Our Summer Cruise 2018

 

Sunday, July 8

A perfect night's sleep with not a ripple on the water and we didn't wake until 8:00am to blue skies and sun. More troubleshooting at Carrie Rose this morning on its air conditioning as it seemed the pump wasn't working. After a confirming power all the way through the wiring and water availability, we removed the pump's output hose; it wasn't blocked but wasn't pumping when power was applied.

Struggling to Reach the Pump

Dismantling the pump didn't show any issue so we tried various switch combinations and found that the salon A/C and the pump had to be powered for the pump to run. Once we figured that out, the pump worked fine with water flow out both the forward and stern drains. Charlotte took careful notes on how to set the switches for future reference - a classic case of forgetting how systems run when you only use them occasionally.

Monday, July 9th

Digdeguash to Head Harbor - 15nm

Lucky again with weather today for the two-hour run out of the Passamaquoddy Bay (named after the Passamaquoddy native Indian tribe who live in what is now northern Maine and New Brunswick).

Colorful Exit from Digdeguash

Today is the last day of lobster fishing for the season in New Brunswick whereas they have year-round fishing in Maine. Traps have to be removed by midnight tonight so the waters are busy as trap pulling is left to the last. That last day can mean several thousand dollars of extra income. The sterns of lobster boats are now stacked neatly with traps as they are pulled for the last time until the season begins again on the second Tuesday in November. Head Harbor is one of the larger lobster ports so it will be busy! East of here on Grand Manan, the season was shortened to June 22 due to several sightings of right whales which are almost extinct. Estimates of population are around 400 with many in Bay of Fundy.

A Lobster Trap

The short crossing through the Letang Passage, a bit of open water, and the turn into Head Harbor were uneventful but with a lot of confused current from both sides of Campobello Island.

Head Harbor (East Quoddy) Light Built in 1829

In it's first season in service, waves reached the red horizontal band in one major

storm. It is still has the original wooden tower and is the oldest surviving lighthouse in New Brunswick.

The write-up in the cruising guide is a little misleading but perhaps it was because of it being the last day of the season. Head Harbor further in was very busy with Dean nearly being driven over by a lobster boat wider than Carrie Rose's length coming in from a side channel. Boats were coming and going and these were not the 35-40 footers we typically encounter.

These were the big boys that go out 20 miles into the Bay of Fundy. The two-boat-wide channel was lined with floating docks, some with shacks, some with large buildings, but nearly all piled high with lobster traps. Most floats were tethered to large pilings at each corner so they could float up and down with the tide and, being low tide, it looked like a forest of de-branched trees. The guide suggests going on the inside of the government wharf which would be tight in normal situations. Today, the boats were rafted up three deep with mud beside them.

At the second government wharf there was some room to tie up to a boat which was tied to a float which was tied to the wharf and Carrie Rose tied to us.

Bit Tight!

Throughout the day we got to see how a busy lobster harbor works with catch being brought in to the floating docks with shacks, lobster traps being off-loaded, and the boats hightailing it out for the next load. The vast majority of crews were friendly giving us waves and comments of "Nice Boat!" as we surveyed the scene from the back of the boat in the shade. Wow, it was hot today with temps in the 80s.

Towards the End of the Harbor From Us

 

Up Close and Personal

 

Squeezing By - At 6 Knots!

Dean and I decided to take a walk to the light so climbed 20' up a ladder to the wharf. Told Dean not to look down so what does he do? it was a long way down on shiny round rungs! On land, it was 10 deg. F warmer and not much shade when we turned on to the main road. Just a little way on, a yellow New Brunswick Highways truck stopped and offered us a lift - not to look a gift horse, we took up the offer and in a short time he dropped us at the parking lot.

Light From Land at Low - Cut Off About Half the Time

Our long walk back in the heat was curtailed when we came across the yellow truck at the side of the road and the driver talking with a guy in a driveway. Another ride and we were back right on the wharf in minutes instead of an hour under the blazing sun.

Tonight we again shared drinks and snacks passed from stern to stern while the activities went on before us. We went to bed at dark about 9pm but occasionally we could hear a boat come in - up to the last minute!

Tuesday, July 10th

Head Harbor to Campobello - 8nm

Just a short ride under blue skies but had several sightings of small whales, dolphins, and seals. Dean, ahead of us, saw a large whale that surfaced. We made use of the Campobello International Park dock as no tour boats would be using it today.

