The Basin, ME

We awoke gratefully to clear skies on Monday, August 26. As is often our habit while we are on anchor, Jonny took Archie in for a walk while I did some chores. He discovered an old cemetery that we missed the previous day. The graveyard included the headstones of Andrew Wyeth and his wife Betsy and many of the Olson family (Christina from the famous painting). Unfortunately, he forgot to bring his phone.

By 9 a.m. we left this very serene Maple Juice Cove anchorage bound for The Basin. Though the forecast called for intermittent rain, we only had the briefest of sprinkles until later in the day.  We cruised through Muscongus Bay passing Bristol and Booth Bay Harbor.

We also went by three lighthouses.  The first was Pemaquid Point Light.  Interestingly, the keeper’s house was converted to a Fisherman’s Museum.  A second floor apartment there is available to rent by the week. That could be a fun thing to do. I was too far away to get a good photo so I’m including one from my lighthouse reference book.

We also passed by Ram’s Island Light and Cuckolds Light. There are 75 lighthouses in Maine, more than any other state in the U.S.

We ate lunch on board and arrived at The Basin on the New Meadows River at 2:30.  This is a supremely protected anchorage in a very large basin of water encircled by some homes on one side and a large reserve on the other.  Literally scores of boats could anchor here but we were one of only four or five. Many lobster pots surrounded us as the lobster season is still in full force here in Maine.

Always wanting to explore, we dinghied along the rocky shore and found a place to tie up.

There was a dirt logging-type road that we hiked on avoiding the mosquito-filled woods on either side. Of course, Archie didn’t care and ran with abandon through the deciduous forest. 

When we returned to Zendo, I did some of my Spanish homework and Jonny did a little more trip planning. He also made a delicious dinner of lamb chops, zucchini and carrots all done on the grill which we enjoyed amidst this stunning sunset.

We watched a Greta Gerwig/Noah Baumbach  movie called Mistress America which eventually grew on us.  By the end of the movie, fog had crept in and we were completely surrounded with no visibility at all!

Maple Juice Cove, ME

On our last morning in Camden, Sunday August 25, we decided to have breakfast in town. There were a couple of popular breakfast spots in the center of town and we walked up to Mariner’s and put our name on the waiting list. That gave us one last chance to stroll through town and we walked up to the impressive and stately Camden Library that overlooks the harbor. It is not only a library but also a community center of sorts and the grounds are quite beautiful.  The stone walkways are engraved with quotes about books and reading from famous people such as Jacqueline Kennedy and others.

We had a very good breakfast seated on the small outdoor porch overlooking the harbor.  I’m not a big egg eater but my special of the day, a scramble with eggs, buratta, pumpkin seed pesto, and caramelized shallots was delicious and Jonny enjoyed his blueberry pancakes as well. We have to eat as many blueberries as we can while we are still in Maine!

I love this shot of the colorful skiffs lining the dinghy dock as we made our way to ours.

On our way back to Zendo we saw that Dan and Kathy had returned from their cruise and were unloading their trawler at the dock. We stopped to chat and thank them for the use of their mooring and for all the great advice on anchorages they have given to us on this trip. All their recommendations proved to be excellent! See the next photo for the schooner that Dan and Kathy skippered for many years.

We left lovely Camden Harbor at 11:05 passing by the many floats that are placed throughout the harbor,. These floats allow two to four boats to tie up to them instead of to mooring balls. We have used them in other places and they are effective and useful as space savers in a harbor.

Our initial idea was to cruise to Harbor Island until we realized that we had already been there!  We passed the picturesque Marshall Point Light as we cruised past Port Clyde.  The original keeper was Charles Clement Skinner who was a Civil War veteran and he lived there with his wife and six children from 1874 to 1919! 

We were still deciding between Maple Juice Cove as a destination or Port Clyde which has more of a town.  Eventually we chose to go to the whimsically named Maple Juice Cove because it was more remote and we had just been in a town for two days.  We arrived at this large, open cove by 3:10 and were essentially the only boat there!  We dinghied in to the nearby lobster dock which was also empty since it was Sunday.

We walked up the quiet country road.  

And we quickly came upon the house that is featured in Andrew Wyeth’s famous painting, Christina’s World.  We knew we were in Wyeth country but were surprised to be so close to one of Wyeth’s best known subjects.

Three generations of the family lived and painted in this part of the Maine coast. The house and surrounding property are currently under renovation. It is all owned by the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine. The property is several acres and there is signage describing the various buildings. The parking lot was large enough to imply that the homesite gets plenty of visitors but everything was closed while we were there due to the renovations. Nonetheless, it was exciting to discover it in this remote corner of the world.  The setting was very pastoral and serene and the home was quite stark, just as it is in the painting. 

 

We continued our walk a bit further along the scenic country road

 then headed back to Zendo passing this lobster boat with a cute reference to its prey.

After a little relaxation we had delicious leftovers from Long Grain, the Asian restaurant in Camden.  By the time we finished eating, fog had unexpectedly rolled in totally obscuring any sight of the shore. We were fully socked in but thankfully we weren’t going anywhere. 

That night we watched the Miami Vice movie enjoying the scenes shot in our own Magic City. We are making our way slowly to Portland where our good friend Cathy Tisdale will be joining us in a couple of days.

Camden, ME

It was a beautiful day on Friday, August 23 when we left our Winter Harbor anchorage at 11 a.m. bound for Camden.  We crossed through the bottom of Penobscot Bay and passed the Curtis Island Light built in 1835 arriving in Camden by 1:50.

