August 7^th- We went into shore and walked up to the general store and market where we met Mike and Ivy so we sat with them a while and chatted. Finally around 10 we headed out. Instead of the 5-10 NW we were promised it was SW. We beat out of the bay and through another tangle of islands to the East passage. At least the wind was light and the water was relatively flat even though we had a contrary current. It was nice sailing as we were doing about 4 cruising along. Right around the entrance  to the Thorofare the wind died and we motored the last couple of miles into Seal Bay. This has a pretty narrow entrance and sort of weaves its way through some small islands and rocks until it opens up nicely to a large bay. We continued through this bay until we  wrapped around a couple of more islands and into a long channel where we anchored. This is a very scenic place a lot of it is protected so you can explore all the nooks and crannies. There were about 10-12 boats anchored here but it didn’t feel crowded at all. However this was the place of the attacking flies. The flies swarmed over us and seemed to be everywhere. The cockpit floor was carpeted with the carcasses of all the ones I was swatting but they still kept on coming. Nightfall did bring relief as  we had a nice quiet evening.

August 8^th- We got up early to try and catch the falling tide but all we seemed to do was catch more flies. They just seemed to nibble at you. I swatted another couple of hundred until the wind picked up and we left them behind. The wind was light NW until we reached the end of the island and the open ocean. There it picked up to 10-15 SW and we sheeted in and had a nice sail. We tacked through this maze of islands and reefs past Brimstone Island and up into Carver Bay. We went flying down the channel which was filled with lobster pots until we pulled into the harbor of Vinal Haven. There we looked around and amongst the hundreds of moored lobster boat we found one of the 3 rental moorings. This is a working harbor and it is filled with fishing boats and their supporting industry. It was fun to watch the activity. It seems amazing to me that the world could eat this many lobsters and that there would be some left under the sea.

    We rowed in to the head of the  harbor and got out and walked through town. It is an interesting mix of working folk and the tourists and second home owners all walking the streets together. We stopped in at the famous Harbor Gawker for lunch and gawked at the passing parade of people.

    The wind picked up to 15-25 SW this afternoon and with the seawall under water at high tide it was pretty bouncy on the boat. We watched the fleet pour in and off load the days catch and by 5 everything had settled down nicely. The night was very calm until around 5 am when the lobster boats started heading back out again.

August 9^th- Even though we were up we waited until around 9 to leave as we wanted to let the ferry go through first. We would be heading out the  Reach which was another winding and very narrow passage which the ferry uses. It doesn’t slow down for boats and it throws a good sized wake. So we thought we would follow it through. The Reach is only about a mile long and on the other side we turned south and headed for Hurricane Island. This is the former home of Outward Bound. We took a mooring there and went onto the island. It is now run by the Hurricane Island Foundation which gives classes with a scientific bent. There is some research going on and also some leadership training. They were very friendly and open and let us walk all over their campus. There are some great hiking trails also. We hiked up this old quarry and had a magnificent view of the surrounding area. I think these trails had been made by the Outward Bound folks as the scaled big rocks and had ropes to assist you. It was great to be able to walk along the granite shore. This is the first island up here where the trails actually led to the ends of the island. We explored all over the island. It was and old quarry and a lot of the old machinery was still lying about. There were tons of ruins of old structures made mostly of granite blocks. Some of the granite had been finished and polished. It felt like walking through an old Roman ruin to see the tops of  fluted columns sticking out of the grass.

August 10^th- we hung around until 9 or so and then headed out. We had a very nice sail reaching across the bay. The wind piped up in the middle and we flew across. It was a pretty overcast day and just as we arrived in Rockland it started to rain. This was the  first rainy day we have had since getting here. This is also the end of the road for us. It has been a great trip but now its time to head back to Vermont. We will leave the boat here and hopefully make it back over for some more sailing before winter.

I want to thank everyone who followed along with us and hope I didn’t bore you too much. Tim O thanks for reading and the encouragement to keep writing. I hope everyone has a great rest of the summer as I know my summer has been unbelievable… so far

Russ

July 30^th- We left Rockland and headed south beating into a light chop. Once we rounded the point we headed down wind. We were sailing with a light wind and a favorable current. We ghosted through the upper part of Muscle Ridge Channel mostly riding the current. The wind did pick up and we shot out into the bay. We rode the wind all the way into Tenants Harbor. As we were motoring down Long Cove a guy sailed by and told us we were welcome to use his mooring. It was further out than we really wanted but we said what the heck and took it. Tomorrow is the start of the annual Cape Dory cruise and a couple showed up later in the afternoon.

