July 25^th- After 4 days in Camden we were ready to move not to mention the batteries needed to be charged. There was absolutely no wind so we ended up motoring the whole way to Crow Cove where we anchored. This is a very well protected cove and very pretty and quiet. We rowed over to Gil B’s house and had a nice afternoon chatting with them. Gil is someone I know from Charlotte.   They have a beautiful old house on a very picturesque piece of property.

   A thunderstorm rolled over us in the middle of the night. The sound of the thunder is really neat here. It sort of rolls and tumbles across the water instead of the heavy hammer and echo you get in the mountains.

July 26^th- A fog had enveloped us when we got up in the morning and I couldn’t even see shore which was less than 50 yards away. With the fog this thick sounds are really amplified and as this anchorage is pretty isolated the sounds where amazing. From the whistling of the osprey and eagles to the plaintive cry of the loons you could add the squawking of the gulls and the cawing of the crows. You could even hear the snorting of the deer on shore. Then the human sounds started to intrude. The rumble roar of the lobster boats and the wail of the fog horns were quickly overrun by the sound of cars and lawnmowers.

Slowly around noon the fog lifted and we departed motoring again as the wind was light. When we turned the tip of Isleboro the wind picked up and we motor sailed the last couple of miles. We motored through a small gut into a long narrow channel and anchored in the middle behind Holbrook Island in 14 feet of water.

   This is a state owned wildlife preserve. There is a dock but we just pulled the dinghy up on shore and went hiking. The trails here are fantastic. We walked through deep dense spruce forests with beautiful patches of several kinds of flowering mosses. Then you burst out into an old farm field turned meadow with huge elms lining the fields. Then you walk down to the long stone beach with the clear emerald water.

   It was very hot so when we got back to the boat we went swimming, yes even Alayne. This is the first time she’s been in the water the whole trip. After supper you could see and hear the harbor seals playing on the rocks a couple of 100 yards away. Their bark is a weird noise and I thought for a while that someone was yelling. The night was clear and windless.

July 27^th- We slept in again as the day was bright and windless. The whole ocean was like a mirror. It eventually got so hot we thought that the breeze from moving would be nice so we left. We motored around Cape Rosier which is where the Neerings wrote their book on sustainable living.There the wind picked up a bit and we had a nice close hauled reach for several miles ducking between these little popcorn islands. The wind died as we neared a narrow passage between two islands so we started the motor. Once we got through the passage the wind picked up nicely although it was blowing straight in from the ocean and we were fighting the tide. We were now in East Penobscot Bay and were beating through tons of lobster buoys. We tested today whether we would catch one. We ran over quite a few and the toggles too. Little dinghy smacked more than her share. We finally turned the corner into the Fox Island Thorofare and the wind really picked up. Of course it was right in the direction we wanted to go. Wind is wind though and we found our way into Carver Cove and anchored in 24 feet of water at high tide. We were next door to a schooner “ Mistress” out of Camden. This is a pretty anchorage with some rock ledges and then sloping grass meadows with only a few houses. It is all private property though so we stayed on the boat. It was a very quiet night.

July 28^th- More lazing around this morning as we could see fog out on the channel. We hung around and waited for it to lift which it started to do around 10:00. We motored out onto the thorofare which is narrow with lots of lobster buoys. When we turned the corner to North Haven we could see that the fog ahdn’t lifted out on the ocean. So we slowed down to a crawl in the hopes it might blow by soon. No such luck, by the time we reached the entrance we could see maybe a mile out so we decided to go for it. About a mile out we ran right into a fog bank so we put up the main and continued to motor. We crawled down the inlet with visibility only being 100 yards or so. Thanks to the GPS we knew right where we were. As soon as we rounded the buoy and it was a clear reach we shut down the motor and sailed. It was a nice sail broad reaching in about 10 knots of wind with the exception that we could only see 100 yards or so.We were straining our eyes and ears to find other boats and there seemed to be a lot of them out there. We a schooner ghost past us a little ways off and had several lobster boats buzz by us. We kind of saw several other sailboats also. It was an interesting experience, one I guess that goes along with sailing in Maine. When we were a couple of miles from Rockland it finally cleared and we had a nice sail into the harbor. The fog stayed all day and it was interesting watching boats pop in and out of the fog bank.

July 29^th When we woke this morning I could see the boat next to me let alone the shore. The ferries were blasting their fog horns and there were people coming in trying to find their way. We had wanted to row into town but it was too dangerous to be more than 50 yards from the boat. Eventually after a couple of hours I could see a 100 yards and we rowed in. I rowed from boat to boat hiding out along side them until we could determine if it was clear. At the channel we let several boats go by and then I rowed like crazy to get across. About half way the ferry let loose with its fog horn and scared me into rowing even faster. We made it in and tied up. You could barely see the top of the dock from the bottom. We did a laundry and I went grocery shopping. We also went back to Knights Marine and got a mooring for the rest of the season. This is where we will have the boat hauled out for the winter.