August 18, 2006 – Sommes Sound
When I last wrote we were on a mooring in Camden, Maine, waiting for the
fog to lift so we could depart for Wooden Boat School
The fog did eventually thin out enough that we felt comfortable leaving
Camden, and with the radar scanning, and two lookouts keeping a sharp
eye out for boats, floats and land, we headed out into Penobscot Bay
with about 3/4 mile visibility. By the time we reached Eggemoggin Reach,
the fog had, for the most part, lifted and we had an easy time of it the
remainder of the trip (SE down Eggemoggin Reach).
I was surprised to see the large numbers of wooden boats in the water at
Wooden Boat School. When I last attended the school in 1990 there were
perhaps eight of their school-built boats in the water; this time there
must have been sixteen, perhaps more. There were also privately owned
boats on moorings, and a few empty “guest” moorings available for the
the publics use on a short term basis (a night or two). We found a
mooring and dingied ashore. The first person to take our line on the
floating dock was Rich Hilsinger, the school’s director, who had been
the shop manager when I first attended the school in 1988, and then the
director when I returned in 1990. We were able to chat for a short time
about the changes in the school before he had to attend to the
activities on the waterfront where students were being ferried out to
the various boats to become acquainted with them.
Judy and I toured the grounds for a short while (all of the classes were
over for the day), and then went back to Sanderling for the rest of the
evening. The next day we went back to the school, looked in on a couple
of classes working on boat-building projects, and stopped at the store
for T-shirts.
Then we departed for Bar Harbor, Maine, about 30 miles distance from
Wooden Boat School. The trip was, again, spectacular. The sun was
shining brightly and the sky clear. Cadillac Mountain, at about 1500
feet elevation, and other nearby mountains, were always visible. The
water was almost glass smooth. The lobster pot markers, although always
present, were not a problem, except in one area near the south side of
Mount Desert (pronounced “dessert,” like pie) Island.
When we arrived in Bar Harbor we took a mooring thru the Harbormaster’s
office. We dingied into town for a little exercise, shopping, and dinner.
Yesterday, Thursday, we went into town during the day. We first took a
free bus to the furthest town on the south side of the island on a very
scenic route, and then rode the same bus back to Bar Harbor when we
discovered that the end-of-the-line town consisted of only a few
buildings. We had lunch, and then took a 2.5 hour narrated tour around
the loop road and onto the top of Cadillac Mountain in Arcadia Park.
Again, spectacular vistas of the island itself and the surrounding
areas, and a very interesting narrative about the recent history of
Mount Desert Island and Bar Harbor. Learned that the entire town was
almost destroyed by a major fire in 1947, which also burned most of the
mansions built in the early 1900s (said Bar Harbor was similar to
Newport, RI, in its wealthy summer residents) and were never rebuilt.
Back to Sanderling for showers; back to town for dinner; back to
Sanderling for the night! Fortunately, the dock where we tie up the
dingy is only 1/4 mile away and an easy dingy ride.
This morning we’re taking our time getting ready to depart. We’re going
to go to the town dock on the way out to fill up the water tanks, then
head back to the south side of the island where we’ll cruise into Somes
Sound (a fjord) and spend the night in one of the beautiful coves.
We’re then going to check out Blue Hill to see if that would be a good
place for the cats and me to spend the week while Judy is back in
Florida. If not, we’ll proceed back through Eggemoggin Reach to Castine.
Later on August 18, 2006 -Sommes Sound
While at the town dock for water I tried to send several emails I had
composed earlier, but could never get the wireless signal strong enough
to allow me to do so. Seems that with only one bar showing on the signal
strength indicator, I can browse the web and send email, but cannot
send. So these emails will have to wait until we’re in a spot with
better internet access.
We did cruise around to the south side of Mount Desert Island, and are
now anchored in a little cove at the north end of Somes Sound, near a
little town called Somesville. We decided to check out Somes Sound
first, and then go to one of the other southern coves tomorrow before
heading to Blue Hill on Sunday.
Somes Sound was interesting – a fairly narrow body of water (perhaps 3/4
mile wide at the widest spot) and about four miles long. The sides are
fairly steep in spots, but not as steep as the sides of the fjords I
remember in Norway and Sweden. There were a few places with moorings,
but generally it is too deep to anchor.
The little cove we are in tonight has some fairly shallow areas (20 feet
at low tide) in addition to many private mooring balls (none available
to the public) so we were able to anchor in 20 feet of water at low tide
between two mooring fields. The wind picked up to about 15 knots shortly
after we anchored, and we’ve been holding well. The anchor we use only
requires a 3 to 1 scope in theory. I just let out another 30 feet of
scope to accommodate the rising tide (11 feet total) so we shouldn’t
have any problem with the scope as the wind dies down in the late
afternoon when we’re at maximum tide.
