We actually welcomed the bad weather that hit Gloucester as it forced
us to take a respite from break-neck speed at which we’d been traveling, if
there’s any way to construe five miles per hour as ‘break-neck’. Our schedule had been rigorous (for us) with trying
to press the most miles out of every day for what seemed like weeks on
end. As with many modern cruisers, we
were looking for a ‘weather window’ with which to make our passage to Maine, even though it
was only a short distance. The winds
were light but we were able to sail the entire way and made landfall at Rockland, Maine,
after an easy overnight sail.
The Seven Seas Cruising Association was coincidentally holding
one of their ‘gams’ in Rockland Bay that weekend and the bay was full of
cruising sailboats. I was answered
almost immediately after I had released the key on the VHF’s mike, asking for a
recommendation for anchoring. Not only
was the information helpful but the person who answered said they had been
following our progress north and had been expecting us. Were people talking about us? Had we done something bad? It wasn’t us!
It was a boat that looked like us!
Even though we weren’t members of the SSCA, they invited us to
participate in their events, which we politely declined as we were eager to
make it up to Castine.
Castine |
I nearly caused a wreck as I was trying to pull over to a roadside stand that had wild blueberries for sale. Ruthie bought six quarts of berries, a case of Mason jars and canned 24 half-pints of blueberry jam on board.
Unbeknownst to us, Joe had contacted the Ellsworth American,
the surprisingly-well written newspaper for the community of Ellsworth, Maine,
telling them that his circumnavigating daughter and son-in-law were in Castine
and it would make a worthwhile story.
Neither Ruthie nor I expected any follow up but we were delighted when
Stephen Rappaport contacted us and asked if he could interview us. After all, talking about us is our favorite
thing to do! Stephen, a recovering
attorney, was taking a summer vacation from New York about 25 years ago in Ellsworth and
never went back. He spent almost two hours
aboard, questioning us and listening intently, only giving information about
himself after we prodded him.
If one was to merely give the navigational charts of Maine a cursory glance,
it would be easy to deduce that sailing those waters could be complex and
challenging. There must be millions of
rocks, ledges and other hazards that the wary sailor must be vigilant
about. However, the charted obstacles
are only a small part of the difficulties one is faced with while sailing in Maine. The first hazard one you won’t be able to spot
from studying the charts happens to be the Maine Department of Marine Resources,
which grants permits for lobster fishermen to place traps – and their
associated floats – in the Maine
waters. Last year, the Department issued
permits for over 2 million traps.
Granted, there are strict regulations regarding the size of lobster a
fisherman can harvest and it has become a sustainable industry but trying to
keep those 2 million traps from becoming fouled on your prop or keel takes
constant attention. It is unknown if we
did foul our prop on one of the traps as Rutea’s
prop shaft has a line-cutter attached but we zigged and zagged continuously in
an effort to keep clear of them.
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145' Rebecca Under Main and Mizzen |
As we made our way further ‘Down East’ – which describes the
northeastern coast of Maine
– another issue that we had to contend with was the increasing strength of the
currents and the higher tidal ranges the further north we traveled. Rutea draws almost 7 feet and, usually,
if we find 15 feet of water, we think that it’s plenty deep to anchor but that
isn’t so if you have a 9’ tidal range.
We would make every effort to time our passages through anywhere narrow
to include a favorable current.
The furthest east we went was to Roque
Island, a privately-owned island and
one of the few in all of Maine
to boast a sand beach. The owners of the
island allow cruisers to use the beach (but not venture inland). It was delightfully remote and a few boats
came and went while we were there but we loved the coniferous-covered land.
On our way back west, we anchored in the lovely Blue Hill
Bay and took advantage of
the dinghy dock at the Killegewidgwok Yacht Club as a place to leave the dink
while we hiked up Blue Hill. It was a
pleasant climb and kind drivers would stop as we walked the sides of the road,
offering us rides. We also made a final
rendezvous with Joe and Judith there but made promises to share Thanksgiving
dinner together in San Diego.
Someone had told us of a special anchorage in between Harbor Island
and Hall Island – they were absolutely right –
unless the wind was out of the north and the wind was howling out of the
north. We dropped our anchor there
anyway and stayed for about 10 minutes before we weighed anchored and bashed
about 3 miles north to the lee of Friendship Long Island. We had hoped to leave the following day but
the wind hadn’t abated at all. Small
craft advisories had been posted by the Coast Guard for strong winds and rough
conditions. Ruthie and I ‘debated’ about
what to do. Throwing caution to the
wind, we weighed anchor, tucked a double reef in the main and headed back to Gloucester.
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