McGlathery Island Maine, just off of Stonington. A favorite place.

One of my favorite places to visit in Maine is the island of McGlathery, located just under three miles south east of Stonington Maine.  Brenda and I have been visiting the island for nearly 20 years as we have explored many spots along the Maine coast.

Stonington and McGlathery are both located in Merchant Row, a collection of islands that were once a hotbed of granite quarries that were teeming with commerce prior to the introduction of concrete as a preferred building material.

While there are a number of sheltered anchorages in the area, McGlathery is one of my favorite because there is a cove on the northeast side of the island and a gently sloping beach that's easy to land on.   This satellite photo of the island clearly shows the cove on the north east side and it's well protected from the prevailing winds as well due to the tall pine trees covering the island.   The island is owned and managed by the Island Heritage Trust, a group that's dedicated to preserving islands like McGlathery for all to enjoy.  The island is also a popular spot to visit with sea kayakers and is highly recommended by www.paddletrips.net.  Here's a link to the specific part of their site about the island and features a good map of the area.  

Even though this photo was taken nearly 100 years ago, Stonington doesn't look a lot different now than it did then.  However, there are a lot more boats in the harbor and they are nearly all lobster boats.   This link gives an interesting history of the area. 

 Nearby is also Crotch Island, named because of a slot in the middle of the island that makes it look like a pair of short pants. It is the only currently active quarry in the area and has supplied granite to many notable sites in the US.  In particular, it's stone has been used in the George Washington Bridge, Kennedy memorial in Arlington as well as a recent installation in the New Yankee Stadium.  This is an interesting article about Yankee Stadium and Crotch Island's involvement.   As I look at this photo of Stonington above I believe that it was taken from Crotch Island itself.

Frenchboro Maine, and the Lobster Festival

In response to my last few posts, my friend Tom from Marblehead MA wrote me to suggest that I write about one of his favorite places to visit in Maine, Frenchboro.  It is indeed a great spot and one that I really like to visit as well.  Frenchboro is a great stopping place if you are headed east from the Boothbay area on your way to Bar Harbor.  It's located just south of Swan island and is one of the outlying islands that is inhabited year round.

Frenchboro is the name of the town itself (the only one actually) and is located on the island of Long Island.  It's quite remote and there's no place to buy groceries or get fuel.  However, there is a great dockside restaurant where you can get a wonderful lobster dinner overlooking the harbor.  You can  even top off your meal with a great piece of wild Maine blueberry pie made there.  The town has a nice website that's worth checking out.

Getting to Frenchboro is easy by boat but if you don't have a boat you can still get there by ferry which runs a few times a week.  During the summer there is also a tour boat that goes out of Bass Harbor and includes a hike on the island.  To that point, while the island is small, there are a number of very nice walking paths that you can take to get a good feel for the island.

A considerable amount of work goes into keeping year round island life vital in Maine and Frenchboro is at the forefront of that effort.  The town has had an active homesteading effort to bring young families to the island over the years.  I expect that it's not an easy place to live at any time, most specifically in the winter when access to the mainland is so limited.  According to Wickipedia, there are only 11 families living on the island.  I guess that's the year round population as there are more than that many homes.  Living near New York, it's hard for me to imagine what it would be like in the winter out there with only two ferry runs per week and about 10 families to hang out with . I'll bet that the dynamics can get pretty interesting at times.  Need milk?  Actually, need beer?  The ferry from the mainland only runs twice a week year round and has an extra trip in the "warm" season. There's a convenient link on their home page to the Maine State Ferry schedule. 

There is a great library on the island (given the sized of the population) and it's worth making a stop to take a look around.  There are some local crafts for sale and it's a nice place to hang out for a rest.  The also have a computer where you can check for your e-mail too.   If you want to learn more about this fascinating island and it's rich history you should get a copy of the book Hauling by Hand, a history of the island and families that have lived there for ever.  This book was written by a member of the Lunt family from whom many of the inhabitants are a member or descend.   It's well written and exhaustively researched.   If you love Maine, you will want to read this boo.  It is available from Amazon or you can visit the Frenchboro library and purchase a copy there. 

To say that this is a scenic place doesn't begin to describe how beautiful the island and it's homes are.  Unlike so much of the Maine coastal areas, most of the homes on the island are modest and many are occupied year round by fisherman.

Even the clutter on the island is scenic.  This is a particularly colorful pile of lobster buoys and such a contrast to the white painted homes.

The harbor is very well protected and has a real feel of old rural Maine in the architecture. 

You can rent a mooring for $25 in the outer harbor which is quite calm and very close to the town dock.   On top of that you will be treated to a fabulously peaceful view first thing in the morning.  It doesn't get any better than this.

Yet another wonderful view.  What a contrast of red and green.   I am fairly certain that this photo was taken at Frenchboro.  So many wonderful photos.  The rest?  Yes, I am certain where they were taken.  Scout's honor.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Frenchboro lobster festival which is held each August.  Brenda and I have not attended as there always seems to be a conflict with some other event that we want to attend.  However, I am told that it's a great time and the one weekend of the year that the island really hops.  We hope to make it this year.   As I write this I wasn't able to find any reference to a date for 2011. 

I can't wait until spring and Pandora goes back in the water although that seems a very long way off right now as it's only 34 degrees out right now.   At least I can write about the great places that we will visit.   Here's to an early spring.

Damarascove Island Maine, near Boothbay Harbor

Of all the harbors that I have visited in Maine, one of my favorite is Damarascove Island.  Just 5 miles south from Booth Bay Harbor.  The island is largely uninhabited and owned by the Boothbay Region Land Trust.   The only private residence on the island is the old coastguard life station located just inside of the mouth of the harbor.   There's also a small cottage manned by a caretaker in the inner harbor that keeps watch on the island and visitors.  There's also several floats moored in the inner harbor where local fishermen keep their extra lobster traps.

