We are out of Maine!!!

I use to always say that "I have arrived" when the butter melts. When Andrea was visiting the temperature in Southwest Harbour was in the 30's. I was in my glee as the butter had melted! We had a great visit with Andrea, Odin and Zeus and once they left we were making tracks agin. The tracks were slow; 2 of us were needed to do continuous watch for the buoys again. They were definitely like smarties. To make matters worse we could not initially find an anchorage. After sailing up 3 coves dodging buoys we found a cute anchorage for 1 boat (Duck Harbour on Isle Au Haut). It was tight but we were not expecting much wind so we felt safe. Unfortunately we were novices not realizing that when tide and swell enter one way and the wind is perpendicular to it sleep will not happen. Oh well it is all a learning experience 🤣🤣.

Poor Byron was eaten alive again. His friends were everywhere. Whereas I did not get a bite!!! He is not impressed!

When we left the anchorage we had problems with our windlass as it jammed and the anchor was not all the way up, the electric hand controls of the windlass would not work AND the engine was leaking antifreeze again. OMG sooo many problems 😡😡. They say that this is normal when owning a boat. I say "I don't know if me nerves could handle it". Thank god Byron can fix everything. As I was dodging buoys he was on deck fixing the windlass and bringing the anchor up the last few feet. He then fixed the controls and when we anchored for the night he found other sources of the antifreeze leak.

We had a long sail to Harpswell, Maine. Not only were we dodging buoys but we were also killing flies!!! They were trying to get me back for making fun and these stout similar beasts loved me too. We spent about 4-6 hours killing them while dodging buoys. We are not sure where they came from but it was a painful experience. We decided to stay in a marina here because it was raining out. We were even assisted in getting a mooring ball. They also provided free laundry and delivered muffins and coffee for breakfast. Unfortunately we were late leaving because laundry was in the washer and dryer and the power was off for a number of hours!!! From here we sailed to Stage Island. We thought we hit the jackpot as there was not another boat around and we thought finally we won't be woken by Lobster Boats at 3:30 AM going to check their pots. The joke was on us. Stage Island had a bad swell all night long and therefore we were still awake and eager for daylight to see pots so we could get out of there and OUT of MAINE.

Yahoo we finally made it out of Maine!!!! But not lobster pots😡😡😡. Even though they were not so frequent you still needed to be watching constantly and altering your course. We had a long sail to Plymouth, Mass. on our way we passed by Boston in the background. Plymouth is by far the most scenic and spirited community I have seen thus far. Their mooring field was huge with mostly power boats. There is an 8 year wait list to get a mooring there. We did not even have to take the dinghy and engine off C Whisper as they offered shuttle service. It was beautiful!

Then we headed to Cape Cod Canal. We had read, and heard, nightmares about this canal because of the tides and currents. You can only transit at particular stages of the tide cycle. We asked a number of old timers for assistance on a safe time for us to transit and they looked at the tide tables and currents and told us a 4:30 pm (2 hours before high tide at Sandwich, Mass). So we went to Sandwich and paid $15/ hr to wait for the tides.

When we entered the canal there were many boats entering the same time. We all had the help of the current to push us through. We did not notice any areas with whirlpools or being sucked over toward the wall of the canal. Things went really well. We even had the opportunity to see the lift bridge close for the train as we were the last to get through.

We exited the canal and made way to Marion, Mass to grab a mooring for the night. There were sailboats out around everywhere racing and the mooring field had at least 1000 sailboats!!! Off to Rhode Island next 😁😁😁

We find that there are limited areas to anchor as all of the anchorages are filled with mooring balls. This was surprising to me and for those who sail with me know I hate taking a mooring ball because we have dragged them before and even broke one in Baddeck. I like to anchor because I know what I have under me. Hopefully we will find more anchorages soon.

Thanks everyone for your support. Thus far this has been interesting. I have added pictures in the gallery and under favourites you can see our tracks😁😁. FYI water temperature in Buzzards Bay on the way to Rhode Island is 26 celsius🤣🤣