Work and Play

The Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast, which has provided us with a wealth of information on anchorages and services, says that the Maine Coast has more islands than the Caribbean or Polynesia. Most are less than 10 acres and uninhabited. On Friday, we visited three--all with contrasting styles of "habitation." Swan's Island, as Pete mentioned is quiet and remote. It's a fishing island geared to the needs of lobstermen primarily. Although moorings can be rented, it's less than obvious where to pay for them and the anchorage has just a few cruising boats. About seven were there on Thursday night.

As the dense fog was barely lifting on Friday, five of the boats left in rapid succession. We wondered if we "didn't get the memo" about departing. Likely they were part of a flotilla though. We left soon after and again found heavy fog off the island. Not wanting to spend another day enshrouded in mist, we altered course for nearby Frenchboro Harbor on Long Island. Frenchboro is a working harbor, but has capitalized on its scenic charm as part of an islands tour boat stop. We ate lunch a Lunt's Deli and walked to the head of the harbor, occasionally looking back on Astraea, as she was anchored in deep water with less than ideal scope on the line.

Behind Astraea to the north, the mountains of Mount Desert (MDI) became visible and it was time to depart as heavy rain was predicted for the late afternoon. We ran "wing and wing" north, but again had to switch to diesel when the wind died and rain clouds rolled in. Although it sounds trite, Northeast Harbor is a playground for the super wealthy... and the rest of us lucky enough to visit. A massive motor cruiser set a huge wake on us as it blasted out of the harbor. Nearby a Friday race of sleek one-design sailboats was taking place. (Anyone out there know what boat has a sail logo with capitals I and a C combined?) We found a rental mooring near the back of the harbor in the small boat section and rowed in through the rain for much needed showers and a great dinner. On the way back we rowed our soggy dingy past Morris Yachts, Hinckley's and lots of other jaw-droppers. "Who owns these things....?" We were happy to get back on Astraea, even with her various drips and leaks. She's a great improvement over past rainy vacations in tents! Not to mention at $20/night for the mooring, I think we had the cheapest lodging on MDI for the night!

Who's Driving?

Andy says that George is the name for airplane auto-pilots so that's the name we use for our auto helm. Yep - you got it, a cruise control for our sailboat. It's great to be able to let go of the tiller to manage sails, eat some lunch, get a look around, review the chart, etc. We launched the spinnaker on our cruise through Merchants Row on Thursday towards Swans Island and George was on the help while we managed all the lines/spinnaker pole.

I think a lot of single handed sailors use these. Ours came with the boat when we purchased it last summer - otherwise we probably wouldn't own one. It's an Autohelm ST1000. A little undersized for our boat as it turns out, but does fine in the light to medium air we deploy it in. It connects from the cockpit combing to a pin on the top of the tiller. You just point the boat in the direction you want to go. Drop George onto the pin and hit "Auto". He will maintain the compass course you are on. All the different buttons let you adjust the compass heading up or down in 1 degree or 10 degree increments. If you hit the 1 and 10 degree buttons together he will turn 100 degrees in that direction - enabling you to tack or jibe.

We're enjoying having George on board.

Reconnect with Swans Island

18 years ago I spent three weeks on Swans Island, ME doing geology field work for my senior project. It was under the tutelage of Prof. Dave Bailey who had spend summers on the island with his family. I wandered to every corner of this 7000 acre island banging off pieces of granite and basaltic rock to take back to Hamilton College to analyze. On Thursday I finally returned and grabbed a mooring in Burnt Coat Harbor on the south side of the island.

Nicole and I paid for our mooring at the "Boat House", got some ice cream and took a walk to enjoy the sunshine (finally!) We ended up wandering back to the area of the Bailey's house at the "Carrying Place" a narrow strip of land connecting the western portion to the rest of the island. We saw NY plates in the driveway and sure enough Dave was there!!! He invited us in to join his extended family for a spaghetti dinner. I got to see the old cabin that I stayed in while doing my studies and catch up with an old friend. Much of his extended family was at the house for his mother's memorial service to be held on Saturday.

What luck to catch Dave on Swans Island and see some of my old haunts. Swans has a subdued and laid back character that I like very much.

Fogged In

A post from Nicole...

