Month: July 2019

After Monhegan we decided to head up to Rockland so Trip could find some technical assistance for the fridge. Of course at that point the fridge decided to start working on its own again, but Rockland is fun to visit anyway.

Natalie had some time off so decided to drive up and meet us, which worked out perfectly. The first day we spent wandering around Rockland, and after that we headed up to Rockport (cute, but if you blink you’ll miss it) and Camden.

While in Camden we managed to catch a cocktail with Mads and Lotta again, this time hosting his mother and sister visiting for a few weeks. Natalie was a total sweetheart and let us do a load of provisioning from the car (who feels like going on vacation to go grocery shopping???)

Natalie left, and it was back to reality – laundry, blog updates, Netflix downloads, and trying to stay out of the sun. It’s not nearly as beastly here in Maine as it is in the rest of the Northeast, but it’s nice to have a cool library (or bar) to duck into when needed.

Monhegan Island has been one of the highlights this summer. We had read about this island in the past, and were warned that it’s only worth visiting in settled weather, and even then you had to have an escape plan in case all (6) transient moorings were taken, since anchoring isn’t permitted. Still no wind but settled seas, so off we went. We managed to catch one of the moorings and put on our hiking shoes to go explore.

Monhegan only has about 50 homes, all of which are on the western shore & within a mile of each other. There’s two inns (each of which has a nice restaurant), two casual snack bars, and a package store. No paved roads. The rest of the island is 17 miles of hiking trails, many going along the rocky exposed Atlantic coast.

We started off with a walk to the local brewery for a bite to eat and something to drink. After that we continued south to Lobster Cove where we explored the tugboat wreck that washed ashore decades ago. The trail continued on, wrapping around the island and following the coast with some spectacular views.

After showers aboard we hosted cocktail hour with a fellow sailor we met hiking that afternoon. While chatting we noticed an ocean sunfish floating through the harbor past our boat. There’s no explanation, but we had already seen 6 that day and the harbormaster reported seeing 20 the day before. Quite an addition to the usual seals and dolphins we’re used to.

Over breakfast the next morning, watching the goats graze just a few hundred feet from the boat on Manana Island, we opted to stay an extra day – we didn’t know if we’d ever get back. Back on went the walking shoes and we rowed back to shore.

We headed up to the historical society museum and spent the hottest hours of the day pouring over all the amazing artifacts about the island’s history that have been preserved. After that we headed out to hike more of the coast, and even managed to come back on a trail that featured lots of creative fairy houses on the side of the trails.

We picked up a bag of ice (the fridge was reluctantly starting to work again but needed some encouragement), snagged the last two bottles of tonic on the island at the package store (critical for a Friday night) and headed back to the boat.

We knew it was time to leave the next morning when at slack tide the next morning (conveniently over breakfast), our boat collided in slow motion with the lobster boat behind us (no current to pull us both in a common direction). We took turns fending it off with the big oak boat hook, cleaned up quickly, and left before anymore contact could occur. The mooring was now free for the next set of visitors.

Since there was no wind and no swell, we decided to head back to one of our favorite islands, Seguin. A visit is best done in calm weather given its distance off the coast. Luckily there was only one other boat in the harbor (first come, first serve for moorings) and we had the island trails to ourselves. We hiked the Cobblestone trail first to view the open Atlantic, then up the steep trail to see the lighthouse, and finally the Cove Trail, which gave us a lovely view of Kalyra on her mooring.

The old osprey nests that we saw last time were still there and it was quite fun to watch the new birds hunt and feed their young.

Of course something always has to go wrong when you’re in a remote area, and in this case our fridge decided to crap out. I had noticed the freezer not freezing anymore, but suddenly the temperature started creeping up. Trip added and removed refrigerant with no success, so we just hoped the temperatures wouldn’t climb much further before a) food spoiled, and b) Trip could call for technical assistance.

Leaving the fridge to fend for itself, we grabbed a bottle of wine, hiked back up to the lighthouse, and had a bench with a spectacular view of the sunset. (There are caretakers on the island, but I’m pretty sure they’ve seen two months of sunsets at that point and don’t care much anymore to test the mosquitoes.)

Monday morning Trip did one final load of laundry (sweated through everything the day before), and I caught a bus to Falmouth to do another round of provisioning (amazing how much tonic Trip goes through). Once again, there was no wind, but we wanted to get a little distance under our belts, so we headed out to Ridley Cove in Harpswell. James and Jenny had just been there over the weekend and were raving about it. It was raining lightly most of the way, but it was a comfortable easy motor-sail over. James had warned us about a rock always awash and poorly marked in the middle of the cove, so we anchored southeast of it where we could sit with completely exposed views to the Atlantic but with complete protection. Trip wasn’t initially impressed, as there were a few too many houses for him to call it remote, but I liked it.

