The third trip this year started a couple of weeks ago, heading generally west from Gouldsboro Bay, with a destination of Penobscot Bay. The New England Junk Rig Gathering is coming right up, outside of Castine, which has made for a very specific goal. Having a time consideration, the boat and I set out a couple of weeks ahead, and went up into Frenchman Bay. Here’s Mosquito Harbor, which I’ve been looking at on charts for years. It’s a keeper.
The boat farm came along with.
Going north from there, it’s all about working one’s way around Mount Desert Island.
Ironbound Island catches one’s attention, with massive cliffs. The tiniest white dots are lobster pot buoys. The somewhat larger white dot in the middle is a full-sized lobster boat, handy for scale.
Further along, small rivers feed into the Bay. This one has fishing weirs visible at low tide.
A bridge connects MDI to the mainland, over a narrow passage in the middle of a long causeway. The timing of tide and wind worked at about six o’clock in the morning, for passing through into Blue Hill Bay with about a foot to spare above the top of the mast. Hooray for small boats!
And the view from the other side:
This sailing vessel, ALCA i, has been doing research on algae in the bays of Maine for decades. They come into Gouldsboro Bay, and it was fun to see them again on the west side of MDI, inside of Barter Island.
You can see more about their work, and help if you like, here: https://www.gofundme.com/alcai
Then it was down to Mackerel Cove, at Swans Island.
[photo credit: Kent Mullikin]
By the next day there was a fierce wind carrying on in the outer harbor.
Kent, brave soul, rowed out to visit regardless!
Leaving Mackerel Cove involved a side trip to McGlathery Island, due to wind and tide. This trip might also be titled “looking for Bill Cheney” – as yet unsuccessful!
Across from McGlathery, it looks like the Universe was playing at marbles.
This one is for Patty Kirshner – you’ll see why. I like to think of it as DRK, looking on.
There was supposed to be a night at McGlathery, but the wind and waves were bouncy, and with an ideal tide and wind, up came the anchor and off we went, to our original destination of Eggemoggin Reach.
What was completely impossible earlier in the day was now easy, and a little over two hours later, as the sun went down, we were anchoring in a handy cove along the south side of the Reach. In the morning it was down to Pickering Island, which would have been nice if the wind had not shifted east (forecast southeast and then southwest)! On the weather radio in the night it was blowing 35 knots, from the east, at Matinicus Rock… Friends in Carver’s Cove were having the same problem with waves from that wind, but we had some fun texting about the crazy situation, as we all rolled around.
The next day was a great opportunity to go and look at Horseshoe Cove, which has been a place I’ve wanted to see for years, passing by its entrance over and over.
After a night in there, and some fun tacking out in the morning, there was a fine wind going up Penobscot Bay toward Holbrook Island.
Now it’s Holbrook Island, in the rain, with the lovely scent of the dripping forest.
Hi Shemaya, Lovely photos! Ill be thinking of you as I head for The Isles of Shoals next Wednesday. Sandy
Sent from my iPhone
Hi Sandy,
I hope that was a great trip! Glad you like the photos – I always think of how dedicated you were, taking pictures all along the way when we were out in SERENITY. I aspire!
Shemaya
Hi Shemaya, Is that snow on the ground? (photos 4 and 16-17) I am glad you, the boat and the garden are out on the water having a great adventure! The photos remind me of walking the beaches of NH and So. Maine. Here on the opposite coast, I was walking way down the beach with a friend Sunday when we got caught in a “micro-burst” — huge fat raindrops drenched us instantly, then 80 mph winds turned the rain into sharp needles mixed with sand and sent umbrellas and beach toys whirling past. I swear, if we hadn’t had each other to hang onto, we’d have joined the debris flying down the beach. Love, Carol
Hi Carol,
No snow – that first one is very white sand, and in the others it’s the rocks. All the granite around here does amazing things.
What a story from your time walking the beach! 80 miles an hour – sheesh. I’m so glad you and your friend had each other to hold onto!
Love,
Shemaya
Sounds like you had a wonderful little cruise there, with generally good weather. It looks like a fantastic cruising ground – I wish I could have lingered when I was there. Good luck for the junket – I hope lots of other people are heading that way!
