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The Maine Coast Current Location: Portsmouth NH Date: August 22 to 31 Mile: 2015-2234 Locate: Ramble On Locate: Finnish Line 2.0 Google Photo Albums: Northeast Harbour, Burnt Coat Harbour, Seal Bay, Vinalhaven Island, Castine, Belfast, Camden, Christmas Cove, Snow Island, Portland |
Northwest Harbour
Northwest Harbour is one of 3 harbours on Mount Desert Island. A while back we had both heard and read that Bar Harbour, while certainly the most renowned on the island, was not the place we should end up. Northwest and Southeast are both on the south end of the island, and more directly accessible from our approach from Nova Scotia.
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| Ramble On among the big boys! |
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| Ferry boats load/unload passengers at the town wharf |
This harbour showed a striking contrast to most of Nova Scotia's southern coastline in that the money involved with yachts and yachting here is a couple orders of magnitude more that anything we've seen. There are Hinkley yachts everywhere. It is hard to image the level of detail in woodworking on these particular boats. The bright-work gleams, and everything is polished. Some of the motor boats were attended-to daily for a spritzing of water to rinse off any salt spray that might have occurred overnight ... at the dock! Other boats had full time staff making themselves busy lest the owner shows up to go for a lunch outing. Morris Boat Works has an operation in the harbour too. The end of our dock had two monster (or super, or mega ... not sure how these are defined) yachts. These boats have captains and lots of staff. We looked like the poor hitchhikers from Canada compared to everything else near us.
While coming into the harbour and once in here, we saw many nice wooden sailboats. This was somewhat true of many harbours in Nova Scotia, but the difference here is the proportion of such boats is higher here, and the caliber is similarly so.
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| Sliding the groceries down to the boat! |
Daily we watched fishing boats dock to unload their catch, ferries deliver folks and their gear to cottages/homes on nearby islands, and other boats docked on and off all day long. The gangways to the floating docks include a "slideway" and we eventually saw why. Various parcel delivery trucks arrived at the wharf and unloaded dozens of packages regularly. Many of them Amazon and other major online retailers. Staff of the "mailboat" (a local ferry really) would slide them down the "slideway" and another staff would catch them at the bottom and they would then get loaded on the roof top of the boat. From there, I suppose they are delivered to the various islands in the area so everyone can have same day delivery.
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| Abbe Indigenous Museum |
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| Balance Rock |
There are free buses on the island (thanks to a annual grant from L.L. Bean). We headed to Bar Harbour to see what we had missed. It was a pretty town, but very touristy. The harbour was as reported ... not that exciting, so we were happy we didn't go there with the boat. We did explore the town, visited the Abbe Museum and located "Balance Rock".
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| Small "Pusher" tug delivering antique car |
Before we headed off to our next destination we had a few boat repairs and maintenance tasks to knock off. Still no definitive answer on the exact source of my bow leaks. When we take big seas from the bow, water makes it down into the V-berth area still. It was also time for our next oil change. We're putting in a significant amount of motoring, and the general mantra for Diesel engines is that regular oil changes are the most important thing you can do for the engine. I found another small seawater leak in the engine area. This time is was the vacuum breaker for my exhaust elbow. The part is most definitely kaputt, but some new o-rings and a generous helping of 4200 will keep me in business for the rest of the trip. Finally, and most importantly, the coffee grinder, with it's defective grinding handle, got some badly attention so more coffee could be ground! Mmmmm, coffee....
Burnt Coat Harbour (Swans Island)
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| Burnt Coat fishing village |
Sealife report: we passed many Ocean Sunfish (some of which were huge) and saw a few porpoises too.
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| Passed by the locals |
We entered the harbour through very narrow channel and found ourselves chased and then passed by friendly fishing boats (but not so friendly as to slow down for you) returning from their day on the water. This is a fishing town and the buildings and houses are all built along the shore on tall pilings (10' tides around here). The harbour had a mooring field primarily for the fishing fleet and also lots of shallow areas so we were paying close attention to the charts here. The wind piped up in the evening so Finnish Line let out a bit more scope.
Seal Bay (Vinalhaven Island)
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| Polished rocks everywhere |
The dinghy was down from last night and we were going to head to shore to see what we could get at the Fishermans co-op in Burnt Coat and also see about the pie's at "Tim's" (a place we had read about). As we were about to depart for shore, the wind, which was quite breezy, picked up a little more.
