Memorable Maine

 Our summer in Maine has been delightful!  We love visiting the small towns and secluded islands.  There are always trails to explore, and rocks to climb.  We thoroughly enjoy sharing some of these experiences with family and friends!  

Our niece and nephew, Allison and John, joined us for a 10 day tour…from Portland to Bucksport and back!

Twenty more lobsters acquired.

Rainy days were still fun.

They were able to unwind before the start of the college school year.

We traveled to Bucksport to see this bridge, with a viewing tower.

The view was pretty spectacular!

But…

What a difference a day makes!

Forts are super cool…just like Aunt Debbie🤣 (I’m pretty sure that is what Allison was thinking)

While anchored in Boothbay Harbor Keith noticed trouble when children in small boats were struggling.  The winds were way to high for students, ages 8 - 11, in their second day of sailing school😳. The situation quickly turned dangerous when one boat capsized, and the teenage instructor (watching over 4 boats) was overwhelmed with calls for help.

Luckily Alma Joy was in the water, and Keith quickly jumped in to assist. He started with the boat closest to the rocks.

By the time everyone was safe, he had five children aboard, and was towing two boats.

Boothbay Harbor is a popular place for lobster boats to catch their bait.  It’s an interesting process to watch.  This boat was pulled right through the mooring field, as they retrieved the net.

Love this Boothbay Lighthouse.

A quick trip back to Portland, to exchange passengers, and once again we are underway.  Dave and Patricia were only with us for four days, but we were determined to show them something new.  Conditions weren’t great, but I set my sights on one of my all time favorite places in Maine, Seguin Island.  

Seguin Island is about 2 miles off the coast, and only accessible by private boat.  There are a total of 5 mooring balls, but only 3 of those are appropriate for our 50 ft. boat.

When we are tied to a mooring…this is our spectacular view!

Conditions were rough, but we made it to Seguin…at least for a brief expedition! Keith remained on the boat to watch for changing conditions as the tide rose and our protection from a rocky outcrop disappeared.

Built in 1857 (the lighthouse, not the solar array😂)

The only lighthouse in Maine housing a first order Fresnel lens, which is capable of magnifying a light source by 500 times!  In order to protect the lenses, during shipping from France in the 1850s, the lenses were packed in molasses.

After our climb to the top of the lighthouse we were contemplating which trail to hike when Keith called to say we should return to the boat, as conditions were deteriorating.

We hiked back down the trail to the harbors edge, and launched our kayaks and paddle board.  I was trying to capture a picture of a baby seal, pulling itself onto the rocks, when Keith came on our loud hailer that a boat was possibly on fire within a half mile of our location…return as quickly as possible!

We had ourselves, and our toys onboard, and were dropping the lines from the mooring within a few minutes, but before we rounded to point, on our way out of the harbor a huge billowing cloud of black smoke rose over the island.

What a heart stopping sight! Thankfully, a lobster boat had already pulled the two men from the water.

The radio call started as a call for a tow service, as the engine had failed.  A few minutes later, the man announced that he saw a small amount of smoke. Within 5 minutes, he returned to the radio to say that he attempted to look in the engine compartment and a lot of smoke came out.  Luckily, Keith heard all of these radio transmissions, and realized how close we were when the man relayed his coordinates to the Coast Guard.

The boat burned for about 40 minutes, before sinking in 100 feet of water. So happy no one was injured!  I shared my photos with the local paper, later that day, and they were picked up by the Associated Press!

We were ready for a quiet anchorage and a strong drink, after that day! Between the rough sea conditions, and the emergency situation…Dave and Patricia rose to the occasion and easily earned their ‘hearty crew’ ratings!

As if that wasn’t enough excitement for Patricia and Dave, we happened upon tug boat races while returning to Portland.

We hope all is well in your world!

Mountains In Maine

 Once again, I will apologize for my failure to post for the past two months!  Several issues have contributed to this delinquency on my part.  First, we stayed in Maryland for the entire month of June, taking care of doctors appointments, and a road trip…which included a move.  So, nothing exciting to share in June.  However, July has been phenomenal, but I have been experiencing technical difficulties with the blog site.

In all of the posts from April and May, the pictures have disappeared.  I went in and reloaded them, and they disappeared a second time.  A little research uncovered that I am not alone.  It seems that the App I was using (Blog Touch) to write the blogs no longer plays well with Google…or it’s actually the other way around.  Google made some update that changed the way Blog Touch interacts.

Bottom line…I had to find a different way to post a blog.  I went back in and reloaded pictures from the first post in April, and so far…they are still there. So…let’s try a new post and see how/if it works🤞

Since we didn’t leave (Maryland) until early July, we did a fast hop up the coast.  Here are some of the highlights!

This is what ground tackle looks like after not moving for a month…yuck!

We spent July 4th anchored in front of the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, NJ.  The sweet sounds of boot camp😁

Next stop, Barnegat, NJ.  This is one of our favorite stops along the East Coast!

Passing through New York City is always exciting!

This plane took off directly behind us, on the East River, and zipped right past!

We had our first onboard medical emergency, since cruising. Luckily we were in Port Washington, NY, with easy access to an emergency walk in clinic…it happened to be directly across the street from the dinghy dock…how convenient!

Anchor chains and picky fingers don’t mix!  Eleven stitches later, and I’m good as new😁

Back to the fun stuff…

We visited Mystic, Connecticut.  So much to see!

The Charles W Morgan, launched July 21, 1841 is the last wooden whale ship in the world.  At one time the fleet numbered more than 2,700 vessels.

They stayed out to sea for 4-5 years😳

This hook has seen a lot of whale blubber…sad!

This is the engine room of a fire boat Fire Fighter.  Built in 1938, this boat protected New York Harbor for over 7 decades.  Keith is in his glory exploring the engine room!

And now on to Maine…

We traveled to our farthest destination, Bar Harbor, and started working our way back to the east.  

Puffins and Seals and Mola Mola…oh my!

One day, we hiked a mountain in Acadia National Park.  Did we plan to climb a mountain, you might ask?  We did not, in fact we specifically planned to take a leisurely stroll along a ‘moderate’ trail🤣

Things didn’t quite work out that way. We thought we were taking a short cut to the ‘moderate’ trail, but the short cut was OVER a mountain.  Note to self…do not use the trolley map to navigate mountain trails!

#OldPeopleStrong!

We had amazing views, and we all survived! Sometimes it’s good to push yourself outside your comfort zone…whether you intend to, or not!

While entering Somes Sound, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to buy lobster directly from a boat!

We ended up with 27…to be shared with Gail & Eddie.

Lobster processing is underway.  We freeze the tails, and steam and pick the bodies.

We are heading back to Portland to pick up some visitors. Our niece and nephew plan to spend 10 days cruising Maine with us, and then friends will join us for a few days.  There will be plenty of more pictures coming from Maine!