1 August 2012 Deltaville, Chesapeake
We've been on the hard for 41 days and 41 nights (just slightly longer than Jesus spent in the wilderness) and today my prayers were answered because we were put back into the water. However, it was not easy.
Mack spent the morning working on the generator to get all the connections straight. There were a few mystery wires that we didn't know how to connect back, so I emailed Fisher Panda in Germany yesterday and we got an answer back this morning – their hot line gives a very good service. I talked to Chuck a couple of times during the morning to confirm that we would be launched today and he said yes, but he needed to produce the outstanding invoices which would have to be paid.
I finally received the invoices after lunch and then sent Chuck a spread sheet detailing invoice items that I was querying and also some that I thought were too expensive. I went through the spread sheet with him and he said that he needed to discuss with Keith. I went back to the boat and took a couple of inches off the bimini frame.
By half past three, there was no sign of the travel lift, so I walked down to the dock where I collared Keith who said that he’d gone through the queries with Chuck and, if I agreed and paid, then there was no reason why we shouldn't get launched. I tracked Chuck down who was working on another boat and said that he needed to credit some items and agree some others with me before I could pay. I nearly went crazy, but controlled myself and calmly emphasised that all I want to do is get back in the water – how about I pay the outstanding bill less $1,000? He finally agreed that to save time, I could do this.
Five minutes later, I was $7,000 lighter and the travel lift operator had agreed to work after four o'clock to put us in the water. I find it amazing that, if I hadn't gone over and hassled, we’d not have been launched. I don’t know if it’s lack of efficiency or are they really trying to piss me off?
Clifton held things up a little bit by stopping the travel lift as it went past the workshop because he wanted to use a compressed air rivet gun to replace the rod kicker. So I was pretty stressed by the time that they dropped us into the water - just before five o'clock I gave the travel hoist guys a beer each to thank them for staying late. It’s a shambles – why on earth weren't we put in the water just after lunch?
We’re now in the travel lift dock, with the air-conditioning working, drinking a few cold beers, so life isn't so bad any more. I'm hoping that the yard will give me the resources tomorrow to tune the rigging, get the generator going, align the engine and go out for a sea trial. If it all goes to plan, we’ll be back at anchor tomorrow night.
2 August 2012 Deltaville, Chesapeake
We were up at quarter to seven again – it will be nice to have a lie-in at some time without worrying about jobs. Chuck came over and said that he’s arranged a marina berth for us for two nights free of charge and he wanted us to move straight away. When I tried to start the engine, I found that the starter battery was flat. I quickly put jump leads between the domestic batteries and the starter battery and the engine started fine.
Once we’d motored around to our marina berth, Clifton arrived and spent the morning tuning the rig and tidying everything up. I helped him and learned quite a lot about tuning our rig. In the afternoon, Mack turned up and completed the engine alignment – he’ll be back tomorrow morning to go out for a sea trial. I fitted the dive compressor back into the cockpit locker and filled up the rest of the locker with all of the stuff that has been cluttering up our cockpit. It’s great to have a clear cockpit again.
I spent the afternoon hoisting the three sails and working on deck to sort out the ropes and tidying up. By the end of the day we were looking very ship shape and ready for sea. The weather forecast still looks good for heading south to Hampton Roads on Saturday 4th and then heading north towards Maine on Sunday.
In the evening, Stan from “Green Eyes” had organised a “Crab Boil”. He bought a bushel of crabs from a local fisherman for $45, which he steamed in a huge pot with sweet corn, potatoes, clams, oysters and Old Bay Seasoning. There were only eight of us there, so it was a mega amount of food, but great fun and very tasty. It’s a lot of hard work to get a little bit of crab meat. Eating crabs is definitely a social event.
3 August 2012 Deltaville, Chesapeake
We went for the sea trial and the engine looks and sounds great. There is very little vibration on the propeller shaft seal and it is not leaking. Everything looks good for leaving tomorrow.
I carried on finishing off various small jobs including putting the wind sensor and radar reflector back on the mast, replacing a leaking cockpit drain hose, fitted the SSB antenna cable, etc. Glenys disappeared and did the final shopping before leaving.
In the afternoon, a lady arrived to steam clean the carpets and upholstery which looked great when she’d finished. Eighteen months of grime removed in a few hours.
