Our Summer Cruise 2018

 

Sunday, July 22

The forecast proved to be accurate and we woke to very grey skies with a threat of rain later in the morning. We took advantage of being up early and set off to go shopping at the Hannaford supermarket north of downtown Belfast. It is less than a mile away but all up a steep hill; good job we're not old! It was worth it as it turned out to be a very good store, fully stocked and, being Sunday, full of one-day specials. Downhill back to the boat was much easier with our loaded West Marine shopping cart - just had to hold it back and steer.

With all our stores packed, we headed off to the nearby Festival for the start of another day of concerts. Because of the weather, the main outdoor stage had been moved inside of the adjacent Farmers' Market building with seating provided but the first act, the Anah Highland Pipe and Drums, performed outside and were lucky enough to complete their set as the rain started. The Heavy Highland games with Tossing the Caber, Hammer Throw, etc, were cancelled which was a bummer!

The first concert showcased Chris Murphy, a violinist, we had heard yesterday. Although there was some repetition of songs, the sound was much better inside the large open space.

While Judy watched Daymark, a trio, performing traditional Irish Music I went to another venue where they had been performing short workshops. I sat in on one where John Bryne taught a one-hour class on playing the bodhran drum used by many Irish bands. John was truly Irish and had a great sense of humor while he taught a very good beginners class with members of his band, a fiddler and a whistle player helped things along.

Several members of the audience also played along including Alden, the 10 year old on the left above. He has been playing fiddle for four years and just blew everyone away! I don't know a lot about fiddle playing but he could hold his own with any we heard yesterday.

Back on the main stage, the Stillson School of Irish Dancing was performing. They were lead by two sister who are among the top Irish dancers in the USA and the world. They have competed regularly since the age of ten and have had leading roles in several Irish dancing groups including Lord of the Dance. Amazing precision and grace!

After splitting another fish and chips, we went to the Pipers' Showcase which featured three different types of bagpipes, all using bellows versus mouth to inflate the bag. Two were different types of uilleann Irish pipes and the third, Scottish lowland pipes. They discussed the history of the pipes and the differences and then played a set featuring each of the pipes.

The penultimate concert was the best with Anita MacDonald, Ben Miller, and Zakk Cormier from Halifax playing border pipes, fiddle and guitar. Anita also sang and step danced while Zakk gave a couple of demonstrations of Acadian chair dancing. We are getting pretty fancy with the blog now including some videos below.

 

 

 

Our series of concerts ended with the Galleyrats playing a series of sea shanties led by a guy with an excellent voice.

The GalleyRats

Wow! What an amazing weekend we had at the Celtic Festival - great musicians and singers, good food, and two days of great weather (today OK for what we were doing). For $20 each, it was one of the best deals we have ever come across. We'll be sure to be in Belfast next year!

We had been watching the weather the last few days as it has been changing daily for this week with some bad winds and waves forecast. Each day it has moved further out towards Friday but it now looks as if late Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we need to be somewhere with good protection from the South. With this in mind, and Dean and Charlotte wanting to be around North Haven for a few days to see a friend from Chicago, we decided to go to Warren State Park for a couple of days and then hunker down in Pulpit Harbor on the north side of North Haven Island. Let's hope the rest of the boats in Penobscot Bay don't all turn up there.

Monday, July 23

Light rain overnight and dense fog out in Belfast Bay this morning with about 1/4 mile visibility. While Judy

went shopping for a few things we forgot yesterday, I took a wander along the waterfront past Front Street Shipyard and to take a few photos. The yard is a big operation with boat building and repairs, brokerage and a large marina. They have the largest boat lift in the NE with a 440 ton capacity,about 10 times what we typically see.

400 Tons versus 40 Tons

With some juggling we extricated Carrie Rose sideways from her dock as she was blocked from behind and we were on our way south to Warren island State Park in the fog - just a 90 minute run with only a few boats showing up on radar which were easily avoided. We even managed to avoid the ferry that makes the run from the mainland on the hour and back on the half hour.

The Margaret Chase Smith Departing for the Mainland

 

Belfast to Warren Island State Park - 11nm

 

Warren Island State Park is accessible by boat only and has a good dock for campers to arrive at for the 11 sites scattered around the Island. They also have 9 rental moorings suitable for a variety of boats based on the weight of the granite rock used as an anchor. Since no-one was here, we managed to get a 2.5 ton mooring, ample for the winds we are likely to see. The Island became a State Park in 1967 after the town of Isleboro sold it to the State for $1.

Dropping the dinghy down, we went into the dock, paid our mooring money of $20 a night, and went for a short hike around the Island on the perimeter trail.

 

Island Shoreline at Low Tide With Some Sun Breaking Through

 

Not Quite So Much Sun on This Side

 

Very Thin Soil Layer But Somehow Parts of the Island Were Farmed in the 1800s

All round the Island, there were numerous trees with very shallow root structures downed by strong winds in the 1990s and early 2000s and spruces dead from the ongoing spruce beetle infestation. Dead and downed trees are being slowly cleared and each campsite has a huge stock of wood piled up. Use all you want for $7!