Dan and Kathy Pease had offered us to use their mooring in Camden Harbor and it took us at least 20 minutes to find it in that large harbor but we finally did. What a benefit to have use of a free mooring in this popular town! Camden is truly one of the prettiest towns in Maine and we hadn’t been here since 2015 so we were very happy.

Upon arriving, we dinghied into town and tied up at the very full dinghy dock next to a rushing waterfall (which turned out to be a mistake). 

We walked all through this lovely town with its upscale shops and many restaurants. We had to pick up some prescriptions at Walgreen’s which was very conveniently located in the center of town.  Jonny, unfortunately, discovered that one of his ATM cards is no longer functioning as he tried to withdraw case from a couple of ATMs.  Good thing we have back-ups!

After that we decided to find a place for happy hour and then eat dinner onboard. We found the Waterfront Restaurant to be right up our alley with a working man’s bar and a waterfront setting.  We enjoyed it so much so that we decided to stay for a bite to eat which included a huge portion of mussels and a fried oyster dinner which we shared sitting at the bar.  We have never had such a big serving of mussels. Delicious!

When we returned to the dinghy we discovered that it was inundated with flies! It turned out that being right next to the waterfall when the tide goes out is not smart.  The flies flock to the beds of seaweed that are exposed. What a mess! Jonny had to rinse off the dinghy and everything that came in touch with it when we got back to Zendo.

On Saturday morning I had an early morning Spanish lesson and afterwards we went into town to explore some more. Dan had recommended a walk through their neighborhood and up a hill for a great view of the harbor.  We walked through attractive neighborhoods and headed to the recommended trailhead to Mount Beattie. Jonny and Archie walked up the trail but not all the way and I stayed back resting on one of the big rocks at the bottom.

We saw our first Kamala lawn sign and then noticed several others popping up. Definitely not as many Trump signs this year but those we have seen are very large!

Jonny noticed a familiar boat in the marina called Ancient Mariners II. We saw this boat  two years ago in Belfast, ME. It is owned by a man who was almost 100 then and his wife who was in her late 90’s. We were thrilled to see them both still at it and thankfully they have a captain to crew their beautiful boat for them!

That evening we enjoyed a date night together having made dinner reservations at a highly recommended Asian restaurant called Long Grain. We could only get seats at the bar but that was fine because we got to see some of what was happening behind the scenes.  We had a delicious dinner of mackerel fried rice, an Asian noodle dish with pork belly, and a side of kale. The servings were so large that we took some of everything back and had it for dinner the next night. 

We really enjoyed Camden. It’s extremely pretty and quite popular but not overrun with tourists. We would gladly come back to visit next time we’re in Maine.  We keep reiterating to each other that we’d like to spend more time along this magnificent coast in the future.

Winter Harbor on Vinalhaven, ME

By 9 a.m. on Thursday, August 22 we all went for a walk through the more residential part of Isle au Haut.  There was a lovely Congregational church up on a hill with a well-constructed ramp leading up to it. We followed the ramp up for a commanding view of the waterfront. 

From there we continued walking further up the hill to the other end of the Thoroughfare, the waterway where we were moored, all the way to Laundry Cove.  New England has had the most magnificent hydrangea bloom this season and most of them have been blue or white.  Here in this part of Maine they have been various shades of pink, apparently due to different soil.

As we walked down a gravel road we met a woman walking her two dogs. Stopping to chat for awhile we discovered that she and her husband were visiting his parents’ home which from what we could tell was one of the picturesque homes overlooking the water from that gorgeous point of land.  She was very enthusiastic about the upcoming election and the Democratic Convention that was still going on.

On the way back we passed the fire station with its vintage fire truck.

We stopped for a couple more items at the local market and I bought a postcard to send to Stephanie and Ryan. The tiniest post office I’ve ever seen was next door.  It was a one woman and one room operation and the postmistress assured me that she would be sure to stamp the postcard with an Isle au Haut postmark.

After heading back to Zendo, we left our anchorage by 11:05 for Winter Harbor and arrived there by 1:00 passing by the Isle au Haut Light. This lighthouse was converted to a bed and breakfast and later was available to rent. It  was then put up for sale again and its fate is uncertain at this time. It would definitely be a very cool place to stay for a while!

Finding a suitable place to drop the hook in Winter Harbor was challenging.  We came in at high tide to a very tricky anchorage with a lot of shallow spots that were submerged during high tide.  After a couple of tries at anchoring which Jonny was concerned were too close to the shallow areas we finally found a secure place to set the hook.  We were so glad we moved to that spot because at low tide we were able to see the many danger spots surrounding us. 

After lunch we dinghied into shore and this, too, was challenging. The shore line was extremely rocky and we had forgotten to wear our boat shoes.  Jonny tied up the dinghy as best he could and we went for a walk around the headland.  There were well marked trails throughout as well including a convenient staircase!

Upon our return the tide had gone out more than we expected and the dinghy was stuck on some rocks in the mud.  He had to work really hard to get it back in the water. In the meantime he wanted me to walk all the way through a slippery, seaweed strewn, rocky shore to a point where he would pick Archie and me up so as to avoid us having to wade through the cold water and rocky sea bed.  It all worked out but it was quite the little adventure!

That evening we used our gas oven for the first time this season to cook the meatloaf I had made along with baked potatoes and spinach.  We watched the last night of the Democratic Convention and were glad to see how well Kamala did and how enthusiastic the crowd’s reaction was.  Just a little over a couple of months until the election. Fingers crossed!

Next stop - charming Camden!  P.S. All the exposed land in the foreground of the next photo was submerged when we came in to anchor. That’s how shallow it was in the area all around us!