The coastguard station, located on the western point of the harbor mouth is really a wonderful structure and has been restored by it's private owners.

The harbor is extremely narrow and opens to the south.  This would suggest that the harbor would be rough but that's not the case as the very narrow entrance, which looks more narrow when you approach compared to this photo, is protected by rock ledges on both sides.   This shot of the island from the air shows the harbor on the lower left with the Coast Guard station to port as you enter from the south. 

As the harbor narrows toward the center of the island, there are a few moorings that you can pick up.  It's really narrow and Pandora at 46' overall nearly touches the shore when she swings.  For this reason, I pick up a second mooring to keep her in the center of the channel.  The moorings are located at the very narrowest part just before it opens up toward the most inner portion of the harbor.  This shot is of my last boat Elektra was taken a few years ago on a mooring in the inner harbor.  You can really see just how small the harbor is.

To the right of the photo is a public landing that's used by visitors as a place to put your dinghy while going ashore.   There's also a wonderful little one room museum overlooking the harbor that has interesting artifacts from the island's history.

 There are well groomed trails that run all the way from the harbor to the most northern point of the island but some areas are closed off during nesting season so as to provide for more privacy for visiting common Eider ducks.

This is yet another shot of Elektra that I took a while back in the inner harbor and it gives you a great feel for just how isolated the harbor and island really are.  The light this day was particularly dramatic due to a passing thunder storm. 

Notice that there are only a few other boats anchored in the outer harbor, still protected from the waves in normal settled summer weather.   If you go there on a weekend expect to see a good number of day trippers.  However, on the weekends you can have the place to yourself.  Besides, if you arrive and it's too crowded, it's only a short distance to Booth Bay Harbor.

While Damarascove Island looks a bit intimidating on the chart, if you are looking for a bit of a challenge and are comfortable maneuvering your boat in tight quarters, I encourage you to visit this little gem, located just 5 miles off of the coast from Booth Bay Harbor Maine.  For more information about this and other great places to visit in Maine, the best book around for such information is the Taft Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast, available at many locations including Landfall Navigation.

Have you visited a harbor in Maine that you particularly like?  I'd be interested in knowing what you think.  Some have told me that they have had difficulty in posting a comment on my blog.  Please try it and let me know if you have difficulty.  I can also be reached at robertosbornjr@gmail.com

Mattituck NY and Shinn Vineyard, where Pandora's going in 2011

With some of my friends headed south for the winter and the prospect of the coming months off of Pandora, I have been struggling with what to write about here.  I could certainly report on every move I make on planned upgrades to Pandora but that doesn't make for very compelling reading.  The question of what to write about each week (yes, I know that I should post more often than that) is one that has been bugging me ever since I put Pandora up for the winter.  Actually, yesterday I did put the finishing touches on her with the cover in place and all systems winterized, which will allow me to focus on home and getting the yard cleaned up, etc, etc.

So the question now is what to write about.  Between scintillating posts about new freezer systems and other projects on Pandora what will be compelling to others.  Perhaps nothing but I have to do something.

Here's an idea.   How about writing about some of my favorite harbors and what you might do while you are there if an when you visit?   Yea, that's the ticket!.  Ticket or not, that's what I am going to write about and  today will be the first post with that in mind.  As we go along over the next few months, I encourage you to provide your own suggestions and comments on places to visit or on what you think of the places that I highlight.

Perhaps a good place to start is to focus on where Pandora will be after she goes in the water in early May.  As she is now in Norwalk CT,  when she goes back in the water I will run her immediately back up to Mystic where she will spend a few weeks on my friend Kieth's mooring.   There are a number of really fun harbors within a reasonable distance of Mystic.

One in particular worth noting, on the North Fork of Long Island and about 30 miles from Mystic, is Mattituck.  This harbor is the only one between Port Jefferson and Greenport on the north shore of Long Island.  On the chart the entrance and narrow channel looks daunting.  In fact, as you approach it from the north, it's very hard to see and without a GPS coordinate to direct you, to the entrance, it's very hard to even see the low gettys that mark the entrance.

This shot is taken near the mouth of the channel as you come in.  It's very rural here.

Pandora draws just under 6' and I have never had any trouble getting in, even at low water.  Once you enter the nearly two mile long channel, you feel like you have entered a time warp as the area is much more unspoiled than most harbors on Long Island.  The banks of the channel are largely undeveloped with only a few homes and marinas scattered along the banks that run several miles to the anchorage.

At the end of the channel there is an area to anchor (it looks a lot smaller on the chart than it is) with good holding an mercifully free of moorings, something that can't be said for many other areas on Long Island Sound these days.

There is a public landing nearby where you can leave your dink and make the short walk into town.  One particular treat is that the landing boasts a small park, bathroom and even free showers. In all of my years of cruising I haven't run into free showers elsewhere.

Brenda and I began visiting Mattituck back in the early 80s and hadn't been back for many years.   It wasn't until we purchased Pandora that we began visiting again.   Our most recent visit was on Memorial Day weekend in 2009 and we treated ourselves to a visit to a local winery.  

The North Fork of Long Island is loaded with vineyards and a few are within walking distance of the harbor.   On this visit we went to Shinn Vineyards, one of two vineyards located within the town of Mattituck.   Shinn is a wonderful place run by an enthusiastic couple Barbara Shinn and David Page.  Interestingly, Shinn is the only vineyard on Long Island that is biodynamic.  This means that they are even beyond organic but I will leave the explanation up to Wickipedia that features a good explanation of what it's all about.  Needless to say, the prorpiators of Shinn are enthusiastic about this form of viniculture.   David also produces a really interesting weekly e-newsletter that you can sign up for.  I signed up when we visited and you can to at this link or at the "contact us" area on their home page.  However, David keeps a blog so you can read about what's happening on the farm. Also, as a nice added feature, their wines are really good.