Like all New Englanders, Mainers have endured less than summery weather this year. Along the coast that has meant many foggy days on the waters. On Wednesday we set off from Tenants Harbor in what looked to be decreasing fog, only to find it increasingly "socked in" as we motored our way up Muscle Ridge. The name seems like it should be spelled like the shellfish, but it is like the anatomy! We hoisted the radar reflector, brought up the horn in the cockpit and turned on channel 16 (to monitor for traffic) as we ghosted through the mist. Astraea does not have radar, but thankfully does have GPS. Most boats in the channel were either other cruisers or lobster boats, but one boat looked very strange as it slowly appeared from the mist. After a bit of guessing it revealed itself as a rowing boat from the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, full of soggy teens who'd probably rather be sleeping in that day! We hoped the fog would clear for our passage across Western Penobscot Bay to Vinalhaven, but it keep on. As we approached the large vessel channel we radioed "Securitie" and noted our latitude and bearing as we crossed the channel to alert large boats that we were monitoring "16" for traffic. We also did several loud honks. If any boats were near we never knew and we were very relieved to cross without incident.

Eventually we sighted Vinalhaven (Land Ho!) and had just enough visibility and wind to hoist the sails for the last hour up the coast to Pulpit Harbor on North Haven Island. The fog continued for rest of the day and through the night became a hard rain. Pete's boom tent (with ample help from the Sewing Silverman's) was a great help in keeping moisture out of the boat. It also makes a great sunshade... we'd love to use it that way more often!

Fouled Prop

Maybe it's a rite of passage in Maine that every good sailor needs to dive on a fouled prop and remove the line that has wrapped around it. I got my salty merit badge on Wednesday evening right in the middle of cocktail hour (1/2 a Manhattan down) . We had anchored in a mooring field which was pretty tight and one of the lobstermen returned and indicated we might want to move since we would likely bump his boat in the night. Not that he minded, but that we might. "Current and Wind make the boat go all which way" he said. So we pulled anchor. I should note here that we add a trip line to our anchor setup to make it easier to pull the anchor out of a muddy rocky bottom. The trip line is about 25 feet of line with a small bouy on one end tied to the head of the anchor. To use it just pull it and the anchor will pull backwards out of the mud. Our problem this night was that the trip line bouy was off to the side and the anchor pulled up with a need for it. The line found it's way along our hull with the bouy near the stern. As Nicole put us into forward it sucked the line right around the prop shaft. The engine stalls, now we are drifting with no power in a mooring field. We grabbed onto the nearest boat, got a tow to the town dock from the lobsterman and went diving. That's a knife I'm holding in my hand that helped cut away the line. I'm glad it's July and the water is fairly warm. I also hope this a badge I don't need to earn twice.

South Bristol to Tenants Harbor, Maine

We finally set off from the mooring at S. Bristol around 12:30pm on Tuesday 7/28. A day later than we'd hoped and many, many dollars short due to all the various boat repairs and upgrades. Since the winds were somewhat light and southerly and we were leaving later than expected, we motored south to the gong of Pemaquid to save time. At the gong, we set the big genoa and main and sailed a very pleasant beam reach for about and hour or two in winds of about 10 kts. The seas were about 3 feet or so, so when the wind lightened up, it made for a very rolling ride as our speed declined from about 5.5 kts to 3 kts and lower. After putting up with the rolling seas and flapping sails, the iron jenny was deployed. Several other boats in the vicinity were also giving up on mother nature at that point. We continued to motor well across the southern end of Muscongus Bay and then rounded a buoy near Allen and Burnt Islands to head Northeast towards Tenants Harbor and Penobscot Bay.

A beautiful, restored lighthouse marks the entrance of Tenants Harbor. It looks like a private residence now, not a working light, however. Tenants Harbor was much quieter than we had expected and we found a rental mooring for $20 night fairly easily. Cod End restaurant delivers cooked lobsters to boats, which was a luxury not to be missed. We ordered up a couple softshells and biscuits, made our own green salads and drinks and settled in for the best waterfront lobster we've ever had! (Note the clever use of pliers for lobster crackers!) We'd certainly felt liked we'd deserved it after all the hard work and waiting!

New Anchor Setup

Our new anchor setup on the bow is going to make life much easier. Our new Rocna anchor is sitting on a bow roller ready to deploy into the murky muddy abyss. The temporary hawse pipe (thru deck fitting that the line comes through) is too small to pass the shackle and eye splice. [Mike didn't order one in time and had to scrounge this one. Sigh, Frustration . . ] So the chain is sitting on deck on a rubber pad. The arrangement is a little tight in that the anchor is very close to the roller furling. We have to tie the anchor to the side to keep it away from the furler. Hopefully we will test it later today and report on the success of the arrangement.