We sailed from Winter Harbor to Frenchboro today. Frenchboro is on Long Island, from there, on a clear day, you can see Cadillac Mountain in Acadia. That’s on a clear day, ours turned to dense fog shortly after we passed the Winter Harbor light on Mark Island.
The wind was directly out of the SW, which was where we needed to go, so we spent much of the day tacking back and forth toward our destination. About half way there, the fog lifted to about a mile visibility. The wind picked up and showed 23 knots apparent (probably 16 or 17 true), so even though we were beating into the wind, we averaged in the mid to high 6s. The sea came up and we got some spray over the bow, it was a good day to sail. The fog came in and out, then eventually lifted so we had 10 to 15miles visibility in haze.
A high school friend of our daughter, Allison, recommended, ok, insisted that we visit Frenchboro. It was for good reason, the island and harbor are traditional Maine. The island remains mostly untouched due to, at the time, the largest conservation effort ($3m) to save 900 acres of land from developers. The Inner harbor itself is hidden in a long cove that reduces it’s size by 40% at low tide. Lobster boats fill the inner harbor, we were able to pick up a mooring on the outer harbor. At the dock/deli/lobster restaurant/visitors information center, we got a map of the island and decided to stay for a couple nights so we could spent a day exploring the island and the trails maintained by the Maine Trail Association.