We’re not much for crowds, so when we approached Boothbay Harbor, we did it from a slight distance. Leaving Ebencook Harbor, we used the Townsend Gut to avoid going out and around. It has an intensely narrow point or two, and a wait for a swing bridge. We got to exercise our close-quarters seamanship skills.
After leaving the gut, we could see Boothbay Harbor, but skeedaddled around Linekin Point and put the hook down in Linekin Harbor, ME, just off a resort on the point. On the loop through the harbor to find the best spot, we sighted an old acquaintance, the sailing catamaran Sula, on a mooring buoy and hollered our greetings.
We rowed in and met a couple who bought the resort’s boat and moved aboard. They have a built-in clientele for charters and were waiting for their passengers, so we shot the shit a while. It’s a pleasure to meet young people getting aboard and itching to travel.
They set us off the right way for the epic walk to Boothbay proper. We were, as expected, overwhelmed by the seaside carnival town. No rides, but so many small shops packed together along the waterfront that it has a festive air. We, however, mostly gripped each others’ hands and made straight for the marina operators we wanted to talk to.
The weather has continued to blow on and off and fog us in periodically, so we stayed another day and grabbed a free meal at the local all-inclusive hotel. The sysco fare was mediocre except the one thing that bowled us over. Oysters on the half shell served with wakame.
Could have eaten that for days.
We also utilized their free wifi before we weighed the hook and put off in a fog that gathered and dispersed around the islands, rocks, and shoals of Midcoast Maine.
Oh, the lighthouses of Maine are cool and abundant…
Friendship, ME, is about as perfect an example of a working town as it gets! The lobster boats own the place and even the pleasure boats are hard-core and carry the flavor of Maine. It’s the home of the Friendship sloop – search on that for a pic.
Being as though it’s not designed as a yacht harbor, the services are few and the grocery is another epic walk/row away. We anchored behind Garrison Island and had the area to ourselves. The grocery was a great little roadside spot crammed with most everything a person could need.
The morning we left, a lighting storm blew up. Wow! Flashing and crashing all around us, to the point where I (Dena) was inspired to isolate our Simrad from the power system of the boat and eye the lightning strap that leads from the mast bolts to the dynaplate on the hull. No strike, thankfully, and we set off again.
Penobscot Bay welcomed us with an on and off breeze that alternated with a thick fog…as in visibility that varied from 2-3 miles down to less than 1/8 of a mile in seconds.
We thought this storm would pound us as we turned up into Rockland Harbor proper but it wasn’t to be. Instead we got a cool lightning show and an incredible sunset.
Ummm, epic row/walk…
Before leaving Boston, we had booked a storytelling and slideshow event at a retirement community. Entertaining that rapt crowd proved to us (and them) that we really do have a very interesting way of living and can tell a hell of a story.
Hooray for cockpit haircuts and drunk swimming!
Lobster Fest?! WTF?
Three days of perfect Maine adventure…
Fin.
