Day 161 - Fri 4 Sep 2015
Moored - Northeast Harbor (Mt. Desert), ME

[photo: our wonderful lobster roll lunch]

The wind piped up for a short while during the wee hours and woke us up, but otherwise it was a very peaceful night. With the time change, I got up when the clock read about 0500 and put on the generator for 40 minutes to recharge the batteries, heat the hot water tank, and warm the boat for Diane. I figured at that hour everyone would still be asleep in their bunks and not likely to hear our quiet generator. Plus, the local lobstermen are running their boats here any time after about 0300, it seems, and they are much louder than our generator.

Diane got up a bit later, well rested even after the long passage yesterday, and we enjoyed blueberry pancakes. I took the dinghy to shore to use the beautiful shower facilities, but on the way a wasp flew under my sunglasses and got stuck in my left eyebrow where it obviously panicked and stung me. It didn't swell, but throbbed annoyingly for much of the day.

The harbormaster's office was open so I went in to find two middle-aged men who looked pretty experienced behind the counter. I wound up asking a couple of quick questions and came away with the confirmation that Mainers are typically not chatty. If you need help and ask for it, I assume you will get it, but don't expect anyone to say more than they have to. I learned that the large dinghy dock is essentially full with dinghies because most of the moored boats have no one aboard and the owners leave their dinghies at the dock to get to their boats if and when they show up to use them. Most of those dinghies haven't moved in a long time.

I also learned a bit about this new-to-us concept of floats. Rather than just a single-point mooring that one boat attaches to at the bow, the float is a small floating wooden dock about 40 feet long that is moored on both ends. One boat can tie up to the float on each side, and the float does not swing or move much, so it allows many more boats to be crammed into the harbor. If you were buddy boating and wanted to be close to each other, that is one benefit, but I can't say I can see any advantage to a boater to choose a float over a mooring ball. Perhaps some readers can enlighten me otherwise.

The visitor center was also open and the man behind the desk did not greet me, nor offer any assistance. When I asked if he could help me, then I got a few helpful replies. He didn't even ask me to sign the guest register, which is something almost all visitor center staff will ask you to do. I need to be clear when I make these observations that I am not usually criticizing (sometimes I am, of course). I am merely pointing out things or behaviors which are different enough to me to be noteworthy. I think it is human nature to take pause with things that are different than you are accustomed to.

Diane was impressed with all the pamphlets I got for interesting things to do. Coincidentally, some Maine cruisers following this blog (Ron and Faye) emailed with suggestions that echo what we planned to do here, as well. We also have our friends, Jack and Marilyn from home in Punta Gorda who spent a lot of time up here when they lived in Maine. Another Looper, Joe, has also offered good advice on Maine.

Just before 1000, we hopped on the propane-fueled, free Island Explorer bus (#5) which runs between here (Northeast Harbor pier) to the Bar Harbor village green. It took about 50 minutes, but it was a pretty scenic ride. The only bad part was the bus was wide enough for its wheels to hit every pothole along the side of the road and it was a jarring ride.

Bar Harbor is definitely a tourist town, but what a beautiful place to visit. We saw more upscale motels and B&Bs than we have in a very long time. The Village Green area and several other parks are very well kept. The number of eateries (from fine restaurants to sub shops) is impressive, and many of the stores looked to carry things of pretty nice quality, with a few T-shirt places mixed in, of course. We window shopped until we reached the location of Oli's Trolley where we purchased tickets for the 1300 tour lasting 2.5 hours.

Nearby was the West Street Cafe Seafood Grille where just on a whim I decided we should have our early lunch. I got a bowl of clam chowder to share, we each ordered the lobster roll, but Diane wanted hers without mayo and melted butter on the side. Well, maybe her special order was the key, but when they came out, we couldn't believe how much succulent claw meat lobster was stuffed onto the roll. Mine was good and plentiful but hers was amazing. I have taken the meat out of a number of lobsters lately and can tell you her roll alone was equivalent to at least a 1-1/4 lb lobster. Everything we had was delicious (including the beer and wine) and the bill with tip came to $56. The only bad part was that it was actually $56 and not $43 like it would have been with the exchange rate in Canada.

We had almost an hour to kill before the trolley tour, we continued exploring all the shops in the town and Diane remarked how she could have fun there for an entire day. I offered for her to do just that the following day but she declined. We got on the trolley and thoroughly enjoyed the driver and the non-stop narrative about what we were seeing and the background stories behind the area and the park. The best of the 3 stops was at the top of Cadillac Mountain where the views of the water and numerous islands below were amazing. Along the way, we learned a lot of history about Acadia National Park that we found very interesting.

I won't do the details justice, but one story was of a group of artists who came up to Mt. Desert in the mid-1800s, long before it was popular, and painted many of the natural wonders they saw. At Sand Beach, their views from on high showed the water near the beach as a nice shade of green. When these paintings were displayed in the big cities of New York, Boston, etc., people scoffed at the idea that there could be green water like the Caribbean in the cold northeastern USA, so many had to come up (the richer ones, of course) to see for themselves. We did see it, and it is green, but according to the story, that was one of the prime reasons that MDI (Mt Desert Island) became so well-known and popular as word-of-mouth spread.

Once off the trolley, we walked a half mile to the Hannaford Grocery store where we picked up some provisions and were surprised to see for the first time in our lives (that we can remember, anyway), liquor in the middle of the grocery aisles. It wasn't a huge selection, but Diane got her standard bourbon (Jim Beam) for less than half what we had to pay in Canada.

The walk back to the Village Green was not too bad, despite our somewhat heavy burdens, and we only had to wait a short bit for the next bus. I should mention that the weather was absolutely perfect today. We had bright sunshine, low humidity, a light breeze, and a great temperature. In the sun it felt warm enough for Diane in shorts, and in the shade it was cool enough for me.

We spent some quality time with Clyde after being gone so long, made some flatbread pizzas while I ran the generator, and enjoyed a peaceful and relaxing night until sunset around 2130. Tomorrow, we plan to visit some lovely gardens, explore the little town of Northeast Harbor, and probably pick up some cooked lobster on the way back for supper aboard.