July 31- We sat here on the boat watching Cape Dory after Cape Dory pull into the harbor. We sailed the dinghy again and then went over to High Island where we had a picnic/cookout. There are about 10 Cape Dories here for this, a couple of 36’s, a couple of 30’s and some 33’s and my 28. We will be the oldest and slowest boat here. It was a great group of people and we had a blast hanging out on this island. The party broke up quick when we remembered that we left the dinghies at low tide and now they were floating away. Some quick work by a few recued every one’s dinghy.

Aug 1^st- We left early to get a jump on everyone because we really are the slowest boat. There was no wind at all so we motored up the Muscle Ridge Channel through Fisherman’s passage where the wind picked up slightly. We managed to sail about ¾ of the way across before we started the motor. We motored through the Fox Island Thorofare and down into the anchorage at Winter Harbor.

   This is a spectacular place with high cliffs coming down to the water. It is a narrow channel through the rocks and has small beaches made of mussel shells. We tried to get out and walk on an island but it so muddy we just got stuck. We eventually found a rock to climb out on and everyone joined us for happy hour on this rock in the middle of the channel. Another cd 28 joined us here and he bought some lobsters off some kids in a lobster boat. The party broke up just as it started to rain. It continued to rain for most of the night which made for some very pleasant sleeping.

Aug 2^nd- We left early again but again there was no wind at all. It was interesting seeing the ocean as flat calm as this.We motored through Merchant’s Row which is a hodge podge of islands and then around Marshall Island and into Burnt Coat Harbor on Swan’s Island where we anchored. This is a very protected fishing harbor with a quaint shoreline but not much else. We met at a pair of rafted 36’s for happy hour. Meanwhile a brigantine loaded up with the performers from the show tonight sailed by regaling us with songs. After this we walked up the hill to a hall where we witnessed the Sweet Chariot Music Festival. This was the 25^th year and it brings together lots of folk and blue grass musicians for a night on an island off the Maine coast. It was a very good show that was attended by many people. We walked back to the boat afterwards in a long line of people heading to their boats. It was nice looking down on the harbor and seeing all the anchor lights blinking on the water.

Aug 3^rd- There was no wind again so rather than just sit here we motored over to Sand Cove on Marshall Island and anchored off the beach. This is a beautiful sand beach surrounded by huge boulders. The water is crystal clear. This was our first experience with surf and Alayne got wet when a wave breached the transom on the way in. The water is warm by Maine standards at 60 degrees. This island is all protected so it has some great hiking trails of which we took advantage. In the afternoon the wind came up a bit and we weighed anchor and went sailing. We just sort of ghosted along and headed back to Burnt Coat Harbor for the night. A couple of big schooners had come in and were anchored as they were here for the second night of the show.

Aug 4^th- We left early again and managed  to sail in the light winds. We ran close hauled through the big swells on the ocean until we rounded the buoy and then we headed north. The wind was too light and the swells too big and they were just bouncing us all over the place so we motored in. It was only about a mile to go until we entered Frenchboro Harbor on Long Island where we picked up a mooring. There was much discussion about this because there is no anchoring here and the moorings are all private. So we just picked up one and hoped nobody would come for it. Lobster boats came for all the ones around us but not ours!

   This island is mostly preserved and it has about 65 residents who mostly work on lobster boats. We talked with a couple to see what the life was like. We are learning a lot about lobsters. Speaking of which there is a restaurant here that has been here for many years and we all got together and ate—you guessed it lobster. She said it was fresh this morning and a complete ;lobster  dinner was $12.50 !!!!

Aug 5^th- We left around 7:30 to a nice SW wind and sailed out of the harbor into Blue Hill Bay where we turned north and shot down the east side if Swan’s island. Mt desert Island forms the other side of the bay. We surfed down some big Atlantic swells and ran with the wind and current sometimes getting close to 7 knots.Once we reached the north end of Swans we turned onto the Casco Passage. This is a narrow but well marked passage between several islands and shoals. Once we cleared the buoy we headed up the Eggmoggin Reach. The wind was blowing just forward of the beam and we had a great 15 mile run. About a third of the way in all the lobster pots stopped so it was great sailing not having to worry about that.We sailed into Buck’s Harbor and got a mooring for the night. We really needed to get rid of trash and take showers!! This is the last night of the CD cruise so we are headed out to dinner in town.