G&T on the rocks, McGlatherty's Island


Danny behaved much like Bill, lots of rain and a bit of wind, but nothing too threatening. Faced with another rainy weekend in Somesville, we dropped in to the boatyard and picked up our car to give us transportation. So Friday we did some touring and shopping.
We also contacted Anne Fredericks, a cruising friend working at the Bar Harbor hospital for the summer. We arranged to meet for lunch on Saturday and had a great reunion. Anne's partner, Jim Ewing, is on working their boat in Antigua and they'll be back cruising this winter. Outside the restaurant we all waved like fools in the cold driving rain at Bar Harbor's internet camera which Jim watched. Then a quick tour of the park and we managed to squander the day.

Lunch at Gaylenes. Ann is on the far left.

Sunday we started by cleaning a mess the cormorants had made of our decks during the storm (there must have been a dozen of them roosted on the spreaders for the night... what a stinky mess!!!) Then we dropped the mooring and ran down Somes Sound and out Great Harbor into the big swells left by Danny. By the time we crossed Bass Harbor Bar into Blue Hill, we were again in the sheltered waters of Blue Hill Bay. In light southerlies we drifted up the bay, running through the scenic Pretty Marsh Harbor and Bartlett Narrows. Then reaching across the southern tip of Newbury Neck and the north end of Long Island we drifted in to Blue Hill Harbor where we picked up a mooring from the Kollegewidgwok Yacht Club (just called KYC by most).
Blue Hill Harbor is another beautiful small Maine coastal town. In the morning we dinghied in to the town dock and bought a few things, including a footstool for home, and some more food and wine and a great lunch from the local cafe and bakery. Then back to the boat as the dinghy dock dries out at half tide. We took the bikes for a ride and realized that Blue Hill is much more hilly than we recalled. We biked around for the afternoon and were reminded of muscled that had not been heard from for some time! Tuesday we woke to another beautiful morning and had breakfast in the cockpit before dropping the mooring and heading down Blue Hill Bay. In the flat calm of the morning we motored until we reached the bottom of the bay where it enters into Jericho Bay. Here the sea breeze filled in and we tacked down the bay between lobster fishermen, who always have a wave for you, and the many rocky ledges in the bay. At the bottom we tacked in to Merchants Row Thoroughfare, a passage between the many islands making up Merchants Row. Dropping our sails off McGlathertys Island, we motored in to a favorite anchorage which we were surprised to find empty! Seabird followed us in and soon we were both snug with the anchors well set. Ashore we followed a path across the island and found 9 boats anchored on the other, much more open anchorage. But our cozy anchorage remained uncrowded.
The hike across the island is through the scrub spruce woods and across the barren granite outcroppings that the island is covered with. Wandering through the woods we found a lonely gravestone, the final resting place of Catherine and Peter H Eaton. They died in the 1860's and were probably the island's last permanent residents.

All that remains is the tombstone and the granite bases of what was once a fence surrounding the tiny grave site. It must have been a difficult and lonely life here. Many of the small islands were at one time occupied, but today only a few have year round residents as succeeding generations left for the mainlad where life was not so hard and isolated.
Returning to the beach, we decided to have drinks and a snack on shore, so sat watching the sun slowly set as we sat on the warm granite rocks ringing the tiny sandy beach... a beautiful ending to the day!
Today we woke to another beautiful day, breakfast in the cockpit finishing off reading The Sunday Times. Then we're off to Isle Au Haut, one of the islands still with year round residents.


Anchored at McGlathertys Island