Maine - iac
Lobster buoys. Artwork on land. Hazards at sea!
While the winds (and gazillions of lobster buoys) were not very amenable to sailing, we had a great time continuing to explore Maine’s beautiful coast, albeit primarily by motor instead of sail.
From the Isle au Haut, we headed further “Down East” (Maine lingo…even though we were heading north as well as east!) to Somes Sound on Mount Desert Island. A beautiful fjord with centuries-old mansions lining its banks and water nearly 10 degrees warmer than the “regular” Maine coast, it was a lovely location to spend a few days—and to enjoy a lobster dinner at Abel’s Lobster restaurant.
Then we were off to Winter Harbor – the northeastern-most stop of our journey. There, we enjoyed convenient e-bike access to a more remote—although no less stupendous--portion of the Acadia National Park. We delighted in the evergreen-terraced one-way roads, minimal crowds, and sunlit vistas of huge granite slabs trellising down to the crashing sea. Our bike tour also took us through the quaint town of Winter Harbor, where we availed ourselves to more fresh lobster and oysters from the local lobster pound.
While our foldable e-bikes are a delight when we pull them out, it’s not a trivial undertaking. It requires lugging their 45-lb frames up from their under-the-bed storage in the hull, carefully maneuvering them through the salon and cockpit, loading them onto the dinghy (taking care not to drop them overboard!), then unloading them onto the dinghy dock (again, hold on tight!), where we assemble them for our ride. It’s a team effort: Pete does all the heavy lifting, while I helpfully “manage” the procedure.
Our next mooring was at the fun, touristy town of Bar Harbor, where we took the free bus (funded in part by L.L. Bean) on a 1.5 hour tour to check out the “main” Acadia National Park via Loop Road. While the scenery was beautiful, we were thankful that we’d spent our time hiking and biking in quieter park environs – the crowds we experienced on this sunny Sunday afternoon were indicative of Acadia’s rank as the second-most visited national park in the US. (Trivia question of the day: what does the L.L stand for in L.L. Bean? Leon Leonwood, of course! Leon Leonwood Bean founded L.L. Bean in 1912.)
We’ve also learned that horseflies are NASTY in Maine at this time of the year! After leaving Bar Harbor, we anchored for lunch at a beautiful, remote bay between Black and Opechee Islands, intending to spend a leisurely afternoon and evening…until the horseflies chased us away. Instead, we pulled anchor and continued on, ultimately anchoring at Orcutt Harbor and then the next day at Ram Island near Castine. While fear of the huge biting flies disrupted our outdoors time and stand-up paddleboard (SUP) aspirations, it made us very thankful for our recently installed magnetic screen door that prevents unwelcome pests from invading our salon.
We finally did take our SUPs out for an early morning paddle around Ram Island, acting upon our hypothesis that the horseflies seemed to wait until the midday heat. Whether true or not, we were able to paddle the pristine, glassy waters unmolested, and we enjoyed a chilly, yet refreshing dip in the sea upon our return.
Our next stop was the cute town of Belfast, followed by a rocking and rolling sail in torrential rains down to Rockland, ME, where we met up with some friends and our daughter, Katia.
