During the past two weeks we’ve seen very few people along our cruise. Those we have seen have been from a distance, on other boats or at small lobster wharfs in working harbors like Burnt Coat on Swans Island. When we arrived in Bar Harbor for the night we decided to head to town to check out the scene and treat ourselves to a dinner out. Our mooring was a bit of a distance from the town pier but we managed to row in against the tide and wind. We tied up at the dock around 6:00 o’clock and wandered down wharf street to Stewman’s Lobster Pound. We were fourth in line when we arrived, five minutes later the line to get a table was way down the block. While it was nice to see the town of Bar Harbor look somewhat normal with people (tourists) milling about it felt very strange. Being on a boat for weeks at a time and not seeing other people, in the midst of a pandemic, with everyone (mostly) wearing face masks, some dressed up and others in t-shirts and flip flops was a culture shock.

We enjoyed our dinner out but as we left, the wind picked up quite a bit. We saw a couple across the deck from us clutch on to their shade umbrella as it started to lift out of the hole in the picnic table ... “that was crazy” I was thinking to myself. As soon as I finished that thought, out of the corner of my eye I could see our umbrella hovering over our heads. In slow motion it flew across the deck like Mary Poppins. It then bounced off the head of an unsuspecting customer seated at a picnic table behind us. Almost instantly the wait staff scurried out like a pack of mice when the cat sneaks up for a surprise attack. Everyone was a little freaked out, but no one got hurt.

The next day was farmers market day from 9-noon. Carey, who has taken on the self-proclaimed title of Galley Master, wanted to stock up on fresh produce. Oh, how I do love my Galley Master... Five years ago we did a big cruise to Nova Scotia and along the Maine coast. At one point during our journey we decided that we needed to investigate all the towns that had farmer’s markets. We found online a list of all the markets with a schedule of what day and times each occurred so we could semi-schedule our destination plans according to the markets. Why change a good thing.