August 19, 2006 – Northeast Harbor, Maine
We departed the little cove at the north end of Somes Sound about 1000 this morning and motored 6.6 miles to Northeast Harbor, on the south shore of Mount Desert Island. This is another beautiful spot, with a little town that has shopping, etc. We’ve decided to stay here while Judy flies back to Florida next week. We were able to move to a mooring ball fairly close to the dingy dock, so I’ll be able to get back and forth to the town relatively easily. The free Mount Desert Island buses run right by the harbor masters office, so I’ll have access to the entire island, as well as the Bar Harbor Airport. We’re going to pick up a rental car at that airport on Monday, and I’ll drive Judy to the airport at Providence, Rhode Island for her flight on Tuesday. Everything works out much easier this way!
The Cranberry Islands are just to the south, and last night I started reading “The Secret Life of Lobsters” which at least in part involves the Cranberry Islands and the lobster men of this area! Interesting coincidence.
August 27, 2006 -Northeast Harbor, Maine
Sanderling and at least part of her crew (Bob) has been in Northeast Harbor, Maine, for the past week while Judy flew home to Florida to teach an instructors course for the American Heart Association and attended an AHA meeting in Tampa. She returned to Sanderling today.
While Judy was gone I worked on a couple of boat project, and was able to get our diesel heater working (just in time for cool weather) and rigged removable running lights for the dingy (so we’ll be legal at night), as well as various other small projects.
We had dinner at a small restaurant in town, tonight, even taking the dingy in a light rain in order to get “the best pizza in Maine.”
Tomorrow we’re going to depart Northeast Harbor to take a leisurely cruise to Blue Hill for the afternoon and evening, then Castine on Tuesday for a night. After that we’ll head toward Portland, stopping at a few locations along the way before arriving there on Friday afternoon. At Portland we’ll put Sanderling in a marina while we fly to Wichita, Kansas, to help Judy’s mother celebrate her 85th birthday – flying out from Boston’s Logan airport on Saturday, and returning on Monday. We hope to be able to see friends there for a day after returning, and then start heading SOUTH (rather than west) to get into Long Island Sound for a week or so of sightseeing there. Judy has to fly to Florida again in mid-September (probably out of Hartford, Connecticut) for a day. Then we’ll head SOUTH again to get to the Chesapeake by mid-September. We hope to attend Trawler Fest in Solomons the last few days of September, then we’ll head to Florida in order to be home by the end of October.
September 5, 2006 – Portland, Maine
We made a quick trip to Wichita, Kansas, for Judy’s mother’s 85th birthday this holiday weekend, and returned last night. Had a nice time at her birthday celebrations, and she obviously enjoyed having the company of her family (most of whom live in the Wichita area.
This morning friends are going to take us shopping, and then we’re heading south to warmer weather (and new ports).
September 6, 2006 – Anasquam, Massachusetts
We departed Portland, Maine, yesterday a little after noon. We were going to try to make it to the Kennebunkport area (although not Kennebunkport itself – too commercial and overrun with gawking tourists even according to our cruising guide). As it turns out, the anchorages available at Cape Porpoise weren’t recommended by the cruising guide, so we stopped short at Woods Island Harbor and spent the night on a mooring provided by the Bitteford Pool Yacht Club for a mere $20.00.
We left Woods Island Harbor at about 0830 this morning, and had several long stretches of open water, passing Isles of Shoals about six miles off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, before arriving at Annisquam, Massachusetts, on Cape Anne – a few miles west of Rockport, Massachusetts, where we spent two delightful nights on our way north. This is the north end of the Blynman Canal, which runs from Gloucester to Annisquam and is a short cut through Cape Anne which avoids having to go further east around the Cape. Tomorrow morning we’ll cruise through the canal to Gloucester, where we’ll get diesel and water before heading south across Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod Bay to the Cape Cod Canal.
To date, on our trip from Florida to Maine and return, we’ve cruised 2050.7 nautical miles with 313 hour and 45 minutes underway. Our half-way point (furthest north/east) was at Bar Harbor with 1832.0 nautical miles and 281 hours and 40 minutes underway.
We’re not sure how far towards the Cape Cod Canal we’ll get tomorrow. We’re going to wait until near slack water to transit the Blynman Canal (currents reach six knots in one area) and we then need to stop in Gloucester for fuel before heading south. It’s nearly 60 miles from Gloucester to the eastern end of the Cape Cod Canal (and a marina), so if we don’t depart Gloucester by 1000, we’ll probably stop short at Plymouth or even further north on the west side of bays. In any event, we should be through the Cape Cod Canal and into Buzzards Bay by Friday.
Weather is warmer, but that may not necessarily be due to the fact that we’re another 50 miles further south!
