Maine - Casco Bay

We left Block Island on Saturday as planned. The only aspect not part of the plan was caused by the weather – the fog which cloaked us and the sizable ocean swells that pushed us around for several hours until we reached Buzzards Bay a bit after noon. Fortunately there was little boat traffic in the fog, a fact we learned as we kept a close watch on our radar. Arriving at the northern end of the Bay and the western end of the Cape Cod Canal at slack tide made for an easy transit into Onset Bay. We anchored and enjoyed a quiet evening in a picturesque New England harbor. We knew we were in New England now merely by listening to the voices on the marine radio. Gone were the southern accents now replaced by those more common in Boston and places further downeast.

After visiting for a day with Sandra's mother and sister in Raynham, MA, we continued on our trek to Maine. We began by traveling through the ten miles or so of the Cape Cod Canal. For sailboats, there is only one option for traveling this route – with the tidal current. We were fortunate that the current was running our way for a morning passage. What a boost we got as we managed to move as fast as 11.8 kts as opposed to our normal speed of 6.3 kts.

Our good fortune continued as we headed north through Massachusetts Bay overnight on to the Gulf of Maine, as the seas remained calm and the breeze helped push us along. Traveling past the north end of Cape Cod, we also were visited by a humpback whale which surfaced several times as close as 100 yards from the boat.

As a bit of an aside, I've come to the conclusion that, while I enjoy sailing along with Mother Nature providing all the needed power, we generally use the engine or motor sail when on trips rather than sailing without the engine's help. This is very non-purist, I know. It's just that we prefer to remain at sea only as long as necessary, hoping to avoid unnecessary risks. Often the wind is not blowing the right direction or not strong enough to give us the 6 kts we can get using the engine. And if the wind does blow strong enough, we would prefer to avoid the seas that such winds bring. Sometimes we have found that traveling within 5 or 10 miles of the coast keeps us from having to pound through the larger seas. Of course, our travel on the ICW where sailing is rarely much help probably gets us accustomed to using the engine.

Back to Maine. Arriving in Casco Bay, I was reminded of the striking beauty this portion of the coast offers. Everywhere one is treated to views of rockbound islands painted in several shades of green of the evergreens, the oaks and grassy fields bordered this time of year by the wild roses and the blooming berry bushes. Casco Bay is not generally the area of the Maine coast often talked about. Penobscot Bay is usually the area mentioned as the classic Maine sailing area. We spent several years exploring Casco Bay and really find it so accommodating with protected anchorages never more than a few miles apart. There are many islands to explore with trails and campsites, tide pools and rocky promontories.

We arrived in the morning and anchored by a group of islands call The Goslings. As you might imagine, these are next to two larger islands, Upper and Lower Goose. What I like about this particular anchorage is a rocky outcropping that harbor seals like to rest on at low tide. Their presence had always been quite dependable. Sure enough, as we arrived we could see at least 20 resting there. After anchoring, we got in the kayaks to pay them a visit. They are cautious and slid down into the water as we approached. Once in their own element, their curiosity became evident. They'd pop up their heads to check us out. Jennifer even had one swim under her kayak and look up at her as it swam by. Jenn also got close to a bald eagle on those same rocks.

We later explored the island and their tide pools before moving on to South Freeport the next morning. We picked up a mooring and, after enjoying some seafood, walked into Freeport 3 miles away for some shopping at L. L. Bean and other outlet stores.

This morning we moved on to another uninhabited island – Jewell, one we've visited many times before. This island had an army post here during WWII to help protect Portland Harbor. Today what remains are two towers one can climb for great views, the slabs of what once served as the floor for a barracks and other buildings as well as the remains of two gun emplacements and underground tunnels for protected storage – really an interesting stop. We've visited all this before. Today we chose rather to visit a large tide pool called the punch bowl as well as the exposed surrounding rocks where the ocean waves crash relentlessly.

Tomorrow we travel to our last stop in Casco Bay for a while. We move across to the eastern side of the Bay up one of the inlets a few miles to Great Island Marine where we'll pick up another mooring. We'll leave the boat on that mooring for another family visit – this one to our daughter Samantha and our two grandsons. We know that we'll be back for more of the coast of Maine. These first days of our visit here have merely provided a glimpse of what this coast offers. We'll look forward to heading more downeast for more adventures upon our return.

Captain Bob

Carpe Diem

North to Block Island

It's now Friday morning. We sit on a mooring in Great Salt Pond at Block Island. We arrived here yesterday afternoon after two interesting nights at sea.. We left the Severn River Marina on Monday as planned and made our way across the Chesapeake Bay to Kiptopeke State Park on the Eastern Shore where we anchored comfortably for the night. We enjoyed a pretty sunset and peaceful, short night's sleep. Our schedule called for a 6AM departure. Once out in the ocean, we dealt with a bit of a headwind and chop that gave us a bouncy ride for several hours. Things settled down during the latter part of the day, which we enjoyed.

