8/06/14
Today we’re planning to visit Southwest Harbor on Mt. Desert. This will be a land tour, by way of one of the free busses provided to the island by a donation by LL Bean. The bus will pick you up anywhere along the route around the island and drop you anywhere. In 20 minutes we’re dropped at the Hinckley boatyard, and we wander around looking at boats we can never afford to buy. Then, we walk back to town and visit some stores and have lunch (lobster Reuben). More walking around the harbor area, which is filled with boats (dinghies up to large power yachts). After paying way more than we should in a local gourmet market, we head back to River Rat on the bus. Storms are coming, so we plan to head back to the library on shore with our computers to catch up on stuff. It’s very strange that in the areas we’ve visited in the past week or so, there has been no cell phone service, and very little internet access. From Vinalhaven northeast through Merchants Row, Jericho Bay, Frenchboro and now Mt. Desert, the only cell service that works at all, and it’s spotty, is US Cellular. Anyway, with our phones not working, internet is our only contact with our kids, family and friends. As we peck away on keyboards at the library, the skies open and the deluge comes, for a couple of hours. The library is selling used books in a tent outside, but the tent erectors screwed up and the tent top is filling up with water. The librarian, Debi and I rescue the books and we head back to the boat, with our computers wrapped in a trash back for protection. On board again, we cook a pasta dinner and doze off.
8/7/14
Today we’re still anchored in Somes Harbor, but we plan to go exploring somewhere on Mt. Desert. As we went to sleep last night we noticed Steadfast, a Hunter 45 center cockpit pull in to anchor next to us. She’s the same make and model as River Rat, so we made plans to get together this morning, with us providing the coffee and the folks on Steadfast providing the home-made blueberry muffins. Our get together was great. Jim and Sherri Deignan are great people. We spent a couple of hours comparing boat notes and then decided to go hiking together up Cadillac Mountain. It took us a couple of bus rides to get to the base of the mountain, which had a small sign that explained that the trip up was 2.2 miles. Off we went on a sunny warm day. About 3/4ths of the way up the thunder boomers appeared, then lightning followed by rain and even some hail. We turned back. It seems that it’s not a good idea to be on the face of a mountain when there’s lightning all around. But, I assumed that was OK, since Debi is taller than me. So, in a drenching downpour we found our way down the mountainside, caught the bus and went into Bar Harbor, which is a beautiful town filled with tourists. Coffee warmed us up until we could get back on the bus to return to Somesville and River Rat. That night the 4 of us gathered on board for grilled chicken and steaks. As is often the case, it rained while I was grilling, but we had a great time with new friends, as we swapped cruising stories.