8 August 2012 Old Comfort Point to Maine (Day 4)
It remained misty and cold all night. At one o’clock, we’d turned the corner around Nantucket Shoals and started the 220 mile leg towards Mount Desert Island – only one more day and night to go.
I put out the fishing lines again and quite soon hooked a monster of a fish. It screamed line off the reel and when I tried to increase the pressure on the reel, it pulled so hard that it snapped the line and took my last decent lure. In a way, I’m glad that I didn’t have to fight it for an hour before I lost it.
The wind stayed light all morning, so we continued motoring and did our normal routine of me sleeping for a couple of hours while Glenys read a book. In the afternoon, the wind picked up to around ten knots from directly behind us, so I poled out the jib and we managed to sail at four knots for four hours before the wind died on us again. Glenys had a kip for a couple of hours, while I practised my guitar and did some more planning of where we will go in Maine.
We’re under a serious time constraint after the delays in Deltaville and really need to be back in the Northern Chesapeake in late September, before it gets too cold (and there’s a huge boat show in Annapolis in the first week of October.) This means that we need to be in New York in five weeks’ time, which only gives us a couple of weeks in Maine before we have to start heading south again.
Glenys rustled up Chicken Mole and rice for dinner, which was much nicer than One Pot Stew. The wind remained low up to midnight, so we remorselessly carried on motoring. We expect to be arriving in North East Harbour well before lunch tomorrow.
9 August 2012 Old Comfort Point to Maine (Day 5)
It was a quiet night again – not enough wind and very calm seas. Glenys took over at seven o’clock in the morning and I went to bed, so that I would be a bit fresher as we approached land. Glenys let me sleep for one and a half hours and then woke me because we’d entered thick fog with lobster pot buoys everywhere.
It was surreal for the next four hours as we weaved our way through thousands of lobster pot buoys, checking the radar and keeping a keen eye on our small chart plotter to make sure that we were heading in the right direction. Occasionally we would hear the deep roar of a fishing boat engine and catch a glimpse of it in the gloom as they passed by seeking out their lobster pots.
As we approached Mount Desert Island through a channel between two other islands, the traffic increased and we passed a few cruising yachts as well as a variety of tourist vessels – mostly powerboats, but we saw one large sailing yacht which (bizarrely) had a small band tuning up on the aft deck. The fishing boats are easy to deal with because they have powerful, noisy engines, but the yachts tend to sneak up quietly.
We finally had a fleeting glimpse of land when we were a half a mile from Northeast Harbour and felt our way in through the thick fog. The bay is full of moorings. We had a brief cruise around then went back out and picked up a mooring just outside the narrow harbour. I called Clifton Dock on the VHF radio and they confirmed that we could stay on the mooring for $25 per night - that’ll do.
We had a bacon and egg brunch and chilled out for a while. I reported in to the Customs on the telephone and was told that I’ll have to report in every time that we change anchorage, which is a pain in the neck. At least they gave us their extension number so that we can ring them direct.
Having been on-board for six days, it wasn’t long before we were getting the dinghy into the water and fitting the outboard to go ashore. Unfortunately, the outboard wouldn’t start so I had to strip down the carburettor (again). I’d like to find out what the problem is so that I can rely on the outboard, but it only took half an hour to sort it out, so we were soon ashore.
We paid for the mooring and walked into town. There’s a tourist office next to the town marina where we picked up some information, then walked down the main street which is mostly tourist-oriented art galleries and souvenir shops – not very interesting. We bought some bread and a few groceries and retired back to the boat.
We’ve decided to sail up Somes Sound tomorrow – allegedly it’s the only true fjord in the USA (apart from Alaska), but I suspect that it won’t match Norway. We went to bed early, totally knackered.
10 August 2012 Northeast Harbour, Mount Desert Island, Maine
Not surprisingly, we had a bit of a lie-in this morning. It was cold enough last night that we had to get out a thin duvet for our bed, so it was lovely to snuggle under it away from the cold morning air – a huge change from steamy Virginia. It was very foggy, so we decided to wait for clearer visibility before going up Somes Sound.
