Our Summer Cruise 2019

 

Sunday, July 14

NE Harbor to Seal Bay - 33 nm

The weather forecast for Sunday, originally not too good, changed for the better so rather than stay in NE Harbor for another day, we decided to head to Seal Bay on Vinalhaven Island after making a short detour to Southwest Harbor to stock up with some fuel. Diesel prices vary considerably in the area with four fuel docks ranging in price from $2.84 to $3.60 a gallon. Needless to say, when you are pumping 200 gallons, $2.84 at Dysart's Grand Marina at Southwest makes a huge saving even if it is a few miles out of the way.

Both STB and Carrie Rose took on fuel before heading to open water and out past the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse that marks a point of land and also a shallow Bar that runs perpendicular to the land with only 8 feet of water at low. One spot has a narrow passage over the Bar with 20 feet of water to allow safe passage for larger vessels.

Carrie Rose and Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse

Today's route was a mix of open and tight water with two areas congested with island and ledges, Casco Passage (below left) and Merchants' Row (below left). Both of these are only about a mile or so long but need very close attention to stay in the white areas. Thousands of lobster pot floats add to the mix; thank goodness for our prop cage - Dean has to steer clear of every float.

 

Two of the Tight Areas on Today's Route - Each About a Mile Long

Coming out of the Casco Passage, we saw the first of many windjammers we will see this summer.

 

"Angelique"

This area of Maine, on the fringes of Penobscot Bay and the Bay itself, has the largest concentration of windjammers in the US. The term "windjammers" was originally a derogatory term used by seamen on steamships around the 1900s but has now become a term used to describe schooners and other larger sailing vessels of all types.

By the 1930s, sail had lost its commercial viability but some vessels managed to survive fishing or carrying cargo but inevitably became worn out with few funds for maintenance. One man, Captain Frank Swift recognized a new role for these vessels - taking passengers out for cruises along the Maine coast. Beginning in 1936 with two chartered schooners, he expanded to three in 1939 with the "Grace Bailey" and had waiting lists for a year. By 1948, he had nine schooners operating out of Camden. Today, around twenty windjammers work out of the Bay area taking passengers on part-day to week-long cruises. The fleet ranges from two schooners over 130 years old, "Stephen Taber" and "Lewis B. French," to modern versions of schooners and a couple with steel hulls. Today, with fleet slowly growing and maintenance needs continuing, traditional ship building thrives in Maine.

The "Angelique" is unique among the windjammers here - she is not a schooner and she is made of steel. A schooner has at least two masts with the aftermast being equal or greater in height than the foremasts. She was designed to resemble a 95 foot British Brixham and US Gloucester trawler of the 1890s and was completed in 1981. She has a lofty rig and sails fast on the wind giving her 31 passengers a great ride.

 

Seal Bay was unusually quiet as we meandered our way through the islands at close to low tide with just a few boats anchored where we like to be. Plenty of room available as we anchored in 10 feet of water with Carrie Rose nearby. On the way, we just touched a few rain showers but, in the distance, we could see a classic anvil-headed thundercloud beginning to build; but our skies continued to clear and be bright. blue!

So far in Maine, Seal Bay is one of our favorite anchorages and, with its numerous islands, presents an ever-changing view as they are covered and uncovered depending upon the tide.

View Around STB

A good afternoon was spent relaxing in the sun and enjoying a drink with Dean and Charlotte on STB.

Monday, July 15

Another beautiful day at Seal Bay relaxing and basking in the the tranquility of the area. In the late morning, we noticed two kayakers working their way around the Bay and shortly, they arrived at STB. It was John and Laurie, some friends who own a 37 Nordic Tug. We first met them in Montreal several years ago and run into them each summer every so often. They were in the next bay over which is accessible to Seal Bay by kayak or dinghy. Spent some time talking with them and they are taking a three week trip in early August after Dean and Charlotte head home; if things work out we may cruise with them for a while.

Other than a few boat jobs, did not do too much today. Good sunsets have been few and far between this year but tonight's was very good. To cap it off, we also had a colorful full moon.

