AUGUST 2009
MAINE AT LAST -Glorious Maine
Oh my, I just love it. Everything but the buoys, and even they, though annoying are beautiful. Brightly painted, well maintained…and thousands of them. We have dodged so many that Ade has become genius at it. Me? Well, it’s a bit of drama, and I avoid my watch as long as possible. What really gets me is when I think there is a field of black and white ones, and as I begin to navigate my way through – they fly away! I can hear them laughing as they fly off.
Kennebunkport is our first port of call and she does not disappoint. A charming little town, picturesque, touristy of course, but has a solid feel to it. Maybe none of the normal touristy problems bother us when we arrive by boat. We get the best spot in town, that is for certain – and we don’t have to find parking. Our mission here is to get Ted his first lobster dinner, the teenage dock hand, grandson of the owner says we’ve just have to go to Mabel’s! We were tied to the dock at Chicks, just ¼ mile to down town, and two miles up the road from George and Barbara’s (Bush) little escape.
Goodness, what a lovely spot, it’s out on Walker Point, named after his Great Granddad. George the 1st purchased it from the family many years ago, and the US government made sure it became a very secure compound for this ex-President. Security is still tight - on my morning walk, I saw the three black suburban’s moving out in formation…I was told that means that George was in one of them. You cannot approach the cove by sea; there is a protective barrier to prevent getting too close. Secret Service routinely cruises into the harbor with top gun looking craft much like the DEA use. I was brushing my teeth in our head and just inches away one of these frankly menacing looking vessels with darkly clad warriors and weapons passed by my porthole - yikes.
We had to get to Portland as the kids were taking the train back to Boston for a CE course in Physical Therapy/Assessment. Portland is a great town, again, a real town – they have revitalized the Old Port into a place everyone wants to be, locals and tourists. A liberal vibe here…pretty much everywhere in fact… with hippies, lobster and fishing types, Maine Matrons and lots of artists. Not everyone is well heeled, nor is the city immune from the harsh economy… it’s easy to see signs of poverty, lots of people on the streets that probably live on them, or in the shelters, graffiti on the abandoned buildings, but I never felt unsafe and I walked for miles in all directions.
There are several organic stores here, but I chose to walk a bit further to provision at one of our favorite grocers, one we haven’t seen for many a mile, a large Whole Foods Market…featuring local produce and fresh caught fish. It spoils and delights me. Our marina was at the very large DeMillo’s restaurant, we decided we’d be a good resident and give it a go for happy hour after the kids left. It is actually very nice, much nicer inside than out so we decided stayed for dinner. I very much enjoyed a thick swordfish steak, while Ade had yet another version of Cioppino, which was delicious. We should be glowing at this point with all the seafood we’ve consumed – but it’s so fresh and with so many culinary geniuses in these seaside communities, it’s hard to resist.
Boothbay, one of the ports I was most excited about seeing is as charming as I imagined. The owners of little marina’s with limited space are determined to make every penny they can during their short season. They run them on their own and are often a real hoot. Judy was one, she crams us in wherever she can – and gets anyone on the dock to help. We were squeezed between two large yachts and all of us on a few hundred feet of helter skelter dock space. Once secured, it is filed away in our memory as fun…but getting into these tight spots with people on the dock yelling, “No problem, you have almost a foot back here” is not! I’m thinking “a foot…Crikey Mate, we can’t do a three point turn in this baby”, but because Ade can almost maneuver WS that well and I am, after all, only a deck hand in this procedure, I hush up and do my job.
We walked every square inch of town and across the foot bridge to check out some galleries. Great artwork, unique styles, varied mediums – just wish we had a place for some of it. All we can collect are little pieces that fit on our tiny saloon walls. Sadly, we really have no space at our land places either – no more lighthouses for me, I went nuts on our 2000 “Great circle trip” and have a room-and garage full of them. I am just taking photographs for now, dreaming of doing something wildly artistic with them at the conclusion of our voyaging years. Yeah, I also have cupboards chock full of other creative pursuits- mosaics, jewelry, rugs – when you have no talent, at some point you should own up to it. I’m still thinking I will mature into it….hmm, might zip right past my window of opportunity.
From this well known harbor we set our course for little known Tenants Harbor. We pick up a mooring, as anchoring is no longer possible here. It is picturesque and quiet and we feel we are getting back into the cruising mode. We like the contrast – time in active, bustling ports to quiet little anchorages like this. This port, like so many others all have working lobster boats aplenty. Everyone is a lobsterman in Maine.
Camden Maine is truly the quintessential Maine seaside town. It is as I thought it would be, built along hilly little streets that veer off at angles to follow the irregular coast line. The harbor is full of old wooden schooners that carry passengers in and out for day sails, sunset cruises and multi-day trips. There are no moorings per se, what they have are mooring floats. They are little 30’ docks anchored in the harbor and they accommodate two boats. Saves a lot of space, and is basically just a mooring, but one you can stretch your legs on…ideal for buddy boating. Interesting neighbors come and go, the last was a nice family a classic 1937 Swedish ketch, perfectly restored with three teenage kids on summer holidays.
We consulted charts; saw that although we’d like to see every little harbor along the Penobscot River, it wasn’t realistic time wise. We rented an Enterprise car from nearby Rockland so we could see a few ports we knew we would not get to by sea. We ran up to Belfast to see special places that a dear friend from Big Bear told us about, and hiked up the Mt. Battle monument that offers incredible views of Camden Harbor, even in the hazy sun and walked the quiet streets of nearby Rock Port. I think we will do a motor home trip here someday and linger longer.
