Schooners, Castine/Holbrook Harbor, and eagles

Lucky us!  The 41^st Great Schooner race was in Rockland before we left!  At least 15 schooners waited at the starting point in Gilkey Harbor on Islesboro, ready for a sailing race to the Rockland breakwater.  The race is only 10 miles and I’ve read that it really is just an opportunity to showcase the beautiful schooners.  The day broke dark, very wind, and rainy, so the race committee smartly delayed the start.  We had hoped to take Ray, Ange, and Nicole to follow the race in Latitudes, but the weather really wasn’t good for that.  

Right on time, about 1 ½ hrs after the race started, the schooners came into view.  These are not the best pictures -  Latitudes was anchored about 1.3 nautical miles from the breakwater.  The schooner Heritage came in first, sails carrying her beautifully across the finish line.

 More schooners began crossing the line, flying past the Rockland lighthouse at the  end of the breakwater.

And more…

The large, oldest schooner, Victory Chimes, didn’t participate, but sailed around the Rockland harbor during the finish.  Alex, you can correct me if that isn’t right 😊  We think that is Victory Chimes.

Here is a short video of one of the schooners, taken while Latitudes rocked and rolled with the waves.

The next day we began our provisioning, etc, for the next 6 weeks that we will be away from Rockland.  Groceries, laundry, leaving the car with someone, on and on.  It was late by the time we got back to Latitudes, so we grabbed a pizza to go on the way back.  Yum, empty box was shaked clean and put in the cockpit after dinner.  Well.  Some cats get high on capnip --- I think Smoke got pizza-nipped (there was just a little pepperoni on the pizza…)

Once we retrieved the evil pizza box from the ecstatic cat, we set the sails and sailed from Rockland to Castine, 23 miles to the north, still in the Penobscot Bay.

Holbrook Harbor is just outside of Castine and is where we always anchor.  It’s a beautiful place.

And there are seals!  The fat rascals bask on the rock ledges in the water during high tide. They share the rocks with the cormorants.

Funny guys, they bask with their heads and tails up, tummy on the rocks.

There two were just a little wary as we passed them slowly in our dinghy.

Castine is a lovely little with an amazing past.  It was the first permanent settlement in New England, settled in 1629.  Her history is on the large city board below.

The town is actually fairly high up the steep banks of the river.  It’s a long way from the first streets down to the water. 

There are a lot of old elm trees here, too.  At one time the  trees were endangered but the town worked hard to save them.  The streets are lined with the tall trees.

Old white houses, beautifully maintained, line the narrow streets.

The city courtyard has a church, the elementary school, the history museum, library, and a few private homes.

Back at the boat, I decided to work on my sweater.  Smoke wanted to help.  That means she wanted to lay in my lap instead of the stupid knitting.

Just before dinner, we took the dinghy over to Holbrook Island.  It was inhabited until 1971.  The last owner of the land donated it for a sanctuary in the 1960's and it is a state park now.  We were the only ones there, as shown by only our little dinghy at the dock.

A walk past a field takes you to the old house, where the trails begin.

Well, we found out why no one else was there – the mosquitos tried to pick us up and take us away!  We lasted a few minutes and made a dash back to the dinghy and Latitudes!

The next day we learned that there is another dock and island park that we could explore.  This time we took the dinghy for a ride along the shore before we got there.  Suddenly an eagle flew past us to the nearest island!  It landed on the shore and then hopped up to a rock.  A little hard to see, but it’s there!

As we approached slowly, she flew away.

First, she landed in a tree and watched us for a bit.

Then, up higher in another tree and we understood!  She landed beside a big brown feathered bird – note the fish in her talons!

The other bird sat up and we could tell that it is a juvenile eagle.  I guess mom is still feeding it.

A little more of the Holbrook harbor and we arrived at the steep gangplank at the other park.  And I mean steep!

BUT! Before we climbed that gangplank we DOUSED ourselves with mosquito and tick repellent!  It worked!  Luke took the lead

We passed full, lush ferns and trees with the red hashmarks showing the trail

We passed by the low water banks

Our destination was Goose Falls.

Think Maine is all pristine and clean?  A few years ago a mining site dumped all sorts of hazardous materials into the beautiful waters.  A lot of it was cleaned up after the fact, but unfortunately, Goose pond still these signs….