Shinn Vineyard is located in a really beautiful area of the North Fork of Long Island.  These shots don't do the place justice.

And, across the street, the view is just as wonderful.  This is certainly a classic red barn shot.  Imagine waking up each morning to this view.

This is an interesting video that will give you a good feel for what Shinn is all about.  Barbara speaks at meetings around the country about her passion, biodynamic viniculture.   For more Shinn videos and lots of reviews of their wines check this out.

If you want to avoid a nearly two mile walk from the harbor to Shinn, you can also rent a car from Enterprise Car rental in Riverhead.  Enterprise will generally pick you up and drop you off when you return the car.  Just make sure that you plan your rental time around normal business hours.  When we were there Enterprise was not open on Sunday.  They can be reached at (631) 369-6300.

While Mattituck is a small rural community, there's lots to do and it is really a great place to visit and one that Brenda and I will be putting
on our cruise itinerary early in the coming season.

We hope to see you there.  

And they are off! To Tortola, that is

My good friend Roger headed out today from Hampton VA aboard his SAGA 43, Ilene.  Roger, along with some 75 boats and upwards of 350 sailors (on different boats of course), as there are five aboard Ilene, is participating in this year's Caribbean 1500 cruising rally from Hampton VA to Tortola in the BVI.

After what will likely be a 10 day trip, Roger's wife Ilene will join him in Tortola to begin a 5 month sailing trip through the warm tropical islands between the  BVI and Trinidad, just off the coast of Venezuela.

For those of you that want to watch the boats as they make their way South, you can follow them on this link as each boat (this link is to class 6) has a GPS transponder that "pings" a satellite about every 15 minutes to give a location speed and direction on this nifty chart.  To learn more about the rally, which they have been running for about 20 years, check this out.

I am so jealous of Roger and Ilene as they will be spending the winter in a great place aboard their boat and will have an opportunity to see places that most visit for a week or two.  To be able to spend 5 months.  DID I SAY 5 MONTHS SAILING IN PARADISE!, is just too much.

While most of us are putting antifreeze into our water tanks, they are headed to warmer climes.

After a week long delay due to a late season hurricane, it seems that the forecast was a go and they are on their way.  The forecast for the next few days is to provide strong NW winds which will speed them on their way south.

God's speed to Ilene and the rest of the 2010 Caribbean 1500 participants.

You can follow Roger and Ilene's travels aboard Ilene the Boat at www.ilenetheboat.blogspot.com.

I guess it's time to go to work. Drat, no make that double drat.

I wana head south! Ilene going to Tortola

My good friends Roger and Ilene are headed aboard their SAGA 43, a boat just like Pandora, to Tortola beginning this week to begin a winter of sailing in the islands.  Actually, Ilene will fly to meet Roger there who will make the trip to Tortola with crew.  However, the plan is for them to spend from November to May island hopping their way south and if they like island living, to leave the boat in Trinidad for the summer while they head north and home for a few months prior to heading back for another winter season in the islands.  I have a number of friends that do this and it sounds like great fun.  

Roger has spent months getting his boat ready to participate in a cruising rally from Hampton VA to Tortola.  This rally is a big one with some 75 boats that will head south together.  Participating in a rally is a great way to get started with ocean sailing as it allows access to a weather router and other safety services and know how that most wouldn't have access to as easily. 




I wish Pandora was on the participant list but that will have to wait a bit longer. Each winter I am doing projects to get the boat ready for long distance cruising.  What a great trip it would be to head to Tortola.  For now I will have to be content with armchair sailing along with Roger and Ilene aboard Ilene the Boat and their site http://www.ilenetheboat.blogspot.com/

You can follow their progress on the rally site.  This link shows all the classes and this one class 6 which is what Roger and Ilene's boat Ilene is in.  The tracker shows that everyone is still in Hampton but they will likely leave soon so keep checking the site regularly.  At this point the key issue is to get a good weather window to begin the trip. The group, The Cruising Rally Association, that organizes this rally also has other events including Bahamas and an Atlantic crossing rally.  Their site is quite interesting as you can follow the boats as they make their way south.  Each boat is fitted with a GPS tracker that "pings" a satellite with their speed, direction and location about ever 15 minutes. .  I want to go sailing and all I can do is write about it now that Pandora is on the hard.  Bummer about that.  I can't wait till May when she goes in the water again. 

There's not much to report about Pandora right now except to say that she is in a boat yard in Norwalk CT and I am getting started on getting upgrades underway and her ready for the freezing weather that's on the way.   It's hard to find interesting ideas for posts when Pandora isn't in the water but I will do what I can to keep to a weekly schedule.   Yesterday I began getting the frame fitted to hold her canvas cover that will keep water and ice off of the decks.

I don't get many comments on my posts and yet see that I am getting visitors.  Who's out there?  Leave a comment, please and tell me what you think.

Pandora on the hard, the Annapolis boat show and a visit with Don Street

For as long as I have been sailing I have dreamed of a day when I can head out aboard my boat with no set schedule and go somewhere warm with clear warm waters.   Or at least not head home after two weeks of aboard.  While heading into the sunset without a care in the world hasn’t been possible yet, I do feel like the dream is getting a bit closer and Pandora is closer to being ready. 

Unfortunately, Pandora is now out of the water for the season as I wasn't able to take the time to run her to Annapolis as was my plan.  Due to business obligations, she had to come out and is now in Norwalk CT until she is launched in the spring.  Bummer about that.  Now that she is "on the hard" I can begin focusing on needed upgrades in preparation for more time aboard.

With this in mind, last weekend Brenda and I visited the Annapolis Boat show, in what has become a yearly ritual for us in early October.  This year was no different and I looked forward to the trip with as much anticipation as ever. 