Low tide the next morning was interesting, as we watched a long ledge appear as the water levels dropped (southern Maine has a 9 foot tidal range). At dead low tide we were just 30 feet away from the edge of a ledge that’s exposed only at low water. Though Navionics (our e-charts) said it was a 2 foot depth at low tide, we registered 8 feet at dead low on the depth sounder (we need 6 feet to accomodate our keel). And as Trip reassured me, it was mud we’d sink into – not rock – despite what I was staring at. The most amazing thing though was the temperature change. We had gone from sweltering heat two days earlier to needing long pants and long sleeves – and our Hudson Bay wool blanket at night!

The rain cleared by mid the following day and we decided to head over to Cundys Harbor. Trip rowed us over to a couple of lobster docks (past a really cool old sunken boat), where one of the lobster men kindly let us tie up for a couple of hours. We then walked 20 minutes into Cundys Harbor – the historic town that has the reputation for being Maine’s oldest continuous working waterfront. More than half the houses we passed were historic, and it was a really pleasant walk. We wound up at Holbrook’s for a lobster roll & clam chowder lunch washed down by local Maine beers. After that it was ice cream for the walk back. The sun had come out in the meantime and I finally got some good shots of the boat and the cove.

We had originally considered stopping in Boston to go to a friend’s BBQ over the weekend. However, Boston (along with the rest of the northeast) was coming under a severe heat advisory of temperatures in the 90s and heat index in the 100s. At the same time the forecast was for 2 days of moderate southwest winds. We decided to make an overnight jump to Maine. We upped anchor early Saturday and entered the canal at 7:30, enjoying the early morning mist on the water. Once in Cape Cod Bay, we had a lovely sail for a few hours before the winds shifted to the west, then the north, then the northeast, before completely dying (this was NOWHERE in the forecast). We opted to motor. Even though we were 15 miles off shore, you could feel the heat radiating off the mainland. Luckily, the winds finally showed up again mid afternoon. From the southeast originally, we went wing on wing and cruised along at 4.5 knots with almost no seas. Other than a few fishing boats at Stellwagon Bank and a cruise ship heading to Nova Scotia, we had no company. Trip had seen a whale earlier in the day, but my sighting was right at sunset, complete with the whale flashing his tail. The winds shifted to the southwest, we shifted to a broad reach, and had the loveliest overnight passage up to Portland, Maine.

We had made arrangements for a mooring at Handy Boat Services in Falmouth, where friends James & Jenny keep their boat. We arrived early, so took a mooring behind Cow Island (our usual stop outside Portland) where we could nap and wait to check into Handy. Unfortunately the owner of the mooring came along, but fortunately he was totally cool with us being there for another hour or so and instead spent time talking to Trip about Kalyra.

We checked into Handy and went ashore, feeling the heat even in Portland (can’t imagine how nasty it was further south). The showers were heavenly: Free with the mooring, clean, and unlimited hot water – a cruisers dream. We sat down for a drink to wait for James and Jenny, only to find out they had significant engine problems and were going to be significantly delayed getting in. We opted for takeout from the marina restaurant to bring out to their boat so we could at least say hi over dinner. Of course as we were heading out with the bags, who did we run into but former Chatham friends Bob & Caroline Knott who had retired to Maine. They only live a few miles north on Littlejohn Island, but what were the odds of running into them that night? We spent a few minutes chatting and confirming that we’d see them when we came through Portland again on our way back in a month or so, and headed out. Despite all the boat problems, James and Jenny had the table ready and beers cold from the fridge, so we got a few hours of catch up in over dinner. James ran us back to our boat, and they headed home.

We left Block Island Wednesday morning, in fog as usual. We motor-sailed for a bit, then set sail. The fog finally lifted and we were having a beautiful sail, but then we were hit by a squall. We got the sails down in time, but didn’t get our foul weather gear on fast enough, so we were totally drenched – a freshwater shower whether we wanted it or not. After the initial burst of wind, we were able to set a bit of jib to keep moving in the right direction, but not so fast as to run into the next squall that was passing in front of us this time. We wound up doing the rest of the trip under jib alone, right up to Onset. Things were a bit tense the last couple of hours, as the entire state of Massachusetts was under a major thunderstorm watch. Of course that didn’t stop two yacht clubs from having Wednesday night races while we were simply hoping to get in on time. Luckily we dropped the anchor with 20 minutes to spare before the lightning strikes started. More luckily the storms were north and south of us, but moving east, so we never got hit, despite the sounds all around us.

Thursday was spent doing laundry, downloading Netflix movies over restaurant wifi, and provisioning. Friday required another small laundry run (gasoline splatters during the last of the cleanup from the outboard dunking), but also got us lobster mac & cheese at Trip’s favorite lunch stop.