Bar Harbor, ME

I had a Spanish lesson on Tuesday, August 6 so Jonny took Archie for one last walk in Frenchboro. This time he walked into the little village and saw the church, the tiny schoolhouse, many lobster traps, as well as more of the damage that occurred during the storm in January.

Unfortunately, my connectivity was spotty so once again we had to reschedule my lesson. When Jonny returned we took off at 10 a.m. bound for Winter Harbor. But then we decided that we should get a pump-out since there is no good place to get one as we cruise further down east. Our macerator wasn’t working properly so even that wasn’t an option.  After a few phone calls to find a pump-out facility we discovered that the only feasible one was in Bar Harbor so that’s where we went. 

It was a chilly day but the seas were calm as we approached the beautiful coastline near Bar Harbor.

We got a mooring in Bar Harbor and planned to get the pump-out the following morning.  There were some impressive vessels as we entered the harbor.

I liked the name of this boat!

That afternoon we dinghied into town to explore. The last time we were here was when we visited our friends Michael and Melina who took us to a cool little movie theatre to see the Elvis movie. We had a yummy lunch at a local pub called The Thirsty Whale where we had cups of lobster bisque and clam chowder and a big plate of fried clams that we shared. 

Bar Harbor is a touristy town and quite busy. It has lots of cool shops and outdoor clothing stores as well as the typical tee shirt shops.

I’ve been a little concerned that Archie is sometimes shivering when we are underway in this cooler weather, plus he has that short haircut. So I decided I would buy him a sweater to see if that would help. We stopped at a pet shop and bought him a cute little burgundy sweatshirt that looks quite nice on him. We’ll have to see how it works. 

We walked back to the dinghy through a lovely waterfront park with lots of people enjoying the grassy lawn and harbor views.

Upon our return to Zendo we relaxed a bit and had a snack instead of dinner while watching the big news about Kamala’s selecting Tim Walz to be her running mate.  We also tuned into YouTube to see their speeches as well as Josh Shapiro’s rousing introduction. It’s exciting to see how energized the Dems are now that we have a strong ticket in Harris and Walz.

We got a call from Robbie to say that he arrived at their home in W. Paris, ME only to become very sick. It’s not Covid but it may be the result of a tick bite. He’s starting a prescription and we’re all hoping he recovers quickly and can return to Harrington where we are supposed to see him and Linda in just a couple of days. Fingers crossed!

Frenchboro, ME

Early Monday morning, August 5 we awoke to thick, pea soup fog.  

But fortunately for us, it cleared up rather quickly and we were able to dingy onto the shore of  nearby Vinalhaven Island.  We tied up to some rocks and went for an energizing two and a half mile hike through the Huber Preserve in Seal Bay. The well marked trail loops took us through forests and fields and along the rocky coastline. Archie got to be off leash the whole time.

The only other people we saw were a young couple with a three month old baby. They were on family leave for three months. This New York couple was lucky enough to be able to spend their time bonding with the baby in this beautiful part of Maine!

Returning to Zendo, we had lunch before taking off for our next stop at 12:45.

The Maine Cruising Guide gave Frenchboro four stars and raved about what a great stop it was with wonderful hiking, a small village and even a little restaurant to get the freshest lobster and clams around.  So it was an easy decision to choose Frenchboro!  We arrived three hours later and entered the long, rather narrow and well-protected harbor.  We grabbed what looked to be a good mooring and tied up only to discover that we were hovering very close to a lobster pot.  The  proximity was nerve wracking and we were afraid we would get tangled up in the lobsters pot’s lines so we moved a bit further out to another mooring.  

We were close to a very friendly cruising couple from Newport aboard the most beautiful red 51 foot Hinckley yawl. 

We took the dinghy (or skiff as they call it in Maine) into the rather dilapidated dock and were a bit chagrined to see that  nothing was open and the little restaurant looked like it had been closed for quite some time. There was a sign with a QR code instructing us how to pay for the mooring on Venmo which of course we did. It is clearly the honor system around here.  

We saw some other boaters on the dock and asked them if anything was open and they explained that much of the operation there had been destroyed during a fierce storm last January. It looked as if it would be a while before anything was functioning again.

