We had a fabulous day visiting Booth Bay Harbor on Sept. 9, another one of our favorite towns!
Our sleep was interrupted the night before with the boat rocking and rolling for a couple of hours. It felt like trying to sleep in a cradle that was being rocked a bit too hard. During the night the wind clocked around and came in (unpredictably) from the north. Unfortunately our anchorage was well protected from all but north winds. We awoke to a very foggy morning yet we proceeded with our plan to go to Booth Bay Harbor and then on to another anchorage. We left at about 7:30 a.m. under our trusty instruments (radar) in the fog.
Once we were in the open waters, the sun broke through and the day turned out to be beautiful. We arrived in Booth Bay Harbor around 10:30 (another three hour tour) and tied up at the town dock.
What a lovely quaint town! We decided that we prefer Booth Bay over Camden because it is smaller and more intimate and picturesque. We’re lucky to be here at the tail end of the tourist season. It is not very crowded, most places (but not all) are still open, and there are lots of sales!
We walked around a while and tried to visit the local museum but found that it was closed so we stopped in a couple of shops and bought a few gifts and small items for the boat.
On the roadside, we happened upon a surprisingly interesting sculpture garden overlooking the water.
We were surprised to see that leaves on some of the trees are starting to turn already!
For lunch we enjoyed unbelievably good lobster rolls at a lobster shack next to the harbor. We’ve never had a lobster roll that included the meat from an entire lobster before! Accompanied by Maine blueberry soda and chips, it was quite a treat!
When you read about cruisers, you learn that ice cream is always a treat when in town. This is likely the case because most of us can’t keep ice cream in our onboard freezers. We found an especially good place for ice cream in Booth Bay Harbor with a huge selection of homemade ice cream in every imaginable flavor. Jonny had their blueberry ice cream made with Maine blueberries – got to get them while we can in whatever form is available!
We left Booth Bay at around 2:30 bound for our next anchorage, the fittingly named Love Bay. To get there, we went the Southport swing bridge and through Townsend Gut.
This narrow passage way lined with gorgeous homes and festooned with hundreds of lobster pots.
This was our quickest cruise yet, only an hour before we arrived at lovely Love Cove. We took a mooring ball in a tranquil setting with just a few homes of the traditional New England clapboard and natural shingle design, some with a modern flair.
We thought we were going to have a relaxing afternoon on the boat but instead Jonny and Robbie spent the entire afternoon on boat repairs. They removed the pesky davit system from the swim platform and secured it on the sundeck roof. They continued trying to trouble shoot our broken auto pilot and may have honed into the source of the problem. We lined up someone in Portland to work on its repair.
Robbie found some more mussels on shore and brought a mess of them back for dinner. Lynn made mussels with white wine, fettuccini, and grilled zucchini. These were big mussels, not as delectable as Robbie’s last catch but still delicious. We are definitely enjoying all the treasures from the sea!
As a result of the crucial boat repairs required, we need to skip our next planned anchorage and go straight to Portland where we plan to stay for a few days. Robbie and his wife Linda live on a mountaintop in West Paris, Maine and they have invited us to stay with them for a couple of days. We’re looking forward to spending time Portland and visiting them in their special home.