We’ve motored for 75 hours to get from Deltaville to Maine, so we needed to get fuel, but just as we were going to drop the mooring, a huge 150 foot yacht pulled alongside the fuel dock. This caused a real bottleneck because it only left a small dock space for everyone else. At times there were four boats hovering around waiting to get fuel, so we decided to wait. I caught up on a bit of admin and correspondence while Glenys read the cruising guide for the area.
After lunch, the big yacht moved away, so we let the queue die down and went to the fuel dock. We used their pump-out station to empty the holding tank. It wasn’t very full, but it was a good opportunity to test that the plumbing that I did four months ago in St Maarten. To my great surprise, it all worked well, but watching the effluent pumping out through the clear sight glass on the pump head was not pleasant…
While filling up with diesel, we asked the lady who runs the fuel dock a few questions about lobster – we’d seen her pulling up some lobster pots yesterday evening. She has a private license which allows her to put out five lobster traps, but what she catches is for personal consumption only. Yesterday evening she pulled in 21 lobsters! She also said that we should only pay $3 per pound for lobster if we buy it from a fisherman – the supermarket in town charges twice as much. When she found out that we’d never had Maine lobster, she very gave us four lobsters (6 lb.), which was an extremely kind thing to do.
It was still very foggy, so we abandoned going anywhere and picked up another mooring a bit further inside the harbour, which will be much more sheltered if the forecast bad weather rolls in tomorrow. I spent the rest of the afternoon on admin, in particular, sorting out my To Do List to make sure that I’ve picked up all the “little” jobs that remain after our work in Deltaville. Unfortunately, my list is bigger than before.
I ran the generator and the water maker to test everything and start to make water to replace the horrible water that we picked up in Deltaville. Even after living on board Alba for nearly 1½ years, I discovered two new things about the boat – we have a valve connecting our top water tank to the bottom water tank and there’s an extraction fan in the engine room. I closed the water tank valve and produced the new water into the top tank while we use up the horrible water from the bottom tank. I used the extraction fan because there seemed to be some exhaust fumes in the engine room when I ran the generator – hopefully it’s nothing serious.
We spent most of the day trying to avoid having to put on socks and long trousers. We managed quite well, but I succumbed to putting on my nice snuggly house slipper/sock thingies to keep my feet warm.
Glenys steamed the lobster for dinner in her new steaming pan that she bought in Deltaville. It was a little fraught because she wasn’t sure how long to cook them for, but the results turned out very, very tasty. We’ve decided that lobster is nice, but like crabs is very messy – I’d prefer a spicy Beef Vindaloo.
11 August 2012 Northeast Harbour, Mount Desert Island, Maine
The forecast was for heavy rain today, so I had a maintenance day. I did a complete oil service on the engine – the first for over six months and it was well over due. It all went pretty smoothly. While I was at it, I changed the primary diesel filter for the generator.
I started the generator and gave it a good inspection and found to my horror that there was a water leak on a hose going into the new heat exchanger. It looks like the hose clamp is not tight enough or the hose is damaged, but it’s impossible to get at the hose clamp because it’s under the generator with no space to even get my hand in never mind any tools. I eventually managed to slide another hose clamp along the hose and screwed it tight. It’s barely holding the hose to the pipe fitting, but it seems to have stopped the leak. I emailed Deltaville Boatyard to give them prior warning that this will have to be sorted out when we go back in October.
After a delicious lunch of Lobster sandwiches, Glenys got in the dinghy to go shopping, but the damn outboard wouldn’t start. I had to strip the carburettor again - it must be a sticking valve or gummed-up jets because I don’t do anything apart from taking it apart and blowing down a few holes. I’ll have to buy a service kit for the carburettor and sort it out once and for all.
My next job was to remove the Rod Kicker because the rivets that were put on in Deltaville have pulled away. Three of the ten are destroyed and the others are now loose. I’ve emailed the boatyard about this as well. The aluminium pop rivets that they’ve used were woefully inadequate.
I then sorted out a small leak on the watermaker control panel, and the day was gone. I practised my guitar for an hour, had dinner and went to bed. It was very foggy in the evening, I hope that it clears tomorrow so that we can go somewhere else.