When we purchased Pandora back in 2007, the plan was to do upgrades each year in anticipation for the day when we would be able to  more time aboard.  While the actual year and date of our “big departure” remains unclear, in part thanks to the recession, I do feel that things are beginning to come together.

To spend months at a time aboard means that a boat has to be outfitted with more gear than would normally be the case for boats that are used for weekend trips and the occasional week long family vacation.   This last summer,  even though I still work full time, saw me and Brenda aboard for more time than ever. 

  

Last winter was spent being sure that Pandora was set up for “work”.  This meant that I had to be sure that I was able to make the most out of sometimes weak cell coverage and could be always connected with work and my partner.   When I left my position of 17 years at the beginning of 2009, I was committed to building something new and yet having the freedom to work wherever I happened to be at the time.   My partner and I started a company working with medical societies developing educational programs in early 2010. 

Fortunately, working aboard has been going fairly well as I am very disciplined and each day I was up, dressed and ready to go by 8am, just like when I was going to an office in my previous life.    However, this summer was very different, as I was aboard and not in an office building somewhere.  With today’s remarkable technology, you can be nearly anywhere and nobody can tell.  I once saw a cartoon showing a dog sitting at a keyboard and the caption said “on the Web, no one knows you are a dog”.   That’s true and unless the wind is howling, it’s impossible to say exactly where someone is these days when they are on the phone. 

In any event, my goal has been to set up Pandora as an office and with lots of preparation and hard work, it has worked out well.  The only major problem that I ran into was discovering that my cell booster could only provide the needed boost when the signal was fairly good to begin with.  Unfortunately,  and much to my dismay, the further Down East you get in Maine, the crummier the signal becomes.  While I was often able to make good clear cell calls, getting decent data coverage was a different story.   A call to Verizon uncovered the fact that the cell systems in the more remote regions of the Maine coast are older and not up to the task of moving lots of Web data.   Well, you live and learn.  However, for the entire time we were in Maine there was only one day where the Web, slow or not, proved to be impossible to work with.  Not bad for my first attempt at a floating office. 

Enough about last summer.  Many of the first important steps in getting Pandora ready for really serious cruising are now done and this visit to Annapolis and “the show” were to settle several important remaining equipment needs. 

My VHF, short range radio, is woefully out of date so I am very much in need of a replacement.  The VHF aboard is probably over ten years old and lacks many new and important features.   First , all current radios have DSC, or digital selective calling.  While not mandatory on boats under 300 gross tons, this feature, now required on all new VHF units, allows the radio be wired into a GPS so that, in the event of an emergency, it allows for a signal, with location cordinates, to be broadcast in the event of an emergency.  This is not unlike my EPIRB, Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, which will transmit a signal to a satellite, when activated, anywhere in the world.  DSC is similar but only works on a short distance basis.  Anyone that really knows the ins and outs of DSC will say that I am leaving out important details but it’s still new to me. 

There is another, and even more amazing , technology that is being quickly adopted by yachts today and that’s AIS,   This technology, as I understand it, is very similar to the system used by air traffic control to keep track of airplanes.   With AIS, each ship over a certain size is required to have an AIS on board to continually transmit the name of the ship, location, course and heading as well as other important information.   The VHF radio that I purchased also includes an AIS receiver so I can monitor shipping nearby.   The unit is made by Horizon Standard and I am told is the only unit on the market today that has this option built in.

While radar helps in seeing ships when they get close, It’s much better to have the name of the ship and all sorts of other information show up on the radio and incredibly, on the screen of my chart plotter.  Very cool indeed.  There have been many times over the years when I have seen ships at night, tried to hail them and not gotten a response.  Perhaps it’s because I would say something like… “vessel  headed east out  of the Race, this is the sailing vessel Pandora. Come in please”.  This always seemed clear to me but often there was silence on the other end.  I am told that when you call a ship by name you nearly always get a response.   AIS makes knowing the name a cinch.  I am looking forward to learning this first hand. 

Unfortunately, my new unit is only a receiver.  Ideally, I’d like to have a transmitting AIS so that these ships would see me on their screen too, but it’s not in the budget this year.  While It’s not ideal, this system is a major move forward for Pandora. 

Also on my list for several years has been a proper offshore life raft.   Since much of my cruising is in the cold waters of Maine, where a visit overboard in water in the high 50s would mean death from hypothermia in a very short time, having a proper raft was a key missing piece of safety gear.   With my CT to Maine runs and my yearly trips to Annapolis, I am putting more and more offshore miles on Pandora so it’s high time that I added a life raft to my safety equipment list.   

After looking at all of the major manufacturers, I settled on a four man offshore raft from Viking.  This company supplies the cruise lines, military and other commercial ships and, in my opinion,  is a raft that offers excellent value for the money. 

This raft is built for tough conditions and is designed for cold weather use as well.  Let’s hope that I never learn first hand how the raft performs. 

While we also have a perfectly serviceable inflatable tender or dink,  I have wanted to upgrade to a hard bottom model for some time.  Our current tender, that we have had for years, is great but with the soft bottom, getting the boat up on a plane with both of us aboard has been a problem.   It really goes with just me aboard but with me and Brenda, it just can’t make the “jump to warp speed” and allow us to cover more ground  quickly. This is especially important when we are in a larger harbor with distance to cover and is particularly helpful when the water is choppy.  Any soft bottom dink is fairly wet when the going gets rough and heavens, it just wouldn’t be right to head out for a night on the town in a wet dink, would it? 

While those three purchases are probably enough for now, the one remaining major item on the list for this winter is to upgrade the cooler to a proper deep freezer, fridge combination.   While I talked to all the vendors at the show as well as a number of my friends who are educated on the topic, I am now even more confused than ever.  There’s much more to learn before I make a decision so perhaps I’ll leave that discussion for a future post.   However, the goal is to have a freezer that’s cold enough to keep a good amount of food frozen verses the pint size freezer compartment that we currently have.  Speaking of “pint”, it would also be wonderful if we could keep ice cream.   Now, that would be quite a treat.  

