New Castle, NH, and finally, Maine!

Next on our itinerary, New Castle, NH - A cute, 1700's town located adjacent to Portsmouth, NH. Best though, is the friends we have there.  We always look forward to that stop on our trips.  The town is situated on the Piscataqua River.  On our way in, we passed the old lighthouse, still sitting at the river entrance. 

Up to the Portsmouth Yacht Club for diesel and water.  We get a mooring here, as our friends belong to the club.  It always feels like coming home when we get here.

The current here RIPS.  I mean, rips! When we sit on the mooring, our speed indicator says we are moving at almost 2 knots (2 miles per hour) through the water. You can see the current rushing past this mooring  ball.  It makes for fun picking up the mooring, but we did it.

For centuries, gundalows connected up-river Seacoast towns to Portsmouth, the region’s seaport and primary market town. Harnessing the wind and riding the tide, the sailing barges moved bricks, hay, firewood, and goods crucial to the economy and everyday life.

A full-scale replica of the last commercially operated gundalow – the Capt. Edward H. Adams, built in 1886 – was constructed in Portsmouth in the 1980s. A second, named Piscataqua, after the river, was constructed in 2011 after a five-year fund-raising and planning effort.Operated by the nonprofit Gundalow Company, the Piscataqua provides sailing excursion and dockside programs up and down the Piscataqua River and around Great Bay.  We were fortunate to see her coming in from an excursion.

 

After a nice day of catching up and dinner with our friends, we were back at Latitudes to prepare her for the sail today.  Last treat - a beautiful sunset.

 

Up early this morning and finally sailed into the Casco Bay, the first large bay in Maine.  Yulp, this is Maine!

 

 

 

We ended up anchored beside of Great Chebeague Island, in Chandler Bay.  Down went the dinghy to go exploring the nearby Little Chebeague island, which is part of the Maine Island Trail Association.  We got here after 3/4 of a mile upwind  ride in the dinghy only to find this sign...

 

Closed!  They sprayed for the ticks and other assorted pests and have closed the trails until tomorrow morning.  drat.  Oh well, we had a nice walk on the windy, rocky beach (Very Maine)

 

We asked one of the lobstermen if he had any lobsters he could sell. This developed into an interesting story. We were told that the lobstering season was just beginning, and there aren't many lobsters to be had yet - he didn't have any. Luke of course had questions -- like what are the dates of the season? The lobsterman explained that it depends of the lobsters. Every year, virtually every legal lobster (defined by the length of its carapace) is harvested. Therefore, until they molt, they are still last year's throw backs, still too small. They molt about now, and their new shell is much larger, above the legal minimum, and it's a "bonanza" for the lobstermen.

Tomorrow, we hope to get a mooring at Five Islands, and I hope to have a lobster roll for dinner!