The Island has an interesting history being settled well prior to the Revolutionary War in the mid-1700s. In the 19th century, six families lived on the island. In 1899, Warren Island was sold to William Folwell, a woolen manufacturer from Philadelphia, who constructed a log cabin home but was never to see its completion; it was left to his son to finish his dream. The two-story building was 100 feet by 105 feet on the ground and used spruce logs in their natural state cut from the island. The estimated cost was $75,000 in 1901, the most expensive "log cabin" ever built in New England. Here's why: 12' ceilings, 27 bedrooms, a 30' by 60' living room, a 20' by 30' dining room, a private dining room of 20' by 15', multiple bathrooms, a ballroom 30' by 60', 123 windows (most 4' by 5' with gilt frames to frame the views) plus decorations and furnishings to reflect the scale and quality of the cabin's construction. Sadly it burnt to the ground in 1919 and all that remains are some parts of the stone foundations.

Foundation Rubble Stones of the Log Cabin

Tuesday, July 24

We seem to be in the midst of Maine's famous fogs with very limited visibility again this morning. The fog is not constant and drifts in and out with periods of quite clear skies. Around 10:00, it cleared enough that we could see the shore and Dean spotted the osprey nest on the north side of the bay. One of the osprey pair was clearly visible perched in the nearby trees while its mate circled overhead searching for food. When the wind was right, we could hear the young ospreys in the nest clamoring for more food.

 

I took advantage of the dreary morning to get the paints out and painted a scene from a hike we took from Lunt Harbor on Long Island.

 

Early afternoon the sun did break out for a while, enough to get some washing done and out to dry on a line while we made some solar power - at least enough to slowly top up the batteries. Even with the fog, we managed to get to mid 90% by the time the sun vanished.

The central part of the Island is thick with raspberry plants so Dean and I went over and picked a good number of raspberries in an hour. They probably need about another week to be at their peak but we did OK just because there are so many plants. Yesterday, during our hike the mosquitoes were quite thick in the air so I went well protected today!

 

The Fruits of Our Labor - Literally

 

Mrs. Zilica's Headstone

At some point in the 1800s, a young woman died and appears to have been buried on the Island. The actual site of her grave is not known but her headstone is propped against a tree with another headstone nearby on one of the trails. This is illegible but is thought to be an Indian girl's. There are no records of who Zilica Thomas was, where she lived and whether she was actually buried on Warren Island. There is a record of a Zilica Warren being born in 1846 in the area - could there be some relationship; no-one knows.

We heard from Patty who is taking care of the garden for us and everything is looking good with some beautiful flowers. Thanks for your work Patty!

One of Our Many Daylilies - With a Little Green Frog Nestled in the Center

Wednesday, July 25

Although not that windy last night, the current here from the tides rolling in and out made for a noisy and fitful sleep. The humidity outside must be 200% and the boat is just dripping with moisture this morning. The fog has not abated and the view from the pilothouse does not look inspiring.

The Dock is Somewhere Out There!

At 9:00am, we left for a another short run to Pulpit Harbor on the north side of North Haven Island. They are still forecasting some strong winds from the South tonight and Thursday so we need good protection from this direction and that harbor is a hurricane hole. Hope not too many others have the same idea.

Warren Island to Pulpit Harbor - 8nm

Today was a case of "If you don't go out in the fog in Maine you will never get anywhere." We think this was the worst fog we have ever been in anywhere with maybe 200' visibility. Running very slow we followed our course line with radar and eyes peeled with Carrie Rose just behind us. As you can see from the chart above and below, we had to navigate through a narrow channel for a couple of miles with a number of shallow spots.

As we approached Gilkey Harbor, our chart plotter showed three icons representing boats with AIS coming out into the channel just ahead of us. Calling one of them on the radio, the three turned into six sailboats and a powerboat. Just our luck! We have never encountered more than a couple of boats together and today we have seven in dense fog. We slowly worked our way around them as they were traveling below our minimum speed and they just kept appearing out of the fog and then disappearing in a procession. The powerboat turned out to be a 42' Nordic Tug, "Nomad." Dean and Charlotte never saw any of them and they were fairly close!

We were rewarded by our early departure and arrival at Pulpit with the Harbor relatively empty so we followed guidance we had been given - pick up a good looking mooring ball even if private and just be prepared to move if the owner shows up later. Apparently in popular areas, boaters install "destination moorings" in their favorite locations and rarely use them and do not object to others using them.

