30 July, Monday
01 August 2018 | Mistake Island to Dyer Island via Petit Manan
Very quiet night. I was a little concerned about the tide change and us drifting too close to the rocks not far away, but we had plenty of space. Having morning coffee watching the sun climb over the trees was something to cherish. The french toast Lesley made for breakfast was pretty good too!
Where to today?? We weren't sure of our final destination for the day upon departure, but we headed for Petit Manan Island to see if we could see some Puffins, and then maybe head to a gunkhole near there. It was nice actually sailing, no motor, and visibility in bright sunshine was about 9 miles! I'd say the only drawback was the temperature... 61, but that's good too.
There are ledges around Petit Manan, so you can't get too close. There were all kinds of birds, mainly gulls, terns and black guillemots. Lesley had the binoculars out searching for a Puffin, trouble was she was so busy looking at the shoreline, she missed the two that flew up to us from behind, went up about 20 feet in the air, then dropped to water level and disappeared around the bow. They looked pretty comical with a bright colored beak that seems like a cross between a parrot and a toucan. I offered to swing around and pass by again, her pick was to stay north of the island, and pass by again when we head south.
We travelled in through Pigeon Hill Bay along the Petit Manan National Wildlife Refuge peninsula. There were some spots to anchor there, but most were jam packed with either lobster boats or lobster traps. We headed to Trafton Island, which has a great protected spot to enjoy the sunset across Narraguagus Bay. There were a number of boats already anchored there so we decided to head around Dyer Island and anchor in a little spot surrounded by small tree covered islands called Northeast Cove. We were happy we didn't stop at Trafton, the only company we had in the cove were a bunch of gulls on the rocks to the west, and two eagles flying back and forth overhead keeping an eye on us. My IPhone wasn't built to capture a good photo of them though, it just can't focus well on a single bird in the sky, even though the wing span on the larger bald eagle must have been almost 5 feet.