How is it that we have never been to Castine before? I think it's a bit off the beaten path to drive to from Deer Isle or Freeport? Too many good places in Maine to visit? Loving re-visiting known special spots giving us a sense of place? I guess it was good to wait for know, as it was a great sail here and a great time here.

This time, the threat of afternoon thunderstorms didn't deter us, but got us moving early. We left Merchants Island Harbor before the wind stirred, but motored in to Stonington (happily charging our batteries) to get 5 weeks of mail, fuel, water, provisions, and a pump out. All was accomplished with the exception of a pump out, which at Billings Marine can only be done at high tide! Annoying. We decided we could do this at Castine and headed out. If it hadn't been for our friend Elizabeth, we wouldn't have gotten any good mail in 5 weeks. It's amazing how texts and emails have the newsy fun info from friends, family and neighbors.... No longer is snail mail the way to really get info rather than an occasional card.

Just when we were getting annoyed at motoring across Penobscot Bay, the wind stirred and we put up the sails to sail up to and around Cape Rosier to Castine with the wind at our backs. This long sail along Isleboro is a shipping lane, so that must be why there are no lobster pots to dodge. What a relief! We could see forever, and no ships were on the horizon other than some Huge three masted schooners wi all their sails up traveling far off looking like the "Days Of Sail." One interesting thing I recently learned about this era was that they never tacked upwind, only flew with the prevailing winds down wind! The cotton sails were not able to go into the strong winds, and it wasn't until different materials were created that tacking was discovered. How limiting! No wonder they crashed all over the place, and went to places they weren't intending to go!

Anyway, we arrived at the accommodating Castine and were impressed with their town facilities. The Pumpout was easy and convenient, you can dock your boat for a few hours while buying provisions (which in this case included a book since my kindle died- drag!), the old homes are lovely and restored, and even though Stonington and Castine have terrible produce in their tiny harbor stores, there was a big sign advertising a farmers market in the morning! Yippee. When the storm started presenting itself, we got back in our boat and headed up to Smith Cove to anchor amongst a few big sailing and motor yachts. One next to us was called Blue Guitar, turns out to be Eric Claptons! Rain was brief after anchoring, thunder and lightning was far off, and we still had warmth to swim and take a deck shower after supper before reading our mail.