I paid the final part of our bill. I managed to get just under $1,000 knocked off the bill because of their efficiency on some of the jobs, but the total still came to $23,000 and we've probably spent another $3,000 on other bits and pieces. The biggest chunk was for rigging work - $12,000 for the standing rigging and $4,500 for the running backstays & new winches. The rest was general maintenance. It’s an expensive game this sailing lark.
Despite the hassle, we've actually achieved a lot in the eight weeks that we've been here. We've now got brand new rigging; new winches for the staysail & running backstays; fully serviced sails; new engine mounts; new prop-shaft seal; new cutlass bearing; new anti-fouling; overhauled windlass; galvanised anchor & chain; major generator service; polished topsides; steam cleaned upholstery, etc, etc. We’re now ready to continue around the world.
Would I haul out at Deltaville again? Yes, because the quality of the technical work is very good. However, I’d not rely on the yard’s project management. I’d make sure that all investigation work is done as soon as possible, so that any parts can be ordered as soon as possible. I would buy my own parts especially any specialist parts – it will be cheaper and I will be able to chase the delivery. Then I would push and push to get things done – make the project manager's life difficult. If nothing is being done then go to Keith – not ideal but effective.
A group of the yard staff always meet up at four o'clock after work and have a few beers outside the workshop, so I took over a case of beer and gave it to Mack to thank him for his work. I also gave a beer to Keith who I saw wandering past.
We carried on working to tidy up, Glenys hosed down the decks and filled the water tanks, while I went through the bags of stuff left over from the various jobs that we’ve done and decided what to bin and what to keep. Garlic Prawns for dinner and then collapsed.
4 August 2012 Deltaville to Old Comfort Point, Chesapeake
We were up at seven o’clock and moved over to the fuel dock. By half past eight we were filled up with fuel and motoring out through the very shallow channel into open water – we’ve finally escaped Deltaville!
The trip down to the anchorage at Old Comfort Point was pretty boring with a 10-15 knots wind straight on the nose, so we motored most of the way - the forecast was for the winds to increase in the afternoon and we just wanted to get to the anchorage to get ready to leave tomorrow. On the way, we spent some time checking that we’d rigged the sails correctly. The new running backstays and winches worked very well – we can now put up the running backstays without leaving the cockpit and the winches are perfect. I’m pleased that we went to the expense and effort of fitting it all.
We had a little difficulty anchoring and dragged a couple of times. I pulled the anchor up and discovered to my horror that we’d hooked an underwater electricity cable. I lifted it clear of the water, slipped a rope underneath it, motored forward a little so that I could lift the anchor clear and then dropped it back down into the water. We anchored a hundred metres further away…
We were both very tired and had a nap before getting the dinghy on deck and preparing the boat for a long passage. We were in bed at nine o'clock – eight weeks of hard work and stress has finally caught up with us.
5 August 2012 Old Comfort Point to Maine (Day 1)
The weather forecast looks to be good with south to south-west winds at 10-20 knots for the next few days, so Glenys prepared her customary One Pot Stew and we set off at half past eight. It was a very pleasant reach along the shipping channel and out through the Chesapeake Bridge into the open sea. We turned east and I put out our spinnaker pole to starboard to try to run down wind, but there wasn't enough wind, so we had to motor for a couple of hours.
We’re not quite sure where we’re heading yet, so we started to read the cruising guide for the area from Delaware Bay to Maine. The plan is to head for somewhere in Maine, which is about 700 miles away, but that depends on the weather – we may stop somewhere further south. We've no idea where to go in Maine, but we've got 4 days to figure it out.
The wind picked up to 15-25 knots from the south during the afternoon and we had a cracking reach with the staysail out, a reefed genoa and main sail – we were averaging eight knots. I love the new winches and running backstays. As evening approached, the wind veered towards south west so we rolled away the stay sail, poled out the genoa and rolled off downwind.
6 August 2012 Old Comfort Point to Maine (Day 2)
It was a lovely night, clear skies with a ¾ moon. The wind increased in strength to over 25 knots and the seas picked up to 3-4 metres, so we were surfing for a while – we logged 10 knots at one point.
As dawn broke, I could see lots of dark cloud ahead and spent a couple of hours dodging thunderstorms. Unfortunately, one eventually got us, but I’d already put two reefs in the main and rolled away the genoa when it hit us with torrential rain and gusts of 35-40 knots. After that went through, I switched the spinnaker pole to port because the wind was more westerly and went to bed while Glenys took a watch for a couple of hours.
