Chloe comes to Maine

Our second visitor to Maine was our friend Chloe. Apart from one rainy day, she had amazing weather. The clear skies led to hot sunny days but several times the crispy cold mornings produced a phenomenon called sea smoke on the water, a lovely sight in the first of the sun’s rays.



While she was here, we went for a sail, right round Islesboro island, taking along our friends Bonnie & Earl and Carol. We didn’t have much wind but enjoyed a stately sail and a relaxing laze on deck in the sun. After Dave dropped off our friends in the dinghy, we spent the night in another new and remote anchorage, behind Holbrook island, with nothing but trees and one other yacht for company as the sun went down.



The next morning, we took the dinghy to Castine, one of the earliest European settlements and site of the worst American naval defeat in history back in 1779. It now houses the stunning Maine Maritime Academy building, and groups of naval trainees in uniform marched past us as we wandered up the hill. We stopped in a little café for an award-winning strawberry icecream. Dave had a job to eat his as Katie’s arms kept reaching out from the sling and her eyes longingly followed the cornet up to his mouth and back for each lick.

With the boat back in Belfast, Chloe and I did a mammoth hike to the top of Mount Megunticook, 1385 feet high and overlooking Mount Battie, the lower Penobscot Bay and out to sea. The views were incredible, as were our aching legs when we finally reached the bottom 5 hours later. The warden’s estimate of 3 hours for the trail was obviously for fitter walkers than ourselves, or maybe carrying 15 lb of baby slowed me down…



Chloe couldn’t come to Maine without trying the local delicacy of lobster so we went for lunch at the lobster pound across the river. It had a wonderful setting with seats outside overlooking the river but it was definitely a no-frills restaurant. You walk inside a ‘lobster warehouse’ to order - the place is wall-to-wall with tanks and real-live fishermen are busily sorting the latest catch.
Your order number corresponds with a tag on the string bag they boil your lobster in and when it’s ready they call it out on a tannoy for you to collect. Chloe took the soft option of lobster salad, where the meat is already taken out of the shell. I went for the real thing – a whole lobster, a pot of melted butter and a bag of Cape Cod crisps, but I did jazz it up with corn-on-the-cob on the side. It was absolutely delicious but a messy business, especially since Katie didn’t want to miss out on the action. Good job they gave you a whole stack of serviettes to wipe up the mess…











We are staying in Belfast for another week or so, then heading south. This year, we are foregoing the sunny Caribbean to spend the winter in Newport, Rhode Island. The weather there is meant to be less severe than in Maine, and Dave is hoping to catch up on some much-needed boat maintenance. Time will tell if this is a good idea or not!

Grandparents to visit

We have just had our first visitors to Maine - Hazel’s Mum and Dad flew over for a ten-day visit, bringing with them supplies of Jelly Babies, Fig Rolls and other such UK delicacies. They were amazed to see the difference in Katie, who they last saw at one-week old. She is now very aware of what is going on, and is getting pretty vocal about her likes and dislikes. Bathtime she likes!



Their first weekend here coincided with the American Folk Festival in Bangor so we took the boat upriver to watch the fun. There were five stages showing an enormous diversity of acts, including Tibetan monks’ bell-ringing (in fantastic costumes), fishermens’ shanties and Appalachian folk singing. We saw a bizarre demonstration of Inuit throat-singing as well as the more traditional blues and folk music.
The weather was scorching, in the 80’s, and we had a perfect dockside location to retreat to. We had our fair share of onlookers there, especially when Dave got Katie in the paddling pool – a joy to watch her laughing and splashing!
Lots of regional food was also on offer – we settled for clam chowder (seafood stew) and, on a friend’s recommendation, tried a ‘blooming onion’, a huge onion sliced in such a way that when it was deep-fried in batter it opened out to make a huge ‘flower’ of onion ring pieces. Delicious!



After the festival, we motored, sailed and drifted down the river to Bucksport, where a brand-new suspension bridge crosses the river. We sailed under it last year when it was still under construction (the two halves didn’t quite meet), now it fully replaces the old road bridge to link the islands heading 'down east'. We took the superfast elevator up one of the bridge towers for spectacular views from the top. At 42 stories high, this is one of only three such Observation Towers in the world and the first in the US.

From Bucksport, we skirted the top of Islesboro and went down the east side of Penobscot Bay. We stopped at Bucks Harbour, Stonington, Ile au Haut and Vinylhaven, each night on a different island. Two anchorages were new to us, both very remote and scenic. One we shared with just one other boat - they must have been delighted when we turned up!

Dave varnished the mast while the rest of us climbed Duck Mountain on Ile au Haut, Grandad carrying Katie in the sling. We had great views over Penobscot Bay from the top but got a bit concerned when the path led us further and further away from the starting point. We were relieved to finally rejoin the main track but then got attacked by hordes of mosquitoes. Katie was well covered up but we were all in shorts…



Back on the mooring in Belfast, we explored locally by car, visiting the excellent Searsport Maritime Museum and Dave’s favourite - Liberty Tools, chock full of second-hand and antique tools. We drove along the wooded coast, past inland lakes and climbed Mount Battie for a wonderful view over the Bay from the opposite shore.

Mum and Dad were surprised by the variety of wildlife they saw – a family of ospreys regularly circle overhead in Belfast, alighting on one mast and then another. We had often heard a bird cheeping nearby but hadn’t associated the tiny cheep with these big birds of prey! We saw a bald eagle along the banks of the river and lots of seals and porpoises in the water. Although moose and deer run wild in Maine, the only animals we saw in the trees during our walks were squirrels and chipmunks.



We went to Blue Hill Fair, an old-fashioned country fair with cattle shows, sheepdog trials, an oxen pull, prize marrows and dahlias. Katie went on her first Ferris wheel and Dave picked her a lucky duck to win a cuddly toy. There were stalls galore selling lobster rolls, hot dogs, fudge, candy floss, ‘doughboys’ (a doughnut the size of a dinner plate). There was a lumberjack display where they chopped logs, ‘sculpted’ a very disappointing rabbit with a chainsaw, and two girls in checked shirts danced on top of a rolling floating log.

And last but not least, on the way to the airport we stopped at Dysarts, a big family-run truckstop to admire the shiny trucks and sample some good honest Maine home-cooking - the biggest plate of mushrooms my Mum had ever seen! It was so good we stopped in again on the way home.


sunrise from the porthole