Sunset Tonight Was Quite Colorful

 

First Full Moon for Us

Tuesday, July 16

Seal Bay to Perry Creek - 12 nm

Off for a short ride early this morning to Perry Creek on the northeast side of Vinalhaven Island; clear blue skies and a light breeze. Dean and Charlotte are continuing on a little further to North Haven Island just across a narrow channel where they will meet up with some Chicago friends, Darrin and Cindy. On arrival, we met John McCleod, "the Mayor of Perry Creek." John and his dog lives on his 34' American Tug that he keeps on a mooring in the Creek. At his own expense, John has put in five heavy duty moorings and just asks that you make a donation to the Vinalhaven Land Conservancy. We made our donation last year and the VLC uses these funds to maintain a network of trails and add more land to the Conservancy.

North Haven town is just a short mile and a half dinghy ride away. The town is small and its economy relies on two things, tourism and lobstering. Since it is an island, its tourist business relies more on the long term summer residents than day trip tourists. Year-round population is now around 350 residents, down from a peak of well over 1000, and it maintains a school system with 50-75 students. This year's graduating class had 4 students but, without the school system the island would likely decline even more.

Perry Creek has no phone service and I needed to get some internet access for the blog, so we dinghied around the corner to North Haven town to find that the Library didn't open until 1:00 pm and the phone service was practically non-existent. We did stop at J.O. Brown's boat yard to top up our dinghy gas cans; no non-ethanol gas though. Dean and Charlotte had a mooring at Brown's in the rough waters of the channel and had met up with their friends and arranged for all of us to go out for dinner tonight.

J.O. Brown's Dock

Eventually the Library opened and we managed to get very limited internet; it brought back memories of the days of dial-up access with a 56 kps service. One 3Mb photo took nearly 5 minutes to upload! Eventually giving up, we bought a few salad essentials at Calderwood Hall's mini store to find the restaurant didn't open in the evening on Monday and Tuesday. The brewery below closed at 7:00 pm so no eating out tonight - not exactly tourist-friendly!

With the weather meant to be rainy tomorrow, I went for a dinghy ride up the Creek and took a few photos.

A Floating Summer Home Owned by Foy and Louisa Brown (of J.O. Brown)

 

Wednesday, July 17

Dean and Charlotte arrived early in the morning at Perry Creek after a rocking night on their mooring. The weather today looks mixed, beginning sunny with rain moving in and then brightening later in the day. The planned picnic at noon with Dean's friends up nearby Mill River looks to be in jeopardy.

Rain did come later in the morning and the picnic was postponed. After lunch, with the weather brightening up, we all dinghied back to North Haven to hang out in the Library again with similar frustrating results. However, I did catch up with Fine Woodworking and Fine Building magazines and some of the local news in the weekly paper. Our planned ice cream before heading back was cancelled as the ice cream shop was closed; must have been too cloudy!

Thursday, July 18

Perry Creek to Smith Cove - 22 nm

The weather cleared overnight and we woke to blue skies for our trip north to Smith Cove, an anchorage just opposite the town of Castine. On the way we passed a number of small islands including rocky Eagle, the site of one of the older Maine lighthouses and fog bell towers. In 1963, the historic light keeper's house and other buildings were razed by the USCG despite concerted efforts by the locals to acquire and preserve the buildings. From reading the accounts of the destruction, it was clearly a case of government gone wrong and led to Maine legislation to help preserve Maine lighthouses and eventually similar US legislation. The two ton bronze fog bell that was located in the tower was just dumped down the cliff and sunk in the water below. Years later, a local fisherman located the bell, retrieved it and managed to haul it with his small boat to nearby Great Spruce Head Island where it is on display.

Eagle Island Lighthouse and Foghorn House

 

Passing Schooner "Lewis Day" Near Holbrook Island

 

Training Ship "State of Maine" - Owned by Maine Maritime Academy, Castine

The Maine Maritime Academy (MMA) is a public, coeducational college with approximately 950 students in courses of study in engineering, management, science, and transportation. Their courses and experiential programs equip students with the practical skills, knowledge, and training to launch successful maritime careers upon completing an associate’s, bachelor’s, or master’s degree.