By eleven o’clock, the wind died completely and Glenys turned on the engine. The wind picked up enough to sail for a few hours in the afternoon, but died off again by dinnertime. We were visited by a pod of Atlantic Dolphins – we could hear their excited whistles as they played in the bow wave for ten minutes.
We filled up our water tanks in the marina in Deltaville and the water tastes horrible. There’s a slight smell of rotting eggs when it’s poured into a glass and there’s a nasty swamp-like after-taste. We’ve resorted to boiling the water and adding some Sorrel syrup to every bottle of water to disguise the taste. We’ll have to dump the water when we get to our destination and make a whole tank load with our water maker.
We were invaded by small, biting house flies. We spent most of the late afternoon and evening swatting the little buggers – we must have killed over forty of them. God knows where they are coming from - we're over 80 miles off-shore. On Glenys’s 7-10 watch, I locked myself away in the back cabin with the mosquito netting up on the hatch, so that I could sleep without being bitten. When Glenys went to bed at 10 o’clock, I “Bopped” the remainder of the boat with fly spray. Let’s hope that’s the end of them.
At eleven o’clock, we were 100 miles south-east of New York, motoring north-east in flat calm seas towards Nantucket and then on to Maine. We’re still not sure where to go in Maine, but Mount Desert Island looks promising.
7 August 2012 Old Comfort Point to Maine (Day 3)
The remainder of the night was very calm with no chance of sailing as the slight five knot wind was directly on the nose. However, it was a lovely moonlit night with lots of stars. As dawn broke, I was pleased to be visited by a huge school of Atlantic Dolphins – there must have been over a hundred of them coming over to play in our bow wave in small groups for about thirty minutes. I took loads of pictures, but they were mostly rubbish because I didn’t have the shutter speed set high enough. Maybe I’ll do better next time.
The morning passed by quickly with both of us pottering about – it’s just like being at anchor because it’s so calm. We had a few more biting flies, but we soon killed them off. Glenys read her book and the Maine Cruising guide. I slept for a couple of hours and then plotted some waypoints around Cape Cod and into North East Harbour on Mount Desert Island, which is our intended destination now.
The afternoon was more of the same. Glenys had a nap and I practised my guitar and read a book. We had a bit of excitement when I hooked a small Dorado, but it managed to shake the hook when I landed it on the back deck and then flipped its way overboard. It was only about 1lb in weight, so I wasn’t too bothered. I went to bed at seven o’clock and there was still no wind. The weather forecast is for more light wind tonight and tomorrow, so it looks like we’ll have to motor the remaining 250 miles as well – bummer!
It was very cold when I started my watch at ten o’clock and by eleven o’clock, we had fog forming – yes fog! I went down below and dug out some warm clothing including a woolly hat and a down-filled gilet. We were approaching the southern tip of Nantucket Shoals which spread sixty miles south of Cape Cod and there were plenty of fishing boats out trawling these fertile waters. Fortunately, the fog didn’t get too thick and it was beautiful to see the twinkling lights of the fishing boats in the misty, moonlit waters.
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.
15 August 2012 Somes Harbour to Buckle Harbour, Swan Island, Maine
It was a lovely day and the forecast is for worsening weather over the next few days, so we couldn’t bear to waste the day in a launderette. We pulled up our anchor and motored down Somes Sound which was lovely in the sunshine. Our route took us past South-west Harbour, which didn’t look very appealing although others have told us that it’s a nice little town.
We travelled 20 miles to the anchorage next to Buckle Island at the north end of Swan Island. The wind remained light and very fluky as we passed various islands. We tried to sail a couple of times, but only managed it for ten minutes at a time. The anchorage is lovely being surrounded on three sides by wooded islands.
After lunch, we went for a walk on Buckle Island which is a private island, but there’s a path that wanders around the shoreline. Some wag has installed a wooden door across the path on which they’ve painted “Etheria” going in to the woods and “Reality” when coming out. I must admit that it’s a lovely path – real Hansel and Gretel stuff.
A few more boats arrived in the afternoon including an old schooner that ferried everyone ashore for a beach barbeque. It must have been freezing as the fog rolled in at six o’clock.