We walked around the area and saw that even some of the nearby houses seemed to be empty. The head of the harbor was about a half mile away.  We could see a couple of buildings that made up the village there but we chose not to go and instead headed back to Zendo.

That evening we had leftovers for dinner along with a salad. We were a little disappointed that Frenchboro did not live up to the description in our cruising guide but this was clearly an exception to most of our experiences to date.

Seal Bay, ME

While I had a Spanish lesson at 8:15 Jonny took Archie into shore for a walk. We knew it was going to be a rainy day but we decided not to wait out the rain and to push on instead.  We left our anchorage by 11:15 on Sunday, August 4 bound for an anchorage in Winter Harbor next to Penobscot Island.  On our way we passed this picturesque lighthouse called Whitehead Light. It was originally built by order of President Thomas Jefferson in 1807!

As we crossed by Tenant’s Harbor on Penobscot Bay we saw a number of beautiful wooden sailboats that were returning from a weekend race.

We cruised through the Fox Thoroughfare by Vinylhaven.  

Eventually we changed destinations and decided to go to Seal Bay because it looked to have better access to trails where we could do some hiking.  There are so many beautiful places we can visit that it’s hard to decide!  We reached Seal Bay by 4:15 and had a variety of anchorages from which to choose.  Selecting a spot with no other boats, we set the anchor and were pleased with our choice.

Jonny took Archie for a dinghy ride to explore where we could land it while I started to prepare dinner.  I used the three ears of corn that we had bought at the market in Five Islands to make a hearty corn and potato chowder.  Evenings are definitely cooling off here on the coast of Maine so a cozy chowder was a welcome treat and quite tasty.  We think Archie might might also be a little chilly due to his short haircut!

We are taking our time cruising these waters in the days before we reach the area where Jonny’s cousin Robbie and his wife, Linda have a cottage in Harrington.

Harbor Island, ME

I had an 8 a.m. Spanish lesson on Saturday, August 3 but due to a spotty internet connection we had to stop after only 20 minutes. It was a rainy morning and we waited for the rain to stop before heading out.  Jonny first took Archie for a quick walk and dropped our contribution for the mooring into the attached canister.  We left by 10:45 in a foggy mist for the relatively short cruise to Harbor Island in Muscongus Bay.

We had recently purchased the latest copy of A Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast which has proved to be invaluable to us.  There are literally hundreds of suggested anchorages all along the coast and it’s a pleasant challenge to decide which ones to select. They are each rated by their safety, beauty and access to resources so we can choose isolated spots or others that are near towns with restaurants, stores and other facilities.   Now that we have come this far down east we are prone to select more isolated anchorages and to choose places that we had not visited previously.

Harbor Island looked very appealing and we  arrived there three hours later. We found a really nice spot between Harbor and Hall Islands.  The water is very deep here and the tides are quite dramatic. We tried to anchor between two sailboats but the man in one of them rowed over to us to suggest that we would be safer to anchor a bit further away because we were so close to them and our trawler would tend to act differently on anchor with the tide and wind than sailboats do.  We appreciated his advice and we moved Zendo a bit further away and felt more comfortable doing so.

The Harbor Island anchorage was very beautiful,  probably the prettiest place we’ve stayed so far this trip. We took the dinghy in to shore and Jonny used this opportunity to try out the new rigging system he assembled for tying up the dinghy with Maine’s extreme tides.  The system worked well except for one minor issue - the dinghy anchor didn’t grab in the water. Oh well, live and learn!

Harbor Island is privately owned.  Their home looked like it stepped out of a painting by Andrew Wyeth.

The owners kindly allow visitors to explore the island along a path that winds through the island and along the coast. So that’s exactly what we did. It was a beautiful walk through woodlands and along a very rocky shoreline.  We hiked up to the high point of the island with a huge rocky promontory jutting out into the bay.  It was gorgeous!

Upon our return to Zendo I made a delicious vegetarian  dinner using the big cauliflower that had been sitting in our refrigerator for a while. I adapted a savory recipe to the ingredients we had on hand using tomatoes, olives, capers, garlic and wine and it came out great!  Afterwards, we had a quiet evening on board in our peaceful and lovely anchorage.