And now, back to the little anchorages for quiet time at Bucks and Bass Harbors. We cruised by the Cranberry Islands and up Somes Sound, the only true fjord on the east coast. It can’t be compared to the rugged beauty of fjords of British Columbia and Alaska, but is so lovely in its own right. It’s been clear, and fog is often an issue in Maine summers, people joke that we were lucky to be in town during the only two weeks of summer. We consulted dependable buoy weather about going north to Canada, along the bold coast, but see that the weather is changing fast. We plan to spend as much time as possible in Acadia National Park, a 40,000 acre recreational area. Most of it is actually on the oddly named Mount Desert Island, but it also includes Schoodic Peninsula, and surrounding islands. It’s an ideal destination for boaters. Not only are there many places to anchor or pick up a mooring, there are a few more developed places like NE Harbor, and across the Sound, its counterpart, SW Harbor. Bruce and Joan Kessler keep their lovely Spirit of Zopolite there for the summer and we’re anxious to see them again. They were the brains behind the Fubar and were with us all the way. We’re like little kids showing them how far we’ve come.
But…the seas are changing and we notice that on the day we planned to leave Mt Desert Isle and head over to Schoodic’s Winter Harbor, and then hopefully onto Eastport at the Canadian border – something big is brewing…whoa, a forecast of rain and wind, but it’s the sea height that is alarming – 12 to 15 feet, building to 20! This sounds like the Perfect Storm. We learned that Hurricane Bill was headed to the NE coast, specifically to the Maine/Nova Scotia border area. Drat. We had reservations for one night at NE Harbor and then for a few nights at SW Harbor. Once in NE however, we were advised that it is the parks perfect hurricane hole, completely closed to the east, while SW is open to the east, the direction of the approaching high winds and wave action. Hmm, “could we stay here, Pretty Please?”
They didn’t have a regular slip for us, but did allow us to stay until the seas subsided, tied to a large 73 foot, 98 ton steel ship “Sunbeam IV” that is the medical and missionary ship that services coastal Maine during the winter. With current tides of 12’ and Sunbeam tied to a fixed pier, we rode up and down with her, but had to climb over her to get off and on. At high tide, it’s easy to just climb off our cockpit and onto her main deck- cross it and hop onto the dock. As the tide starts its way back down there is a three step ladder on her deck that facilitates getting up onto dock. As she continues to drop you have to climb onto her top deck to step off. At MLW, there is a rusty old straight ladder attached to the pier and you then have to climb up or down it. One night we had to maneuver 12 wet steps straight down, leap onto her top deck, back down her steps to her poop deck and back over the rails onto WS. Exciting.
A free shuttle bus system services Acadia National Park. From NE Harbor we were able to get all over the island, to the forest and hiking trails, campgrounds, and even over to Bar Harbor a few times. We checked out that harbor, which really offers little to visiting yachtsmen in terms of facilities and is not well protected from weather. Better to choose one of the great marinas or anchorages, and use the bus. Bar Harbor however is a charming town, well laid out with a central park- or “Village Green” and several streets of restaurants and shops running off it. Many are the regular shops that here in Maine have variations on the theme, “Mainely Made”, or” Mainely Maine”, etc., buts lots of good outdoorsy shops with cool gear, and great art gallery’s – an artistic bunch these Northeasterners. It is the most commercial and touristy so far as cruise ships do come into Bar Harbor and it is in the center of this beautiful and popular National Park.
It’s still very foggy and misting, but so far the torrential rains have not manifested, so we are doing all we can in our exile. This morning I participated in the Annual NE Harbor Ambulance Service fundraising “Road Race”. It was just 5 miles and began at the head of the fjord and ran back into town. It was great, nice people and a t-shirt to boot.
I seem to have moved along the evolutionary trail while out on the road to fitness. It starts out in your ripe younger years with catcalls, moves onto “hey lookin’ good”, then middle age I got, “good job” as I trotted by, but today I hit it – the meaningful, “Good for You” greeting – oh great! “Good for You”, as in, nice to see you still trying to get around you old fart… Never mind, I tell myself, they meant well, and I’m doing great. I kept right on sashaying my way to town, being passed by young Adonis and leggy gazelles, but then, I was passed by an ancient woman, honestly, she was 80 if she was a day with bright bottle red hair and a shaky, but speedy gait. “Good for you”, I yelled to her disappearing back!
Hurricane Bill put an end to push northward, but we did move over to Southwest Harbor before we reversed course, and for the first time since mid 2008, we were going SOUTH. We had only one night at Kennebunkport, so we decided to meet long lost cousins Kathy and David from Massachusetts. She is the Heil family historian and brought lots of pictures and family stories, it was such a fun time with them. We went sightseeing to some of their favorite Maine seaside towns so we had more than just our narrow view of our chosen harbor and environs. We especially liked York, and their usual getaway, the little town of Wells. We were back in Kennebunkport for dinner at Grisini’s - which was very good, but don’t order the cannoli for dessert unless they’ve fired the pastry chef J.
It’s a wonderful feeling, reaching a goal and yet always melancholy, like finishing a great book. It’s a time to reflect on not only the voyage, but on what is important to you, what you love. We love adventure, new places, new people to talk to AND the old and familiar places and faces. So, for us, this is not the end of boating, we will now come up with a new list of places to see by sea. Starting with the ones we skipped on the way north, it’s such a beautiful continent, and so much fun on a boat!
