Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place

The harbor in Portsmouth, NH has a very wide channel at the mouth, but becomes narrow and twisty with a strong tidal current as you approach the city.

The ‘rock’...I’m at the helm and this is our view.  Keith asks, “do you think we are over far enough for them to get past?”

The ‘hard place’...my response, “I hope so because that boat with machine guns mounted at the bow doesn’t want us coming any closer to the nuclear sub!”(the patrol boat isn’t in this picture, but it was there between us and that fence)

They have plenty of space!

Portsmouth was not our favorite place to visit.  It looks like a very nice city, but as with most cities they don’t have the space or services for transient boats unless, of course, you plan to stay at a marina at $3.50 per foot.  We were able to anchor outside a morning field near the mouth...it was not well protected, but doable. Our biggest shock came when we were looking for a place to leave the Whaler so we could walk around town and get dinner, and the Municipal Dock charged $8.00/hour...to dock a 10 ft boat...are you kidding?  I don’t want to sound cheap, but that is ridiculous!   This is why we love to visit small towns.  They are welcoming, offer town docks, and make it easy for you to spend hours exploring their town. Moving on to Gloucester!

This was probably the roughest water we have seen for several years.  There was a 6-8 foot rolling  swell hitting us on the port quarter the entire time. These waves weren’t dangerous or scary, just really rolly. There was a LOT of up/down side to side motion, which will make you instantly aware of any items improperly stowed...there will be a lot of sliding and crashing!  Keeping yourself upright is the ultimate body core workout, which is exhausting after a few hours! Luckily we learned about a ‘cut through’ that takes you from Annisquim Harbor to Gloucester. Not only did this route save us an hour+ of really rough seas, it was adorable!

It is nice to see sand beaches, and the sandbar was impressive!

It really doesn’t look like we should be going in here, but Ken and Barbara’s boat is bigger than ours and they told us it was a great route!

Clearly we are traveling through at low tide.

This place makes a great tiny house sanctuary!

Pay close attention to the channel markers!

Are you sure we’ll fit through there? “Ken’s boat is bigger than ours” we kept saying😊

Gloucester Harbor is on the other side of this bridge...we made it, and loved this route!!

Goodbye Maine

Our last two days in Maine were fabulous!  We had wonderful weather and the added pleasure of revisiting our favorite anchorage with friends from New Hampshire.  We picked up Patricia and Dave in Portland, and headed straight for Jewell Island.  I was a little nervous about hosting our first overnight guests (we have had family onboard overnight), but they have been on boats before so they adapted well to boat inconveniences.  We stumbled upon Jewell Island on our original trip north mainly because it offered a protected anchorage without traveling inland.  The east side of the island takes the full brunt of the Atlantic Ocean, but the west side feels like a different serene world.

On this trip we were able to hike and explore the island.  This is called Cocktail Cove...we didn’t name it, but we celebrated the name after our hike!

The boat in the center of this picture is our Whaler (Shrimp Boat is her unofficial name), and that is where we anchored when we started this hike.

Our hike across the island led us to the ‘Punchbowl’ on the eastern side.

Patricia and Dave walking the pebble beach of the ‘Punchbowl’

If you like rocks, this is the place to be...I love geology!

No words needed

This is one of our favorite places in Maine!

There is a 10-12 foot tidal range, plan accordingly when anchoring!

After returning our guests to Portland we anchored for the night with plans the head for Portsmouth the following day.  Goodbye Maine...

Goodbye seal escorts

Goodbye fog

Goodbye deep water 50 feet from shore

Goodbye high of 67!

History YUCK! Oh wait...I might like this stuff👍

After leaving Belfast we visited Boothbay Harbor.  This was an awesome town that was very cruiser friendly.  They had a public town dock, plenty of restaurants and shops, an excellent candy store, and a nice grocery store within walking distance to the harbor.  This town was also very artistic with many galories and communal displays, but they definitely specialized in a different genre than seen in Belfast...no chainsaw art was on display in Boothbay Harbor.

