Islesford to Hall Quarry - 7/11/15

Last leg of our little trip.  Technically we're already home, but we can still make a morning of it.  You can play in your own backyard.

Morning light hitting the port salon ceiling.
The view from my bunk.

Morning Sun - Iselesford

The rocks I collected form Placentia Island.

We dropped the Olearceck's mooring and motored to Northeast Harbor.  We had coffee and pastries from The Colonel's on our minds.

After spending a leisurely hour there we mosied back down Main Street.  It was too early to drop in on Rita Redfield at Redfield Artisans and follow up.  On seeing that Sam Shaw's gallery was opened we decided to drop in on him and say hello.

Workstation at Shaw Jewelry

Windfall and Dan waiting at the town dock

Heading out of Northeast Harbor and towards the mouth of Somes Sound by motor

Dan setting the auto-tiller

Heading up the Sound

Time to go to work - pontoon plane

Dan airdropping photos an videos to my laptop from his iPhone

Stonington, Deer Isle to Isleford - 7/10/15

Lovely morning in Stonington.  I wanted to spend a little more time at 44 North Coffee.  We were in no hurry, so that's what I did.  We motored to the town dock and tied up.  While I was using the WiFi and drinking coffee, Dan stayed behind and worked on some boat projects.

Sunrise in Stonington

Good Morning.

After an hour or two at the coffee shop I headed back to the dock by way of a grocery store to pick up a few things.  Dan was having a conversation with an old friend from Somesville on Mount Desert Island, where we grew up.

Dan chatting with an old friend

Eventually we left Stonington and made our way to Placentia Island.  Rather than go to the larger beach we've visited in the past, we dropped anchor in front of a very small popple stone beach.  Before we could leave Windfall for the shore, we were visited by what appeared to be two pair of porpoise.  It was exciting.  I think they were just playing around.

Porpoise visitation

Porpoise swimming around us

We spent a couple of hours on the beach recovering an old mooring ball and just general beach combing.  I waded around and picked out rocks to bring home with me occasionally finding some excellent skipping rocks.

Once the sun had fallen to the other side of Placentia and left us in shadow, we rowed back to Windfall.  Conditions looked good for a pretty decent sail to Islesford.  

I was piloting and Dan kept teasing me because I was chasing the wind more than staying on our course to Islesford.  The wind was brisk and the afternoon sky was beautiful.  Eventually, he capitulated and proposed we get to Islesford by going south east around Baker Island; a major upgrade in the scope of the last leg of our trip.  

I was all for it.  We set Windfall wing on wing and engaged the autopilot.  Dan poured a couple of fingers of tequila and turned on the music.  Our return home party had begun.

The first half consisted of the two of us relaxing on the bow while the autopilot kept us on course.  We listened to music, snacked and marveled at the view.  It was at least two hours before we approached Baker island can #1 and had to do anything but let Windfall sail herself.  

Darin camped out on bow 

At Baker can #1 we turned northward into the wind and took a beam to close-reached for another hour or two as the sun was setting in front of us.  It was sublime.  We had good warm wind and a beautiful vision of the hills of Mount Desert Island swimming in gold before us.

All the while we were listening to music and celebrating not only our homecoming, but the amazing sail we we hadn't anticipated.

Dan Sails

Darin Sails

About the time we came between East Bunker Ledge and the top of Little Cranberry the wind had died down for the evening and we were left with a quiet beautiful sunset.  We turned south westward into Gilly Thorofare, started the engine and made our way to the Olerceck mooring.

Motoring into Islesford

Pulpit Harbor, North Haven Island to Stonington, Deer Isle - 7/9/15

Pulpit Harbor is a "quiet" harbor.  I mean, really quiet.  I mean you better be quiet or leave.  It is a truly beautiful spot and very protected with excellent anchorage.  Any noise, anywhere is audible everywhere.  It was easy to hear the murmur of folks a hundred feet away or their music playing softly.  Burt Bacharach?  Really?!  I mean that was the most original thing you could come up with while hanging out on your million dollar sailboat?  Anyway, Burt's OK. ;)

Awoke to a beautiful, serene and sunny Pulpit Harbor.  Dan is finding the limited space onboard makes him a little stiff by morning.  Neither of us are unhappy with the size of the boat (though a bigger one would be wicked cool someday) but we live on it, right now and it IS a small space for middle-aged men.