Finally, while we were at the show we had dinner with 15 of our closest friends, a group of fellow SAGA owners who met up at a local eatery to share stories and argue over the relative merits of equipment choices.   It was at that dinner that I became even more thoroughly confused about the proper equipment for fitting out a proper freezer.  The problem is that the solution can cost from a very affordable $125 to over $2,300 or more depending on the approach I were to take.   

At the dinner the one who owner that had traveled the furthest in a SAGA had made the trip to Annapolis all of the way from Guatemala where she, Ursula actually, had made her home aboard her SAGA for the last few years as she traveled around the Caribbean_..  However, the highlight of the night for me was that Don Street, the godfather of Caribbean cruising who traveled from island to island for over 50 years aboard his 105 year old yawl Iolarie.   

He has written countless magazine articles and has authored a number of vital cruising guides for the area.  What good fortune it was that he happens to be a good friend of a fellow SAGA owner.  

I was just thrilled, that the legendary Don Street was to join us for dinner.  And to make it even better,  If there was ever anyone that looked the part of the “salty sailor”, Don’s the guy.  In his 80s, he’s just as interesting as always.  While he has recently begun to slow down and has sold his beloved Iolarie, he told me that he plans on continuing cruise as much as he is able to.  However, he will be doing so now in the time honored OPB (other people’s boats) sailing tradition.   I only wish that I had an opportunity to spend more time with him.  

While the evening was short,  I did get this great picture of him.  Guess who’s Don?  No, that’s not him in the middle. It’s me.

There’s so much to write about but I don’t want to drone on forever.  Perhaps that’s enough for now. 

Pandora's back in Mystic and, oh, a visit to Nantucket for a wedding.

Pandora is back in Mystic after a long visit to Maine.  I had planned to bring her back over the Labor Day weekend but hurricane Earle thought better of it so I left and went home to New Jersey.

Getting crew is always difficult as moving the boat is so weather dependent and plans can change quickly.  This year's return from Maine proved to be more complex than most.  My plan for this year has always been to move Pandora back from Maine around Labor Day and then move her South to Annapolis for a bit of late season sailing.  With the demands of business, yes that pesky day job, I had to put Annapolis on the back burner for this season and instead keep Pandora in Norwalk for the winter. 

With my Labor Day run to CT dashed by hurricane warnings, I had to leave her in Rockland for two weeks while we visited Nantucket for the wedding of a friend the following weekend.   I have to say that visiting by ferry from Hyannis was a treat as Brenda and I had not visited the island for over 15 years, mostly because the cost to take a mooring in the harbor is the highest that we had encountered and just more than we have ever been comfortable.  On this visit I was told that the cost was something like $65 a night or more.   Contrast that to Martha's Vineyard where they run $45 a night, and that's without any sort of launch service included.  In other areas, like Maine for instance, moorings generally run in the $35 range and sometimes less. 

Nantucket is the most remote island you will run into within a modest distance of major cities on the Mid Atlantic and North East coast and, to me, it has a flavor that is a bit more sophisticated than the other islands I have visited in the area.   One point of interest on the island, worth noting, is the Nantucket Whaling Museum. 

I won't say much about the museum except to say that it has a very impressive collection chronicling the history of the island and a lot of care has gone into putting the history of commercial whaling in context with the times.  The collection represents many cultures given the many places that whalers visited on their voyages.  A particularly impressive display is the skeleton of a whale hanging from the ceiling in the main hall salvaged from a dead whale that washed up on the Nantucket shore years ago.   It's beautifully lit and displayed as you can see below.

And there is always the wonderful Brant Point Light, at the entrance to the harbor.   Who can resist the alure of the Rainbow Fleet of colorful Beetle Cat boats parading by this light?   Brenda and I served on the "steering committee" of the Catboat Association for many years so these wonderful little boats will always hold a special place in our heart.

Well, we had a great time in Nantucket and I have to say that the ferry from Hyannis and back was trouble free and very comfortable.  We won't talk about the hours and hours that we drove to get from home to the Cape and back.  They even offer free WI-FI for passengers.

With the wedding weekend behind us I again turned my attention to finding yet another crew to bring Pandora back from Maine.  As the weeks ticked by the weather was only getting colder up in Maine and I was anxious to get the delivery over with.

It's hard to find friends that have flexible schedules and the ability to leave for a trip with just a few days notice.  Beyond that, a trip to CT from Maine is "up hill" and against the prevailing winds, something that isn't that appealing to most boaters.

I have made the run from Maine to CT many times over the 15 years that we have sailed in Maine and at the end of a long and wonderful season, and planning what is often an uncomfortable run can be stressful.  However, this trip proved to be much more pleasant than usual.

While sailors always prefer to, well, sail but that's not normally the case when you have to go toward where the prevailing winds generally blow from.  In the North East that's generally from the South West. 

In this case we got lucky and a front passing through the area brought North winds to help us get home without a fuss.   While we still had to motor nearly the entire way, 33 hours actually with a few hours of late afternoon sailing in Buzzard's Bay, the trip was uneventful and thankfully, the wind was on our stern, if a bit light.

With a half moon and clear skies, we were treated to a fabulous view of the stars and a fair number of shooting stars.  It's remarkable how clear the night sky is when you are away from the light of big cities.  At 1:30 on Saturday morning and 25 miles off of Boston, the light of the city was a just a red smudge on the Western sky.   With nothing obscure the night sky after the moon set at 1:30am, the view was breath taking. 

