Cruising Maine September 2011 X Friday, September 16, 2011 - 11 AM The Basin, New Meadows River Casco Bay, Maine Water temperature 61 F

When the front came through last night we hardly noticed it. We are surrounded by hills and trees that blocked the brunt of the wind and gusts and the most we saw was 15 knot winds with 20 knot gusts. The trip here yesterday through fog; relying on the chartplotter to tell us where we were and relying on the radar to tell us where lobster boats where; wasn't easy but was worth the effort. Once we cleared the harbor and got in open water we had about 300 foot visibility for the first 30 miles. Then it started to rain and visibility improved to about a mile. At least the rain wasn't cold and the wind almost completely died when the rain started. When we saw the first rain clouds on the radar we dropped the main. There had been a report on the weather radio that one rain squall packed 60 knot winds. We were lucky in that all squalls that passed over us dropped gentle rain with no wind. Once the squalls passed by, the last five miles up the New Meadows River was relatively pleasant. Once we worked our way back into The Basin, it was down right nice.

In the Gulf of Mexico, the Bottle Nose Dolphins are very social creatures who will always come up to the boat and will often stick their heads out of the water to make eye contact with us. In the north the type of dolphins here are not near so social and we don't see them as frequently. But yesterday, in the fog, a dolphin jumped completely out of the water not a boat length away. It probably wanted to see who was crazy enough to be out sailing in the fog.

Lobster boats typically have big diesel engines and they are noisy. Traveling through the fog yesterday it was reassuring to hear the lobster boats as they moved around pulling their lobster pots. The radar would show a red blob where the lobster boats were but hearing the sound of their engines off to the side made it more real and less abstract. When it was apparent that our course was going to take us too close to a stationary boat, we would make a ten degree course change about a mile from the other boat. A lobster boat will usually have several pots relatively close together. They will move from pot to pot in that spot and they charge off (Varoooom!) to the next location where they have pots. Our course change would keep us away from where they were currently pulling pots but there was no way to predict what their future actions would be. All the lobster boats have radar and their Captains are very salty watermen so I wasn't worried that a lobster boat would come charging out of the fog and nail us. The few times a lobster boat came near us they came close enough to see us (See who else was crazy enough to be out boating in the fog?), gave us a wave and then disappeared into the mist.

We've seen the last of summer weather in Maine. It is a clear, cool (60 F), windy day here in The Basin. Our foul weather gear is hung up in the cockpit to dry and the lifelines are draped with drying towels. Anyone observing us from onshore will know that the Nautical Vagabonds have arrived. The inside of the boat is wet from condensation and hatches are cracked open to dry the boat out. Other than do a few boat chores, I don't think we will do anything today but sit onboard and enjoy this glorious Fall day.