July 2nd As per tradition we have decided to sit today so we motored around the corner and anchored in Sandy Bay. This is a fairly large anchorage with good holding. It must be good holding because we saw some awful anchoring techniques and they held fine. There were 15 -20 boats in here now. The tide is 10 feet which can make for some challenging anchoring. We rowed over and walked to a farmers market and then just sort of hung out and walked around this bustling little town. It was very quaint and iconic.

July 3rd- W walked a bit further into town and did a much needed laundry. Again we just hung out all day and watched the anchoring wars and people watched in town. It was a pretty lazy day. It appears that owning a mega yacht on the ocean does not guarantee that you know how to anchor.

July 4th- Due to the fact that there will be a huge bonfire on the beach tonight and we have been told to expect a couple hundred boats in the bay we decided to leave. We had a nice reach until noon or so and then the wind petered out. We just kept mosieing along as we didn't want to get there too early. By the time we pulled into the Isle of Shoals there were still plenty of people but a mooring opened up and we tied on. Moorings are free and the anchor holding is poor so...
    This place is nothing but a rock that sticks a few feet above the ocean. There are only a couple of trees on the island. There is however a large old hotel and conference center. They hold semi-religious retreats for families and such. There are over 300 people here now. We took the launch in and the driver told us where we could go and where we shouldn't. It was still a very pleasant hike around the island with great vistas. We were allowed to walk through the lobby of the hotel which was impressive.
   I have been impressed by the clarity of the water. I could see my anchor yesterday in 30 feet of water. Later that night we could see fireworks from a half dozen shore communities.

July 5th- The day dawns cloudy and cool as we motored out of the bay. There wasn't much wind but it was behind us so  we rolled out the jenny and motor sailed. The sun would come out and then the fog would roll in. Visibility was sometimes only a couple of hundred yards but with the GPS   it was fine. We eventually sailed a bit but about 5 miles out we rolled everything up and motored. We didn't see land all day until we were within a 1/2 mile of shore. The anchorage was through a narrow cut in the rocks with waves breaking on one side but once through it was a fairly wide open pond. This is Stage Island. It was very pretty here but it was not particularly protected. The holding was good and the water was clear enough I could watch the anchor dig in. It was low tide so we rowed in to walk on the mud flats. It was a very impressive how large these became as the tide lowered. After a while we looked up and we could see the boat through the fog. It eventually got so foggy it more or less rained. It eventually cleared later in the evening and there were tons of stars out. There were also all these phosphorescent creatures blinking on and off in the water.
    It got a little rolly when the tide went over the breakwater but the wind was still light. In the morning we saw a seal sunning itself on the rocks and the water was so clear I could watch the lobster swimming into the trap underneath us.

July 6th We left early to catch the tide and there was zero wind. The ocean was as flat as a mill pond. We motored into Portland and took a slip at the South Portland Marina. Here we met up with Richard and Debbie who were cruising buddies of Bob and Liz who we had met earlier. Its this kind of comraderie that I was hoping to have more of. We went out to dinner with them in Portland and had a great time trading stories. We will sit here for another day to wait out some crappy weather and then on into Casco Bay.