12 August 2012 Northeast Harbour to Somes Harbour, Mount Desert Island, Maine
It was a real pea-souper this morning, so I did some admin while Glenys did some sewing. Every ten minutes, one of us would look outside hoping that it was clearing. The fog lifted slightly, but only when it started to rain…
Glenys made Lobster Bisque for lunch, after which we said “Damn it” and headed off into the fog towards Somes Sound. The fog was patchy, so at times we could see a mile and at other times we could only see 100 yards. The cruising guide waxes lyrical about Somes Sound – “the only true fjord in North America outside Alaska” and “a dramatic six mile cleavage into Mount Pleasant Island" and“Steep hills of 800 feet plummet directly into the water’s edge” and ”in the background, mountains add grandeur to an awe-inspiring landscape and sea scape.” Well, we weren't impressed. It’s very pretty with a few scraggly hills and pine trees which come down to the water’s edge. I’m afraid that we’ve seen too many really dramatic places.
We had a pleasant motor down to Somesville and anchored amongst other cruising boat which is a nice change from being on a mooring in a harbour. We spotted our first Harbour Seal which watched us as we anchor. It’s a lovely anchorage – lots of moorings, but still enough space for ten or so boat s to anchor.
It threw it down for the rest of the afternoon, so we chilled out – Glenys read a book and I practised the guitar. I said to Glenys that I think that I’m getting better – her comment was “Well you can’t get any worse.” I don’t know if it was an encouragement or an insult.
13 August 2012 Somes Harbour, Mount Desert Island, Maine
It was a lovely morning – the sun was shining and the anchorage was mirror calm. We caught the local free bus into Bar Harbour. There were another four cruisers standing at the bus stop – amazingly, we had already met Mark and Julie from “Rachel” in Deltaville. It was good to be talking to cruisers again.
Bar Harbour is a major tourist town packed with restaurants, t-shirt shops and ice cream vendors and a bit of a culture shock after the sleepy places that we’ve been to so far. We bought a hiking map and passes to get into the Arcadia National Park (only $5 each) and after buying a sandwich, caught another bus to the south end of the National Park.
The bus dropped us at Sandy Beach and we walked down to the shore to be met by the bizarre sight of hundreds of holiday makers sat on the beach in the fog - very strange. We walked along the coast path with hundreds of other tourists, but it was pleasant to get off the boat and stretch our legs. We sat on a rocky cliff and ate our sandwiches, watching the Herring Gulls soaring in the wind as the fog drifted in and out. On the bus journey back to Somes Harbour we met Andrew and Clare from “Eye Candy” - two Aussies.
There was a boat anchored very close in front of us when we got back. I recognised the boat “Thai Hot” – we’d last seen it in Deshaies, Guadeloupe last January. We went over to say hello to Bob & Laura and hinted that they should move, but they seemed very thick skinned about being so close.
We had a quiet night in.
14 August 2012 Somes Harbour, Mount Desert Island, Maine
We were up early to catch the bus into town and caught another bus to the Sieur de Monts National Park centre to start a hike.
The first part of the trail was along the side of a tarn following Kane Trail which was very pleasant. Just past the end of the lake, we took the Ladder Trail which goes up very steeply up with some sections where there are iron ladders and rungs set into the rock. Not quite a scramble, but very steep and tiring. We then joined the Schiff Path which took us to the top of Dorr Mountain.
The path then dropped down and joined the Gorge Path leading up to the peak of Cadillac Mountain at a height of 1530ft. The hike up to the peak was lovely, in woodland and mostly walking up granite rock surfaces, but it was a bit of a shock when we arrived because there is a road that brings hundreds of tourists up in their cars. We plodded past them all hot and sweaty, while they were running around taking photographs.
After eating our lunch in a quiet area, we found the start of the Cadillac South Ridge Trail and had a lovely 4½ mile walk down to Blackwoods Campsite where we caught a bus back to Bar Harbour. It was an excellent 6½ mile hike with some surprisingly steep terrain.
“Eye Candy” and “Rachel” came over for sun-downers and we all had a good time. The plan for tomorrow is to do laundry and go to a supermarket.