Hi Annie,
Here’s a long-belated reply! This cruise has been the ticket – and we can thank the junket for prying me loose from home. As you’ve now heard elsewhere, it was indeed loads of fun. More next year, in the works! We’ll keep hoping for a miracle, and that you will somehow join us :-) Wouldn’t that be fun, with a chance to see some more of the coast around here. We’ll keep hoping!
What a lovely experience to tour these pictures of your travels. And fun to see the small rear sail we had just spoken about. Sweet!
Hi Lori,
So glad for you to see these! Including the little mizzen sail. And all those extraordinary rocks. The next batch will be the junk rig gathering, which was huge fun! There are stories :-)
Thanks for the postcards, and updates on your progress. I was wondering how you were progressing; winds have been nutty over here — crazy out of the southeast one day, flat calm the next. Enjoy the rest of the trip! ~Dave
Hi Dave,
Getting closer to the end now! Finally catching up, having both the Internet signal and restfulness of little Mosquito Harbor, with your favorite water. I completely agree, the wind has been nutty. I don’t know why it took me so long to put together that “climate change” was going to interfere with my sailing habits! Beautiful here now, calm and protected in this cove, listening to the surf pound and boom on the outside rocks.
See you soon,
Shemaya
Late getting to where I could read this; enjoyed a vicarious cruise so much! Thanks for all the photos so I could picture you.
I have been doing rock drawings/painting, not ON rocks, but OF them. May I use your first photo of those erratics sitting around at the end of a ledge for a possible painting? I usually work from life, so am not sure I can carry it off, but would like to try. Will send you a pic if I do do anything.
Hi Helen,
Absolutely, on using the photo! I would love to see how it works out, if you take it up – if you’d like, it could be posted here, with whatever references to your other work that you’d like to put up. Your artwork is lovely, and it would be much fun to see what you’ve been doing with rock paintings.
Have you gotten in much sailing this year? I always love your little yacht :-)
Very best wishes,
Shemaya
No sailing, hardly any swimming, and not painting since June. Have had the summer from hell dealing with seemingly endless construction/renovation, health problems that sent me to emergency in Digby with nosebleeds, the final one by ambulance. I had no time or energy to restore poor Molly Kool to sailing condition, although I have 2 bilgeboards cut and ready to work on come spring – or to shape them at home and then go back to Bowes Garage for another weekend of space warm enough to set glue in. I shall send you whatever I do do from your photo; I am turning over several possibilities in my mind. I like strewn erratics, and these have a different arrangement than ones I see around Peggys Cove area. The Bay of Fundy doesn’t offer any at all.
I love Molly Kool and am “in training” for a better summer next year! I may be older, but I hope no more construction…and maybe I’ll have to sell house and move into geared-to-income social housing so I have money to complete my projects, but I am not giving in yet!
I thrive on vicarious cruising with you! So glad you make this bog!
Hi Helen,
I’m so sorry it’s been a difficult summer – here’s hoping that things are looking up. Interesting that you mentioned both nosebleeds and construction in a similar timeframe. Are you familiar with that formaldehyde exposure can cause nosebleeds? And formaldehyde is such a big deal during some kinds of new construction… Anyway, it’s a thought. I had ferocious nosebleeds when I was a kid, and later came across both the formaldehyde information and that the chemical developer for photographs is mainly formaldehyde… My dad had a professional photo lab in the basement of our house, and I spent many hours hanging around when he was working. Doesn’t mean it was definitely the cause, but it caught my attention. Any way around, I hope that things are getting much, much better on the health front.
Meanwhile, yes, aren’t those erratics extraordinary – those islands south of Deer Isle are special, in the way those rocks are there. Different from anywhere else I’ve seen. It’s always a treat to pass through that area.
Lovely that your projects with Molly Kool are continuing to go forward, regardless of sailing interruptions. Spring will be here in no time! It’ll be so interesting to see how the boat goes with the different bilgeboards.
I’m delighted that sharing in these trips on the blog is being such a joy – it’s great to have you along on them!
Take good care,
Shemaya
No fumey materials; only a small addition plus building shelves. Naturopath linked them and fibrillation to bladder infection. Interestingly, my son-in-law’s father, now age 98, has this same set and his daughter figured out the link herself. I had too much flour and sweets while a friend wad visiting, which didn’t help