretty darn impressive. This picture has dozens of tall radio antennas --- look closely and you'll see them standing tall across the island



Cutler is a small fishing village of 2 lobster buying houses, a church, and a library. Definitely a lobstering village and too far Down East for most cruisers. We were the only sailing boat in the whole harbor.

We took a little walk along a dead-end road, but that was it for anything to do on land.

Except !!!! buy live lobster and cook it on the boat. I finally got up the nerve to try it. Everyone said it's easy, and it was, but even at the low price of fresh lobster here ($5-$6/lb) I've been hesitant to try it. We got 2 at the lobster buying place. Check out the low tide at the place where we bought them - fortunately we bought them at high tide, or we would have had to climb the slippery ladder from the float to the dock - 13 ft tidal range. Having tried to walk down the slippery boat launch ramp at Mistake Island (see below) makes us appreciate NOT having had to do that.

We stored the lobsters in a mesh bag, hanging off the back of the boat, in the cold, running water, until I was ready to cook them.

Wickie had no interest them them while they were alive but he howled for more lobster meat after I offered him a taste.

On the way from Roque Island to Cutler, we saw anothe puffin! We were told that the bulk of them have already gone south as of August 15.

Cutler was our turning around spot. Far enough Down East. We really had only 1 more possible stop until going into Canada, and we decided not to bother with both customs for 1 day only. Besides, it's cold there ---- when we got up in the morning, it was 50 outside and 56 in the boat. Burr. I want A LITTLE summer weather!

From Cutler, we had another nice sail to Mistake Island. The anchoring place there is a small cut between 2 islands, Mistake and Knight and some other small rocky islands. Picture perfect, of course. Mistake Island has the Moose Peake Lighthouse on it.

The Nature Conservacy now owns the island, and they have a board walk path that runs through it. We rowed over to the abanded Coast Guard shack, tied up there at the boat ways, and walked across the island to the lighthouse.

There is no lighthouse keeper on the island any longer - check out the story here http://lighthouse.cc/moosepeak/history.html. Pretty interesting. All that is left is the lighthouse itself and the old shed with solar panels in front of it.

From the rocks on the Atlantic side, we could see forever.

What we DID see a lot of were seals! They were so curious. They kept popping up and watching us. It was great.

As we look back from the light house ---

And then a slower walk back along the wooden path, as we picked a small container each of wild blueberries and ripe raspberries.

Unfortunately, we found a tear in some stitching in our bimini (that's the part of the canvas that goes over the cockpit and keeps the Maine rain out. So, we got up at 4:30, left at the crack of dawn (5:15), and came back to SW Harbor on Mt. Desert Island. The nice canvas folks here did a quick and inexpensive repair for us. We picked up replacement light bulb for our running light, had mussels and a lobster roll for dinner, and hit the bed early. It's now Saturday, and our plan for the moment is to leave for Burnt Coat as soon as we have pancakes with blueberries and raspberries.

Roque Island Archipeligo

Latitude 44 deg 34.20'N

We are whiling away a rainy, chilly (56....) day at Roque Island Archipelago. You can check out this website, not for info, for for a good aerial shot of the island itself. We are anchored at the "x". Roque Island itself is part of about 18 islands in the archipelago.


The trip out of Winter Harbor into Roque was pretty, the usual lighthouses that we couldn't resist.

Petit Manan Island Light

Moose Peak Light

Roque Island is a privately owned island containing a self-sufficient farm, but is largely a wildlife preserve. The owners let boaters land on the 1 mile long sandy beach, a real rarity in Maine. You have to stay on the beach, on the north side only - it's divided by a old wooden mast stuck in the dirt. The southern half is reserved for the owners.

We walked the beach

and admired the rocky cliffs

until the fog rolled in.

We did have a beautiful sighting of a magnificent eagle, soaring into the sky from a tall tree. That picture didn't work --- just a big black blob in the sky.

Take a look at this shot of the cliffs and the tidal range. This is almost low tide --- the range here can be 12 feet or more. That second dark line is high tide, not the lower seaweed line.

Wickie seems to be doing ok. He has acclimated to everything except the clanging of the sails and sail hardware. That usually sends him back to the litter box. He sleeps though most everything else. But, he's sleeping a lot these days.

Tomorrow promises to be better weather, and the plan is to head to one last harbor Down East. That would be Cutler. After that, we plan to turn Latitudes westward and southward, see places we missed or really liked the first time, and still be in Roanoke for October.

