Jonesport

After a blissful 3 days of lazing in Rogue, we took Latitudes a whopping 5 miles SW to the small community of Jonesport. The small lobster anchorage here is smartly placed behind a breakwater, protecting the boats from swells and waves.  Lobstermen are friendly. We took a "mooring" on one of two "rafts".  The raft is a mooring that is actually a 5 x 20 foot floating metal grate with fenders all around it and cleats on both sides.  2 boats tie up, one of each side.  The boatyard has showers ($0.75 for 2 minutes, and believe me, I need a 4 minute shower!) and inexpensive laundry.  This is the first "Laundromat" that has had the common sense to have 2 washers and THREE dryers!  The owners even run boaters back and forth to the grocery store (2 miles) or the BIG grocery store in Machias, 20 miles away.  A sweet deal for $20/night. The usual fog set had set in by our first morning here.

With the 12-15 foot tides, the anchorage has a lot of rocks at low tide.  In fact, we can't get to the boatyard's dock within about 2 hours each way of low tide.

At first glance, walking down the 2 lane road that runs through the community, you get a feeling of better days gone by.  And there were.  The boatyard, a gas station/convenience store with thousands of videos to rent, new/second hand store, PO, pizza/few groceries store, marine store, and lobster and mussels pounds are about all you see.  There are too many deserted homes, a grocery store that closed a few years ago, etc.  But, as you stay a while and explore a bit, you find the award winning decoy carver's home/gallery a block off the main road.  A wonderful museum of the "old days".  A nice library. Homes with bountiful summer gardens full of beautiful flowers.  And very nice lobstermen who offer you a hand off the dinghy "sweetheart" and "summer people" who live here every summer.

The boatyard owners (from Alaska) offered us a ride to the farmers market and grocery store in the nearby (20 miles) town of Machias.  I shopped at the wonderful farmers market, full of local and organic fresh produce.  Luke explored the small park.  We were there 6 or 7 years ago for the Blueberry Festival and had a great time.

Tonight we had dinner at the local church. They had a fundraiser for the church.  $20 for a two lobster dinner complete with corn on the cob, a roll, slaw, lottsa butter, sweet tea (who knew Mainers drink sweet tea!), and a blueberry desert.   We shared the lobsters, corn, and roll, but each had slaw, butter, and a desert.  The locals eat their lobster dipped not only in butter, but also in vinegar.  Not bad! We also met some great "summer folk" and a local lady and her mom.  We're looking forward to seeing them next summer.

Just across the street, in front of the church, is the local museum.   We attended an amazing presentation about the Jaffa American Colony. Just after the Civil War, a con artist/minister appeared in town and set up a church.  He convinced 157 locals to relocate to the then Palestine, to set up a community of Christians to help bring the Jewish population back into the area and therefore, somehow hasten the coming of the Messiah.  They set sail on the sailboat Nellie Chapin, landed in Palestine 42 days later, lost 19 souls in the first month, rebelled against the "minister" within a year, with an exodus of most of the settlers within 2 years.  But the few that remained prospered.  The homes became derelict eventually, but the presenter tonight - Jean Holmes - and her husband were able to bring awareness of the contribution of the Mainers to the Israeli government, gain recognition for the effort, and restore the old homes within the past 25 years.  She lives in one of the original homes now.  It is an amazing story.  A couple of links ---

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2457&dat=20060811&id=rvs0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=EE8KAAAAIBAJ&pg=2793,2769095&hl=en

http://www.jaffacolony.com/

Back after the video and presentation, just before dusk, we had beautiful pink clouds reflected in the still water.

Winds for the next few days are high, in the wrong direction, and not conducive to returning to Mt. Desert en route back to Rockland.  We will probably leave tomorrow for a few more days in the very protected Rogue Island until we can start back westward.