On to Booth Bay Harbor
07 August 2012 | Booth Bay Harbor ME
Linda / Partly cloudy, cool
We left Portland at 8:15, after the dockhands were able to assist in getting us out of our tight slip. Fortunately several boats had moved and Jim had a plan to back into a double slip and then move forward out of the fairway. It worked like a charm. Luckily the water was calm and there was no wind.
We proceeded East along the coast. We watched for seals and saw some staring at us. Mostly we saw fish traps scattered about. The weather was beautiful but no wind to sail. We motored along and got to BoothBay in good time. About 1pm we pulled up to the bulkhead dock. The harbor was beautiful. There were a few too many resorts lining the shore but it made for a busy place to watch people. We were docked right by the Inn and the dinghy dock so we visited with many people passing by. Tasha drew a lot of attention and loved being petted. The atmosphere was friendly and laid back. We had a club soda at the little restaurant overlooking the marina. Peter and Harry were the helpful dockmasters.
We met Roger and Kim who own a Hunter 35. They belong to a Hunter sailboat club that meets socially in different destinations. They are headed to Rockland.
We awoke to fog every morning. So instead of heading to Rockland as planned, we decided to stay a couple more days in this idyllic spot. We explored the city, walking around the harbor. There were several 'general stores'. Many gift shops and lots of restaurants. We tried Ports of Italy, an Italian restaurant on Commercial street. The service was excellent. Food fantastic. It was a memorable evening.
One day I went in search of chocolate chip cookies for Jim. After finding an amazing pet store and a couple of interesting gift shops, I saw a sign that pointed to a bakery café. "Perfect", I thought. I hesitantly walked in to a shop that looked almost deserted. An older man was sitting at a table and he welcomed me. I asked him if he had any chocolate chip cookies and he said he just took some out of the over. Did I believe him? No. But he was sweet so I bought two giant chocolate chip cookies. They looked a little suspicious, shiny and slick, like the dough wasn't thick enough, but I took them. As I was walking back, I saw some other packaged cookies so I bought them just in case the originals weren't ok. It turned out that Jim loved them. (I let him try them first). They were delicious!
We watched the sun set on a clear evening. The sun was behind us, but the changing shadows and light on the boats in the harbor and buildings across the water were beautiful to watch. The night got still and fog rolled in.
Jim checked weather to try to find a good time to get North to Rockland, but it didn't look good until the next Tuesday. That would mean we wouldn't have enough time to get there and then back to Boston in time for his surgery scheduled for August 22. So we decided to rent a car and drive to Bar Harbor instead of taking the time to sail there.
The drive was pretty. I really like Maine. It reminds me of the Colorado mountains. Evergreen trees lined the shores, rocky ledges, steep cliffs and clear skies with fog settling over the islands. It was beautiful.
The town of Bar Harbor was very congested and busy with people, quite different from Booth Bay Harbor.