September 8, 2006 – Padanaram Harbor, Massachusetts
We departed Annisquam, Massachusetts, on the Blynman Canal about 1000 after waiting for high tide near slack. We were glad we did. We transited areas on the river between markers were the depth would have been less than five feet at low tide due to the unseasonably high and low tides we had on Thursday. The transit took no more than about half an hour with a one knot favorable current.
Stopped in Gloucester, Massachusetts, for fuel, and cleared the harbor by 1145. We cut directly across Massachusetts Bay and the upper Cape Cod Bay for Plymouth, which was as far as we could get with the late start. The long off-shore cruise was essentially uneventful, EXCEPT for the small humpback whale we saw (and who circled Sanderling four or five times before departing) about 1400 in the afternoon, and the fog which rolled in from the east and chased us into Plymouth. By the time we took a mooring the visibility was closing in on 300 yards, and within an hour of our arrival the visibility was less than 100 yards and stayed that way much of the night. This morning was clear as a bell, but Sanderling was wet as though it had rained throughout the night.
We left Plymouth this morning in time to catch the beginning of the westerly current through Cape Cod Canal. By the time we reached the town of Buzzards Bay near the west end of the canal, we were moving along at 10.5 knots (3 knots of current). Fortunately, the south-west wind was no more than about 10 knots, so the square waves at that end of the canal had just started to erupt!
We proceeded about 15 miles west on Buzzards Bay to this little bay just west of New Bedford. We’re the only trawler in a mooring field of perhaps 100 sail boats! The launch driver knew just were to take us after we returned from a stroll through the little community to stretch our legs.
Tomorrow we’ll head west. Depending on the weather we might run up the Sakonnet River and back south through Newport to Point Judith or Westerly, Rhode Island. Sunday’s forecast is for some ocean swells along the coast (from the remnants of TS Florence), so we’re going to head into Long Island Sound early on Sunday morning to avoid them perhaps stopping in Mystic, Connecticut at the Seaport Museum for the night.
Temperatures increase slightly every day! For the past two days we’ve actually been able to sit in the sun in short sleeve shirts!
September 12, 2006 –
Connecticut River, Connecticut
We departed Wickford, Rhode Island, EARLY in the morning (before 0700) on Sunday (Sept 10) in order to cruise past Newport on the East Passage of Narragansett Bay before heading into Block Island Sound and turning west to enter Long Island Sound. By 0815 we had passed the Naval War College and entered Newport Harbor. Actually, not much to see from the water, other than the tall masts of big sailboats in marinas behind the obtrusive hotels, and the large mooring field to the south (not nearly as large as the others we’ve seen, however). The place has really changed from the late 60s! Progress?
We passed Point Judith and then turned west to parallel the south coast of Rhode Island and had a pleasant, smooth trip into Fishers Sound at Watch Hill, RI, then up the Mystic River (no relationship to the movie) to Mystic Seaport Museum Marina. A beautiful area with many nice, old homes right on the water, and thousands of boats (mostly sail). We tied to the wooden pier at Mystic Seaport Museum, not too far from the Charles W. Morgan, the restored 19th century whaling bark (the only surviving whaler). For the cost of staying at the marina there ($3.75 per foot – the highest we’ve encountered this trip) we got to tour the grounds 24×7 and see all of the exhibits while they were open during the day. They also had immaculate heads/showers – the best we’ve ever seen in a marina. We met friends from Hartford for dinner in the “happening” area of Mystic that evening.
Rather than paying the high cost of staying another night, we departed the museum on Monday morning. We were going to head to a small bay in Niantic, Connecticut, about 15 miles distance, to anchor for the night. However, as we progressed west on the sound we became concerned about the weather developing from the effects of hurricane Florence on Tuesday and whether it might create very rough conditions on Long Island Sound – so instead of Niantic we headed for the Connecticut River (another 10 miles beyond Niantic) and the small marina at Old Lyme. By the time we entered the Connecticut River the wind was piping up to around 15 knots on the sound, and we welcomed the relatively calm water of the river.
We’re now on a mooring in a small side-branch of the Connecticut River, just north of the I-95 river bridge. We’re going to leave late this afternoon by rental car and stay the night with our friends in Hartford; I’ll drive Judy to the airport early tomorrow (Wednesday) morning so she can catch her flight back to Orlando for a meeting. She returns on Thursday.
While Judy’s gone I’ll take care of the cats and do a little boat maintenance.
The weather is cold (high 40s this morning) with clear sky and very little wind! The NOAA weather radio is still predicting winds up to 30 knots later today and tomorrow, with high tides and big surf along the ocean (not the sound) beaches as hurricane Florence passes 500 miles to the east of Nantucket later today. We’re glad we’re tucked into this nicely protected spot.