 

Campobello Dock At Near High Tide

Roosevelt Campobello International Park preserves the house and surrounding landscape of the summer retreat of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt and their family and several other cottages from the 1800s when Campobello was a favorite summer resort for the wealthy from Montreal and New York. It is located on the southern tip of Campobello Island in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, and is connected to the mainland by the Roosevelt Memorial Bridge, at Lubec, Maine in the United States. Here in August 1921, 39-year-old Roosevelt, who would go on to become the 32nd President of the United States, fell ill and was diagnosed with polio. FDR was no longer able to stay at the "beloved island", but he sailed there in 1933 and visited briefly in 1936 and 1939. Eleanor Roosevelt loved the cool summer weather and visited many times with her children and friends.

After her death in 1962, the family deeded the property to the governments of the U.S. and Canada. In 1964, they created the 2,800-acre International Park. The cottage, built in the Shingle Style and completed in 1897, was given to the Roosevelts as a wedding gift by the owner - not a bad present.

We were here last year and did the whole tour but there is so much history in the area that another tour wasn't redundant and Dean and Charlotte had not been here before. We went "To Tea With Eleanor" again after watching the introductory video narrated by one of FDR's sons and I think each time, the talk by Park staff takes a slightly different tack and gives out different information. The tea and cookies were excellent.

 

At "Tea With Eleanor" at the Hubbard House

A 10 year restoration had recently been completed of another of the original cottages, Hubbard Cottage, that had sat vacant for 20 years and was in sorry condition when the Park decided to restore it to its former glory. Miles of original pine trim were stripped of layers of paint and refinished to its original condition. Some of the original furniture was also restored and period-correct pieces acquired. The original wallpaper and drapes were re-created.

The Formal Living Room

 

The Billiard Room

The Dining Room

Next on our tour was FDR's "cottage", although this cottage stretches most people's idea of a cottage at almost 15,000 square feet and 18 bedrooms. Two floors are open to the public and it does have a cottagey feel to the place with not much formality. It is easy to imagine the family and friends spending a summer here relaxing. The Park staff give an excellent guided tour without which the walkthrough would be significantly less interesting. Here are just a few of the rooms we went through all with the actual furniture from FDR and Eleanor's ownership.

 

Eleanor's Office

The "Family Room"

One of Many Guest Bedrooms

 

View From the Cottage

Done for the Day

 

Campobello Dock at Low Tide

We timed it right to get back to the boats with about another 1' to low tide; we would be OK with that but the next low tide at around 4:00 am would be almost 2' lower. It would be bump, bump, bump on the bottom and it wasn't mud. Like last year when Ellie Belle (George and Cynthy's) boat was already bumping, we went out into the bay and anchored in 16' of water and felt much better.

Going to Be A Beautiful Sunset Already

 

Twenty Minutes Later!

Wednesday, 11th

Campobello, Canada to Roque Island, USA - 36nm

The weather held for another day as we left for Roque Island back in the USA. The only challenge was negotiating the Lubec Narrows and we had carefully planned when to get there. We probably spent a couple of hours trying to research this subject and there is a complete lack of guidance. Even the Coast Guard were not willing to give any advice! We finally decided to base passage on slack current (no current) at Eastport just a few miles away and found that this did not work too well as we had 5 knots of current pushing us along for a net speed of 13 knots in fairly turbulent water. The wheel got a good workout trying keep a straight course. The other challenge was clearing Customs and Immigration back in to the USA but more about that later.

From here on, it was the typical run down the coast, blue skies, no boats, and lots of small islands and points, some quite attractive.

 

After a four and a half hour run, we arrived at Roque Island taking the easy way in around the Brothers Islands versus some fairly narrow low-tide passages through the other outlying islands with waves sending up a good amount of surf. Once inside, we decided to stay at Lakeman Harbor on the north side of the bay. Roque Island has a beautiful mile long sand beach, rare in Maine, and you can anchor just 50 yards offshore. However, somehow the ocean swells make it through the ring of protective islands and cause the boat the roll nonstop. We experienced this for several hours last year and ended up moving to Lakeman Harbor still within the bay but well protected. We chose a slightly deeper spot with 12' at low and had a very comfortable anchorage to enjoy for the rest of the day and the following day.

View From Our Stern in One Direction

View From Our Stern in Another Direction

Thursday, 12th

The weather keeps holding on for us with another good day forecast. We took the opportunity to take Dean and Charlotte on a dinghy ride to explore around Roque Island. The Bay itself is about one and a half miles across and the island is about 1300 acres. It was bought in 1814 by Joseph Peabody from the previous owners, a group of Boston and Salem Merchants, for its timber. Peabody was a successful maritime merchant from Salem.

In order to support the shipbuilding endeavor, the island was farmed, animals were raised for food, and an infrastructure was built, including a tidal dam which took advantage of both incoming and outgoing tides and supported a saw mill and a grist mill.  Several ships were built on Roque Island in this period. Ownership of the island passed to his descendants and the island became a family resort, especially during summer months.  It is still owned by the family today which also owns several of the surrounding islands.