Here we are anchored with our ‘sister’ ship.  It’s the angle that makes us look so much smaller😉

Interestingly, there are small islands right in the middle of this harbor.

After two days in Boothbay Harbor we are heading to Portland, again we deal with some dense fog.

Note to self...when navigating in Maine, DON’T INVESTIGATE THE POLE!

This stick looking pole-thing is placed on a pile of rocks that gets submerged at high tide. These rock piles are accurately marked on charts, but it is a strange sight to see the pole in the middle of  what appears to be open, deep water.

Are you a history buff? I’ve always considered history to be my least favorite subject (I know I recently confessed to a geography deficit, but I am even worse at history.) However, entering Portland Harbor inspires even the weakest history student to investigate the numerous lighthouses and forts.  

Ram Island Ledge Lightstation was constructed of solid local granite in 1905.  It was sold at a public auction in 2010 for $190,000.  Don’t let its condition trick you into thinking this is the oldest lighthouse here.

Portland Head Light was built in 1791 at the directive of George Washington.  It is the oldest lighthouse in the state of Maine.  The light keepers’ house was built in 1891, and is now a Maritime Museum.

If the lighthouses don’t get your historian juices flowing, the forts certainly will!  This port must have been very valuable and strategic.

Seven forts have been built to protect this harbor. Fort Allen (1775), Fort Sumner (1794), 

Fort Preble (1809 and later renamed Fort Williams in 1899), Fort Scammell (1809), 

Fort Gorges (1859), Fort Lovett (1903), Fort Lyon (1909).

This is Fort Scammell, currently public owned and for sale for 4.5 million.

Fort Gorges is open to the public, but is only accessible by boat...the website says to bring a flashlight if you intend to explore the dark interiors of this Fort...this history thing is starting to sound pretty darn COOL!!

We are here to pick up some friends for an overnight excursion on the boat...exciting!

Paintball Losers

Just kidding...we didn’t play paintball, but after you read about our experience at Warren Island you will understand the title of this post.  After spending a few days anchored in Rockland Harbor, we left in search of a setting more in tune with nature.  We discovered Warren Island State Park, which is only accessible by boat.  The island has a floating dock, and 10 mooring balls in the protected cove.  We picked up a mooring and decided to stay for a few days.  We spent the first day relaxing and working on boat projects.  On our second day we decided to launch the kayaks for a day of paddling and exploration.  Our first stop...Warren Island.  The moment we stepped onto the island we were greeted by a SWARM of mosquitoes. We quickly realized that we could generally outpace them if we kept moving.

The trail around the island offered beautiful views, but don’t stop too long the swarm is catching up!

Right Hand looks so peaceful, inviting, and mosquito free.

The island offers ‘state of the art’ facilities for the hard core camper...swat, swat...ugh...run!

The island was beautiful with fields of fern and trails that felt like the set of ‘Lord of the Rings’, but don’t stop to enjoy the view or the mosquitoes will eat you alive!

We completed the loop trail around the island (probably in record time) and felt as though we got a heart healthy work out from our jog around the island.  However, before returning to the kayaks we had to stop at the waters edge to wash away the huge red blood splats that covered our arms and legs.  We looked like the losers of a vicious paintball game! The strange part of this experience was that even though we each had dozens of bites neither of us had any after effects...no itching, no welts, and not one mosquito bothered to visit the boat.

Well that was a fun visit with nature, let’s move on to Belfast.

This is a quaint, charming, artsy harbor town, and this picture captures most of the town. If you zoom in and look closely you will see the water at the bottom of this street. There is also a wonderful walkway that wraps around the harbor and leads to a foot bridge over the water. 

Ingenious...catch your dinner and have a place to sit while eating!

Folk art fabulous!  We highly recommend a visit to this town.