Acadia National Park

Wow. Acadia National Park is beautiful. Not the spectacular mountains like the Rockies, but absolutely Maine coastline gorgeous. We anchored in a quiet little cove at the head of Somes Sound, part of the Mount Desert Island. This has been the site of our boat-cottage for the week, as we explored Acadia. Here is a view from our anchorage --- the shore, Cadillac Mountain, and the almost full moon.

Somesville is a tiny village that has one store, a library, 1 room museum, bridge, and a bookstore. oh, and a few houses. The footbridge from the museum is over a little pond and is just picture cute.

When we picked up the dingy from our walk around Somesville, I noticed the baby starfish on the side of the dinghy float. There were hundreds of them, from 1/2 inch to 1 inch!

There is a free bus system that covers all of Desert Island. The buses run on propane. Each day they carry around 7000 visitors to the park. Just think of the gas, exhaust, and wear/tear that saves. Although there are designated pick-up points, the drivers will stop anywhere as long as it's safe. It's a wonderful way to get around. We caught the bus to go sight-seeing in Bar Harbor. Bar Harbor is a well done tourist trap. It's quaint as can be, all of the stores are non-chains, loads of restaurants, art shops, 2 ice cream shops on each side of each block, a very nice harbor, and a small city park. On the practical side, it also has a good grocery store, bank, post office, and laundrymat withing walking distance of the bus stops.

Up way too early the next morning, we were off with our too small folding boat bikes to explore some of the trails in Acadia. Our bikes are so small that someone once told us that they looked like we picked them before they were ripe. :-)

The buses all have bike racks on the front and back, plus there are bike shuttle specials that haul 16 bikes at the time to the most popular bike trails. The bus driver suggested that we start our adventure at the lighthouse at Bass Harbor and bike to SW Harbor, about 5 miles. It WAS beautiful, but unfortunately, it was along a narrow roadside. Not terribly busy, but busy enough, especially with almost no bicycle trail along the side. We stopped, took a short hike to Ship Harbor

for lunch, and eventually made it into SW Harbor. I was exhausted, my knees hurt, and both of our butts were screaming. We had a slice of pizza, ice cream, and Luke managed to get a yellow jacket up his jeans leg, getting a sting on his upper thigh. When we got back to our serene little harbor, our dinghy was missing. After about 10 minutes of panic, we discovered it on the other side of the floating dock from where we had tied it off. Seems we were on the "residence's only" side and someone decided to move it to the visitor side. Enough excitement for 1 day!

No tiny bikes the next day. We decided, THIS time, that we would hike to the top of Cadillac Mountain, the highest mountain on the Atlantic coast north of Brazil, about 1500 ft. I don't know why we thought it would be a fairly easy 2.3 mile trek.... The trail was a combination of granite rock expanses and smaller granite rock trails through the woods. A stream ran through some of the trail. The day was cool and very foggy (hey, this is Maine. I haven't had on shorts for 3 weeks). A plus for Luke ---- blueberries all along the trail!

By the time we got about 30 minutes from the top, we were both bone tired. A rest for a while and we reached the summit, along with several hundred others who had driven to the top.


The fog had mostly cleared and it was amazing to see the topography of the coast of Maine in this region. Beautiful bays, the Atlantic, and multiple smaller islands.

The fog has it's way here. Look at the series of pictures below, fog slowly enveloping one of the islands over about 15 minutes. Amazing.

There was no way I could climb back down the boulders another 2 1/2 hours, so Luke hitchhiked us a ride back from the parking lot. The very first car stopped (how dangerous can 2 old sweaty folks with Richard Petty backpacks and dangling cameras be?). It was a nice couple from Italy, on a 3 week NE US tour.

Our little bikes are great for scooting to town or casual sightseeing, but obviously not for bike trails in Acadia. We rented 2 full size bikes for an adventure along the Carriage Trails of Acadia.

These are trails that Rockefeller put in so his guests could enjoy his property. Much flatter than the road, no cars, and along a couple of lakes. 9 miles this time.

The waterlilies were in full bloom in many of the ponds.

And there were frogs.

and the required perfect scenery.

Saturday was spent doing major laundry, catching the bus back to SW harbor to pick up some things from the marine store, and starting chores. Our plan is to finish up those chores today, get the boat back in sailing shape (i.e. put away everything that can fall), and move to NE Harbor for fuel and water. We then will anchor somewhere further "down east" for the night, as we start our final push further down east for about another week. We'll probably get as far as the Canadian border before we return. Physically, we'll be further north than parts of New Brunswick, but not into Canadian waters. Maine's Down East area is not as cruiser/tourist oriented, and water, diesel, Internet, and cell are not as easy to get. The harbors are working harbors, to support the lobstermen, the workers of those waters. We have full tanks of water and diesel - the plan is to turn around when the first one hits half :-)