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| Seal harbour at low tide |
We were dragging .... in a VERY crowded mooring field .... of fishing boats! And we were dragging quite quickly. Boy did we scramble! We detached from Finnish Line and peeled away so they could haul anchor and get clear as well.
At that point we decided to depart for our next destination instead of try to set anchor again and take any more risks. The bottom here does not have good holding.
As we departed harbour (wind was blowing in the low 20 kts), I think I gave Linda a heart attack when I said I've got to hop into the dinghy (while underway) to prepare it for being towed (remove life-jackets and stuff that would blow away, and put motor up).I think Finnish Line's anchor snagged on a mooring float on it's way up but they cleared that quickly. After a few minutes Finnish Line had the anchor up and were clear of things. How we dragged 200 feet in such a tight harbour without hitting anything was nothing short of a miracle!!
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| Cat boats like this are common all through New England |
The entire way was a continuum of fishing floats. Non-stop ... so sailing, aside from the slightly reduced visibility of having the sail out, provides some piece of mind. We are getting used to this now, and our time in N.B. helped with that, and our luck continued and we didn't run over any this day.
Though, no matter how vigilant you are, there are occasional floats that exist just below the surface and there is no way to see them. Fingers crossed that we miss all the ones of that type.
Seal Bay is located in Vinalhaven Island. The entrance would be easy to miss, but once inside, the bay is very protected, and the shoreline is beautiful smoothed granite. Care is needed here as there are lots of rocks (all well marked on the charts), but the tides here are 8-10' so things look very different every 6 hours.The bay is very winding, and Finnish Line went in deep to find both good protection and 10-15' depth. There are a few private mooring balls here, and a few houses on shore, but otherwise it's quiet and secluded. Very nice!!
Later, after we finally put in for the night after a tasty dinner, stepping out on deck we were treated to a spectacular night sky. No moon and almost zero light pollution. Chris M., observed the milky-way with some questioning, perhaps less familiar to those from areas of bigger cities.
Castine
We decided to stop at Castine for a night before heading to Belfast. They are close together and tomorrow's passage to Belfast will only be a couple of hours.
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| Training boat |
In any case, it was sunny, and the winds were light (but on the nose the whole way).Our route followed a winding path through beautiful islands and, like everywhere else in Maine, we spent all our concentration on avoid lobster floats. Interestingly enough, they eased up as we approached Castine. Don't know why, and I suppose the obvious answer is that if there were lobsters or crabs to be found, there would be traps.
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| Big training boat |
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| Historical plaques abound! |
Linda and I decided to take a motorized golf cart tour of the town (seats 6 people). Our guide pointed out the various historical houses from the 1700's and the history and stories behind many other buildings. There are remnants of a fort here and the local historical society has placed about 100 plaques around the town to highlight places or houses of historical note. Definitely worth a visit here.
Since we had taken a mooring back at the CYC, we decided to simplify things and eat on shore at a nearby pub.
We enjoyed some local beer, and some good pub pizza. Stuffed to the gills, we made our way back to the club, and dinghied back to our boats to digest and relax.
Of note is during one of my midnight "expressions" off the back of the boat, I was quite surprised by the twinkle of bio-luminescence. Disturbing the water resulted in tiny little flashes of light. The moon was not yet up, so that made it possible to see this phenomenon. I recalled back to earlier in the day when I saw, and didn't pay much heed to, night-time kayak tours that are only offered on new moon nights. The bio-luminescence only occurs in this area fed by the Bagaduce River. It has something to do with the confluence of the freshwater river and the salty Atlantic ocean that creates special conditions in this one area. Very cool!
Belfast
Our next destination is Belfast, which is short sail of about 2 hours across Penobscot Bay almost directly WNW from Castine.We passed a tug boat and barge that were doing circles? Not sure what they were up to but perhaps they were part of the marine Academy and doing some training.
Both Bob and I are still testing our engines for high engine temperatures. We did little bit of motor sailing, but then the wind died and we motored the rest of the way into Belfast. We found a slip at city Wharf/Docks in and among some pretty big motor boats. There was a mooring field here as well, but not as crowded as other places.
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| No longer a bank, but the alarm is still there |
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| Decorative slate shingles |
The museum was like a scrap book of local interest. Belfast was on the receiving end of one of the first radio broadcasts, a local boy grew up to be a high altitude skydiver of some note, lots of ship building here in the past. The railway helped keep the town alive once the days of sail faded away.
Camden
Had a great sail today. We had to slow down a little bit (from motoring speed) to avoid being early. The Camden harbour master asked us not to be there before 2:45.