We have decided to start heading south.  We still plan to explore on the way, but we are growing tired of being cold.  I know that most of the people reading this do not feel sorry for us, because you have been suffering with oppressive heat, but I need to be able to swim in the summer!

It was interesting to see aquaculture in action.

I was surprised to see so many Border Patrol boats. We have seen one in about 50% of our anchorages, and if there was a Canadian flagged vessel nearby they were boarded every time. We had a few ‘drive by’ visits, but no stops.

 

Passing Owl’s Head Light on our way to Tenants Harbor.

Before dropping anchor we approached a lobster boat and purchased 12 more.  We are getting better at processing day, but we are trying to perfect our approach to vacuum sealing the tails for the freeze. There was too much liquid for our Seal a Meal so we decided to let the tails drain for a few minutes👍🏻 

This life isn’t all fun and games, but what a beautiful place to be on laundry day!

AACPS and Lobst-ahh are ‘In The House’

Small world in action!  We were anchored in Somes Harbor with approximately 8 other transient (traveling) boats.  Of the 8 boats, four are from the Annapolis area...of those 4, 3 boats are carrying people who currently/previously teach/taught for Anne Arundel County Public Schools.  Even stranger still, all four people spent at least some portion of his/her career at George Fox Middle School...wow!

Exploring this anchorage has been fantastic.  It is the first time since entering Maine that we have felt warmth.  There is enough land surrounding us to counteract the cold ocean water, so put those sweat shirts away and pretend it’s summer!  This was a wonderful place to paddle board, kayak, and dare I say, swim???

Never mind...I was mistaken! 58 degrees is not warm enough to swim🥶

When I gave Kieth an underwater camera for Christmas I pictured us lazily floating in balmy waters carelessly watching the undersea life.  To capture these shots, someone has to roll up the sweat shirt sleeves to reluctantly stick their hands into this water, but the periwinkles and crabs don’t seem to mind the temperature.

During our stay in Somes Harbor we took the Whaler out several times to explore the Sound.  The first time we ended up in Southwest Harbor, and visited Beal’s Lobster Pier for dinner.

There is a 12 foot tidal range here and we happened to arrive at low tide...do you see the ladders??? 

How badly do we want that lobster dinner?

Just kidding, they have a modern floating pier on the left with a ramp for ‘easy’ access (the climb was still very steep)

On our second visit to Southwest Harbor we were on a mission to find a bolt.  Keith was missing one bolt for a project and he was determined to find it before we left.  We tied up at the town dock and

enjoyed a short walk along the water to Main Street where we had lunch, visited a wonderful market, and found ‘The Bolt’ at a very nice hardware store.  On our way back to the Whaler we purchased several jars of home made jellies from a front yard stand that was unmanned, but had a can for you to deposit your money...adorable!

On Aug 4 we weighed anchor and headed for Swan’s Island.  We didn’t see any swans, but we did see seals and lobsters!

While at anchor we were able to flag down a lobster boat working pots in the cove.  As they drew near the captain yelled, “Do ya need lobst-ahhhh?”

Yes, 12 please...we spent the rest of the afternoon processing lobster meat.  At $4.50 per pound we plan to fill the freezer with lobster tails.

Goodbye cute little seals, and thank you for not sleeping on our swim platform!

On August 7, after seven days with no internet, we decided to head for Rockland to check email, pay bills, and catch up on blog posts.  During this leg of our journey we experienced the worst fog either of us had ever seen.  The experience was very unnerving!  We were very thankful for our numerous electronic devices, radar, and the automated fog horn, which freed us up to dedicate full concentration to the helm.  Still all senses were on overtime, as we listened intently for any horns, whistles, or bells.  To our shock, and dismay, there seemed to be very few boats who used any sounding device.

 Several boat instantly appeared out of the fog with no forewarning.

Can you see the boat in front of us...what about the 8 million lobster pot floats??

The fact that you received the last two posts proves that we made it to Rockland safely, but we were both frayed by the end of that trip.