MMA students benefit from hands-on education, international sea-time aboard the Training Ship "State of Maine" or the Schooner "Bowdoin", cadet shipping aboard commercial vessels, and cooperative education assignments. Its students become world-class mariners and engineers, supply chain managers, logistics professionals, and scientists in Maine and beyond. 90% of their graduates are working in their chosen field within 90 days of graduation.

We were soon around the corner from Castine tucked in close to the shore in Smith Cove with just a narrow strip of land or bar in front of us (aka Indian Bar).

As soon as we were settled in, we dinghied over to Castine for lunch at the Captain's Catch on the waterfront. Good place to eat!!

Checked out Eaton Boatyard's workshop - a little chaotic!

Eaton's Boatyard

After wandering around for a while and enjoying an ice cream we headed back to the boat to relax for the rest of the day in the sun.

While checking the engine room in advance of leaving tomorrow, I noticed a small amount of water (couple of cups) sitting on the floor - a small valve for the water maker was leaking around the handle. I could isolate it with no problem but another boat job for the list.

Friday, July 19

Smith Cove to Belfast - 11nm

A dead calm, peaceful night on STB and we woke to brilliant sun and the promise of a hot day as we head out for just a short run across the north end of Penobscot Bay to Belfast at the mouth of the Passagassawakeag River (try saying that quickly). Within a couple of hours, we were tied up to the dock and ready to do laundry and the big shop as we had not had access to a supermarket since St. Andrews. Unfortunately, the supermarket is outside of town about a mile and a half away, but fortunately we could get a bus back as we had over $200 worth of groceries to haul back.

The valve was soon replaced after a quick trip to the hardware store on the main street and things dried out.

Just docked close to us when we arrived was the M/V Paul Johansen, a vessel formerly owned by the Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue and launched in 1970, as one of 13 very similar designs. It has undergone major work in the Pacific Northwest to covert it to a remarkable private ship. Coincidentally, the Front Street Shipyard recently completed a two-year renovation of another NSSR vessel from the same series with identical paint work. see Sinbad Renovation

M/V Paul Johansen

M/V "Sinbad"

We wouldn't say no to either!

Located just next to us was the Belfast Harbor boat ramp and we got to watch the launch of a 60 foot wooden motor sailer (renovation we presume) that was quite stunning. The launch took over an hour and nearly ended in its stern hitting the Paul Johansen as it backed out of the tight area. A hefty amount of "full ahead both" averted the collision while the owners of PH rushed for fenders.

Saturday, July 20

Our Forecast for the Day

Like most of the the east coast we are going to be HOT and HUMID today and we will be outside for most of it!

Today is the real start of the Maine Celtic Celebration with two full days of concerts, dance, workshops, highland games, food, a 5K run, a Celtic dog show, and more; we are here for the music. At the suggested donation of $15 a day, it is a bargain for the quality of the Festival. Thirty three, one-hour concerts are scheduled today and tomorrow ranging from the 22 member Belfast Bay Fiddlers to solo performers such as Gus Lacasse. One open air stage and a tented stage are used for the performances and the thirteen workshops are held in the Boathouse. It is quite a scheduling effort to plan how we are going to spend the next two days but fortunately, many performances are offered twice although the sets may be different. Most of what we wanted to listen to was outside in the beating sun. We got an early start on the day with a quick trip to the hardware store - again, while Judy hosed the boat down.

First concert 10:00 am!

What a Great Venue For a Concert!

Some of the highlights of the day ............

Maine Fiddlers

Genticorum - A Quebecois Trio

Daymark

Belfast Bay Fiddlers

The highlight of the day for us was the concert by Gus Lacasse from Trenton, Maine. Gus has been playing classical violin since first grade and then fell in love with Acadian, Cape Breton and Quebecois music. Already a good player at the age of 9, he made a rapid transition to fiddling. Since then, he has become a phenomenal fiddler with a rollicking, lively sound. Although only 18, he has toured Ireland and numerous locations along the east coast. He performs both traditional music from the Celtic genre and has also been writing his own tunes more recently. We saw him last year at the American Folk Festival in Bangor and hope to see him again this summer. If you don't fancy watching any of the videos from this weekend, watch just this one.

 

Gus Lacasse

Fireworks

The day of music continued on into the late hours after the fireworks display with some of the performers and other musicians jamming away until at least 10:30 when we left.