FPB 781 - A Rare Sighting of Steve and Linda Dashew's 78' "Cochise"

The only big boat in at this time was a Dashew Offshore FPB 78, built in New Zealand. Steve Dashew and his wife, Linda, were famous long time sailors designing and building very solid offshore cruising sailboats. They have written extensively about weather, seamanship, and offshore cruising. In 1994, they retired from boat building until, after seven years of power cruising, they got back into designing and building again but now power boats. Their range of boats are long and lean, aluminum hulled with very high stability (able to recover from heel angles of over 140 degrees.) This means they can almost turn upside down and come back, unheard of in anything other than some lifeboat-type vessels. The hull design is easily powered by the two John Deere diesels that, in total, have only a little more horsepower than our single engine.

Although the range of boats tend to look outwardly spartan in their typical as-welded appearance, the interiors are not.

The "Sky Bridge"

 

Sea Trials of the Second 78 Built

Not long after we arrived, a 37' Nordic Tug, "Celebrations," showed up from Camden. Dean and I went over in his wooden dinghy to meet the owners, Warren and Judy Mann, and we spent some time aboard chatting with them about Nordics and our travels.

Dean and his Torqueedo-Powered Dinghy He Built

 

"Celebrations" - Previously "Snorri"

After dinner, we went into North Haven with Dean and Charlotte to meet up with their friends, Darren and Cindy and their daughter Ellie. Darren was born and grew up on the Island and now lives in Chicago. He has his own metal fabrication company and is an accomplished artist. A few years ago, he built a small summer house close to the water in North Haven and he entertained us there. Darren's mother lives in North Haven and she gave us a tour of the Island last year during our visit. She kindly lent Dean and Charlotte her car for our stay so we can get around more easily as Pulpit Harbor is quite remote. Darren's step brother continues the family tradition of lobster fishing.

Darren is also a small boat builder and we got to see his 2 person 20' rowing skiff complete with carbon fiber oars he built a couple of years ago.

It replaces this one -

Thursday, July 26

A rough night with high winds and rain which continued into the morning -

33.4 kts Windspeed!!

It did eventually brighten up enough to venture out for the short drive from Pulpit Harbor to the town. North Haven is a small island, about six miles by two with a year-round population of around 340 people and a couple of thousand during the short summer. Getting on and off the island means an hour ferry ride to Rockland on the mainland. It has a limited infrastructure but does have a small supermarket, post office, two restaurants, a couple of galleries, a brewery, and a boat yard to support the main industries, fishing and tourism.

After a wander around town checking out the galleries and gift shops, we had a good ice cream at Calderwood Hall which seems to be the gathering point for everyone.

 

We ran into Cindy in "town" and arranged to meet at the Brewery at the Hall which later turned in to a great pizza dinner after a few beers.

We made it safely back in the dark across the island and back to the boat at a late hour.

Friday, July 27

The weather improved overnight and we headed off to explore the island by car and find a couple of places, the garbage dump as we had trash to dispose of and Turner Farm that reputedly had the best fruit and vegetables at their store. The dump was closed and, when we eventually found the Farm after a couple of wrong turns, it was also closed in preparation for a special event. We did get to see some good scenery and some potential anchorages on the way.

 

 

 

Three hours later, the fog had started to roll in just as a couple of schooners arrived to spend the night before heading back to either Rockland or Camden at the end of their cruise. Pulpit Harbor is a favorite anchorage for them.

"Ladona" out of Rockland for a Two-day Cruise

By nightfall, the fog had thickened with Carrie Rose barely visible.

Saturday, July 28

Carrie Rose Early Morning

We awoke to the fog we went to bed with - dense and to be slow in clearing! I did a quick painting of the JO Brown dock in town while Judy read.

 

By lunch it had brightened so we went in search of the Turner Farm again and got straight there only to find it was closed again for a special event which tuned out to be the annual Waterman Community Fundraiser, a dinner and dance at $150 a ticket - a little beyond our budget! Unable to find Darren to drop off the car, we headed back to the boat to meet up with a couple we had been talking to on a Grand Banks trawler anchored nearby with a large British flag flying. They were from Camden and were at the Belfast Celebration although we didn't know it. They were a very interesting couple who had lived just outside of Oxford in the late 70s when he worked for Avis.

His partner was a relatively new weaver so Judy and she soon were into weaving discussions while Bob and I talked about music, his concertina and his psaltery. In case you are wondering what a psaltery is, it is an ancient stringed instrument played with a bow or plucked. I played around on it and it quite easy to pick out a tune.

 

 

Loch Lomond on the Psaltery

We plan to get together with Bob and his partner when we get to Camden and continue our discussions.

On the way back to the boat, we saw a Back Cove 35 that had recently arrived that looked familiar so we stopped by and it was Tom and Gigi that we had spent time with in NE Harbor in 2016. Small world! I had been corresponding with Tom over the winter of 2016/2017 about installing solar panels similar to ours; he had just completed the project and was very happy with the results.

The schooners had left their home ports and were dropping in for the night at Pulpit. The most impressive was "Heritage", a 145' windjammer built in 1983 in Rockland.

Tonight we hosted a get together with Dean, Charlotte, Darren, Cindy and Ellie on STB with beer, wine and food flowing freely.