16 August 2012 Buckle Harbour, Swan Island, Maine
It threw it down last night and was still raining and foggy in the morning. We declared the day a write-off and pottered around. We had a bit of a squall come through in the morning giving us 25 knots from the east and cleared away some of the fog, but it was still grey with drizzle.
Glenys spent a few hours on the dinghy cover, which still needs some edging tape around the eight or so cut-outs that she made for the handles. She wasn’t able to buy any grey edging tape and so she has to make her own edging tape which is proving to be a mission.
I spent some time getting our website up to date and three hours practising my guitar. I’m slowly getting better and my left hand fingers are getting toughened up now, but my little finger won’t move independently and waves around everywhere as I move my left hand ring finger. I’ve only been playing for a month, so I guess I’m doing okay.
It rained in the evening and most of the night.
17 August 2012 Buckle Harbour to Castine, Maine
We woke up to glorious sunshine and blue skies – what a difference a day makes. We now need some provisions, so we headed off towards Bucks Harbour in Penobscot Bay with the light wind dead against us. As we motored up Eggemoggin Reach, the wind picked up a little and backed to the west so that we were able to sail for an hour until we approached the road bridge and the wind died again.
Bucks Harbour is absolutely heaving with moorings. There was a spot where we could have anchored anchor at the eastern entrance to the bay, but it was ten metres deep and it didn’t look like there would be a decent grocery shop ashore. We decided to continue on to Castine which we’d heard was a bigger town.
There were no moorings available off the town of Castine, so we anchored in Smith Cove and had a one mile dinghy ride into town (after I’d stripped down the carburettor to get the outboard going again). There’s not much in Castine – a book shop, bakery (closed after three o’clock), grocery store, a very small boat yard and a few small restaurants. Castine was a very major shipbuilding and fishing port in the late 1800s and there are many large houses that were built for sea captains and merchants. Unfortunately, it’s now a sleepy little summer vacation place at the end of a road. We had a short walk around the town – “Oh look! There’s another house that was built in 1865”.
We gave up and went to the grocery store which was very basic – we’ve seen better stocked stores in small Caribbean islands. Their meat counter was particularly poor – a few packs of sausages, a sorry looking steak and a few fish steaks of dubious quality. They didn’t even have any chicken – it was all frozen in a big block and would be defrosted by tomorrow. However, they did have large fridges packed with beer and drinks.
We carried our provisions back to the dinghy and Glenys went off to the boat yard to buy some lobster for $4.50/lb. I chatted to the harbour master and asked about buying lobster directly from the fishermen. He said sure we could and called over a fisherman who had lots of lobster which he would sell me for $3/lb. Unfortunately, it was too late to stop Glenys. Ah well, we’ll know next time.
Back on the boat, we chilled out in the cockpit in the sunshine. There’s a big power boat anchored next to us called “Blue Guitar”, which belongs to Eric Clapton. We've seen the boat before in Isla Culebra in Puerto Rico – I suspect that he’s following us because he’s heard about my guitar playing…
It soon became chilly as the sun dropped, so we retired below and put up the mosquito nets before the sun went down – good job because a swarm of mosquitos descended on the boat. We had about fifty of the little buggers trying to get through the cockpit hatch screen at one point. I’m surprised that there are so many in this relatively cold climate.
18 August 2012 Castine to Pulpit Harbour, Maine
It wasn’t too bad a morning - overcast with some light mist. We motored over to Pulpit HarbourPulpit Harbour in the glassy seas – is there ever any wind in Maine?
We anchored in ten metres of water close to the shore and chilled out for the rest of the afternoon. It is a very pretty bay and is also very popular, so our afternoon entertainment was watching the new arrivals anchoring in the deep water. It was made even more difficult because there was little wind and the anchored boats were swirling around.
19 August 2012 Pulpit Harbour, Maine
I went over and chatted to Richard and Sue on “Brigatta” about the island and they confirmed where we could go ashore to walk into town. They have their boat moored in Southwest Harbour, so I invited them over for a beer so that we could pick their brains on good anchorages as we head west.
Glenys and I walked into the nearby town, which is 2½ miles away, but it was a pleasant hike in the sunshine. The town of North Haven is very small with a sandwich bar, a small ferry dock and a couple of gift shops. We had a sandwich and walked back, calling in at a supermarket near to the anchorage to stock up with a few more essentials. Even though it’s in the middle of nowhere, it was a much, much better store than the one in Castine.
