Well we have now logged over 2000 nautical miles and have had quite the adventure, sometimes more of an adventure than we want! When we left Toronto in June we were pretty naive and thought this would be an easy trip. We have found that it is a lot harder than we imaged and even though there has been great days, there have been more bad days than we want!
Bruce raising the American Courtesy flag
We are now in the United States, having left Yarmouth in the evening for a night crossing into Bar Harbor, Maine. Mike and Liliane(Zero Gravity) had left early in the morning to go to Gran Manan. We decided to skip Gran Manan and meet up with them in Bar Harbor. The night started out with great clear weather and a beautiful full moon. About 7 hours into the trip, the fog began to appear again. We were hoping once we left Nova Scotia we would also leave the fog behind. We arrived close to Bar Harbor in the early morning. Bruce was asleep in the cockpit and I was at the wheel when I saw a lobster trap floating in the water. The next thing I knew they were everywhere! I quickly woke Bruce up and he drove while I directed him around all the lobster traps. This was not an easy job as it was still very foggy and I had to open up the enclosure to see all the traps. This meant that not only was I tired, but I was cold and wet! We managed to get into the harbor around all the traps and tied up at the town dock to wait for customs to clear the boat. It was at first frustrating trying to get ahold of them but once we did it took about 2 hours for them to get to the boat. The customs officer was great and issued us a cruising permit on the spot and was gone in now time. We went out to a mooring ball and decide to go for a walk around Bar Harbor and have a rest in the afternoon. The city of Bar Harbor is on Great Desert Island and most of the island is a park that has all sorts of biking and hiking trails. J.J. Bean (sporting goods store) provides a free bus called the Island Explorer all over the island and it is a great way to get around and see everything. We returned to the boat after our walk and thought we would sleep and then have a nice quiet dinner. The next thing we knew it was 8:30 at night and we had slept right thru dinner! Mike and Liliane arrived that same evening a day earlier than we thought. They were on a ball when we got up having arrived at about 8 p.m.
We spent the next day exploring Mount Desert Island by bus. We took the bus to Northeast Harbour. Mike and Liliane had to wait out most of the day on their boat waiting for customs to clear them as there was a cruise ship in and customs was busy with them so they were unable to come with us. We were all staying another day so we took the bus into Southwest Harbor. We had lunch together and went to a couple of Marine stores as there always seems to be something we need.
We left with Mike and Liliane the next day and went to a beautiful anchorage on Marshall Island. We had hoped to visit Isle Au Haut but the anchorages there were not good for the winds that were forecast. Marshall Island in uninhabited but had a nice beach to dinghy over to and take a short walk.
Zero Gravity at anchor in Marshall Harbor
We left Marshall Harbor early the next morning for Rockland, Maine and this was by far the worst day we have had since leaving Toronto! Rather than head out to open water, we took a couple of thorofares thru some beautiful islands but also thousands of lobster pots. A book I am reading "Sailing Away from Winter" calls this coast the confetti coast. The lobster pots are so plentiful that it looks like someone thru a bunch of confetti into the water. Sailing around these pots makes for a very stressful passage. We both have to be on the lookout constantly for pots as well as other boats and buoys as well as navigate to our destination! Bruce is definitely not getting his morning and afternoon naps in anymore and that makes him a bit testy! We finally got the perfect wind to sail and we were afraid to put our sails up as that would give us one more thing to think about and we were already on overload. Many boats were passing us under full sail and plowing thru the pots. We couldn't believe how they didn't pick up the pots.
This did however build up our confidence and we decided when we passed through all the thorofare that we would put the sails up and sail the rest of the way to Rockland! It was a great sail the rest of the way until we took the sails down and realized that we must have a pot wrapped around our rudder as we had no steerage. When we put the boat in gear, it also made a horrible noise so we also figured that we had a pot around our prop! So much for the $200.00 blade we installed before leaving to cut any ropes that got caught on the prop. Luckily we were in open water and not in any danger of grounding. We called Boat U.S. which we joined before leaving home as they over free towing to members, but there was not a Boat U.S. operating out of Rockport. We got ahold of Zero Gravity and they sail that they would come back and tow us into the Rockport Harbor. Just inside the harbor was a safe place to drop the anchor and take a look at the problem. As they were swing around to put us into the wind to drop the anchor, their engine quite and they had picked up a pot also. They quickly dropped the anchor beside us and now we both had big problems. We felt terrible as they were helping us when it happened. Liliane and Mike are experienced divers and Liliane offered to suit up and go have a look at both boats. Bruce was very happy about this as the other option was for him to go into the water. Once in the water, she realized that she would also need tanks as the ropes were wrapped tightly around and she would have to spend some time under water to cut them. She manages to free Zero Gravity in about 15 minutes, which seemed a lot longer, and then swam over to our boat. It took much longer for her to free our boat and by this time she had been in the water for about 45 minutes. Even with a wet suit on it is a lot of time to be in water that was only 18 degrees. By the time she surfaced she was freezing and a bit hypodermic! We quickly brought her onto our boat and she got into a hot shower and then we wrapped her up in blankets and made some hot coffee! She was shivering so much, she could hardly talk.
