About Time after a week in Maine

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We’ve spent our first week familiarizing ourselves with the coastal Maine, and the area we’ll be cruising in until the end of August. On the recommendations of our good friends Mary and Christian in the sailboat Iwanda, we traveled north through Long Island Sound to Penobscot Bay Maine to spend the remainder of the summer.

Here is a description of Penobscot Bay. “Against the mountainous backdrop of the Camden Hills to the west, Penobscot Bay spreads 40 miles long and 15 miles wide, graced by more than 200 islands. Between them lie great stretches of open water and small winding thoroughfares. Along their shores are bustling fishing communities, quaint villages, isolated outports, and uninhabited beauty This is the heart of cruising Maine.”

Last Sunday, after an overnight passage from Marblehead Mass, we arrived in Rockland and anchored next to Mary and Christian. Rockland will be our base for the next 6 weeks, as it has a good anchorage, good grocery stores and services, cell service and Wifi!

Monday was spent relaxing, getting fuel, and grocerys, and some minor reprovisioning, (and sitting at anchor in a fog bank). On Tuesday, still in fog we headed to meet some people in Seal Bay. Half way there, the fog was so thick, we decided to stop early at a nice anchorage called Perry Creek. There are a fair number of commercial boats, ferrys, and other boats so we got lots of practice on the radar, and the fog horn. Perry Creek is a well protected peaceful anchorage, with a great hiking trail that leads to a breathtaking view of the whole area. Sharon and Mary went out at low tide and gathered muscles , which we had as appetizers for dinner. (Not my favourite but at least I tried them) It was so nice in Perry Creek that we stayed on another day.

The next day we went on to Seal Bay, and true to it’s name we saw seals, one in particular gave us a nice sunset show. We went on a land hike looking for Blueberrys. So far we havn't found Blueberrys isn numbers but Sharon keeps looking. We think Mary and Christian got poison Ivy, and we did get a few blueberrys. After a night in Seal Bay we went to Castine, another very pretty town that hosts the Maine Maritime College, and some awesome summer homes. In the fog Saturday morning we headed for Belfast, ending up at Warren Island instead, as the anchorage in Belfast was rough. Warren Island has a state park and again hiking trails. Sunday was a nice hot sunny day, and we went for our first swim in Maine at Warren Island. In the afternoon we went beachcombing, along the shore at low tide. There are lots of treasures to pick up, and we have to remind ourselves that a boat only holds so much

We will now work our way back to Rockland to pick up our daughter Dawn who is coming for a 10 day visit.
It’s nice paced traveling here, and it’s usually only 2 or 3 hours traveling from one place to another. Maine is more beautiful than we ever expected. It has the rustic beauty of Northern Ontario, with the added maritime fishing villages, and marine life like seals and even dolphins. The temperature is never really humid or hot, and it is very comfortable, We have only had a quick overview of the area, and now look forward to visiting lots of the bays and communities, during the next 5 or 6 weeks.

Thanks to our friends Mary and Christian we finally have our ham radio email working. Last week we were out of cell, and wireless contact so it's a nice treat to have email and be able to keep in contact, even in remote places. Our ham email address is [e-mail] . If you send us email via the ham, there can be no attachments, and it's best if you delete the previous text if replying. Also, as the ham radio is a free service, they don't allow business to be conducted. That shouldn't be a problem though ....we're retired.

I"ve noticed that the salt water causes lots of challenges to boats in terms of rust appearing on some of our stainless fittings, and any questionalble electrical connections, so I've got some maintenence to do this week. So there is work in retirement!

Hope all is well and it's a turning out to be a great summer for all of you!

Sharon and Doug
SV About Time

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