With so many lovely nights at sea since we left Oxford, Maryland, our conversations turn to remembering our many cruises to Maine over the years.
A quick look at the logs of present and past boats tells us that we sailed here on Dark Star in 2007 and never on Blue Pearl.

With charts that are at least 20 years old, we discover that not much has changed here. The nature of a rocky coast, I guess. The islands here seem lost in time, sleepy, serene and changed only by the ebb and flow of the 12 foot tides. Coastal Maine is unique in its' proximity to the population centers of the East and yet happy to let nature determine its rhythm. Lobstermen still rule the waters here, while those of us on yachts are viewed with a wary eye, not always trusted in our seamanship .

The passages we undertook to get here were by far the easiest we have ever made. With the option of choosing our weather and no real schedule, our days (and nights) have been some of the most relaxed cruising we have ever done. Matapoisett through the Cape Cod Canal to Provincetown was a hot and windless affair, with some thunderstorms at the end just to make it interesting.
We spent a day in Provincetown, climbing the Pilgrim Tower and people watching with a late day departure for Maine in windless conditions. The calm ocean was the perfect background for spotting whales, sharks, dolphins and seals.

So here we are, 9 days later, "Where the mountains meet the sea", to spend the month in the premier cruising grounds of North America.