...So little morning stretch was in order.  The poling-platform is a perfect place for this.

Boat Yoga with Captain Dan

After Dan's morning stretch, we motored in the direction of Stonington, Deer Isle.  

Stonington.  Off the Deer Isle Thoroughfare

Underway,  I hung some wet clothes, I had previously dunked in the ocean for cleaning, out to dry.  This, of course, guaranteed that we would, once again, make a classy impression as we came into harbor.

Not incurring the expense of having to look good.

Doll House Village

We went to the public library to take advantage of the free WiFi.  No sooner had I dropped a five dollar bill in the donations-bucket and Dan came in to tell me about the cool coffee shop next door.  So I went over there.  He was right.  I ended up spending a good four hours at 44 North Coffee enjoying the excellent coffee, ambiance and WiFi.  Dan made friends with some folks on vacation and chatted with them for a while.

Ahhh, sweet, sweet connectivity.

Danny decided to take Windfall out to drop anchor and leave me at the coffee shop.  I kept right on working and drinking delicious coffee.

Rowing back to the pier.

In the meantime, I had closed down the coffee shop.  But their WiFi was still good and it was a beautiful day! 

Taking advantage of the WiFi.

I worked a little longer and than Dan bought me dinner at a family restaurant near the pier.

Climbing aboard Wesley for the row back to Windfall.

Looking back at the docks from Wesley.

Tenants Harbor/Long Cove to Camden to Pulpit Harbor - 7/8/15

Danny was the first to awaken this morning in Long Cove.  We were socked in and the seas were a little troubled.

6:15am

Darin still sleeping.  I use a CPAP machine
so I can burrow as deep as I like.
 I get my air pumped in.

I went through the morning ritual of preparing the coffee while we listened to the marine forecast.

Prepping coffee

Listening to the forecast

Dan consulting the charts while
still in his berth.

"This page joins..."   grrrrr! 

One of the many things Dan wanted to do on this trip was some "foul" weather traveling by sail or motor.  Since we were up so early and the conditions weren't right for faffing about, we decided to head out roughly in the direction whence we came.  This was our sixth day on the water.  Though we still had plenty of days left for sailing, we wanted to take our time and hit more stops on the way back as well.

Dan weighing anchor.  The Mantus is exceptionally good 
at biting.  Especially, in 
mud or clay.

Developing a technique for single-handed anchor pulling

Motoring out of Long Cove

This was an excellent time to deploy the radar-reflector.  

The wind was southwesterly as were the currents.  Perfect conditions for making a northeast run.  So we did.

It was awesome!    

Flying the radar reflector

A little rolling around

Wesley follows

We were running with the genny and the whisker pole.  And, just like last year, when we set our speed record, our whisker pole collapsed.

Dan:  "Here comes a little lift."
Darin:  "Sweet."

Whisker Pole:  "Snap!"

whisker Pole-mourning

Two thoughts:

1. buy a better whisker pole

2. reevaluate when to use a whisker pole

The run was so good that by lunch we found ourselves at the entrance to Camden Harbor.  We had made up two days of sailing in four to five hours.

Also, the fog burned off and the weather was glorious.

Scoping our options

May I present Camden Harbor.

A little water to hydrate before rowing to the town dock.

Super cool dory with a Gray Motors "Hit and Miss."

View of Camden Harbor from Camden Park.

Cool pavilion area in Camden Park

We walked around the shops a little bit and then found a place to eat.

I had clam chowder.  'Nuff said.

After lunch we made our way back to the town pier by way of ice-cream.  On the dock we started chatting with a family on vacation from Connecticut who were just getting back from taking there son to a sailing lesson.  While I chatted with the parents about wine and dogs, Dan showed their son around the boat.

Dan getting schooled in medieval weaponry, I think.

We sailed from Camden Harbor to Pulpit Harbor, north west side of North Haven Island.  Again the winds favored us.  Coming now from the northeast we were able to more or less reach right across to North Haven

We passed Pulpit Rock and the giant egret nest on it.  There were a few other boats already on anchor and positioned for the show.  We took our place in the row and dropped anchor.  Pulpit harbor is a fully-enclosed harbor save the entrance.  It is a wonderful place to watch the sunset over Camden Hills.  And we did.