Day 4 - South Freeport to Boothbay Harbor

We managed to depart South Freeport at about 9:30am after having a conversation with the skipper of the sailboat next to us. He and his wife are from North Carolina and sail for the summer. They are up in Maine hoping for cooler weather than they normally experience down south. No such luck for the past few days. This high pressure system that is in New England has brought light winds and heat. Although I imagine the evenings up here are more bearable than for our friends in Boston, or for theirs in NC. They will sail soon to Halifax Nova Scotia, as he said “their real sail of the year”. However, they are stuck in South Freeport with electrical problems. In our discussions he mentioned that he used to work on submarines and the amount of bioluminescence you could see in the bow wake when the sub was at the surface. I assume that he is retired now and spending his retirement on the boat circuit. Something for me to strive for – retirement that is, not working on submarines.

So we left at 9:30 and headed off with sails up. The wind was light, really light and we were sailing at about 1-2kts. But we had no destination in mind and no schedule to keep. So we continued for an hour. At this point the winds dropped, if you can imagine that is possible. We turned on our faithful engine and off we headed, initially south to round islands, then east. By 12:30 the wind had changed directions and increased in speed. We were predicted to have winds of 5kts from the NW. We now had 7 knots from the South. We were on a close to beam reach so up went the spinnaker. We tracked along for several hours at 4-5 kts. The wind also helped dry the day’s laundry, which you might see in a picture or two.

Departing South Freeport

Every time we pass Seguin Island (there is a cove with 2 mooring balls) we say that we should stay there some time. However, as we passed there were already three boats occupying the 2 moorings. Anchoring is forbidden in this cove but the guidebook says that the norm is to raft up to the first boat that has moored. We passed on this one. A disappointment is that spots are often taken by 2pm and this is when the wind is growing. The lighthouse on Seguin Island is the tallest and second oldest in Maine and was commissioned by George Washington in 1795. It has a 12 feet tall Fresnel lens to allow the light to be visible at long distance. Maybe next year we should stop there – early – and take a tour.

Seguin Island

After passing Seguin Island we called ahead to one of our frequent spots – Boothbay Harbor Marina – and spoke to Judy and told her we would likely be in late. She told us this wasn’t a problem and that we should take the face dock near to “After Hours” – an appropriately named boat for the timing of our arrival.

As we turned north towards Boothbay we were on a run and with a true wind of 5-7kts we had to turn on the engine again. But we enjoyed the scenery, and saw two harbor seals. Here is a characteristic scene of Cuckolds light. Cuckolds Light is being restored by the local community who "rescued" the lighthouse in 1986. This is a volunteer driven program that is to rebuild and restore the lighthouse

Cuckold's Light
We have recently noted that our apparent wind angle on our windex on top of the mast and the electronic readout can differ. What’s wrong with this picture?

Finally, we had a great dinner on the rooftop of a restaurant reprovisioned, well with beer at least and decided to try the local soft serve ice cream. Delicious. Yolande, who is a fan of Dairy Queen thinks that the local even challenges a DQ Blizzard!