The run from Rockland to the Canal takes about 24 hours so we would be out over night for our run South.  We left Rockland harbor at 4pm on Friday and picked up the mooring in Mystic at 2am Sunday.  And that's without stopping along the way.  Picking our way up the Mystic River in the dark was a bit of a challenge but we did it with a minimum of fuss.

There is always the hope that we will see whales along the way and this run didn't disappoint.   A few finback whales, nearly 30 feet in length, came very close to Pandora.  They are beautiful and graceful animals.

Now that Pandora is in Mystic I will take this weekend off to do some chores around the house and then head out for one last weekend with some friends when I bring her to Norwalk and her home for the Winter.

Alas, a great season of sailing is coming to an end.   Hopefully, our 2011 season will again take us to Maine and South to Annapolis.  All and all, a great season on the water aboard Pandora for me and Brenda.

Where's Pandora, Hurricanes and old towing cables in Rockland.

After much debate, just prior to the Labor Day weekend, we decided to leave Pandora in Rockland and head back to NJ and home while waiting for hurricane Earle to make his run up the East Coast.   I had arranged for crew to bring her back over the long weekend but it was clear that, direct hit or not, the seas and weather were going to be unsettled for days to come and I didn't want to extend our visit by a week while we waited for favorable NW winds to make our trip home.  It's also difficult to get crew on short notice that have the flexibility to make a run with short notice as most work full time and have those "pesky day jobs" to worry about.  Fortunately, after leaving the boat and heading home, Earl had a lot less impact than expected, although you wouldn't have known it if you watched the breathless reporting by the networks and the Weather Channel. 

It is amazing how weather has turned into a national obsession.   Who would have ever expected there to be cable shows, with millions of viewers, based solely on reporting on the weather.  I for one, get my weather from the Web as it's a bit more dispassionate in it's reporting.  The National Weather Service has never been known for their editorializing, and NOAA, and his/her robotic voice on VHF weather certainly doesn't have the breathless delivery of a network anchor.

My favorite source for weather is www.wunderground.com and www.sailflow.com with the former a great source of long range forecasts, such as they are, and the latter good for marine wind directions for most locations up and down the East Coast.

With Earl bearing down on New England we headed home with the hope that Pandora would not be pounded by hours of strong easterly winds, a direction from which the harbor is heavily exposed.  Well, the decision was made to get a mooring and head home to wait out the storm. 

If you have ever visited Rockland, you probably know it as a great harbor with loads of moorings as well as space to anchor fairly near to town.   While I usually get a mooring, on our last visit, after paying for so many moorings over our six week visit in Maine, I decided to anchor, something that I have done in Rockland off and on over the years.  However, as is so often the case in heavily used old harbors, there is a risk of hooking an anchor on some sort of old junk that was jettisoned overboard as no longer usable. 

In over 30 years of sailing I have only snagged my anchor on something big twice.  Once in New York Harbor when I pulled up a massive old cable when I anchored off of Governor's Island during an op-sail in the early 90s, a place where I shouldn't have been been in the first place, and again last week in Rockland. 

I had tried to anchor near the cement factory, to the left of the mooring field as you face town from the water, with my 65lb bruce anchor.   This anchor usually hooks in well without a lot of scope, but this time I had to put it down twice before it bit in well.  In actuality, it was hooked much more securely than I realized. 

Later that day I decided to move in closer to a mooring as I just wasn't comfortable being out quite as far from town I was and decided to pull up the hook.  All went well until I had most of the chain in and was trying to pull the anchor out of the mud.  It seemed that the anchor just wouldn't break out, something that sometimes happens after we have sat in fairly heavy winds overnight.   However, I had only had the anchor down for a few hours in this case.   Oddly, no matter how hard I used the windlass or the engine, I just couldn't break it out. 

It wasn't long before I realized that this wasn't coming up using normal means and that more "extreme" measures were required.   After messing around with things for a while I decided to attach a line to the chain with a chain hook and ran the line to a winch on the mast to muscle the anchor up.  I took up the slack, such as it was, and secured it with another line so that I could again attach the chain hook, pull it in a bit more, remove the hook, take up the slack and so on, until I was able to, under extreme loads, get the anchor up to the surface. 

The strains on the line and chain were a bit daunting and as I winched it in and I began to fear that something would break under tension and, well, who knows what...

Finally, I was able to get the anchor up to the surface and saw what was going on.   I had picked up an old towing hawser from a barge, many loops of  a large steel cable used, at least prior to it being tossed over the side, for a tug to pull a barge under tow.  This shot shows how well hooked we were. 

Fortunately, someone on a nearby boat was watching me struggle with the anchor and came over to help.  With his assistance I was able to take a line from the bow loop it under the cable and back to the bow.  Once this was accomplished, and tensioned properly, I lowered the anchor slightly so that my helper was able to pull each loop off of the anchor so that it settled into the rope loop that I had put in from the bow. 

Once this was accomplished, I was able to get the now freed anchor out of the way and slip one end of the rope so that the cable dropped back down to the bottom.  The exercise, and yes it was good exercise and I was sweating fairly well by the time it was over, took nearly an hour but it worked, thankfully.  With out help I am not sure I would have been able to solve it as easily and certainly appreciated someone coming to my aid.   As this was unfolding Brenda was ashore so I was on my own. 

After freeing myself from the cable, I was able to get a mooring for the night and begin to preparing Pandora for the storm and our departure.    I have certainly make a mental note, and you should too, to think twice when you anchor in a harbor that has had lots of industrial use over the years.  Some make a habit of rigging a trip line when in an unfamiliar harbor so that they can more easily retrieve a snagged anchor.  Perhaps I will too in the future.

The storm passed without a whimper and I am now preparing to head back and bring her home.  The weather report suggests that we will have NW winds beginning on Wednesday which will hold for a few days while I bring Pandora back to Mystic.  The sailing season is about over for me as work is busy and I can't spare the time to run her to Annapolis, our preference to extend the sailing season.