We saw sunfish today, a good bunch of wooden schooners and other "tall"'ish ships. Turns out there is a windjammer festival in Camden. We also tacked away from a tug pulling a large barge of mechanical equipment.
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| All these and more had made a home in my speedo transducer |
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| Windjammer festival had just ended in Camden |
These things are meant to be pulled for cleaning, so they come with a dummy plug that you can pop into the hole while you clean and inspect. The process only lets in about a litre of water. Well, as soon as I extracted the transducer, and put the plug in, the water that spurted in (ends up in a small bilge sub-compartment) contained about 20 1cm long krill. All swimming about, perhaps a little surprised that I had discovered their hiding place (I take that back ... I suspect surprise in not a feeling they are capable of). I looked into the bottom of the transducer and could see the thing was still packed with them. I shook the rest out and decided to soak the transducer in CLR to help remove some other growth that had accumulated. That process resulted in another 15-20 exiting the transducer (to their demise).
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| Beautifully appointed gaff schooner |
After the re-insertion process, we were back in business and reading the expected speeds. What instinct lead these little things to hide out in the smallest of crevices?
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| Always uphill! |
As we approached our scheduled arrival time, we dropped sail and started motoring toward the harbour. Camden harbour is protected by Curtis Island which has a proper looking historic lighthouse and keepers house. We could see that this was a crowded harbour, but as we entered the mooring field, we released that this was one of the highest density harbour we'd seen.
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| Day sail tour boat |
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| Trick door |
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| Megunticook River |
We did a small provisioning and then headed back to the boats before dinner out.
All of this before some rain and wind expected tonight. Tomorrow may be a little wet too, but the winds should have passed as we try to cover about 40nm to get to Christmas Cove
Christmas Cove
We had about 7 hours underway today, so we decided to leave at about 9am so we'd be able to find our next anchorage with a little time left in the day. We're heading to Christmas Cove, so named because Captain John Smith landed here on Christmas day in 1614. or so the story goes.
Today was mostly windless. Finnish Line did put up their main, but the wind faded. The lobster pots came and went today. At times, there were virtually none, and other times it was maybe a 6 out of 10 with the Bar Harbour area being a 10/10.
We experienced a few episodes of sluggish engine performance combined with some overheating. A little worrisome, but hopefully we'll get it sorted out. The pattern is fairly predictable; boat speed slows a little, and engine temps go up a little all while the RPMs don't change. Feels like something, maybe weeds, caught on the keel or rudder. During the day, we slowed down a little, stopped and reversed a little, let the motor cool a little, and in the end we just cruised at about 2350 RPM (instead of 2500) and all remained happy.
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| Privately owned "tower". About 8-10 stories of bunk houses apparently? |
Once at anchor, strainers got checked, thru-hull got checked, impeller got checked, radiator fluid level got checked. I didn't find a smoking gun, but there was a little air in the radiator fluid and that can cause overheating. The harbour here is protected by a couple of islands/shoals (depends on what point in the tide cycle we are at). Both are marked with daymarks. I've noted before, but the landscape around here really changes between high and low tides. Island appear and disappear, shoal areas which you could have passed over easily are now rocky areas that are awash. It still takes getting used to coming from lake Ontario where things don't change much and when they do, it takes months.
Bob was having similar concerns about his engine temp being a little higher than normal (but not overheating alarm). He has done all the similar checks in the last few days, and today he dove under to inspect but found nothing entangled or obstructing anything.
This may have been the first and only swim by anyone on either boat!
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| Tree decorated with crab pots? |
Dinner tonight was at the "Coveside". They also provide the mooring balls, so they just get added to your dinner bill!
Later in the evening we were treated to a local show of fireworks. A very nice way to end the evening.
Snow Island
One last engine test this morning in order to verify good water flow through the engine. I filled a bucket with a known amount of water (8L) and then removed the cooling water intake hose from the thru-hull and put it in the bucket with the engine running at a given RPM, and timed how long it took to consume the water. IT took about ~20 seconds, which comes to 1400L/h. Apparently that's very good and Yanmar sets a minimum of 700L/h, so it looks like I have no blockages in the cooling water system.Today we were heading off to meet Lynn and Bernie, sailing friends of Linda from Ottawa who moved to Maine 20 years ago.
