Isles of Shoals, ME

On this first day of September we waited until the wind died down before leaving our mooring at York.  We dinghied in at low tide to use the WI-FI at the dockside restaurant because our coverage on the boat and even in town was practically non-existent.  Although the restaurant wasn’t open, a helpful employee gave us their WI-FI and I was able to load my blog.

A bit later we took Zendo in to fill our water tanks near this extensive array of dinghies.

After eating lunch onboard we left for the Isles of Shoals at 1 since the wind had abated quite a bit. The seas were amazinfgly calm and we had a very pleasant and short run to Isles of Shoals arriving at 2:35. We picked up a mooring between Star and Smuttynose Islands (2 of the five that make up the Isles of Shoals). Although the mooring was pretty rolly, this was the closest we could be to the one island that allowed dogs.  None of the others did!

Jonny took Archie in to walk him on the rocky outcroppings that line the shores of tiny Malaga Island. Archie was like a mountain goat hopping from rock to rock. And the water surrounding the island was amazingly clear!

Jonny then cruised around to the other side of the bay to see if anchoring there would be calmer than our current situation. The challenges in the new location were that there were big ocean swells, no moorings (not a problem for us), and a very long dinghy ride to take Archie to do his business.  We decided not to move.

Jonny and I then left Archie on board while we went in to Star Island, the biggest of the group, to explore. Unfortunately we didn’t get there until 4:50 and the dinghy dock closes and no visitors are allowed past 5!  It was disappointing but we managed to do a quick walk around and snap a few pictures.  There is a very large conference center and several outbuildings on the island.  Many church groups use it for retreats as it is owned by the Unitarian-Universalist Church. It was a stunning setting and  it appeared to be in use by one or two groups of people.

There was even a historic cemetery on the island. I couldn’t resist taking a photo of these sweet little row boats ready for action. We obediently, if reluctantly, returned to the dock at 5 as requested and went back to Zendo for dinner.

I had prepared a new recipe - a Greek chicken and cauliflower dish that turned out surprisingly good!  We ate it as we watched this beautiful sunset.

That evening we had a Zoom call with the group of Cité condo owners who have hired a lawyer to protest a decision made by our board of directors to sell development rights without informing us owners in advance. After that, I watched Biden speak to the nation from Philadelphia about his concern with the MAGA influence on our democracy. I thought it was a strong, well-delivered speech and clearly lots more needs to be done to turn the tide on the negative direction in which much of the country is headed.

On a bittersweet note, we have now ended our journey along the coast of Maine which has been most enjoyable. Here is a map of that craggy coastline. We saw many new places on this trip and revisited a few from a previous cruise. We are both convinced that we would like to come back and reach even further down east in the future, perhaps as far as New Brunswick!