Day 14 - Boothbay Harbor to Portland

As our initial blog entry suggested we didnt think we were going to sail today because of various weather warnings. So we went for breakfast and afterwards were going to ask if we could stay an extra night in the marina back at Boothbay Harbor. But then as we chatted over eggs, homefries and other such items, we realized that there are numerous places to stop as we head west. One of the benefits of Maine with all of its islands. So we plotted a course and identified potential safe havens on the charts. After checking the doppler radar we departed at 10:30am.

Initially I thought we would go about 15nm and stop somewhere. But after about 10nm the wind came up to 15-20kts and we were flying (well sailing at a great clip). We had gone through fog, then rain and now there was sun and wind. We couldn't stop. Every hour we checked doppler radar, conditions just kept getting better. So we decided to head to Portland, one of our favorite cities. We were texting to a sailing friend and colleague who challenged us to make it to Portland by 4pm. Previously we have done this trip in 7 hours which would give us a predicted arrival time of 5:30pm. We didn't think that there was a chance. But we kept trimming sails and getting every 0.1 extra knot that we could out of Prairie Gold and finding little short cuts wherever possible.

At one point we plotted that we would make it in by 3:50pm. Then the wind dropped to 3 knots. Fortunately it was just a wind hole and after about 10 minutes the wind picked up to 20 knots and we were flying again. As we approached the islands for the entry into Portland there were tricky currents and navigation and winds grew to 30 knots. With the increase in wind came even better speed. At 3:57pm, we made it to the inner harbor lighthouse. Unfortunately, earlier we had not decided the location of the finish line. But we have decided that we did beat the 4pm deadline and this lighthouse was the end of the race.

Docking was an interesting affair. Lots of wind and we had to turn 180 degrees in very short order amongst other boats. It wasn't pretty (Yolande calls it "docking ugly"), but we made it.

As the dockhand finished helping he said "storms are coming between 5pm and 7:30pm". I guess we made it just in time. Now we can go and enjoy some local oysters, and perhaps an IPA or three.

Here is a picture of a lighthouse as we leave Boothbay Harbor. We posted a similar picture on our trip eastward.

We saw this awesome schooner

Could you guess the name of this piece of land? I bet not. Junk of Pork!

Close to Portland - The NE point of Cushing Island called White Head as we enter into Whitehead Passage. About 30seconds after this picture, winds picked up to 30 knots. At that point camera was firmly in my pocket.