A few photos from our ride around:

 

 

 

 

There was only one other boat, an older Passport yacht, anchored just off the Great Beach, and we stopped by to say "Hi". The owners were from Kansas City and kept the boat in Belfast, ME where their parents lived. The husband had grown up sailing the boat with his parents and recently inherited it. Now they were bringing another generation into sailing the family boat and were hoping to do some liveaboard cruising in the near future before their three boys get too old. Dean and I got a tour of the boat and it would certainly be a great liveaboard and be well capable of going anywhere in the world.

Need to add photo,

Friday, 13th

Roque Island to Mistake Island - 11nm

Another good day for a short run from our hidey hole at Lakeman Harbor. The weather in Maine seems to go in defined cycles in the summer at least for last year and this. We typically get a stretch of four five days of perfect cruising weather, warm and light winds; followed by a couple of cool, windy and sometimes wet days; then the cycle repeats.

After the colorful Brothers Islands below,

it's an uneventful ride through open water to reach the turn into the Knight Island Passage

Well-Weathered Rocks at Entrance to Knight Passage

and around Knight Island to a good size anchorage - Mistake Harbor with protection from most sides. The Harbor's name sounded interesting but it seems to be a corruption of the name given to the area of Mooseabec, and Indian name of moose head. This is an area that changes its appearance radically depending upon the tide. At high tide, there are a number of small islands; some only 10 yards across around the perimeter. At low tide, these small patches of rock are huge. The photograph below illustrates this well. The red pole, placed by a benevolent local is about 8 feet high. There was about half of the pole showing at high tide when we arrived!!

This is where we made the "mistake" last year of backing up into a lobster float whose line stayed with us for the rest of the season. We were extra careful this time, especially as it was Friday the 13th and our daughter's birthday, as the cage does not help in these situations. So far, touch wood, the cage has been invaluable and we no longer worry about the float. Running on autopilot is so much easier and we get less eye strain from watching for floats. Yes, it probably costs us a bit more fuel but it is worth it to us.

Our timing was perfect as we had no sooner got things squared away, when a flotilla of five sailboats from New Hampshire arrived and anchored in the Harbor. Still plenty of room.

 

After lunch we took a long dinghy ride around the area with Dean and Charlotte and were fortunate to see some wildlife:

The Eagle Has Landed!

 

A Bull Seal, His Harem, and Three Pups

and some fine scenery:

60 Foot High Rocks Lining Knights Passage

 

Land to the North of Harbor

 

Western End of Harbor

 

 

USCG Shed and Ramp

We were hoping to visit the lighthouse but at low tide the ramp up was still too slick with wet weed to safely climb up. There is a short walk through the brush out on to the rocky shore of the Island and some fine views. No photo today but found one on Pinterest to give you an idea of what we saw last year.

 

Last year when we visited, we learned that part of the Island and light had been sold to an individual and may be built upon. In late 2017, he donated the land to a Jonesport organization so it could be preserved in its natural state. For the history of the light go to Moose Peak Light History

After our 2 hour cruise around we finished the day on Sir Tugley Blue with the crew from Carrie Rose.

 

Can't Get Much Better!

Saturday, 14th

Mistake Island to Bar Harbor - 36nm

Awoke well rested after a dead calm night to an ideal day to travel with reasonable winds and some moderate swells. The sailboats were up and away at 6:00 am probably to head north under motor again as the winds were meant to be light. They say the only difference between a power boater and a sailor is that the power boater always runs the engine whereas the sailor only runs it 90% of the time and as a bonus gets to sit out in the rain and cold.

Reversing our course in, we passed by the Moose Peak Light on starboard and then had a fairly straight run just offshore with just a short detour to pass north of Petit Manan Island.

Moose Peak Light

On the way southwest, we were always in sight of land picking out the various rocks and points we passed with some interesting names such a Drowned Boys Ledge, Egg Rock, Crumpled Rock, one of a hundred of Seal Rocks, and Delight Ledge. Many of the rock ledges covered at higher tides were named after people, presumably those who hit them instead of missing them. We have noted a couple of Stanley Ledges along the coast so he must have been a so-so navigator.

Crumpled Rock

Before too long, we were back in Bar Harbor at the College of the Atlantic trying to pick up a mooring ball at high tide but the line from the ball was just too short so we just anchored and saved $40 over the two nights. Charlotte and Dean offered to take us out to dinner and we tried the West Street Cafe on the corner of Rodick Street. We made the early bird specials by three minutes and had good selections on this menu. The food was excellent! Our supplies on the boat were dwindling so we stocked up with a few essentials on the way back. Just as well as you will see tomorrow.