Day 28- Somes Sound, ME

We motored up Somes Sound in Acadia yesterday. Our guide book says that "Somes Sound is one of the only fjords in the US". It is an amazing place but it seems a little bit of a stretch to call it a fjord. It is a narrow valley with beautiful mountains (Mt. Cadillac and Acadia) on either side but nothing like the photos of fjords of Norway. The girls have been swimming and catching crab. We took advantage of the free Island Express bus service and visited both Southwest Harbor and Bar Harbor today. Even with free bus service throughout the island there is A LOT of traffic, probably the most we've seen since we left Boston. There is campground in an inlet close to where we are anchored. We're tempted to go check out their showers. Guessing they wouldn't notice, can't imagine there is a problem with people dying to use campground showers. Planning to spend a couple more days here. The forecast is for 2 days of rain and fog, after which we'll head north again.

Fine dining?

 

Day 26-Northeast Harbor, ME

After spending a couple of wonderful days in Bucks Harbor, we left this morning in patchy fog that was supposed to clear.  Mia and Remi had play time and even a sleepover with a friend from summers past.  And we enjoyed a great dinner at Don and Polly's with the Cranmers.  And were lucky to get to use the Bishop's car to make a grocery and propane run.  It felt really nice to be back in Brooksville.  It is our favorite part of Maine from past years.
Even though the clouds never cleared as promised, we had a nice sail through Eggemoggin Reach and Casco Passage.  Passed by several places that we plan to explore further on the way back.  For example, Buckle Island seemed really cool, just as described by friends .  Our plan was to pick up a mooring in Southwest Harbor but none of the protected ones were available so we ended up in Northeast Harbor.  Had a nice stroll in town and enjoyed live music with the crew of Rigamarole from BBY in RI.

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