“Brigatta” came for a beer or two and we discovered that they live in Boston. They have kindly offered to show us around Boston when we get there.
20 August 2012 Pulpit Harbour to Harbour Island, Maine
We headed south west out of the anchorage, motoring again because there was no wind. Just before lunch, we had a slight breeze from the south west, so we were able to plod along at three knots for a while, but soon had to turn the engine on again. The weather forecast is for another week of these light variable winds. I guess that we shouldn’t complain too much because at least it’s sunny.
We had look at a couple of anchorages (Burnt Island and Allen Island) but didn’t like the look of them, so we continued onto Harbour Island which is very nice. As we were wandering around to find a place to anchor between all of the lobster pots, a guy on another boat called us over and pointed us at a free mooring. Apparently, the owners of the island have installed the moorings on a first come, first served basis. The mooring we picked up looks a bit tatty, but the wind will be very light tonight, so hopefully it will be okay.
21 August 2012 Harbour Island to Christmas Cove, Maine
We didn’t break free of the mooring, but we were very close to the rocky shore when we woke up. The tide had gone out, exposing the kelp covered rocks and the shallower water meant that we were moving around the mooring in a wider arc. I pulled in about six foot of mooring line to get our rudder away from those nasty rocks.
We motored round to Christmas Cove – yep, still no wind. It’s a very tight entrance into the cove between two rock outcrops only 20 metres apart. There’s absolutely no room to anchor, so we had to pick up a mooring for $25, but it’s a very pretty place. We went for a walk into the local village of South Bristol where there’s a swing bridge separating the island from the mainland. We discovered a fisherman’s cooperative, so we bought three lobsters for $3.95/lb. There’s a red tide at the moment, so they didn’t have any clams, but we found some in another store.
Glenys cooked the lobster in the afternoon, and then we went for a beer at the bar to sample the local ale. I had a nice clear IPA and Glenys opted for a light wheat beer which was an unfiltered beer i.e. cloudy. The bar maid let me taste a few of the local unfiltered beers while I joked with a couple of locals telling them that I’d send cloudy beer back in the UK because it can make you go to the toilet more than you would like...
Back on the boat, Glenys cooked a fantastic Paella with lobster.
22 August 2012 Christmas Cove to Sebasco Harbour, Maine
We didn’t have a very restful night because Glenys woke up with dysentery. My joking about unfiltered beer was spot on – I’m glad that I didn’t drink the stuff.
After breakfast, we motored ten miles to Sebasco Harbour and picked up another mooring. This one is owned by a holiday resort in the bay and cost $40, but we were able to use their laundrette, which was a relief to Glenys who was down to her last few clothes. We also had access to their other facilities including a very old fashioned looking salt water pool – the resort has been here since the sixties and the pool looked like it was the original one. We didn’t bother.
We had a meal in the evening at their “pub”. It was typical pub food – steak and chips and spare ribs and chips, but it was very nice to sit and watch the sun go down from their terrace. As an added bonus, we spotted a Bald Eagle flying high above the anchorage as well as a few Ospreys.
23 August 2012 Sebasco Harbour to The Basin, Maine
Again there was no wind today. The forecast is for another week of this high pressure area, so we’re planning to stay in Maine for a few more days and then go down to Gloucester. It’s going to be an 80 mile passage, which is a very awkward distance because it will take us 14-16 hours, not enough daylight hours to do it in one day. We’ll probably leave on Sunday evening (26th) and sail overnight, so that we arrive in Gloucester on Monday morning.
We lurked around for most of the morning taking advantage of the fast internet connection. I paid off the huge credit card bill that we racked up in Deltaville, which was a little depressing.
It was a short four mile trip up the New Meadows River to The Basin. This is an amazing harbour, totally landlocked with a very narrow, shallow entrance that winds its way into the harbour. We anchored at the north end of the harbour from where it’s difficult to see how we got in here.
It was a very calm peaceful night. We’re starting to feel a bit isolated; we need to find some more cruisers again.
24 August 2012 The Basin to Snow Island, Maine
We hung about for the morning, waiting for the tide – we needed a rising tide to make sure that we got out without going aground on the shallow bend. Glenys read a book while I practised my guitar. I’ve downloaded an instruction book about the Blues and managed to work my way through the first lesson. I thought that it sounded good, but the jury is still out.
