Casco Bay to North Haven

While waiting out Irene on North Haven, I thought this would be a good time to bring all up to date on our travel from the Basin in Casco Bay to our present location. A later blog will provide a report on how we managed during this storm.

We spent two nights at the Basin and found it to be a really quiet attractive spot. On the second night there were eleven other boats at anchor, but nobody tried to crowd us. That was in part due to the fact that we had chosen a spot with nearly 30 feet of water at low tide. It seems that people won't anchor with that depth if they can avoid doing so. We had plenty of chain and an electric windless, so it worked for us.

Lobster buoys are everywhere. In some places we've traveled already we've passed through areas where there would be more than 8 buoys floating within a few boat lengths of us. We had good visibility, so working our way through the maize was not difficult, however. There were plenty of traps in the Basin as well. That worked to our advantage when I asked about buying a couple of lobsters from one of the lobstermen. No problem - $10 for the pair. They were delicious, fresh and sweet.

From the Basin, we moved to a nearby resort called Sebasco. For a price they offer moorings to boaters and complete access to the resort. We'd been here several times a number of years ago while we were doing all our sailing in Casco Bay. Once again we enjoyed our stay and met another sailing couple who had recently become full-time liveaboards. They are heading south for the first time, so we could offer a bit of help. They'd done lots of sailing in downeast Maine, so they were helpful to us as well.

On their advice, after two nights we left Casco Bay and sailed up to Port Clyde, a perfect example of a coastal working port with some support for tourists as well. After walking out to the lighthouse which protects the harbor, we enjoyed a great meal in town and then retired to the boat for the night.

The next day we sailed into Penobscot Bay and headed for a well-known anchorage called Pulpit Harbor on the island of North Haven. However upon arrival, we found all the best anchorage areas either full of boats or private moorings. We found this frustrating and sailed back out. It was an interesting harbor, but didn't seem to live up to its reputation. We then sailed around to the Fox Island Thoroughfare, a protected route between North Haven and Vinalhaven. We headed toward Seal Cove about a mile from the docks at North Haven. This turned out to be a beautiful spot. We enjoyed kayaking around some islands while being watched by a seal, and numerous birds. Sandra took lots of photos. We could imagine spending several days kayaking in this area. Our new friends from our Sebasco stay told us of another anchorage not far away that could keep us busy for another several days.

The town of North Haven has only about 300 year round residents, most of whom are working lobstermen or otherwise connected to the water. A few of the summer residents rank among the wealthy elite, however. There is one grocery store and only a two restaurants plus a snack bar. Galleries are more numerous, as the island attracts many artists. In some ways, the community takes you back 50 years. We're told that its important to wave to cars as they go by. Not to do so is just impolite. Everyone appears friendly and helpful. Nobody locks their doors, and many apparently leave their keys in their vehicles. It's that kind of place. Since we had to wait out a storm, we find this to be a really pleasant, beautiful place to do so.

Captain Bob

Carpe Diem

Preparing for Irene

Who would suspect that a sailing summer in Maine should include preparing for a hurricane? Of course, we should know that it is possible. Years ago when we had a boat moored in Casco Bay and still lived in New Hampshire, we had to worry about Hurricane Bob. Two years ago we were back up here and another hurricane threatened us. We left the boat on a mooring in Freeport and went to stay with Sam and her family in New Hampshire. That one never materialized, but it appears that Irene will cause some nasty weather up here even if we don't see hurricane force winds.

So what have we done? Well for starters, we knew there was no place we could go to avoid it. We thought we'd look for a harbor and get a mooring to leave the boat on and then seek out a motel for the night or two of the storm. We chose Rockland as the only harbor nearby that has some protection. We tried calling to reserve a mooring, but nobody would bite. The harbormaster in Rockland says that he's getting all boats off moorings, because the harbor doesn't offer enough protection.

We are currently anchored in a cove of Vinalhaven just south of the town of North Haven. For those unfamiliar with Penobscot Bay, North Haven and Vinalhaven are two fairly large islands next to each other. North Haven has a quaint little village that serves summer residents as well as about 300 who live here year round.

This spot is remote in more ways than one. Where we're anchored we get occasional cell phone access, but most of the time we can't get out. We also get no Internet service. When we went in to North Haven, we found one spot by the dock next to a building where we could use our cell phones reliably. That was it. We also get one commercial TV station that drops out regularly. So getting hurricane information is a bit more difficult than we'd like. We actually got some of it from our daughter Jennifer when we called her. The town has a community center with Wifi, so we'll get this blog out in that manner and also get the latest on the storms path. The inn also has Wifi, so we can keep up to date while we're there.

The Harbormaster from Rockland suggested we keep our boat right where it was, since this cove offers some good protection. Not satisfied with that, we took the dinghy over to North Haven to check out possible moorings there. The owner of the moorings wasn't encouraging, since he hadn't checked them in a long while. There is an inn on the island, so we thought we'd at least get off the boat during the worst of the storm. They had some last minute cancellations (no surprise there), so we could get a room for the two nights at a mere $200 each. Well, it's only money, and we're about to celebrate our 43^rd anniversary, so we decided to take the room. In preparation, we'll put down a second anchor with lots of anchor rode for both and close up the boat on Saturday. Then we'll have to find a safe place for the dinghy. Our only issue with the dinghy is that it tends to fill up with water from rain and sink low enough that the outboard gets some salt water where it shouldn't. I'll have to take off the outboard and put it on land somewhere safe. At that point, we'll have done all that we can. We'll just trust that it is enough.

