Sunday July 31st.

We haven’t seen any wind for several days and there’s none in the forecast for the next few days.  So we motored to Port Clyde, 43 55.41N 069 15.68W.  We did have 2-5 knots of following wind, and a fair tide all day, so we made good time to our destination. 

We took a short walk to the local lighthouse.  Then a longer walk to the other side of town.  It’s a pretty town and very quiet.

Ron tried his hand at fishing and struck gold – 6 mackerel, 1 got away, 1 thrown back and 4 keepers.

Ships Log: 5976.4, Todays Log: 20.2, Seasons Total: 281.2

Saturday July 30th.

Another hot and windless day.  We went to a wonderful farmer’s market in the morning and stocked up on fresh vegetables.  We got back to Quinita just in time to watch the parade of sail through the harbour.  Most of the boats were beautiful,  some were huge and very expensive.  Here’s a link to Belle Aventure. 

After the parade we took a bike ride to Rockport, 44 11.07N 69 04.57W.  Ron then continued riding south to Owls Head Transportation Museum, while Teresa headed back north to hike the Camden Hills. 

The Transportation Museum was well worth the visit, with cars, motor cycles and aeroplanes dating back to the beginnings of their respective histories. 

And the views from the Camden Hills were spectacular. 

In the evening we had one of the best meals ever at a restaurant called Fresh.  Highly recommended!

Ships Log: 5956.2, Todays Log: 0, Seasons Total: 261

Friday July 29th.

Yippee, Microsoft will stop offering me the free upgrade to Windows 10 at midnight tonight!

The day dawned foggy and damp.  We had planned to leave around 10am anyway to minimize the foul tides we would otherwise get.  As it happened, the fog burned off around that time and so we set off.  There was no wind, and we motored all the way to Camden, 44 12.40N, 069 03.55W. 

We picked up a nice mooring, close to the town center, and went ashore to explore.  They have ice cream shops here!  They also have an Opera House which was playing Casablanca as a play later in the evening.   The play was entertaining – performed by only 5 actors doubling up on many roles – despite the fact that the movie has 70 or so speaking parts. 

Ships Log: 5956.2, Todays Log: 16.8, Seasons Total: 261

Thursday July 28th.

We set off early to catch the tide to Seal Bay on Vinal Haven, 44 05.89N 068 48.07W with a nice close reach and 8-10 knot winds.  Twice throughout the day the winds died in between the several island we were passing though, and we found ourselves with no wind, plenty of lobster pots and ½ knot currents.  So reluctantly, the engines went on, but we only needed them for 7 minutes and then 4 minutes to get us back to clear air and good sailing breezes.  So all in all it was a very nice sail. 

On the way we passed Halibut Ledge, 44 06.56N 68 41.59W, and saw a hundred or so seals basking in the sunshine. 

We arrived at Seal Bay just in time to drop the hook, clean up the boat and have lunch.  This is another beautiful harbour, and so far we have it to ourselves.  We took a little dinghy tour, then had a relaxing afternoon. 

We almost had the bay to ourselves, but 2 very expensive looking powerboats dropped anchor in the bay late in the afternoon.  Fortunately, they were a distance away from us. 

Ships Log: 5939.4, Todays Log: 15.8, Seasons Total: 244.2

Wednesday July 27th.

We had a nice breeze when we left the mooring at 10:30 for Burnt Coat Island, 44 08.46N 068 26.85W, however it didn’t last and we ended up motoring for 1½ hours, sailing for 1½ and then motoring for 2 hours L. 

We tried dropping the hook in the harbour, but it fouled on weed and since the guide book suggested that weed was a problem, we decided to pick up a visitor mooring instead.  The line on the mooring was about 1½” in diameter, so we felt pretty secure!  We went ashore to pay for the mooring, but couldn’t find anyone.  So we had a nice walk to the lighthouse on Hockamock Head, 44 08.00N 068 26.75W.  There are lovely hiking trails through the woods around the lighthouse.

There’s a green navigation buoy just off the head and about 6 young guys were having a great time playing on it.  These buoys are huge, although sometimes when looking for them at sea, you wouldn’t think so.  The boys on the buoy were probably 16 or 17 years old, but when standing on the base of the buoy, only came half way to the top of it.  Their favorite game seemed to be to leave one guy on the top, while the other 5 rocked the buoy back and forth, eventually weighing it down to almost horizontal.  Then the 5 ‘ballast’ guys would let go and catapult the guy on the top off.  I wish that game had been invented when I was 16!

Ron went fishing with his new mackerel lure and caught a huge mackerel.  If he catches another tomorrow, there’ll be enough for an appetizer!

In the evening, we were treated to another sight of the 120’ (or so) schooner “Heritage”.  This was the same ship we described dropping anchor under sail in Boothbay harbor on their windjammer days.  

When we entered the harbor, we took the tickle channel, which our book described as tricky.  We entered very cautiously, using  engines, and with Ron on the bow looking for rocks and lobster pots and eresa at the helm.  “Heritage”, on the other hand, came in very sedately, with all sails set and calmly gave us another demonstration of anchoring under sail.  Nice!

Ships Log: 5923.6, Todays Log: 17.5, Seasons Total: 228.4

Tuesday July 26th.

We took a bus to the South Ridge hiking trail over Cadillac Mountain.  It was a beautiful hike to the summit where there was a parking lot and hundreds of ‘tourists’.  We continued the hike down the other side (with stunning views of Frenchman’s Bay) to where we were expecting to pick up a bus to take us home.  The buses run very much to schedule, so after waiting for ½ hour and the bus was 10 minutes late, we called the bus company who informed us we were waiting at the wrong place.  By now we had missed the last bus, so started hitch hiking.  A park ranger stopped, (didn’t arrest us for illegal hitch hiking), and dropped us at the welcome center where we picked up a bus to Bar Harbor, then another to NE harbor and Quinita.  We picked up some take out lobster rolls in Bar Harbor, got back to the boat at around 8:30pm, had a quick and much needed shower, and dined aboard. 

Ships Log: 5906.1, Todays Log: 0, Seasons Total: 210.9

Monday July 25th

No wind, so we motored from Somes to NE Harbour, 44 17.74N 068 16.90W.  We hadn’t been in a grocery friendly town for 6 nights, so went grocery shopping.  We had been warned that it was very expensive here, and confirmed that it was.  Laundry followed in the very nice Yachtsman’s Lounge. 

In the afternoon we visited 2 beautiful gardens,  Asticou and Thuya by bicycle then returned to the boat and dinghied over to Asticou hotel for a very nice dinner overlooking the harbor as the fog rolled in and out.

Ships Log: 5906.1, Todays Log: 5.5, Seasons Total: 210.9