For now I will have to satisfy myself with a weekend or two aboard prior to pulling her out in Norwalk CT for the winter.  I can always think about sailing next season.  Hmm...

As I write this I am in Nantucket with Brenda for a friend's wedding.  What a wonderful place. But, more about that later.

Sailing Merchant Row in Maine aboard Pandora

Since my last post we moved Pandora back from the eastern Penobscot Bay toward Rockland and Camden.   Along the way we enjoyed visiting Merchant Row near Stonington, the home of one of the last operating granite quarries in Maine.  In the 1800s granite was a major building product, prior to the widespread use of concrete as a building material.  This shot is of a very active quarry, one that seems even more active than when we began cruising in Maine nearly 15 years ago.  You can really get a feel for the scale of the operation.  It's interesting how smooth the cuts are and how massive the blocks are.

This area of Maine is dotted with small granite outcroppings and navigating among the islands can be tricky, especially in the fog.  Fortunately, this day was chrystal clear and sunny.  This shot of the chart plotter gives a good feel for just how "interesting" navigating in Merchant Row is at 7.5kts.

Note that the island in the upper left hand part of the display is Crotch Island, the one with the "crotch" in the middle of it, the granite quarry that is in the photo above.  The actual quarry is the Deer Isle Granite Quarry.  Their site shows that they sell small items for the home and it's hard to believe that they don't sell bigger pieces given the scale of the operation.    It would be fun to have kitchen counters from an area that we love.   I guess that even big chunks of granite are sometimes destined to become small trivets.  Not a very noble end for a magnificent island.  Go figure.  All of the islands in this area are made up of unbroken granite and are quite beautiful.  

Granite isn't the only industry in Merchant Row.  This mussel "farm" is anchored off of a small island where the ever present currents keep the "crop" fresh and sweet.  When you purchase wild mussels in a grocery it's likely that they came from a place like this.  By suspending them in water above the bottom they never get grit inside which makes them taste even better.   We have dug them ourselves and it takes lots of washing to be sure that you won't get a mouth full of grit. 

There's another new industry cropping up in Maine, and elsewhere in the US, and that's wind power.  These three massive towers are the first on the Maine coast and generate enough power to supply the electrical needs of Vineyard Haven with enough left over to sell back into the power grid.  Some hate the look of wind generators but I think that they are wonderful.  To see these monsters slowly churning away is quite a site to behold.   Pandora is also fairly "green" with nearly all of our power coming from solar panels. When Pandora was launched in April we turned on the freezer and it's been on all summer.  I can leave the Pandora at anchor for days, or weeks, at a time and never need to use the engine or generator to charge the batteries.  The solar panels put out a great deal of power, sometimes nearly 30 amps at their peak in the middle of the day.

 Back when schooners were the primary mode of transport in Maine, especially for heavy cargo like granite, the primary "trucks" of the day were the coasting schooners.   Today they take human cargo out for day and week long trips.  Merchant Row is a favorite stomping ground for the "dude schooners" and to me this is one of grandest of the schooners.  While I am not positive, I think that this one is "Heritage", a wonderful schooner with really sweet lines. 

Views like this are fairly common place in Maine and this one with the Camden Hills in the background are particularly scenic.  If you want to spend time on a Maine schooner, you can book here.

As I write this I am back in New Jersey, courtesy of Hurricane Earl.  My plan was to bring Pandora back to Mystic from Maine over the Labor Day weekend but alas, she's on a mooring in Rockland riding out the storm and I am in New Jersey.  It doesn't look like Earl will be much of a threat in Maine after all with most of the strong winds coming from the North West. This means that wind driven waves won't be a problem as the winds will be coming off of the land and there won't be an opportunity for big seas to develop in the harbor.  While wind can wreck boats, it's big seas that tend to be the worst culprit.  

As for getting Pandora back from Maine, as soon as the winds and seas get back to normal I will head back to Rockland with crew to bring Pandora home.  While I was planning to head down to Annapolis again for some late Fall Sailing, I think that I will just pull her out in CT and begin thinking about the 2011 season.   Work is a bit too busy and now with the delay in getting back to Mystic, I don't think that Annapolis is in the cards.  Perhaps next year. 





All and all, we spent about six weeks sailing in Maine where I was able to keep working a full week and still enjoy the sailing life.

Forgive me but I can't help myself as I close this post with yet another magnificent Maine sunset.  Pretty impressive, right?  Brenda and I think so and plan to make the summer of 2011 our 15th visit to Maine. 

Camden Maine and East To Mt Desert Island "living the dream"

For the last two weeks we have moved from Camden to Pulpit Harbor, Perry Creek and on to North East Harbor on Mt. Desert.  While we are in Maine, I am working via phone and Web and have had to pick places to spend much of each week that has decent Internet coverage. With my booster this works out well with the exception of the fact that when you head east there is a less modern cell system in place so while cell phones work well, the web isn't as reliable.  That's a problem for me as I am a heavy Web user for work and it can slow things down to a crawl sometimes due to system limitations.   

One of the problems is that we are unable to spend time in the areas that we like the most as they are too remote to have good cell coverage.  However, I can’t feel too sorry for myself as I am, never the less, spending more time in Maine, something that I have always wanted to do.  The two week vacation trip isn’t as appealing as it used to be.  For now I will enjoy staying put for much of the week and working aboard Pandora as though I was in the office. 

Cell coverage in the western areas of Penobscot Bay are better than the eastern areas and one area, in particular,  where the coverage is good is Camden, one of our favorite places to visit.   One problem with the harbor though is that it isn’t particularly well protected and features what some call the "Camden Roll", something that we experienced when we took a mooring on our most recent visit.  However if you are able to get a harbor float in the inner harbor, it is wonderful.  A float can be had for $40 from the Camden Yacht Club but they only allow boats up to 42’ on their floats.  Alternatively, Wayfarer Marine is happy to rent you a float as well, but for $55 a night.  However, they allow boats up the high 40s but I can’t recall exactly how big.    

