Well, as these things often happen, we prepped for a hurricane but Earl weakened and changed course and was a non-event in Northeast Harbor. We returned from Bangor yesterday, retrieved Scourge from the kitty hotel, and spent the afternoon re-installing everything above deck and re-stocking our groceries.

This morning, after getting our sails back on and filling and draining various tanks (you can guess which we needed to fill and which we needed to empty), we finally left Northeast harbor and Mount desert Island and headed off after almost a week there. Unfortunately, we waited too late in the day and, by the time we left, the wind had shifted and built and we had 15 knots right on the bow....Ah well, we needed a long battery charging anyway!

We anchored in Buckle Harbor, a small bight between Buckle Island and Swan's Island (the locals are waging a campaign against the US Postal Service and the USGS to have that apostrophe in the name as the island's original owner was Mr. Swan). This is a very beautiful harbor and Buckle Island is a real gem. It's a small island that has sloping rocks and tide pools around its edge and walking trails through it's interior. People have built little houses for fairies all over and other quirky things. In particular, one will encounter this door on one of the trails. If that isn't sufficiently surreal, the door is clearly marked "Reality"...

It felt good to come into an anchorage, drop the hook, turn on the anchor light, and settle in for the night. After the running about on shore and staying in commercial marinas, it's nice to have a night at anchor. We're back.