Our sail today had sunny skies and a brisk building breeze. It was on our nose for the most part and was pretty lumpy with some big swells mixed in. We were rewarded when we were able to peel away onto a nice reach for the final approach to our destination and clocked some speeds in the high 8's with full jib and double reefed main. Zoom! No sailing in Maine would be complete without lots of lobster pots, and today didn't disappoint. When were were offshore a little, the floats were a little bigger and often had flags on the sticks providing a bit more visibility. In these conditions, the float fully disappears behind each wave, and often go below the surface of the water. One moment you think you see one, and then next it's gone. Keeping track of the floats is like a lobster-pot version of Mahjong! Trying to dodge these with big quartering seas that tend to take ownership of the steering is extra fun.
There was a bit of motoring involved today, but not for long enough to get into heat issues, but regular temperature checks showed only a modest rise in temperature, so it's hard to know yet if the problem is still there or has been resolved.
Bernie and Lynn organized "Cruisers Cocktail" on nearby Snow Island and invited us to join. We all dinghied over to the island at low tide (10+ feet around here) and somehow make it up to a nice dry picnic spot. Before we could land, Bernie suggested we go back and get our rubber sailing boots, which we did. Grateful for the suggestion, we could happily trudge through the low tide muck and enjoyed drinks and snacks with the fun group.
Bob and Chris M. were having some minor dinghy motor issue and stayed back at anchor. We had some great chats with people who were mostly from the general area. I was able to pick the brains of a couple who had just finished re-doing their own deck, a project that Linda and I are thinking about for some upcoming winter.
Later Lynn and Bernie hosted the four of us aboard for a wonderful dinner later in the evening. They own a nicely appointed J/46, Mystic Rose. Dinner aboard was superb! Fresh corn on the cob was a treat that we haven't had this summer yet, combined with a perfectly BBQ's pork loin made for a wonderful dinner. We all talked sailing stories and adventures while Linda was able to do some catch up with these long time friends.
Portland
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| I've lost track of the number of lighthouses we've seen |
The wind forecast for today was for light conditions, but it turned out to be better than advertised but almost on the nose. We ended up motoring, motor-sailing, and then motoring. Both Bob and I were paying close attention to our engine temperatures as we generally stayed a little under speed/power to avoid problems. I took engine temperature reading at regular intervals during the day and found things to be pretty close to where they should have been. The end of the day was against a stiff breeze and currents so I am cautiously optimistic about things.
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| Many forts guard Portland |
The sail from our anchorage near Snow Island to Portland was only 20 miles, but we departed a little late as we had to get organized, pull up the dinghy and wait for Bernie to return from the store with a loaf of "Canadian Bread". That's a thing around here. It really looks just like a regular loaf of bread. Perhaps it is overly polite and apologizes too much. (In reality there is a difference between Canadian and US flour, sorry!)As noted before, the Maine coastline is VERY busy with small islands, rocks with lighthouses on them, reefs, shoals, guts, and all number of obstacles. To get into the harbour of Portland required some winding through islands and avoiding shoals and fighting all sorts of currents. Tides are still more than 10' around here and sometimes a rock could sink you and at other times you could sail over with impunity. Generally cautious, we avoid those things regardless of the tide.
As we entered the Portland harbour, two things became apparent; 1) this is a very busy place, and 2) this place was well fortified at various points in it's past. It became busier the closer we came to the harbour proper with motor boats zipping in all directions, sailboats scooting in all directions, a large Coast Guard ship, tug boats, ferry boats, tourist boats, floating concert/party boats, pontoon boats.
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| Clunky old Coast Guard cutter |
We found our way to DeMillo's wharf/marina/restaurant. Both Finnish Line and Ramble On needed fuel, so we stopped at their fuel dock first. We had a somewhat harsh landing as the attendant appeared to know nothing about boat lines and docking and secured our bow line too soon and too short causing us to swing in pretty hard. Once fueled we then moved to our assigned slip (Finnish Line had to wait until after a fishing boat departed). The slips are centrally located to the downtown, but the downside of such a busy harbour is that there are so many boat wakes that we were rocking and rolling much more than desired.
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| Pod ride atop cruise ship |
We found a Thai place to eat and took a break from east coast seafood for an evening. It was delicious. Portions were smaller but we all went away very satisfied.Next we depart for Portsmouth NH. We want to make some good progress down the coast because we need to find protection from hurricane Dorian as it's path up the coast is unpredictable, and we have to make it to Boston in time to exchange crew. Being in Boston for some lay days would be ideal.
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| Crab snacks |
Tomorrows plan ... 8am departure for Gloucester, or possible Marblehead depending on weather winds. We want to be in Boston for the weekend to meet up with Peter and Wilma and to drop off Chris M.
That's it for Maine!
