Day 8 and 9 combined

Day 8 – July 11
“Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink” The wind is so calm today you d think we had shot an albatross. In fact the nearest we have come is discussing how heavy an empty wine bottle was and joking how one could use it to club a baby seal. Fortunately, unlike Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner, we have a motor.

We disembarked at 10:45 am. This is a great marina that is run by a young family plus a Jamaican chap. Very helpful, friendly and overall nice. If you are ever in this area come to Dyserts marina.

Nothing Grumpy about breakfast at Grumpies. A great little place directly on the waterfront with unobstructed views of Southwest Harbor, Mount Desert Island

As we left the harbor we thought we would have fine winds, but then they died. It’s a good job we have diesel on board. So far (1pm) we have sighted 6 dolphins. The wind is coming up – time to get those sails out.

5pm: we arrived at a mooring at 4pm in the Isle au Haut thorofare, which is between Kimball Island and the Isle au Haut. Its remote and secluded.

Our total wildlife count for the day is 6 dolphins, 1 seal, 3 Ospreys (two nests) and countless other birds that we have no idea what they are. In addition, when we picked up the mooring pendant, a large piece of seaweed (kelp?) was attached and brought up onto deck. You may also ask about the coke bottle. Paying for mooring is on an honor system and one deposits $20 into the coke bottle.

Navigation was around a series of islands, ledges, and submerged obstacles and millions and millions of lobster pots.

Here is one of the channels we navigated

and here are some lobster pots

Bob D – if you are reading – this section is for you. Bob has always commented on the lobster pots in Boston harbor. He says that you know you are coming home when the lobster pot floats are made of old washing liquid containers. Well in Maine, the floats are glorious, they are big and multi-colored and none of this recycled trash. However, they do have a hidden element. They are deployed in pairs with one of the floats going to the pots and the second float connected to the first via a horizontal piece of rope. Imagine what could happen if you went between a pair! It hasn’t happened yet, but there is still time. How did we figure this out? First of all I was thinking that these lobstermen are cunning people because when one dude puts down pots another comes along and does the same (often each float is a different color so I assumed to different sets of pots). But today I was bored (engine was on) and started looking carefully and you can see this horizontal rope. So from now on we aren’t just aiming to miss floats, we are aiming to go around pairs. You may think this is easy, but when there are clusters of 30-50 floats (and there are) and they are all different colors how do you determine which is connected to which? Maybe the single washing liquid container floats in Boston harbor aren’t so bad after all.

Day 9 July 12th – After depositing $20 in the coca cola bottle attached to the pendant on the mooring ball we departed from Isle au Haut thorofare at 7:15am with the goal of sailing to Matanicus Rock to look for Puffins. Already there was some wind and so soon we were able to sail. As we departed we were greeted by the sound of an Osprey in her nest along with two chicks. Yesterday we saw the parent in this nest on the daymarker (for non-sailors a daymarker marks a hazard or the edge of a navigation channel). We proceeded to sail out for about an hour and a half and then the wind died. We therefore changed course to motor straight to the rock – well not exactly too it, short of it. After sometime (10:15am) famed Maine fog rolled in and we had less than a 0.25nm visibility. Thank goodness for radar. After 20 minutes we detected an echo that was a clearly a ship. With time we saw a trimasted sailing vessel emerging from the fog – was it the Flying Dutchman? Fog then lifted and Matanicus Rock was in sight.

Tomorrow we will update with pictures of puffins and the Matanicus Rock - it was spectacular.
We just arrived at Camden, ME and need to eat dinner. - over and out (for now)