After lunch, we motored out of the narrow entrance, down the New Meadows River, around the headland and up Quahog Bay into the anchorage by Snow Island. It’s a lot busier than I expected. I thought that we were going to a remote Bay, but the shores are lined with houses and boats on moorings. The anchorage was nice and peaceful until later in the afternoon when the weekenders arrived - it’s a quarter of a mile wide with loads of space, but some knob came and anchored within 25 metres of us – I despair…
It was such a lovely evening that Glenys wanted to eat dinner in the cockpit, I reluctantly agreed and it was very pleasant until I received three mosquito bites within the space of a minute. We ran away down below – I hate mosquitos with a passion.
25 August 2012 Snow Island to Gloucester, Massachusetts (Day 1)
We listened to the weather forecast and decided to go to Gloucester tonight. Most of our day was spent trying to plan out where we’re going to go after Gloucester, there’s so many places that we could go, but we don’t have too much time, so we want to cherry pick the best places.
We put the dinghy on deck in the afternoon and pulled up the anchor at five o'clock and motored out into a light SW wind.
I was worried about navigating past the thousands of lobster pots in the dark – we were bound to hit some if we stayed close to shore, so we motored straight out to sea to try to be in water deeper than 100 metres by night fall. It worked to some extent, but there was still the odd lobster pot as night fell, even though we were in water deeper than 100 metres and 25 miles off shore.
I didn’t sleep well for my first off-watch – I kept imagining the bump of lobster pot buoys on the hull.
26 August 2012 Snow Island to Gloucester, Massachusetts (Day 2)
I managed to sail for a couple of hours around midnight, but the wind soon died on me. As we approached land at dawn, the lobster pots started to appear and, an hour later, I was weaving in and out of them. I thanked my lucky stars that we hadn’t hit one during the night – my strategy of heading out to sea worked fine.
Gloucester is a historic fishing port which was the setting for the movie “The Perfect Storm”. It was great to go past the landmarks that are mentioned by George Clooney as he heads out to sea in the film.
The fog's just lifting.
Throw off your bow line, throw off your stern.
You head out to South channel, past Rocky Neck, Ten Pound Island.
Past Niles Pond where I skated as a kid.
Blow your air horn and throw a wave to the lighthouse keeper's kid on Thatcher Island....
We rounded Ten Pound Island and entered the inner Harbour where we picked up a town mooring. The Harbour Master is a really nice guy. We’ve found that all of the American harbour masters are very pleasant – much better than the power crazed little Hitlers that we get in the UK.
We walked around town and found a large supermarket and liquor store – a big shopping trip is planned for tomorrow. We visited the Gloucester Fishermen’s Memorial, which is very sobering. It names all of the 5,368 lives lost from over 1,000 lost ships while fishing out of Gloucester. Between 1860 and 1906, a staggering 660 ships sank with the loss of 3880 men. The cost of bringing fish home a century ago was very high.
After a lunch of pizza, we went back to the boat and spent the rest of the day chilling out - reading, napping and watching the endless traffic in the harbour – commercial fishing boats intermingle with the tourist boats and yachts making it a very interesting harbour.
27 August 2012 Gloucester, Massachusetts
In the morning, we did a huge shop and caught a taxi back asking the driver to stop at the liquor store on the way back. We had so much stuff that we had to do two trips in the dinghy to get it all back on board.
After packing everything away, we chilled out for a while and then went for a short walk around Rocky Neck which is a lovely quaint community consisting mostly of artists. We had an ice cream and wandered around for an hour.
We’d met Dave and Alex from “Banyan” on the dinghy dock and invited them over for sun-downers, they left Canada two months ago and are heading towards the West Indies, so we’ll probably see them along the way.
28 August 2012 Gloucester to Salem, Massachusetts
It was absolutely miserable in the morning – it threw it down as a cold front went over the area. We had resigned ourselves to hunkering down until the afternoon, but magically it cleared up mid- morning, so we dropped the mooring and motored over to Beverley near Salem. It was impressive to see the edge of the cold front moving across the sky and by the time that we arrived at Beverley, we were in brilliant sunshine.
