6 August, Monday
07 August 2018 | McClathery Island to Brooklyn, ME
In one of the three Maine Cruising guides we have, it mentioned that the lobster boats here are the loudest boats on the coastline.... and they are loud on purpose. This morning, we had true evidence of it. When the thunder of nearby lobster boats subsided, there was the continuous sound of a large locomotive laboring all around the horizon, it was hum of lobster boats everywhere.
The guide also said the lobsterman believe the water here is for them, recreational boaters would be smart to steer clear. As we wove through the many islands in Merchants Row (dodging pots the whole way), most lobsterman returned a wave and seemed to respect our position in the narrow channels, just as we respected theirs. No wind for our travel this morning, but it was a pleasant ride to Brooklyn, Maine, home of the Wooden Boat School.
The setting for the school is great. There were three to four groups in the workshop learning and building different types of boats, lapstrake, stitch and glue, cold molded and there were forms prepared for casting small lead keels for Haven 12 1/2s. The list of courses in their catalog all looked interesting, we had visions of anchoring in the harbor while we attended a few, Lesley likes the working with canvas one. We walked into town (general store and library with WiFi), a nice woman from PA picked us up about a mile into our journey, which was great since it was getting warm (85... it's all relative - that's hot here, as opposed to it being a comfortable day in NC). I saw the offices for https://www.offcenterharbor.com and went in to say hello, and thank them for their great, informative and entertaining web site. It was neat to meet the people that put it all together. I was hoping for a hat or something, didn't happen, but they were very gracious.
There must have been some kind of race from somewhere in Acadia to here. At 4:30 or so about a dozen boats came in, more racing styles than cruisers, half of them were traditional class boats, they looked like Winter Harbor 21s. The moorings quickly filled and several rafted together. The wind came up in the afternoon, so wherever they came from, they had a good sail. The harbor also got busier as the many wooden sailboats from the school moorings had their sails raised and people had fun sailing around the harbor. The wind subsided somewhat to make for a comfortable ride. The wind died completely as the sun fell toward the horizon, another picturesque sunset to enjoy.