Day 11- Belfast

We fueled up this morning and headed north up Penobscot Bay to the town of Belfast (Maine, not Ireland and docked at the town slips. With the friendly help of dockmaster Kathy we tied up Prairie Gold and headed up into town. We had no idea what to expect as someone had told us in Camden not to come here. However, some reading suggested that it is a little thriving community.

Belfast (which means "good anchorage") used to be a major shipbuilding town. It has burnt down twice (1865 and 1873) until it was rebuilt of bricks. Since being a boatbuilding town, Belfast has been a center for raising and processing chickens, but thankfully there are none to be seen anymore. Subsequently Belfast was known for processing potato skins (go figure) but its big change came when the credit card issuer MBNA moved to Belfast. MBNA, which has since become Bank of America, purchased old buildings in Belfast, knocked them down and have made a waterfront park.

Belfast is an interesting place - several bookstores (and they all seem to be keeping afloat - no pun intended), lots of art stores and even a soda fountain store. At times it felt like Belfast is trapped in the 50s, but it is as if this is a purposeful intention of the locals.

There are some quirky parts to town. There are lots of public seats of varying types including made from lobster pot floats.

There is also a great looking bbq restaurant called "Pig Out BBQ" - what a great name.

There is still shipbuilding occurring here. French Webb - boatbuilding and custom wordwork - is right next to the public docks.

Adjacent to Prairie Gold is a Buzzards Bay 40 that is being restored by French and Webb. apparently, they have been renovating three of these boats in parallel.

In the evening we found a great little restaurant "Three Tides"and sat out on their deck under a large sail being used as the roof. The restaurant is located immediately adjacent to Marshall Wharf Brewing Company. Great IPA. Some of the beers listed are 10 and 11% alcohol and there is the designation on the menu that each customer is limited to two pints per visit to the restaurant. We were only staggering distance from the boat but decided not to take this option. In addition to the menu, there was a document about Maine sea life in which they stated that due to the low cost of lobsters the lobstermen are holding back on lobstering and that they may even be forced out of business. However, what may save the lobstermen is the crabs which they catch by accident in the lobster pots, and the surging demand for oysters. Here is a link to a recent article on this in the Maine Sun Journal