Day 24- Bucks Harbor, ME

I think we've hit the part of Maine where good internet connections are few and far between. So again posting via single side band radio and will add photos when the connection improves. We reluctantly left Holbrook this morning. It was peaceful and beautiful but the opportunity to get fresh produce from the weekly farmers market in Brooksville was too good to pass up. The sail around Cape Rosier was wonderful. It brought back all the memories of why we like this area so much. We caught up with local friends immediately and they arranged for an ideal mooring for us. We are smack dab in the middle of the harbor with a short dingy hop to the dock. We couldn't ask for more, thank you Don and Fred! Will probably be here for a few days since the weather looks rainy.

Day 23- Holbrook Island Harbor, ME

We left Islesboro in heavy fog which lifted into a beautiful blue skied day. We motored north to Holbrook Cove, one of our favorite places in Maine. It was almost hot so the kids spent time swimming and getting pulled on the boogie board. We saw a bald eagle swoop low and fly right next to the boat. And I just took pictures of an amazing sunset.

Day 21-Broad Cove, Islesboro, ME

We've been attending the events at the Seven Seas Cruising Club Gam here in Islesboro.  The kids thought the dingy raft up with 30+ dingies tied together was fun, kind of like bumper boats.  We've met many very nice, experienced cruisers willing to share advice.  A boon for newbies like us. 

While visiting Calypso, a Valiant 40, we heard the nice chime of their ships clock and realized we had a similar one and it did not chime.  When we returned to the boat, Pablo found the chime had been disabled and turned it on.  After listening for a bit we realized that the number of chimes did not correspond to the hour.  Defective clock?   After a quick internet search we learned that a ships clock chimes according to a four hour watch schedule.  Therefore 12:30pm is 1 chime, the beginning of a watch, 1pm is two chimes…. 4 pm is eight chimes (I know, something that we should have known).  The last few nights Pablo has been waking up at night every half hour wondering what the chime is.  Reminds me of Grandma Vicki and the Audubon bird clock (In her later years, Pablo’s grandmother had memory loss and asked what the bird chirping was hourly).  If he continues these senior moments we may have to disable it.

Eventhough the Gam was a great experience, there were no other cruisers with kids.  But we lucked out, just as the Gam ended we met other sailing kids!!  Yesterday we were introduced to the Gardner family as they went by on their Valiant 40, Libertas, with 2 girls aboard.  Mia and Remi made quite a ruckus as they scrambled to get on deck once a boat with kids was spotted.  Upon seeing our daughters, they anchored close by and came for a visit.  Lily, Sadie, Mia and Remi hit it off instantly.  And we were invited to breakfast at their family house on Islesboro.  We enjoyed great pancakes and wonderful company in a house with a million dollar view.  What a treat!

Pablo hoisted Mia up the mast to fix our flag halyard.  Another boat requested Mia's services afterward and Mia complied.  Mia is the perfect candidate to go up the mast since she is capable of minor mixes and doesn't weigh much.  Having hoisted Pablo up, I can attest that someone of Mia's weight is a much better choice.

The weather is foggy and rainy so we decided to stay put for another night.

The Dingy Raft up with potluck hor'duerves

Mia fixing the flag halyard

Libertas

The view from the Gardner house (our mast is somewhere in the mass of boats)

Wet and rainy

Day 20-Broad Cove, Islesboro, ME

Had a great day exploring yesterday.  Mia and Remi mucked around on various beaches at various tides.  We've been looking for a fish market but haven't found one so we decided to go straight to the source.  We dingied up to a lobster boat and asked if he would sell us some lobster.  He said he couldn't as he had an order to fill in a gruff voice that seemed a little forced and almost instantly softened and changed his mind for some reason.  He dropped two unbanded (no bands on the claws) lobster into our dingy and wouldn't accept any money in return.  I'm thinking the entertainment of watching us scramble to get away from lobster claws was payment enough for him.  Even though some of us were a little more freaked out by lobsters without bands than others, we hurried back to the boat and had a fantastic lobster lunch.  Pablo and I decided it was definitely lunch time even though it was only 10:30 am!  The stars have been phenomenal the past couple of nights.  We can see the Milky Way stretch across the entire sky.  It seems even more brilliant than our memories of New Mexico night skies.

Day 19-Gilkey Harbor, Isleboro, ME

We spent yesterday morning hanging out at the Rockland Lobster Festival.  The volume of lobster served was staggering.  There were huge permanent steaming vats with hundreds of lobsters in each.  The festival was declared open by King Neptune who arrived on a Coast Guard cutter.  After a full dose of the festival we motored to Isleboro.  With beautiful clear skies it was nice to see what the coast looks like since we missed part of it in the fog on the last leg.  It feels good to be in a more remote anchorage again.  We look forward to exploring the island of Isleboro and surrounding islands for the next couple of days.  We're here for a get together of the Seven Seas Cruising Club, of which we're members.  We hope to meet other cruisers heading south, especially ones with kids.

King Neptune (wearing Tevas) with Ms. Lobster and his lobsterettes

Day 17-Rockland, ME

We've been enjoying another day walking around Rockland.  It is like a metropolis both on land and water. They even have an ATM.  We walked a couple of miles with groceries and realized we left our handy cart in the storage unit.  Pablo really enjoyed visiting Hamilton Marine.  Aisles and aisles of marine supplies.  He was like a kid in a candy store.  There is a ton of boat activity.  The destroyer USS Mahan is anchored here for the Lobster Festival, schooners, draggers, and lobster boats everywhere.    The Coast Guard has a station with several big ships here and lots of cruising boats from all over the world.  Plenty of entertainment for us.  We hear it has been hot in Boston.  We have been wearing jeans and even turned the heat on one morning.  It is hard to comprehend 100 degree weather right now.

We saw this truck loaded down with beer, in line for the ferry to Vinalhaven. You think they're going to have a party?  Led us to wonder if Vinalhaven is a 'dry' island.

Day16- Rockland, ME

Spent the day dodging lobster pot buoys and lobster boats in heavy fog that didn't lift until we anchored in Rockland. We were both on our toes for hours deciphering shadows and engine sounds in the fog. Did I mention that one guide book says that the Tenants Harbor area has one of the highest density of lobster pots anywhere? I was completely exhausted when we arrived. It cleared for a couple of hours and then rolled in again. We took the dingy ashore and had to navigate thru the fog again on our way back to find Borealis. We would still be hanging onto a lobster pot outside Tenants Harbor if we didn't have a chartplotter and radar.