We picked up a mooring belonging to the Jubilee Yacht Club which only costs $20 per night. All of the bays around here are packed so full of moorings that it’s very difficult to anchor anywhere remotely close to the shore.
After lunch, we wandered into Beverley, which is a pleasant little town on the outskirts of Salem. We’re planning to take the train into Boston tomorrow, so we checked that out and wandered back through the leafy suburban streets.
“Banyan” turned up and we went to their boat for a few drinks.
29 August 2012 Salem, Massachusetts
We were up early and caught the train into Boston. It’s a half an hour ride on a pleasant train. It was interesting to watch the ticket collector. Instead of the electronic ticket printing machines that we have in the UK, the guy had a pocket full of pre-printed tickets and punched holes into our ticket to denote the year, month, day, zone and a few other bits of data. It was a flurry of confetti as he rapidly punched the half a dozen holes – very quaint in this high tech country.
We followed the “Heritage Trail” around Boston. This is a marked trail –there’s a red brick path set into the pavement, which leads to various sites of historical interest. Much of it is related to the War of Independence – the Boston Tea Party, The Boston Massacre (where only 5 people died) and Paul Revere’s famous ride to Lexington to warn of the arrival of British Troops.
Having “been there and done” the Heritage Trail, we wandered through the Boston Public Garden, which is lovely. There are pedal-powered Swan Boats on the small lake that are over 130 years old and still a big tourist attraction. The Boston Public Library is a little further away, not on the Heritage Trail, but it’s an amazing building with stunning architecture and paintings and frescos throughout the inside – well worth making the detour to see.
We stopped off at the “Cheers Bar” on Beacon Street for lunch. It’s obviously a tourist trap, but we just HAD to go – we watched Cheers avidly when we were younger. There’s another Cheers bar next to Faneuil Hall, but the one on Beacon Street is the original “Bull and Finch” pub used for the outside scenes. The hostess initially put us in the down stairs bar which is very cramped, but Glenys found the “Set Bar” upstairs and had us moved up there. This bar is laid out like the stage set in Cheers (but a little bit smaller) and is much more pleasant. We had a cracking meal, a good pint of Samuel Adams Boston Lager and like good little tourists, we bought our souvenir t-shirts.
After our liquid lunch, we wandered across Boston and visited the Charlestown Naval Yard where we had a great guided tour of the USS Constitution, which is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate. Named by President George Washington after the Constitution of the United States of America, she is the world's oldest commissioned naval vessel afloat. Built in Boston in 1797, her first duties were to provide protection for American merchant shipping. The Constitution is most famous for her actions during the War of 1812 against Great Britain, when she captured numerous merchant ships and defeated five British warships. They do love us Brits over here…
Exhausted, we staggered back to the boat and collapsed.
30 August 2012 Salem, Massachusetts
We walked into Salem. It’s a town of two sides – there’s the mystic and supernatural history of the horrific witch persecution that happened in the 1690’s and then there’s the nautical heritage of a major sea port. Walking through the town centre is very odd because it’s full of witch and supernatural shops – want a psychic or palm reading or tarot cards? It’s all here.
We went to the Witch Dungeon Museum where there was a little play. It was very informative (if a bit over acted) describing the hysteria of the witch trials. We sat on church pews in front of the stage and then went down below to a replica dungeon with wax figures, which were old and tired and a little unsettling.
After wandering around the town for a while, we walked back over the bridge to Beverly which gave us an interesting view down onto a lobster boat which was unloading its catch. We watched them unload 10 big crates containing 50-100 lobster – that’s 500 to 1000 lobsters, which is not a bad catch.
31 August 2012 Salem to Provincetown, Massachusetts
We set off early in the morning, motored for 30 minutes to get out of the winding channel and then sailed all the way to where we anchored in Provincetown - it’s a miracle. It was a cracking close reach in 15-20 knot winds and lovely blue skies and flat seas.
What’s even better is that we caught a fish. I spent fifteen minutes rigging up two lures and caught a fish within five minutes of putting them in the water. It was a good five minute fight to bring in a nice 8lb Bluefish. I dumped it in a bucket on the aft deck then decided to fillet it while we were sailing along. Typically the wind picked up as I was doing it so it was a bit of a challenge.
We anchored to the west of the huge mooring field in Provincetown in ten metres of water. It’s a long way out of town and it was blowing 20-25 knots, so we didn’t bother going ashore.