Liliane in the water off Zero Gravity!
Our friends from the Mary T, Amy and Ken, were also in Rockland so we moved the boats over closer to them after we were free and we all went out for dinner together. This was the day that I was ready to come home and feeling quite homesick as I was missing a family get together for Bruce's mom's 85th birthday as well as, another friend's mother's 80th and Lindsay's first day back at school! Everything that could go wrong, was going wrong and we were both getting fed up about this time and feeling exhausted from it all! However, once we thought about it, we realized how much worse it must of been for Liliane as she was the one that had to do all the work freeing us! If she was still willing to keep going after all she had been through, we certainly could too! After a nice meal with friends and a good nights sleep we felt better. We stayed in Rockland for an extra day and took some time to get groceries, fuel and clean up the boat a bit.
From Rockland we motored over to Boothbay Harbor and anchored off the town. It was a really cute touristy town with lots of shops etc. We travelled with Mike and Liliane again and we all went out to dinner.
We left early the next day for Falmouth Foreside, which is just 5 miles outside of Portland. Our friends Brad and Anita have a good friend here that set us up at the Portland Yacht Club for the night. We had a drink with Drew on the boat and then went out to dinner with Drew and his wife Vicky. Drew and Vicky lent us their car for the next day and we went into Portland's Old Port to browse and go to another Marine Store! It was Drew's birthday during the week and Vicky was planning a surprise birthday dinner at the yacht club for him on Friday night. I sort of blew it by asking them to join us for dinner on Friday night and Vicky was forced to tell him about the surprise in order to explain why they were busy and not able to have dinner with us! They invited us to join in the birthday celebration at the club for dinner. What we didn't realize is that they also invited about 20 other members of their family also. We had a great time and enjoyed meeting so many new people. We then went over to Drew and Vicky's for cake. I must say, I have never seen a bigger carrot cake in my life! All I can say is Drew better get ready for next year's celebration if this year is any indication of the party's Vicky puts on for a non milestone birthday!
We will probably leave tomorrow with the Mary T, as Zero Gravity went a bit further than us the last couple of days. We will likely catch up with them again hopefully. We are working our way to Marblehead where we will leave the boat and fly home from Boston. Drew thinks that this would be our best bet and we agree. He has also given us tons of other advise and contacts which will come in handy as we continue our trip South. Will probably be home next Wednesday or Thursday if the weather forecast is right.
Friday, September 7, 2007
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3 comments:
Hi Esther. It was great to talk to you as I was getting worried. I did not receive your email so please try again-bensonr@email.adsb.on.ca Love you Ruth
AHOY MATES !!!!!!!!
Sorry to hear about your problems with the lobster pots. Thank goodness your friends were around to help. Sounds as though you have had some really good times too.
I have been away flying a lot lately so am just catching up on your very interesting blog now. I discovered something cool. The pics add a lot to your story. I was straining to try and see the details because they are small.
If you put the curser over the pic and left click once, it greatly enlarges it and you can see it beautifully. To return to normal size, click on the back arrow <--.
I will look forward to seeing you upon your return home.
Cheers,,,,,,,,,,Nancy
Hi Esther, Bruce
You are both courageous and looks like you both have sea bound legs.
Sure hope we will see you next year as the hole in the back yard is now complete. A pool that Bruce can share his memories while Dan floats around him in his lounging chair and of course with a cold one.
Lauren says hello and all the fall activites have started up again.
New school this year for her .
Happy sailing trips with much easier excitement.
Regards.
Pat, Lauren, Dan Guitard
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