We've got more to share about our recent time along the coast, but I'll add that to a future blog, as I also report on how we fared during Irene.

Captain Bob

Carpe Diem

Back on the Water

We're back on the boat now after an extended time with family here in New England. We put the boat on the mooring at Great Island Boatyard nearly two months ago, and we've only spent a few nights on it since that time. All that is now history, and we are beginning our cruising time on the coast of Maine for at least the next couple of weeks. We spent the first two days on the mooring and then moved only a short distance to Snow Island for another night. Most of our daytime was spent getting the boat ready for travel once again.

I've been for a short swim just to get the prop cleaned off after two months of no movement. It was a bit brisk but tolerable. The next cleaning job for me was to tackle to bottom of the dinghy after it sat at the dinghy dock for several weeks motionless – no anti-fouling paint. I dragged the boat up the launch ramp and flipped it over. There was a real forest of soft gelatinous growth all over it. Fortunately this stuff came off with little fuss. I was surprised to find no barnacles as I had in Marathon, but the soft stuff must have weighed at least five pounds.

While I was addressing these issues, Sandra was trying to bring some order to chaos inside after we unloaded all our clothes, sundries, and a huge grocery order to restock the boat once again. Since Jenn's time with us on the boat was over for this trip, some reorganization was required to set the boat up for two instead of three people.

That addressed the physical issues we dealt with as we returned to our home. We also had to adjust to having just each other for company. Over the past 2+ months, we first had Jenn with us for the trip north. Then we stayed with our other daughter Sam and her family which grew by one when our third grandson Ryan was born on July 21^st. This made for lots of exciting times with all three of the boys while we tried to help Sam with the new member of the family.

While this was keeping us busy, we also managed to spend a good deal of time with Sandra's sisters and brother and caring for their mother who ultimately passed away on the 4^th of August – the same day that Ryan was due to come into this world. How fortunate that he chose to come early.

So this was a full, joyous and sad time for us, making the adjustment back to two by ourselves away from family particularly challenging. How fortunate we are to be able to spend this time on the beautiful coast of Maine.

After spending a couple of nights at the marina getting water and some fuel as well as some of the clean-up chores completed, we moved to nearby Snow Island for a night. We're now spending two nights at another great anchorage called the Basin. It really is a pond or small lake that is open to the Bay via a narrow entrance. Once here, you would have no idea that it's not just a small body of fresh water near the coast. An eagle's nest is set on one of the trees on a small island in the Basin, but we've yet to see the eagle. We have kayaked around a bit to collect a little sea lavender along with some pretty quartz rocks and chips of mica that we also found here in prior visits more than 14 years ago.

In our short time here, I've already noticed a difference from our time down south in the winter. Whenever we anchored in the south, it seemed the boats around us were all from other places, mostly on the east coast, but few local boats. Up here in Casco Bay, most of the boats at anchor are local to Maine. Occasionally we see a boat from MA or CT, but that's about it with the exception of two boats, one Annapolis and the other from FL. I half expected to see many southern boats up here to avoid the heat and enjoy the beauty of Maine. Perhaps they have all gone further downeast or have already begun their trek back south. Perhaps I'll see a change as we move to other places here on the coast.

Another View of Maine

After thinking more about my last entry, I was afraid that the blog sounded a bit like something from the local Chamber of Commerce. So here is another perspective on the coast of Maine.

The weather changed a bit following the printing of the last blog. In fact, it changed quite a bit. Gone was the sun and the nice temps in the 70s into the low 80s.The day we left South Freeport, the cloud cover was complete and the temps were in the low 60s at best. We traveled a short distance to Jewell Island, as I reported earlier. By late that day, the wind had picked up a bit and the temps had dipped a little more. The next morning as we thought about leaving for the east side of the Bay, we decided to change our route to avoid sailing out of the protection of the islands any more than necessary. It was rainy and cold (temps in the 50s) as we left. The wind was blowing in the 20s with gusts in the upper 20s, but in the protection of the islands, we were pretty comfortable. We needed to go out into the ocean only for a short 20 minutes before we could duck back in behind some rocks and then islands. In that 20 minutes, the rain got more intense and the waves built to 6-8 feet on the nose – more fun. Then we were back in quieter waters again for the remainder of the trip.

For those who have poor visibility looking forward, these waters could be quite challenging as one works to avoid the numerous lobster pot bouys.. We enjoy great visibility, so we have little trouble avoiding them. In some areas, they are much thicker than crab pots are anywhere in the Chesapeake Bay or down in the Keys. It's remarkable that there are any lobsters left!

After arriving at the Great Island Boat Yard and picking up a mooring, we particularly enjoyed a hot shower and some time off the boat. However we couldn't get away from the cold, damp conditions which persisted for the next two days. Everything on the boat was damp, and nothing would dry. In spite of the occasional rain, we did get out by Kayak and dinghy to explore a couple of nearby islands, saw more seals and located an eagle's nest..

As this is written, we are back in Maine, having driven over to New Hampshire to visit our other daughter , son in law, and grandchildren and then on to Massachusetts to visit Sandra's mother and sister. If all goes according to plan, we'll spend the 4^th here before returning to NH. It may be a few weeks before another update is added to the blog, since we won't be on the boat much perhaps till August. Best wishes to all readers for a happy July.

Captain Bob

Carpe Diem

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