With a crew of three (our daughter Jennifer has joined us for the trip north) and a two hour helm schedule, we each were able to have a break of four hours for sleep. Since we'd all taken Bonine to prevent sea sickness, sleeping when not on duty was easier than it might have been otherwise. The medication made us all pretty sleepy. Working against us in each of the overnight were brisk winds and a 4 foot or more chop which we continued to bang into. When bouncing around in bed, it's more difficult to sleep.

It was our good fortune that shipping traffic off the Delaware Bay and NY Harbor was light. What ships did show up gave us no trouble, since the AIS unit gave us all the necessary info to stay out of their way.

As a brief side note, another of our instruments did not help us as we'd hoped: our auto pilot. I had installed the second replacement computer for the instrument but was unable to give it a thorough testing before departing. It acted just as the last edition had – unable to hold a course for more than a few minutes. I managed to get technical support on the phone, but this problem seems to have them baffled. For us during the trip, it means that one of us must be steering the boat at all times. Since we'd become accustomed to letting the auto pilot do much of the steering when offshore, we find this situation to be much more tiring.

So much for venting frustrations. During our traveling up the coast, we continue to be reminded how varied is our East Coast. The coast of Virginia and Maryland along the Eastern Shore is nearly all salt marsh with little in the way of signs of civilizations (and no cell phone service.) In contrast to this, the south coast of New Jersey is quite built up. All the reading I had done about Cape May focused on the quaint old homes of this vacation community. Nothing was mentioned about line of tall buildings along the water. These extended with only a few gaps for miles up the coast. The eastern end of Long Island looked as I had expected – many large and small homes overlooking miles of beach.

Block Island is a beautiful spot about six miles off the coast of RI and 12 miles east of Montauk Point, Long Island. The island has a large protected harbor with a couple of marinas, many moorings and room to anchor...at least at the moment. The moorings, we were told, had just been put in for the season. It seems that this is a busy place beginning next week with the annual Block Island Race Week. From then on to Labor Day, we're told that the place is full and very busy. Marina slips and moorings are pricy when they're available. The anchorage is generally full also. That said, the island offers high bluffs overlooking the ocean, miles of beaches and a quaint town that is similar to towns on the coast of Maine. A ferry service runs form the mainland regularly to bring vacationers. If I didn't know already that the movie Jaws was filmed on Martha's Vineyard, I would not have been surprised if I was told that it had been filmed here. It has a look and feel of the Amity Island of the movie.

It's rainy and cool today, so we're getting the boat cleaned up, catching up on sleep and making decisions about how and when we'll continue this journey to Maine. As this is written, our plan is to leave here tomorrow for Onset, MA at the western end of the Cape Cod Canal.

I leave off this blog with another comment on a topic I've discussed before in this blog. As we travel into NE where we lived for so many years and so many of the places are familiar to us, I find it easier to answer the question as to where home is: it is here on Carpe Diem. Each anchorage will offer familiar surroundings with friends and family nearby which merely strengthens that feeling of being home.

Captain Bob

Carpe Diem

Preparing to Leave Once Again

Two and a half weeks have passed since the last blog entry. In that time we've completed the boat projects we'd planned to undertake and a couple we hadn't planned on. We've taken some time to visit our younger daughter and her family in NH and also Sandra's mother and sister in Massachusetts. We've completed the provisioning and set up the boat for a crew of three instead of two, since our daughter Jenn will be joining us for the trip north.

As our departure date approaches, we review the weather predictions for the coastal areas we'll pass through as we head first up to Block Island. We've reviewed the charts and marked out our course. One issue is yet to be resolved. We'll hope to make it to Block Island with three days and two nights of travel in the ocean. However, we'll need some help from Mother Nature for that to work in the form of a favorable current and/or wind in the right direction to help us move quickly. We'll want to arrive in daylight. If that's not possible, we can always slow down a bit to arrive after a third night at sea. Not our choice, but we'll opt for that in lieu of arriving in the dark.

Some cruisers we've met would never undertake this trip, since it involves overnights in the ocean. Others would have it no other way. They like sailing out beyond the sight of land where there's no issue with shallow water, and they are more likely to get plenty of wind. We fall somewhere in between the two extremes. We prefer to anchor at night to allow for a good night's sleep. We travel in the ocean overnight when the other option just takes too many days. Of course, we won't go out there with strong winds or large waves predicted. Under those circumstances, we'll either wait it out or take the longer coastal route with day trips. So far the weather forecasts are within tolerable limits, so we're still planning to leave as scheduled. With this particular trip, we also benefit from our daughter's presence. With three on board, we'll get a bit more sleep between watches.

Some may ask at this point, “Why not skip all this extra work and time and just drive up there?” There are several reasons for this decision. First, life is meant to be an adventure. Where's the adventure in driving up to New England? Perhaps a bit scary on the highway at times, but not the adventure we hope for. Second, we plan to spend the whole summer up there visiting as well as cruising around some absolutely beautiful coastline. We get to see parts of the country unavailable to most. And if we see some whales, seals or dolphins along with large fish jumping, as we have in past trips up there, well that's just a bonus.

Captain Bob

Carpe Diem