This is the view from the inner harbor on the Yacht Club doc.   Not bad at all.

This is Pandora on one of the floats.  As you can see, the space is tight and it’s more like double parking than mooring.   A bit stressful to be sure.  However, the yacht club launch driver can be there to help you dock.  It’s such a great spot, it’s worth the effort. 

 There are plenty of opportunities to get out on the water in Camden and this is just one example of the small schooners that you can go out on for a few hours to enjoy the scenery.    

The prior evening, however, the day boats were out for their evening cruise, with a full complement of passengers, and a really impressive thunderstorm hit, dumping massive rain on the hapless tourists. To see them huddled on deck covered by thin plastic ponchos was a pitiful sight.  However, seeing the crew bring these schooners to the dock with gusts over 40kts was impressive, however their soaked charges probably didn't appreciate what it is to bring a boat along side a pier in blinding rain and heavy winds.

There is plenty of opportunity to see classic craft of all kinds in Maine.  This one can certainly be called “classic” but perhaps a better description would be “mini pirate”.   A couple and their toddler were aboard.  The boat couldn’t be 30’ long which isn't exactly the scale that Black Beard would have been looking for.  It was really quite amusing to see the mother making the rounds from stem to stern, time and again, back and forth like a restless and equally miniature captain.

 Mornings aboard are very peaceful.  This is what most mornings in Maine are like.  Cool and serene.  Wonderful!

 The New York Yacht Club cruise was in town and this shot of one member of the group barreling along in Deer Island Thoroughfare was a sight.  A very powerful boat.  Notice the crew member forward, probably looking for lobster pots.  That gives a good sense of how big a boat she is. 

Our visit to Acadia National Park and Mt Desert Island was great fun.  If you take a mooring in most any of the major ports on the island you can get all around the island for free on their shuttle service.  Our choice, North East Harbor, was a short shuttle bus away to Jordan Pond, one of the most scenic spots, in our opinion, to dine in all of Maine.  Dining alfresco at the Jordan Pond restaurant is not to be beat with a view of bubble rock.  The popovers are awesome.   

This is a shot of the view from our table.  Hard to believe that we were eating curried chicken sandwiches with this view.  Just spectacular.  

 North East Harbor is well protected and very scenic.  This is a view, from up on the hill and thure gardens.  Pandora is off to the left , out of frame.  The town dock and shuttle bus stop are near the “yacht basin”.  There is a really impressive selection of massively expensive boats/yachts there.  Some say that North East Harbor is the “Palm Beach of the North”.  I believe it.  

 When we first arrived there were more than a half dozen yachts longer than 100' and a really big one outside of the harbor that was too big to fit at the dock.  Recession?  What recession.

If you visit North East Harbor, and you should, don't miss visiting the two gardens in town, Asticou, a formal Oriental garden and Thuya, a semi formal English garden, both featured at this link.  Up on the hill, where the harbor shot above was taken, is Thuya Gardens.  These wonderfully maintained gardens compliment each other and visiting them can make for a very nice afternoon ashore. 

A spot that we have wanted to visit for years but never had is Blue Hill.   It’s not that commonly visited by  transient boaters as it’s quite far off the beaten path and the town landing dries out completely  about three hours eather side of high tide.  During our visit we were lucky to have a high tide at around 8pm in the evening and again mid morning the next day.  With water at the dock, we treated ourselves to a nice dinner out and coffee ashore the next morning.  I have to say that we were a bit anxious about being left “high and dry” if we dawdled too much over our wine.  Wading out in the muck and dragging our dink behind wound not have been so much fun after a lovely dinner.    

Blue Hill is a very quaint town and some of the local architecture is impressive.  This is the town hall, lovingly maintained.   There is a great grocery in town and, compared to other local stores along the coast, very reasonably priced.

Another reason to visit Blue Hill is to see the reversing falls.  As the tidal range is so great in this part of Maine, better than 10’, some areas have really impressive falls when the tide goes out.  This bridge has white water coursing under it at a dizzying pace with the falling tide.  This shot doesn’t begin to do it justice.   To fall in this water would not be good as it surges out past massive boulders into Blue Hill Bay.  

 Brenda and landed our dink (in the background) in a small cove so that we could get a closer look at he falls.   Notice, once again, the constant reminder that Maine is the playground of the rich.   I often wonder what the homes of folks that own yachts like these must be like.  A look around the shoreline suggest that several homes would clearly suffice.  This motoryacht was quite nice. 

The water in Maine is very clean as evidenced by the life in the tidal pool near the falls.  

Of course, what blog post would be complete without a shot of a schooner at anchor with a beautiful sunset.  This particular schooner is the Heritage, one of the many that take out paying guests for week long cruises along the coastline of Penobscot Bay.  Earlier this evening all aboard went to a local granite island in Merchant Row near Stoninington for a lobster bake and a bit of dining under the setting sun. 

The next morning Heritage was off and headed back to Camden having finished up another week long cruise.  These schooners don't have internal engines and rely on push boats to get them around. It's impressive to see them get under way and to raise the push boats once they are under sail.  Off she went...

As I write this it’s Sunday morning and we are in a peaceful cove in Bucks Harbor.  It’s overcast and drizziling lightely.  Not a bad day to be typing away on a blog post.  However, the cell service is the pits here so we will be off to find a harbor to spend the week with better coverage.  I did hear that Bucks Harbor Marine is for sale as the long time owners are retiring.   They even have a website.  As the for sale sign on the counter in the store says, “interested in living the dream”, buy the store, dock and charter fleet.  You also have to like geraniums to keep this place.  Hmm…